Mbonu said, “The new Lilo & Stitch, despite
running 20 minutes longer than the original film, has so much less thematic
substance than the original that it’s utterly confounding. When it’s not just
following the beat-by-beat strokes of the original, it makes some of the most
bizarre and haphazard changes and additions to the story that either add
nothing to the film but fluff or actively harm what the remake is trying to
accomplish. Young actress Maia Kealoha, as Lilo, seems to be the only aspect of
this remake that the movie captures with the warmth of the original. Still,
Lilo & Stitch appears to yet again render these remakes as pointless, sludgy-looking
cash grabs for the company’s benefit.”
The story of this remake mostly remains the same with
scientist Jumba (Zach Galifianakis) being put on trial for the creation of experiment
626, aka Stich (Chris Sanders, co-director and voice of Stitch in the original
film). Still, Stitch goes on to escape his trial and lands on planet Earth in Hawaii
where he is adopted by Lilo and Nani, played by Sydney Agudong. Mbonu noted, “However,
the issues with this remake are apparent from the start with a weirdly
breakneck pace through its first 20 minutes of introducing us to the characters
while trying to hit beats that the movie knows its audience will remember.” The
main problem is that this is another evidence where the lack of these moments
in the remake will be filled in with the nostalgia that many have for the original
film, which is the laziest way to tell this story to both newer and older
audiences.
As said before, it’s very evident that the only
performance here that manages to capture even an ounce of the original’s
likability is Maia Kealoha, who brings a similar likability to the character
that is there in the original. Mbonu said, “She manages to find a nice
connection to Stitch even though the CG creature is not there with her on set,
an incredibly impressive feat for such a young first-time performer.” Unfortunately,
when looking at the performance there isn’t much else to talk about other than
the incredibly awful performance from Zach Galifianakis. From the beginning, it
is so obvious that his type of voice and mannerisms as an actor do not fit the
character at all, and it doesn’t help matters when they completely change Jumba
as the villain of the film. This disorganized change ruins the dynamic he is
supposed to make with Stitch later in the film, when he realizes the creature
has greater purpose than destruction.
Despite the main focus of the original is around Lilo
and Nani’s family, there are a shocking amount of changes and new additions to
the human cast of the film too. The most evident of them is including Tutu,
played by Amy Hill, as a neighbor who lives next to Nani and Lilo, but as with
the other remakes, it comes off as an insertion whose presence makes no
difference to the film. Courtney B. Vance plays the film’s version of Cobra
Bubbles who is also strangely changed to be a CIA agent who decides to be a
social worker in disguise instead of the other way around. Mbonu said, “yet
another unneeded fluff change that somehow doesn’t even compare how different
Sydney Agudong’s Nani is in this version of the story.” Here, she is changed
into wanting to be a marine biologist who can’t accomplish that dream because
of her little sister. Mbonu said, “Not only does this change barely add
anything new to the core of the story, but it forgets that what made Nani’s
smaller regular life conflicts so important was that it could relate so much
more to the struggles of the average person. It’s an utterly confounding change
that takes so much more away than it adds.”
Mbonu continued, “The truth is, I wish I could say
Disney’s Live-action Lilo and Stitch was even just mildly better than the
bottom of the barrel quality we’ve been getting from these kinds of movies for
years now, but that would just be a swerve further away from the truth than
imaginable. It’s yet another limp reincarnation of such an lively 2D animated
film that fails to even remotely capture the same sort of magic that was
present in that 2002 film.” “Lilo & Stitch” is an empty case that will
leave the memories of anyone watch it immediately after (like the rating Jeremy
Jahns give some of the films he reviews).
This is another poor remake from Disney. Granted, it
is nowhere near as bad as some of the others, seeing how this made a lot of
money at the box office, unlike the “Snow White” remake, but that still doesn’t
negate the fact that this remake was superfluous. No one wanted this remake,
and it doesn’t do anything but take away what made the original so lovable. Don’t
see this on Disney+ because there is nothing I can recommend about this movie. Just
avoid it, like I have been saying about all of the live-action Disney remakes.
Tomorrow I will be looking at another MCU show in “Disney
Month 2025.”
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