The early 2000s were, admittedly, a rough period for Walt Disney Animation Studios. After experiencing one of the most successful runs in their history thanks to the Disney Renaissance, the studio quickly found itself having a far more difficult time achieving that same level of critical and commercial success once the new millennium rolled around. While there were various factors behind this turn of events, arguably the most prominent of the bunch was the rise in success of computer animated films that was spearheaded by the likes of DreamWorks and, of course, the studio that Disney had begun to partner with in the 90’s before buying them out wholesale in 2006, Pixar. As a result, a bunch of the films that Walt Disney Animation produced during this time, such as 2000’s The Emperor’s New Groove, 2001’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and 2002’s Treasure Planet, ended up faring poorly at the box office and, on occasion, with critics. Now, with that said, many of these films would later go on to attract considerable cult followings from the generation of kids who grew up with them, undoubtedly thanks in part to the creative risks that the studio often took during these years to deviate from their long-standing narrative formulas of reimagined fairy tales full of Broadway-esque musical numbers. Ultimately, though, it’s safe to say that there’s a very good reason as to why, in the mid-2000s, Disney Animation opted to move away from making traditionally animated films in favor of making computer-animated features. However, if there was one undeniable bright spot during these so-called ‘dark ages’, that would be the first of two films that the studio produced in 2002: a little offbeat sci-fi themed ‘Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride’ known as Lilo & Stitch.
Directed by the duo of Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, who
would later go on to co-direct DreamWorks’ highly acclaimed adaptation of How
to Train Your Dragon in 2010 (which, on an incredibly ironic note given today’s
review subject, is getting its own live-action remake in a few weeks), the film
followed the adventures of its titular duo; Lilo, a young Hawaiian girl living under
the care of her older sister Nani following the death of their parents, and her
new pet dog Stitch. It’s just that, unbeknownst to Lilo and company, Stitch is
secretly a destructive alien creature who was created by a mad scientist and is
hiding out on Earth disguised as a dog to avoid being captured by intergalactic
government forces. Unlike many of the other films that Disney Animation was
producing at the time, Lilo & Stitch, which was the second of three
films that were produced primarily from Disney’s now-defunct animation studio
located within Walt Disney World’s Hollywood Studios theme park (the other two
being 1998’s Mulan and 2003’s Brother Bear), was one of the
studio’s cheaper productions from a budgetary standpoint. Whereas their other
release of the year, Treasure Planet, was a costly $140 million flop, Lilo
& Stitch only cost $80 million. And thanks in large part to a buzzworthy
marketing campaign that saw Stitch wreak havoc across other Disney classics
such as Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King, the film performed
quite well for itself critically and commercially, earning over $273 million while
also garnering largely positive reviews from critics and an Oscar nomination
for Best Animated Feature. As a result, Lilo & Stitch would go on to
spawn what is quite arguably the most expansive media franchise of any Walt
Disney Animation film of the early 2000s.
Its most prominent spin-off was the animated TV series Lilo
& Stitch: The Series, which ran for 65 episodes over the course of two
seasons and debuted on September 20th, 2003, on ABC via Disney’s ABC
Kids programming block. The series, which was preceded by a direct-to-video
feature-length pilot film in Stitch! The Movie, followed the franchise’s
titular duo as they went on various adventures across Hawaii to find and rescue
the 625 experiments that Stitch’s creator, Dr. Jumba Jookiba, had created
before he made Stitch AKA ‘Experiment 626’. During its run, the show notably pulled
off one of the most ambitious crossovers in pop culture history by having not
one, not two, not even three, but four whole episodes where Lilo & Stitch
interacted with characters from some of Disney’s other hit shows at the time; Kim
Possible, Recess, The Proud Family, and American Dragon:
Jake Long. The show ultimately concluded in 2006 with another direct-to-video
film, Leroy & Stitch, and during this time, the franchise also got
another direct-to-video film in 2005, Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch has a Glitch,
which, unlike the show, opted to be more of a direct sequel to the original
film. After that, the franchise would go on to spawn another pair of television
series; Stitch!, which ran for multiple seasons from 2008 to 2015, and Stitch
and Ai, which was only a single-season show released in 2017. Unlike the
bulk of the franchise’s media, however, these shows were considerably different
in tone and execution, adhering more to the animation styles of the countries
they were produced in (anime in the case of the Japanese-set Stitch! and
donghua for the Chinese-set Stitch & Ai) and notably having Stitch
paired up with new female protagonists instead of Lilo; Yuna in Stitch! and
Ai in Stitch and Ai.
