Lilo & Stitch (2025) Review

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 20^th, 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!

Dog Man (2025) Review

In 1997, author Dav Pilkey would publish what would quickly become the breakout hit of his career, The Adventures of Captain Underpants. A kid-friendly send-up of the superhero genre, the book followed the daily adventures of best friends George Beard and Harold Hutchins, a pair of mischievous fourth graders who loved to pull pranks at their elementary school, especially if it came at the expense of their lousy teachers. When their notoriously cruel principal Mr. Krupp threatens to enact the most severe punishment imaginable on them, the two manage to get out of it by using a hypno-ring to coerce Mr. Krupp into believing that he is the hero of their self-produced comic book series, Captain Underpants, an underwear-themed superhero who’s “faster than a speeding waistband, more powerful than boxer shorts, and who can leap tall buildings without getting a wedgie”. Unfortunately, this ends up working a bit too well and Mr. Krupp starts going around trying to fight for “truth, justice, and all that is pre-shrunk and cottony” despite not having any actual superpowers, thus resulting in George and Harold having to go after him to keep him safe, especially once they start coming across actual supervillains like a bunch of sentient toilets and a mad genius with the unfortunate name of Pippy P. Poopypants.

Upon its release, the book quickly became a huge hit with readers, ultimately going on to spawn a franchise consisting of 12 mainline installments and multiple spin-offs that have collectively sold over 80 million copies worldwide. Granted, all this success has also come with a bunch of controversies, namely because of the books being some of the most consistently banned books in public libraries due to their juvenile sense of humor and anti-authoritarian nature, but that hasn’t stopped them from becoming beloved staples of the literary journeys of those who grew up with them. In 2017, the series was adapted into film by DreamWorks Animation, who had been looking to purchase the film rights to them ever since their debut in 1997. Eventually securing said rights in 2011, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, which was notably the last DreamWorks film produced under the 20^th Century Fox banner after the studio was purchased by Universal the year prior, opted to be an amalgamation of the books (utilizing the origin story of the first installment and the main antagonist of the fourth, for example) rather than a straightforward adaptation of the first book. Upon its release, the film became both a critical and commercial hit, earning over $125 million worldwide. And in the eyes of Captain Underpants fans, the film was one of the most surprisingly faithful ‘book-to-film’ adaptations ever made, flawlessly replicating the artistic and narrative spirit of the books and even managing to adapt seemingly uncinematic aspects of the books to screen such as the ‘Flip-O-Rama’ segments where readers were encouraged to rapidly flip two pages back and forth to simulate action sequences.

One year prior to the film’s release, Dav Pilkey launched his next book series, Dog Man. Another spin-off of the Captain Underpants series, Dog Man is presented as the in-universe first comic series that George and Harold created together after they had first met in kindergarten (which, fun fact, was referenced as early as the original novel in 1997 as this was a character that Pilkey had conceived when he was in second grade). Following the conclusion of the mainline Captain Underpants series, the two rediscover their old Dog Man comics and decide to relaunch the series. Like the Captain Underpants books, the Dog Man books have been hugely successful critically and commercially, currently standing at 13 installments (with a 14^th set to release later this year) with every installment being amongst the best-selling children’s books of their respective release years. And in 2020, DreamWorks began the process of bringing Pilkey’s latest hit series to the big screen, which brings us to this year’s Dog Man. Directorial duties for this one go to Peter Hastings, who has only directed one film prior (that being the… ‘infamous’ adaptation of Disney’s Country Bear Jamboree theme park attraction) but has had plenty of experience in both the world of animation, producing the likes of hit shows like Animaniacs, and the works of Dav Pilkey as he was one of the show-runners of the Captain Underpants film’s Netflix series spin-off The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants. With all this in mind, it should come as no surprise that, like its cinematic predecessor, Dog Man is another entertainingly goofy yet wholly sincere and genuinely faithful adaptation of Dav Pilkey’s beloved literary works.

In the bustling metropolis that is OK City, the local Police Chief (voiced by Lil Rel Howery) and his officers are constantly threatened by the inventions of the notorious evildoer Petey the Cat (voiced by Pete Davidson). The only two that have consistently been able to successfully thwart his plans are Officer Knight (voiced by director Peter Hastings), a highly decorated yet admittedly quite dimwitted police officer, and his loyal canine companion Greg (also voiced by director Peter Hastings), who’s clearly shown to be the smarter one of the two despite being a dog. Unfortunately, the duo end up getting critically injured when they’re unable to defuse one of Petey’s bombs, with Officer Knight suffering significant head injuries and Greg sustaining serious bodily injuries. As a way of saving them both, a pair of surgeons swiftly decide to transplant Greg’s head onto Officer Knight’s body, with the ensuing experiment resulting in the creation of a half-dog/half-human hybrid, Dog Man. Almost immediately, Dog Man becomes a beloved hero in the eyes of the people of OK City as he continues his ongoing crusade against Petey the Cat, who continues to enact all sorts of devious plans to take down his arch-nemesis, which includes everything from resurrecting one of Dog Man’s old foes, Flippy the Fish (voiced by Ricky Gervais) to creating his own clone, Li’l Petey (voiced by Lucas Hopkins Calderon) who, to Petey’s disappointment, turns out to be not quite as villainous as he is.

