This remake is little and broken, but still good. Yeah. Still good.
I basically had the same reaction towards the live action remake of “Lilo & Stitch,” as I had with “The Little Mermaid” and “Aladdin,” and that is that there’s more magic with the human worlds than the fantasy worlds. The aliens in this version are inferior to the animated ones in 2002, but the humans and title alien Stitch are much more appealing. And there are some actors who are unconvincing in their roles, but there are those who do deliver.
The box office disaster of “Snow White” has caused Disney to put a hold on a “Tangled” remake with no arguments from me. It’s obviously for the best, considering that it was in indulging in the remake genre and how the motion capture work for the seven dwarfs gave me uncomfortable feelings. I would take this Stitch over those dwarfs any day of the week, and he doesn’t succumb to kid movie tropes like “Pinocchio” did a few years ago.
You know the story of how the alien experiment 626, A.K.A. Stitch, crash lands on Planet Earth on the island of Hawaii, and disguises himself as a dog in order to be adopted by the misunderstood little girl Lilo. Her older sister Nani struggles to make a great impression for the social worker, and struggles to adapt to Stitch’s entrance in their world.
And the aliens who must capture Stitch are his creator Dr. Jumbaa and the mosquito expert Agent Pleakley. Their alien effects are crappy, but on Earth they are able to take the forms of Zach Galifianakis and Billy Magnussen. I prefer the late David Ogden Stiers and Kevin McDonald from the original movie, whereas these characters in their alien forms are unappealing and Galifanakis sounds more like a computer nerd here as Jumbaa, while Magnussen sounds more alien than comical.
Stitch is so indestructible that he’s able to survive getting run over by a tour bus unlike Mark Wahlberg getting killed by a fire truck at the end of “Flight Risk.” And he does have the stomach to drink out of a lava lamp.
Chris Sanders, who co-created the 2002 film, reprises his voice role of Stitch, and he still sounds like his iconic Disney character. Even today, Jodi Benson still sounds like Ariel and Linda Larkin sounds like Jasmine. And I can do a good impression of Stitch myself, but I don’t think I should be cast in this remake.
The cast also includes newcomer Maia Kealoha as Lilo and Sydney Agudong as Nani. We also get Courtney B. Vance as Agent Cobra Bubbles, who must disguise himself as a social worker in order to track down the alien, Kaipo Dudoit as Nani’s surfer friend David, and Hannah Waddingham as the voice of the alien Grand Councilwoman.
And some of the original voice actors of the 2002 animated film include Tia Carrere (Nani) as another social worker, Jason Scott Lee (David) as Nani’s former boss, and Amy Hill (Mrs. Hasagawa) as David’s grandmother Tutu.
The message of the original “Lilo & Stitch” was “Ohana,” which is Hawaiian for “family,” and “family means nobody gets left behind.” This new version still grasps that message. Growing up in the 2000s, I was delighted by the original movie, and I still have my reservations against this live action remake. But I was able to overcome whatever cynicism this version throws at me. Kealoha is funny and likable as Lilo, Sanders still delivers as the voice of Stitch, and Agudong does some good work as Nani. And I was more interested in their surfing scene than I was with the alien world he comes from.
This remake was directed by Dean Fleisher Camp, whose “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On” was on my Ten Best list three years ago. It doesn’t exceed that masterpiece, but it does like to broaden the original story a bit and allow Stitch to use his iconic lines a lot better than how the late James Earl Jones did as Mufasa in the 2019 “Lion King” remake. There are many contradictions when it comes to live action remakes. Some succeed, others fail, but this “Lilo & Stitch” still surfs.