Simply put, there’s no denying that Lilo & Stitch is
one of Disney’s most profitable IPs. Thanks to all the films, shows, merchandise,
and numerous attractions at Disney theme parks (yes, that even includes the admittedly
notorious Stitch’s Great Escape, which replaced the notoriously mature
fan-favorite ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter at Disney World’s Magic
Kingdom), the franchise has earned nearly $3.5 billion worldwide which, according
to recent reports from Disney, now makes it one of their Top 10 best-selling
franchises. And because of all this, Stitch has become such a fan favorite in
the eyes of Disney fans that it could even be argued that he could give Mickey
Mouse a run for his money as one of Disney’s most beloved mascots. With all
this in mind, I guess you can say that it was practically inevitable that
Disney would attempt to make the original Lilo & Stitch the latest
installment of its long line of animated classics to get a live-action remake.
Thus, that’s where we are now with the live-action remake of Lilo &
Stitch, which makes the 2002 original the latest in the Walt Disney
Animation canon to get remade after the past few years of us getting remakes of
most of the Disney Renaissance releases. In the director’s chair for this one
is Dean Fleischer Camp, who had the breakout hit of his career in 2021 when he
adapted Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, the trilogy of short films that
he made with his then-wife Jenny Slate from 2010 to 2014, into a feature-length
film that, despite being a live-action/animated hybrid, managed to earn an
Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature. With a background like that, it’s
no wonder that Fleischer Camp imbues this new version of Lilo & Stitch with
almost the same exact level of heart and soul as its animated counterpart, even with
its rather controversial (yet, in several cases, effective) changes to the
source material.
In a far-off galaxy, the United Galactic Federation arrests
mad scientist Dr. Jumba Jookiba (voiced/portrayed by Zack Galifianakis) for his
illegal genetic experiments as exemplified by his latest creation, Experiment 626
(voiced by Chris Sanders), who is touted by Jumba as an indestructible force of
nature. Immediately realizing the threat that 626 poses to the galaxy, the UGF Council
promptly orders them both to be imprisoned; however, 626’s superior intellect helps
him escape captivity and flee to another galaxy, where he ends up crash-landing
on the planet Earth on the Hawaiian island of Kaua’i. With both Jumba and the
Galactic Federation’s Earth ‘expert’ Agent Wendell Pleakley (voiced/portrayed
by Billy Magnussen) now on his tail as part of a deal that the former makes
with the UGF’s Grand Councilwoman (voiced by Hannah Waddingham) so that he can
avoid going to prison, 626 disguises himself as an Earth dog and is
subsequently taken in by a young girl named Lilo Pelekai (Maia Kealoha), who
has been living under the care of her older sister Nani (Sydney Agudong) following
the death of their parents. Thanks in large part to Lilo’s troublemaking habits,
Nani has struggled to be a proper caretaker for her sister, thus putting her in
increasingly hot water with their family’s social worker, Mrs. Kekoa (Tia Carrere),
who pushes for her to get her act together or else lose Lilo to child services.
Naturally, this stressful situation is only exacerbated further by the arrival
of 626, whom Lilo names ‘Stitch’, as the two sisters quickly discover that their
new ‘dog’ is quite the handful.
Now, despite everything that we’re going to get into when it
comes to its narrative changes, this new version of Lilo & Stitch still
follows in the footsteps of practically all its fellow live-action Disney
remakes by recreating several key sequences and iconic lines from its animated
counterpart in live-action form. However, unlike something like the CGI-animated
remake of The Lion King from 2019 where any changes made to its source
material were arguably minimal at best, the Lilo & Stitch remake doesn’t
end up feeling like nothing more than a ‘shot-for-shot’ remake of the original
animated film as it does make a few noticeable changes to its story. And yet, as
was seen with the 2020 remake of Mulan with its notable omissions of elements
such as its music and characters like Mushu and Shang, this then leads to the
exact opposite kind of reaction from those who question the need to remake an animated
classic; one where, instead, fans of the original are angered by all the things
that the remake leaves out that they find to be some of the original film’s
best aspects. Sure enough, the remake of Lilo & Stitch has faced
tons of scrutiny from fans of the original over the changes that it makes to
its source material, such as the exclusion of one of the franchise’s most
prominent villains and the subsequent re-working of a long-standing series
protagonist into being this film’s main antagonist to make up for the lack of
that other villain. However, what has easily been the most controversial change
is this film’s reworked ending; without spoiling exactly what happens in it,
many have argued that it betrays the original film’s key message stressing the
importance and beauty of ‘ohana. After all, as Lilo famously declares in both versions
of this story when Nani attempts to get rid of Stitch, “‘ohana means family and
family means that no one gets left behind or forgotten”.
