Lilo & Stitch Review - If intention is everything, this live-action has it all

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“Ohana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten.” - Lilo & Stitch

*Full disclosure from the beginning, I haven’t seen the animated Lilo & Stitch. At least I don’t think I have. I know I’ve seen large chunks of it but I don’t recall ever sitting down to watch the entire thing. Then again I already had a general knowledge of the story beats as I watched the live-action version so maybe my confession isn’t so much an admission as it is acknowledging I have memory loss and could be diagnosed with dementia at age fifty. I guess it will remain a mystery. What’s my name again?*

Disney continues down the path of live-action remakes of their most beloved animated stories. Everyone keeps pleading with them to stop but here we are six years removed from the atrocious live-action Aladdin and five years since Mulan was ruined and they’re still full ahead down this ill-conceived path. It’s money of course, I’m not naive, just frustrated like the rest of you. That said, quick recognition of Jon Favreau’s live-action Jungle Book which doesn’t get near enough credit for not only adapting the animated film quite well, it looks brilliant and fully carries itself as a standalone concept. 

Just recently we were subjected to Snow White in a version no one wanted. And it turned out to be as unfortunate as we suspected it likely would be. And now we’re onto Lilo & Stitch because of course we are. 

Maybe having seen the original Aladdin sullied my opinion of the Guy Ritchie version which makes me think that possibly not seeing the animated Lilo & Stitch will alter my perception of its 2025 live-action remake. I’m going to give this a slightly better than bad overall but I wonder will others who love the animated version eventually see this new interpretation and despise it and wonder what the hell it is I saw in this thing. All I can say to that is for someone (me) who nearly skipped this screening out of little to no interest in it, I was genuinely entertained by it. Am I glad I saw it? Sure. Knowing what I know now about it, would I be upset had I actually missed it? Can’t say I would. 

This is quite possibly the most lukewarm reaction I’ve had to a movie so far this year. It made me laugh, there are genuine heartfelt character moments, the effects are decent and the overall story is a retread of familiar Disney themes throughout their film library but ultimately it’s the performances that kept me interested enough to keep the negative thoughts from taking over. My expectations were incredibly low and this passed my so-called standards I must admit. As for Stitch, the dog/alien/monster it/himself I found to be silly but avoiding yellow minion territory where I wanted to harm myself to get the madness to stop. There’s enough time with other characters, human and alien alike, for the craziness of Stitch to remain fun, funny and even at times, adorable. 

Newcomer Maia Kealoha plays Lilo and in true little kid in a movie fashion, is the kookiest, most clever and unique little whirlwind of the bunch. Despite the cliches, she plays the character to perfection providing just the right amount of wit, sincerity and longing for the things Lilo has lost forever. She plays beautifully into the concept of finding a new furry friend to help cope with immense tragedy. Even in the case of Stitch, who if likened to a dog, and is, would still be considered cute but so out of place it’s quite a big distraction. Nevermind that he’s blue and can crudely speak English. And fell from the sky. In the land of Disney, delusion is part of the package it would seem.

As her older sister Nani, Sydney Agudong is the stern, straightlaced, grief stricken sibling trying to hold everything together. While her role is naturally more straightforward than that of Lilo, Sydney as an actor I think is talented enough to make her time on screen good enough with what little she was given. In a movie with so much humor and lively characters, the Nani character is never given a chance to be anything but a presence for Lilo to find solace in and in that regard she does her job quite well. Together, Sydney as Nani and Maia as Lilo are a wonderfully tight-knit duo who beautifully demonstrate the significance of family or ‘ohana which is a major theme throughout the story that eventually welcomes a lonely, dangerous, monstrous little guy named Experiment 626, lovingly nicknamed Stitch. 

In this story on the gorgeous island of Oahu, a forlorn little girl named Lilo understands the importance of being oneself but begins to doubt herself as anyone her age seemingly wants nothing to do with her. As fate would have it, a shooting star flies by giving her the chance to wish for the best friend she never had. Fate heard the wish and gave her Stitch instead. Trying to navigate everyday life with their new companion, destruction and chaos in tow, Nani and Lilo are beginning to see a future where they may not be able to live together. And Stitch’s tendencies aren’t conducive with their current situation involving an orbiting social worker. Of course this story wouldn’t be complete without a pair of aliens in pursuit of Stitch trying to take him home for permanent exile or worse. 

I can’t speak on similarities and differences between this and the animated version but I can say confidently this version feels kind of unnecessary but far from what you might consider worthless. It has its merits but I fear much of it works only because of what people will relate to the original. It’s just a feeling but so much of this movie seems like someone is pointing and saying, “remember?!” and hoping you recall the cartoon favorably. 

I can’t hate this movie, it’s not a terrible reimagining I don’t think. It’s something I enjoyed as it played on the screen and when it was over I realized I was hungry and thought very little of the movie again until now when I had to write about it. It’s perfectly fine. Nothing about it is egregious or terribly unremarkable, it just does very little beyond the basics to achieve what they had already done in 2002. I fear the Moana live-action remake greatly. But that’s a headache for another time. 

P.S. Family movies like this or animated features clearly made with kids in mind have always been the most challenging for me to critique considering that I’m simply not in the demographic. I can dissect the technical aspects and I can decipher if the story is good or not but my overall reaction to these kinds of movies will rarely be ideal. I feel it must be clarified that from the beginning, the movie simply isn’t going to be my kind of movie. There are exceptions of course but I digress. I tell you this to say, if you do in fact value my opinion, take this one with a grain of salt. If you and your family have been excited to see it, I’m sure you’ll have a great time. 

Rated PG For: action, peril and thematic elements

Runtime: 108 minutes

After Credits Scene: Mid-credits, yes. 

Genre: Comedy, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Adventure, Family

Starring: Maia Kealoha, Sydney Agudong, Chris Sanders, Tia Carrere

Directed By: Dean Fleischer Camp

Out of 10

Story: 6.5/ Acting: 8/ Directing: 7/ Visuals: 7

OVERALL: 6.5/10

Buy to Own: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Make of that what you will.

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Check out the trailer below: