Alright, I’m not going to lie, I’m VERY biased when it comes to Disney live action remakes…. So, to say that I was excited for this one is honestly pretty big in my opinion. The original Lilo & Stitch (2002) is a favorite in our household, so my daughter and I took her very first trip to the theater for the new live action remake. She, for the most part, stayed entertained most of the movie. However, there was a longer stretch in the beginning where you don’t see Stitch at all that she definitely lost interest (she’s two, after all). For me specifically, there were a lot of new things to love, but also a lot of changes that I didn’t necessarily like that strayed from the original. I’ll detail all of that and more below. 

So, I’ll go over acting first since that will be the easiest to cover as opposed to the differences from the original. My favorite character in this whole movie (besides Stitch because, I mean, come on) was Pleakley (Billy Magnussen). Billy Magnussen did a PHENOMENAL job with Pleakley. In the original, Pleakley was one of those characters for me who was just there. In the live action remake, Pleakley was hilarious, goofy, and made you want to love him in a weird and awkward way. Definitely definitely my favorite of all the actors/actresses. Sydney Agudong, who plays Nani, was okay, but I honestly felt like she missed a lot of opportunities to really shine in some of the emotional scenes. Maia Kealoha as Lilo was straight up adorable, but for some reason (and this is not her fault), a lot of Lilo’s original weirdness was not in the live action. She’s more of just a lonely girl in the live action as opposed to someone who is shunned by her peers because of her differences. Those were the only actors/actresses that stood out and, in my opinion, no one else really shined through as a memorable character. 

Okay, since I’m getting into the plot, I have to get into differences here. I’m going to do a spoiler-free version first and then warn you guys before I go into any spoilers. 

With the plot, a HUGE difference is that Gantu isn’t even included in the new live action remake. This throws Jumba (Zach Galifianakis) into the role of main villain, which made NO SENSE TO ME. You basically have this whole entire universe built around Lilo, Stitch, and the friends they’ve made along the way (along with the other experiments). Jumba, in this universe, was only a semi-villain who actually turned into family. In this live action? He legit is the main antagonist and I’m not here for it. I don’t consider this a spoiler because you find out pretty early on that he’s expected to be the main villain here. But seriously, guys, what the actual heck??? Why couldn’t we just bring in Gantu? Another big deviation from the original that changes the plot quite a bit is Nani and Lilo’s neighbors. Basically David (Kaipo Dudoit) and his mother/grandmother, Tūtū (Amy Hill) help out a ton with Lilo while Nani tries to juggle it all. Not only that, but the ending changes considerably with the addition of this neighbor. Also also, we get an extra social worker besides Cobra Bubbles (Courtney B. Vance) and her name is Mrs. Kekoa (Tia Carrere). This also just made my head spin and wasn’t a good addition. 

Also, another rant, while the CGI designs for all of our alien friends were really great, the actions of our actors/actresses often pulled me out of the movie because they looked so goofy trying to touch the CGI characters (for example, there are a lot of times when Nani “pets” Stitch, and it makes it so easy to tell that she’s not touching anything at all). It just pulled me out of the movie because it looked so bad at times. 

Spoilers ahead.

Sorry, y’all, but I couldn’t take being spoiler-free anymore. Let’s start with what I liked: 

• Nani wanting to go to college and having a full ride. 
• Pleakley being this goofy and lovable character. 
• Anything that came out of Stitch’s mouth or honestly any of his actions. 
• I loved that Pleakley and Jumba had human forms for a good bit of the movie. I think it made the live action more believable as a whole. 
• There’s more bonding between Lilo and Stitch. There’s even a cute little scene where Lilo kisses Stitch’s nose and my toddler just had to turn to me and kiss my nose (so I REALLY liked that part ☺️).

What I seriously DIDN’T like:

• Jumba being our main villain. I’m still so mad about this. O’hana means family, FAMILY MEANS NO ONE GETS LEFT BEHIND AS A VILLAIN!!!!!
• Nani actually ends up going to college. I’ll have to explain why I didn’t like this in a paragraph, so just bear with me. 
• There were SO many “emotional” scenes that the movie felt oversaturated. Lilo still almost drowns. Lilo still almost gets taken away from Nani. Jumba’s ship crashes into the ocean with Stitch and Lilo in it. Stitch almost drowns. While I did like the symbolic gesture of having Stitch sacrifice himself, I felt like there were too many moments trying to pull at your heartstrings and it took away from the lighthearted, comical, original movie that made it so special in the first place.

Alright, just to explain why I didn’t like Nani going off to college. I think giving her a backstory and hopes and dreams was awesome. I think she (more than any of the other characters) deserved to have more of a story to her just because of how awesome she is in general. But her actually going to college? That takes away from what made Nani awesome in the first place. She gave up EVERYTHING to take care of Lilo and make sure that Lilo could grow up with a loving family even though their parents died. Letting Nani have everything (college, Lilo, their house), it just made what Nani gave up in this movie seem trivial because she didn’t end up having to give up anything. Not to mention, I’m seriously not into endings that are “let’s let everyone be happy and get everything they want.” It’s just unsatisfying and extremely unrealistic. 

Overall, my toddler definitely enjoyed this movie. Me, you ask? I’ll stick with the original. While I think there were a lot of things to love about this new live action remake, it didn’t do anything to improve upon the original. Which, of course, takes me back to my original stance for remakes: LEAVE THE ORIGINALS ALONE AND COME UP WITH NEW STORIES.

Where to Watch: In Theaters