Well, that’s a drag. Disney’s live-action Lilo & Stitch director Dean Fleischer Camp (Marcel the Shell With Shoes On) has faithfully recreated the beloved 2002 animated movie about an illegal genetic experiment — the titular Experiment 626, a.k.a. Stitch (voiced by Chris Sanders) — who escapes to Earth and befriends lonely Hawaiian girl Lilo (Maia Kealoha). The mischievous alien’s creator, scientist Dr. Jumba Jookiba (Zach Galifianakis), and the Galactic Federation’s one-eyed Earth expert, Agent Pleakley (Billy Magnussen), are sent to the planet to quietly capture Jumba’s creation, so they don disguises to blend in with the locals: human tourists.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Unlike the animated version, where Pleakley poses as a woman and wears dresses, a wig, and makeup, the live-action reimagining has Pleakley use alien technology to present as a human male (Magnussen).
Bottom: Galifianakis’ “Human” Jumba (Left) and magnussen’s “Human” Pleakley (Right)
RELATED: Lilo & Stitch Movie Merch Has a Cute & Fluffy Flocked Popcorn Bucket
Camp “tried” to get Pleakley in drag, the director revealed in a video posted to TikTok, sharing concept art that more resembles the animated version.
“I have had people message me [asking], ‘Why is Pleakley not wearing a dress?’” Camp said in the video, which you can watch below. “And I just want to say I tried. I tried.”
The CG-animated hybrid live-action Lilo & Stitch was originally slated to go straight to Disney+, but in 2024, Disney shifted the animated feature Moana 2 (first announced as a streaming series) and Lilo & Stitch to theatrical releases.
With a reported price tag of $100 million, Lilo & Stitch is looking to make waves over the four-day Memorial Day weekend: it’s tracking to open at No. 1 with $120 million, higher than the expected $80 million opening of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning the same day.
In addition to Galifianakis’ Jumba and Magnussen’s Pleakley, the cast includes Sydney Agudong as Lilo’s older sister and guardian, Nani; Courtney B. Vance as Agent Cobra Bubbles; Tia Carrere, who voiced Nani in the original film, plays Lilo’s social worker, Mrs. Kekoa; and Amy Hill, who originally voiced Mrs. Hasagawa, is playing new character Tūtū. Hannah Waddingham plays the Galactic Federation’s Grand Councilwoman, but it seems that Captain Gantu — the Kevin Michael Richardson-voiced second-in-command who is sent to hunt Stitch on Earth — is absent from the live-action remake.
Directed by Dean Fleischer Camp from a script by Chris Kekaniokalani Bright & Mike Van Waes based on the story by Chris Sanders & Dean DeBlois, Disney’s Lilo & Stitch crashes into theaters on May 23.
Most Viewed
-
Image courtesy of Lucasfilm. -
Image Credit: Roditeli Productions -
image courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
