The live-action version of Lilo & Stitch will allow audiences to fall in love once more with the loving girl and the unpredictable alien, but the upcoming remake directed by Dean Fleischer Camp will make a major change when it comes to Stitch. The animated cult classic produced by Disney more than two decades ago introduced the character as a violent monster who didn’t understand human culture. That will change in this summer’s version of the story, where Stitch will be presented as an innocent child yearning to know the world around him. During a recent interview with Empire, the director of the new Lilo & Stitch addressed the alien’s behavior in the remake.
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“If you re-watch the original, he is literally just using Lilo as a human meat-shield for the first half,” The filmmaker said. Stitch’s behavior will be similar to “a toddler putting something in their mouth. He’s leading with curiosity, and all he knows is destruction,” Fleischer Camp concluded.
The director was selected by Disney to tackle Lilo and Stitch’s friendship after Fleischer Camp worked on Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Dean Fleischer Camp’s talent was evident in that stop-motion/live-action hybrid about the friendship a man develops with the titular sentient shell.
[RELATED – Disney’s New Lilo & Stitch Is Succeeding Where Other Live-Action Remakes Failed]
Lilo & Stitch will bring back the story everyone knows and loves, with Lilo portrayed by Maia Kealoha, who is a young girl in need of a friend after a tragedy takes her parents away from her. As if that wasn’t enough, Lilo will struggle to make friends at school, which will make her relationship with her older sister more complicated than it used to be. The universe will answer her prayers in the form of Stitch, a blue alien who escapes from the United Galactic Federation and from his creator. The friendship Lilo and Stitch will develop to carry this timeless narrative about what it means to be a family.
Director Chris Sanders was brought back to work in the new iteration of Lilo & Stitch, who worked on the original production made by Walt Disney Animation Studios, where he also voiced the adorable creature who has become a merchandise juggernaut for Disney. Sanders would eventually go on to work on the How to Train Your Dragon franchise alongside Dean DeBlois. Agent Pleakley will be portrayed by Billy Magnussen this time around, who was recently seen in The Franchise as Adam Randolph.
Lilo & Stitch will arrive during a complicated time for Disney live-action remakes. While Mufasa: The Lion King became a box office success during the holiday season, the same can’t be said for Snow White. The poor performance of the film directed by Marc Webb caused the studio to pause the development of a potential Tangled live-action remake. What will this mean for the release of Lilo & Stitch? The upcoming blockbuster will compete at the box office with Disney’s own Thunderbolts* and the live-action remake of How to Train Your Dragon. Time will tell if audiences will embrace the new iteration of one of the most iconic friendships in Disney history.
Lilo & Stitch will land in theaters on May 23rd.
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