Disney’s live-action Lilo & Stitch remake was a box office behemoth earlier this year and it remains the only film in 2025 to cross the billion-dollar mark. Given its enormous popularity in theaters, it should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone that Lilo & Stitch has been huge in the world of streaming since it landed on Disney+ last week.
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The live-action take on Disney’s 2002 classic is currently the biggest movie in all of streaming. If you’ve got a Disney+ subscription, chances are you already watched it, and you might be looking for something else to keep the good times rolling. Whether you need more live-action remakes or another story about a family discovering the depths of their love for one another, Disney+ has some great options for your next watch.
For obvious reasons, this list doesn’t include the original animated Lilo & Stitch, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a movie you need to see. It’s one of the best Disney animated films of the 2000s (and I’d argue of all time), so really it should be a priority watch over the live-action remake if, somehow, you haven’t seen it before.
1. A Goofy Movie (1995)
Speaking of Disney’s best animated movies that don’t get enough love, A Goofy Movie is the next film after Lilo & Stitch that needs to be in that conversation. This is a gem in every sense of the word, and the 1995 classic (which is still making new fans and selling loads of merch today) has more in common with the story of Experiment-626 than you might think.
Like Lilo & Stitch, A Goofy Movie is all about family, and learning to appreciate the things about your loved ones that you usually take for granted. Similar Nani and Lilo, all Goofy and Max have are each other, but they can’t find a way to see I2I (if you know you know). To try and make things better, Goofy takes his son on a classic road trip across the country for some much-needed bonding time.
A Goofy Movie is a classic father-son tale that will pull on your heartstrings by its end, even if you’re not a father or a son. And it includes the most electric original song in Disney’s entire catalogue.
2. Pete’s Dragon (2016)
While it is far from the most financially successful entry in Disney’s push for modern, “live-action” remakes, Pete’s Dragon is easily one of the best of the bunch. For my money, either of The Green Knight director David Lowery’s Disney adaptations could take the title as the best remake (the other being Peter Pan & Wendy), but Pete’s Dragon has a lot more in common with Lilo & Stitch.
This is a classic tale of a kid with family troubles who has a run-in with a mystical creature and has to protect said creature from being taken or killed by the government. Yes, that sentence could be about Pete’s Dragon or Lilo & Stitch. The difference is that Pete’s Dragon isn’t nearly as funny as the best moments of Lilo & Stitch, but it’s a far better movie (than the live-action version, that is).
3. The Emperor’s New Groove (2000)
Story-wise, The Emperor’s New Groove shares very little with either version of Lilo & Stitch, but it’s more about a moment in time for Disney Animation Studios that they would do well to revisit.
At the end of the Disney Renaissance, when the company had cooled off and was delivering more misfires than classics, an unintentional pivot to comedy-forward films created the two titles from that era that actually stood the test of time. Lilo & Stitch was made by a small crew away from the buzz of Disney’s Burbank studio, allowing for a ton of freedom with its story and art style. The Emperor’s New Groove, on the other hand, has one of the wildest behind-the-scenes journeys of any film in Disney’s history. It’s honestly a miracle the movie even exists at all.
But somehow, through all that mess, Disney’s first pure comedy was born, and the studio was better for it. Lilo & Stitch was able to harness some of that humor and mesh it with the tone of Renaissance classics like The Lion King or Aladdin. It’s Emperor’s New Groove that deserves the credit, though, and the ongoing love for Kuzco over the years has shown that people have caught on.
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image courtesy of 20th Century Studios
