Whilst the poor reaction to Snow White has made Disney reevaluate their standing on live-action updates of their classic animated catalogue, Lilo & Stitch – obviously made before such a decision was made – arrives with an ironic freshness that proves just how warm and successful some reimaginings can be.
By no means does this 2025 look match its animated predecessor, but director Dean Fleischer Camp (Marcel the Shell with Shoes On) laces this edition with such heart, humour, and respect for its Hawaiian culture, that you’d be hard pressed not to be swept up in its harmless charm.
A lot of that charm comes down to its titular duo, with the mischievous Stitch (once again voiced by Chris Sanders) always honing a certain loveable nature, despite his recklessness, and Maia Kealoha proving an unmatched gem as Lilo, with the young actress embodying the character’s wide-eyed imagination and rebellion with an equal vigour. Kealoha carries the movie on her shoulders with an ease beyond her years, and regardless of if you think Lilo & Stitch as a movie is necessary, you won’t be able to deny the magnetism she brings to proceedings.
The story itself doesn’t distance itself too far from the animation, though purists may not appreciate the fact that Gantu, the original antagonist, has been cut from the Chris Kekaniokalani Bright/Mike Van Waes-penned script. That being said, the film offers up enough of a dynamic between Stitch and the higher-ups that seek him out that it would have ultimately felt like overcrowding had Gantu’s presence been furthered in; Zach Galifianakis and Billy Magnussen as the human avatar appearances of Dr. Jumba Jookiba, the scientist that created Stitch, and Agent Pleakley, the Earth expert, sent to retrieve him when he escapes his planet, Courtney B. Vance as Cobra Bubbles, a human federal agent tasked with capturing Stitch, and Hannah Waddingham as the voice of the Grand Councilwoman, the alien leader who sends Jumba and Pleakley on their mission.
Said mission, for the uninitiated, revolves around when Stitch breaks free from his alien planet shackles and hitches a pod to Earth, most specifically Hawaii, where he runs amok under the guise of being a strange breed of dog and forms a bond with outcast Lilo, whose rebellion has only grown exponentially in the wake of her parents’ death, leaving older sister Nani (Sydney Elizebeth Agudong, another absolute find of a performer) to look after her, whilst juggling the responsibility of being a guardian. Lilo doesn’t make it easy for Nani, especially when she’s got to put her best foot forward in the face of social worker Mrs. Kekoa (Tia Carrere, who voiced the original Nani), who is threatening separation if she can’t prove herself fit.
This plotline adds a layer of emotionality that offsets the farcical nature of Lilo and Stitch’s wrongdoings, and though we all know that it will have a happy ending, there’s enough drama injected to keep the 108 minutes feeling as if there’s a certain weight that may not be entirely shaken. And as funny as those aforementioned wrongdoings can be, it’s the familial aspect that emerges as Lilo & Stitch‘s most entertaining. We believe Lilo and Nani as sisters, and had Kealoha and Agudong not been as organic in their chemistry, the film’s emotional core would have come undone. Yes, you come to this film for the ultimate adorableness that is Stitch, but you stay for the sisters and their relationship.
Touching on real-life issues, such as grief and its aftermath, without coming off like a specific “message” movie, Lilo & Stitch honours family, friendship and the Hawaiian culture of such (remember, “Ohana means family”), playing like a respectful counterpart to its animated mate. It revises Sanders and Dean DeBlois’s original just enough to earn its place as one of the few live-action remakes that doesn’t feel entirely unnecessary, without erasing any of that film’s lasting impact.
THREE AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Lilo & Stitch is screening in Australian theatres from May 22nd, 2025, before opening in the United States on May 23rd.