And yet… I don’t think that this film’s reworked ending is
harmful to that theme. In fact, I’d argue that a lot of the criticism revolving
around it seems to stem from those who only read about what happens and then
proceeded to take it directly at face value without paying any attention to the
key bits of narrative context surrounding it, which helps to convey the genuinely
positive developments behind this turn of events. As a result, I’d say that
this new ending still manages to convey the beauty of ‘ohana, even if it goes
without saying that it goes about this in a drastically different manner than
the original film. And more importantly, the remake does retain much of the
same level of heart and soul as the original, much of which is, of course,
thanks to its iconic titular duo. Stitch is still the same adorably chaotic dog-like
alien that he’s been throughout the entire franchise, especially thanks to the
pivotal move of having his longtime voice actor, none other than the original
film’s co-director Chris Sanders, return to voice the character even if some of
Stitch’s lines are clearly lifted directly from previous installments of the
franchise. And while your mileage will most likely vary on how effectively this
film translates the franchise’s alien characters into live-action (a recurring
criticism of Disney’s recent live-action remakes), Stitch’s CGI design is
easily one of the best instances of this being done. Then, on the human side of
things, you have the utterly adorable Maia Kealoha, who shines in her film
debut as she flawlessly exudes Lilo’s silly yet wholly sympathetic qualities.
But, of course, as any fan of this series will remind you, Lilo
& Stitch is more than just the wacky escapades of its titular duo.
Alongside the hilarious hi-jinx that ensue from Stitch pretending to be a dog,
there’s also the emotional saga that is the relationship between Lilo and her
sister Nani in the wake of their parents’ death as the latter works tirelessly
to ensure that they stay together. In the case of the original film, this was
one of the first major instances where a Disney film’s plot largely revolved
around sisters more than a full decade before it was, admittedly, overshadowed
by the billion-dollar juggernaut that was Frozen. And while the remake’s
take on Lilo and Nani’s relationship does end up revolving around the
aforementioned ‘reworked ending’, it’s still just as strong as it was in the
original film and Sydney Agudong deserves just as much credit as Maia Kealoha’s
been getting for her performance as Nani, especially thanks to the perfectly
sweet on-screen camaraderie that she shares with Kealoha. All in all, the film succeeds
in maintaining the strong characterizations of its three leads, and while this
does mean that other recurring characters of the series don’t get as much to
work with by comparison, everyone else in the cast is solid in their respective
roles, such as Kaipo Dudoit as Nani’s good-natured love interest David and Courtney
B. Vance as the enigmatic Cobra Bubbles, who’s reimagined here as a CIA agent investigating
Stitch’s antics who only poses as a social worker (his role in the animated
film) when he’s undercover. Meanwhile, Zach Galifianakis and Billy Magnussen
provide plenty of laughs as the bickering duo of Jumba and Pleakley and the
film even features a few cameos from the stars of the original animated film.
OG Nani Tia Carrere takes over Cobra Bubbles’ role as Lilo and Nani’s social
worker Mrs. Kekoa while Amy Hill, who played the elderly shop owner Mrs.
Hasagawa in the original film and TV series, plays Lilo and Nani’s eccentric
yet kind-hearted neighbor Tūtū, who’s also David’s grandmother.
At this point, I’ve become the very definition of a broken
record when it comes to my controversially positive stance toward Disney’s recent
trend of live-action remakes. At the risk of rehashing the same exact statements
that I’ve made in my other reviews of Disney’s live-action remakes, I don’t
believe that these new films are ‘harmful’ to the legacies of their animated
counterparts, mainly due to the alleged implication that they make them feel ‘lesser’
by comparison. Instead, I feel that, as long as the original films are still
available to watch thanks to services like Disney+ (their controversial habit
of removing content from the service notwithstanding), there’s nothing wrong with
seeing new spins on these animated classics. And when it comes to Lilo &
Stitch, I’d say that its live-action remake is one of the best of the bunch, even if many will undoubtedly argue that this isn’t saying much. Director Dean
Fleischer Camp does a fantastic job of maintaining the exact same level of emotional
poignancy as the original film, even when taking its polarizing (yet largely solid)
narrative changes into account. On that note, as notorious as some of these
changes have been in the eyes of Lilo & Stitch fans, they do, at
least, help to give this film its own unique identity rather than it being just
a straightforward retelling of the original animated film. But above all, with
the dedicated efforts of both its cast and crew to honor its story’s Hawaiian
roots on full display here, Lilo & Stitch succeeds in being just as
delightfully hilarious as it is beautifully touching on an emotional level.
Rating: 5/5!
