Lilo and Stitch
Currently Only in Theaters
Runtime: 1 Hours 48 Minutes
Rated PG
Disney continues to take beloved classic animated movies and give them a live-action remake. Stitch is a genetic experiment designed to destroy. Lilo is a little girl who is having trouble coping with her parent’s loss and acting out. When Lilo mistakes Stitch for a dog and adopts him chaos ensues.
Themes:
Ohana, aliens, social work, bullying, loss, support, goals, social services, surfing, Hawaii, Elvis, the CIA, parents, sisters, support, holding a job, and friendship.
Language:
Hell - 1 Religious Exclamations - 2
There is some minor name calling such as buffoon, monster, stupid, and freakish.
Uptown Funk plays in the background of a wedding.
Stuff to be aware of:
Grossness - As with the original movie, there is plenty of gross things Stitch does. He hocks loogies, licks things, eats boogers, and spots. A robot throws up nuts and bolts and one character mentions that when the dogs get fed candy it gives them diarrhea.
Scary - Seeing a “real-looking” Jumba might be scary to younger children. His form doesn’t translate to “real life” as well as Stitch.
Sexual - There are several bare-chested men and women in bathing suits throughout the movie. There is a wedding scene where a man and woman are getting married and dancing. One male character awkwardly flirts with a female character.
When asked, “how long will you be staying with us?” a man answers, “I don’t want to stay with you, I want my own room.” A little girl tells a male young adult that her sister like his butt. There is a brief scene with a man in a bathtub. His bare chest is seen. Two men look at each other and one looks embarrassed in a kind of flirty way.
Violence - Minor slapstick fighting. A house gets shot multiple times and falls down, no one is hurt.
Other - A lady sitting by a pool is seen drinking an alcoholic beverage.
Overall:
Seeing It With Your Family
If your family watched the original animated movie you won’t find too much to be aware of here that you didn’t see in the animated version.
What I Thought
It is hard not to go into a Disney live-action remake and not think that Disney is just trying to sell you the same story with visual upgrades to take your money, however, there have been a few live-action retellings that do a good job balancing nostalgia while also making the story feel fresh or give us something new that doesn’t take away from the source material. For the most part, Lilo and Stitch is the latter. At its heart, it is still a story about dealing with loss, grief and having to be a sister and a mother to a child.
If you loved the original you will find about 75% of the story remains about the same. That is where Lilo and Stitch shines! The story beats follow a familiar path, but give us little changes or updates here and there. Nani gets a bit more backstory and character development giving us some insight into what all Nani has given up to care for her sister. This part of the movie helps flesh Nani out and shows us the sacrifice she makes for her little sister, but also makes for some odd choices in the story at the end of the movie. Stitch is his normal rowdy, destructive self and works just as well as a CGI fur ball as a hand drawn one.
The actresses that play Lilo and her sister/guardian Nani have great chemistry and their relationship feels real. You will want to scream with them out of frustration during arguments and in the tender moments, you may find yourself shedding a tear. They were cast very well and that is saying a lot for an actress who is six years old. Zach Galifianakis and Billy Magnussen seem to be having fun, but the humor that goes along with Jumba and Pleakley in the animated movie is a bit harder to translate to live-action. They are a bit annoying at times, but they did have their moments.
Some of the parts that don’t work as well come out of deviations of characters or adding in characters that are unneeded. Cobra Bubbles is back, but he isn’t a social worker. In a new role, the original voice actress for Nani plays a new character who is a social worker. This does not work as well as Cobra being the alien expert who now works in social services. This odd move takes away from Cobra’s character and his story in the movie. Also, since Cobra is essentially split into two characters he doesn’t get to shine as much. However, it was neat that they brought back Nani’s voice actress.
Another character that is added in is a neighbor that causes some story issues. She ends up helping out with Lilo and takes away some of the bonding moments, like getting a dog, that Nani shares with Lilo in the original. It also made me wonder why this neighbor wasn’t helping out with Lilo while Nani is looking for a job. This added character doesn’t really sense, but then in the final moments of the movie you figure out why they crammed her in the script, but it doesn’t work very well and make the ending less satisfying than the animated movie.
Minor spoilers in this paragraph! Something else that makes the ending less satisfying is that Captain Gantu is not in the movie which essentially changes the final act of the film completely. Without giving away the finale, I will say there is far less action than the original and without Gantu a different character has to take his place as antagonist. This works okay, but in my opinion, is not as cool of an ending of the original. However, part of the ending did play on my emotions more than the original and I almost cried….I said almost.
Overall, it was fun Hawaiian rollercoaster ride and I enjoyed it. I still have a greater burning love for the orignal, but this was a worthy “live action remake.” If you love Stitch go see this one, and take your kids.