Lilo & Stitch Review: Nobody Needed This, But I Still (Mostly) Loved It

Disney’s live-action movies have been something of a mixed bag, but only in the way that the MCU has a supposedly “inconsistent” track record. They’re still all good, but by the House of Mouse’s sparkling standards, they’re not all home runs. And with Snow White‘s divisive theatrical run still not over, Disney’s latest live-action remake, Lilo & Stitch, probably has a lot more to do to justify its existence than most of its predecessors.

If you’re wondering why Lilo & Stitch was ever on the live-action docket when there are far more successful Disney classic animations untouched, you’re probably not the target audience for the remake. Along with Spider-Man, Pixar’s Cars, and The Nightmare Before Christmas, Stitch is a merch-selling monster, with licenses granted seemingly almost as liberally for the alien as they are for Mickey Mouse himself. Follow the money, or the potential for it, and you have the most cynical version of this answer.

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But look beneath the corporate urges, and Lilo & Stitch exists for exactly the same reasons that make the remake a genuinely good watch, for the most part. Stitch (voiced once again by Chris Sanders) is infinitely charming because he’s nothing like typical Disney characters (something the original marketing leaned quite heavily on). And at the same time, he’s at the center of a story that could very easily have been written for a Pixar movie, about belonging and the value of found family.

How Well Lilo & Stitch Works As A Remake

There’s a lot of cynicism around Disney’s live-action remakes when they clone the originals, because they’re essentially offering a facsimile with no added merit other than technical pageantry. The same, of course, can be said of basically all AI footage, which is why it feels so empty: it exists because it can, but nobody paused to ask if it should. In Lilo & Stitch‘s case, the like-for-like sequences were actually the strongest, because that’s where the energy of the original is matched best.

There are genuinely funny bits, and genuinely heartbreaking moments too, and Stitch’s chaos works very well because Disney made such an effort to make sure this was very much the same character. Not a reimagining, not a careful imposter, but the same adorable little menace, simply rendered differently. That has not always been the case with other live-action Disney characters. The central message of “Ohana” is still disarmingly important, and even having seen the original countless times, the remake does it justice.

What Didn’t Work So Well

I’m less keen on some of the narrative changes, that saw two of my favorite (admittedly brief) moments excised completely, or the change to Agent Cobra Bubbles’ backstory. Courtney B Vance plays him well enough, but he’s nothing compared to the version voiced by Ving Rhames, and Vance’s take would have been vastly improved if they’d just stuck to the original material. The change serves no obvious purpose other than to introduce another character, in order to allow original cast member Tia Carrere to return.

Lilo & Stitch in live-action misses some of the zip of the original, and though it’s not one of the more fantastical animations of the early 2000s (even with an alien plot), the difference here is quite noticeable. The ending sequence that controversially changed in the wake of 9/11 is pared down in scale, and there are less jokes, and less wild energy. My mantra here is that while it’s good, and fun, and has a lot going for it, it’s just a little… lesser. Lesser than the original, lesser than it could have been.

Lilo & Stitch’s Cast Is Mostly Strong (With Notes)

The human cast is, somewhat inevitably, not quite as good as Stitch, who eats up scenery a little. Lilo is played by newcomer Maia Kealoha, who plays her a little younger than the original, and only gets the sass level about half right before reverting too much to blood-curdling screaming. Sydney Agudong plays her frazzled older sister Nani with a similar spirit to the original, and offers a stand-in for older audience members who will see in her an exhausting desire to just do right by loved ones determined to make life difficult.

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Alongside the main pair, Zach Galifianakis plays Stitch’s creator Jumba, and Billy Magnussen plays alien agent Pleakley, who is sent alongside him to capture Stitch by Hannah Waddingham’s Grand Councilwoman. Magnussen clearly had a lot of fun, and is very good value for money, while Galifianakis is a little too straight and soft-edged for the role, if I’m looking for reasons to complain. Really, they all do well enough to keep the focus on Stitch and his human family members without stealing too much thunder.

As with the original, kids will love Stitch’s chaos – which makes the fact that there could absolutely have been more of it a bit of a drag – and there’s enough of an all-ages appropriate, wholesome message in the soft, sticky center to please the whole audience. I loved it because it gave me another way to love Stitch, and a renewed admiration for the story, and it only loses points because I wanted it to be more like the 2002 original. So maybe I’m the problem, and maybe I should just go back and rewatch that one again.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Lilo & Stitch is in theaters starting May 23.