Now the first thing I should note about this film is that, despite everything that I’ve mentioned about its source material’s roots and connections to the Captain Underpants series, the film itself is not presented as the in-universe spin-off that it technically is. There’s no framing device that establishes it as the creation of George and Harold and the only major connection that it does share with Captain Underpants is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo from the creators themselves. There’s not even a Flip-O-Rama sequence in this film despite the Dog Man books having them just like in the Captain Underpants books as that concept has been a staple of Dav Pilkey’s work since its debut in the original Captain Underpants novel. And yet, as neat as it would’ve been to see this film attempt to properly connect itself to the Captain Underpants series, I also recognize that it’s ultimately not that necessary for it to do so. Regardless of how much it does or doesn’t try to be a spin-off of its cinematic predecessor, Dog Man the film dutifully follows in the footsteps of the 2017 Captain Underpants film by being a highly respectful adaptation of its source material that faithfully adapts it not by being a direct 1:1 adaptation of its first installment but by seamlessly combining key story elements of multiple books into a singular narrative (Flippy the Fish? He’s the villain of the second book, Dog Man: Unleashed. Li’l Petey? He was introduced in Book 3, Dog Man: A Tale of Two Kittens.). All the while, the film also does a great job in capturing Pilkey’s well-established narrative sensibilities, resulting in a pleasantly light-hearted family-friendly comedy that’s unabashedly goofy. And while many of Pilkey’s biggest critics have often derided his work as being nothing more than a series of immature toilet jokes, I believe that, in doing so, they overlook the more subtly brilliant aspects of his writing, like his penchant for cleverly self-aware humor and simple yet delightfully wacky running gags.

Case in point, while Dog Man is a largely comedic endeavor, it’ll also take you by surprise by how it manages to throw in some genuinely heartfelt story beats. Much of this comes from the introduction of Li’l Petey who, as established earlier, doesn’t possess the same villainous tendencies that Petey has. Li’l Petey ends up forming a friendship with Dog Man over the course of the film, which then leads to Petey gradually starting to act less like a villain which, yes, is another way in which the film honors the books, where Petey turns into a hero by the end of the fifth book, Dog Man: Lord of the Fleas. The Captain Underpants film also had its fair share of heartfelt moments, which helps to exemplify why both these films, for as silly as they are, also have such a wholesome vibe to them while never having any moments that feel cynical or mean-spirited. Like Captain Underpants, Dog Man’s animation wasn’t an in-studio job (here, it was handled by Jellyfish Pictures whereas its predecessor was made by Mikros Image and Technicolor Animation Productions) but it still does a great job in replicating Pilkey’s trademark comic art style to make it all look like a comic book coming to life on-screen. Meanwhile, the film boasts a fun voice cast to play the franchise’s eclectic cast of characters, including Lil Rel Howery as Dog Man’s perpetually exasperated police chief, Isla Fisher as OK City’s most dedicated news reporter Sarah Hatoff, and Pete Davidson gleefully hamming it up as Petey.

I didn’t exactly imply it all that much throughout this review but I’m very much a part of the generation that grew up with the Captain Underpants books. Back in a time when I wasn’t fully aware of how controversial they were amongst certain groups (for, to be perfectly blunt, hilariously overblown reasons), I was thoroughly enthralled by their goofy yet subtly clever sense of humor and hugely entertaining stories that I’m confident were essential in me developing my love for the superhero genre back before I truly got into the likes of Marvel and DC. I eventually stopped reading the series regularly after its eighth installment, Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People, partially due to it leading to a six-year gap between book releases (albeit for the completely valid reason of Pilkey stepping away from writing to take care of his father David before he passed away in 2008) but mainly for the more standardized reason that applies to anything you enjoyed as a kid as I simply grew out of the series’ target demographic. However, that didn’t stop me from going to see the Captain Underpants film in 2017 which, ironically, was also the first DreamWorks Animation film that I’d seen in theaters in nearly a decade for… well, the exact same reason why I stopped reading the books. And for me, the result was not only one of DreamWorks’ best films but also one of my favorite films of that year. Despite not having read the books in quite a few years, I was pleasantly delighted by how surprisingly faithful the film was in adapting them to the screen even if that was largely done by way of it combining different story beats from multiple books in the series. No joke, I damn near cheered in the theater when the film managed to pull off an incredibly successful cinematic rendition of the series’ trademark ‘Flip-o-Rama’ segments.

Conversely, I do not have any sort of history with the Dog Man book series as it didn’t start coming out until 2016. This would’ve been a much different story had this new film been an adaptation of the Captain Underpants series’ original spin-off, The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby, another in-universe comic by George and Harold about a newborn named Billy Hoskins who gains Captain Underpants’ super-powers, or a different Dav Pilkey series named Ricky Ricotta’s Mighty Robot, in which the titular mouse Ricky Ricotta befriends a giant robot as they team up to fight all sorts of intergalactic antagonists. Nevertheless, my nostalgia for the Captain Underpants series was ultimately enough to compel me to check out Dog Man’s film adaptation, and while I can’t say that it’s ‘as good’ as the 2017 Captain Underpants film (nor is it one of DreamWorks’ best, for that matter), it’s also one of those films that I’d argue is almost impossible to dislike. Not only does it do a fantastic job of being devotedly faithful to its source material but its wholly uncynical nature makes it a refreshingly positive animated flick that candidly wears its heart on its sleeve. As such, it’s clear that this film will be a smash hit with fans of the Dog Man series, undoubtedly destined to become a regular rewatch for the generation that will grow up with it, while still managing to appeal to older audiences who most likely aren’t familiar with the source material with its wacky sense of humor and vibrant animation. But perhaps best of all, this film’s success will assuredly make it another exemplary testament as to why Dav Pilkey continues to be an indisputable icon in the world of children’s literature.

Rating: 4/5