Lilo & Stitch Review: Disney’s Surprisingly Cute Live-Action Remake
The Disney live-action remake has returned after a whole two months since the last one. In 2002, Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois made their mark in Hollywood with their stunning, heartwarming directorial debut, Lilo & Stitch. The story of a young Hawaiian girl who befriends an alien from outer space that taught us all about how ohana means family touched everyone who watched it, making us all laugh and cry. They would go on to direct How to Train Your Dragon together as well. And now, we are about to get live-action remakes of both of these animated classics, none of which we asked for.
But as far as these live-action remakes go, Lilo & Stitch is harmless. This is a cute movie that almost lives up to the original. Rest assured, it’s as unnecessary as every live-action remake of an animated classic. The first movie is so funny and charming, and it was sure to be an uphill battle for this movie to pull off any of that. Director Dean Fleischer Camp, who impressed us all with his work on Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, ended up being a perfect candidate to adapt this (somewhat) new take on this story.
When I rewatched the original movie, I noticed that our two titular characters are some of the most lovable characters I’ve ever seen in a movie. I can’t get enough of them. They’re so funny and unhinged, and a match made in heaven. From the second Lilo goes on that monologue about how she can’t feed her fish Pudge a tuna sandwich because “Pudge controls the weather,” I was in hysterics. This movie recycles that joke, but it doesn’t land this time around. However, this movie finds a gem in Maia Kealoha, the young actress who plays Lilo. They couldn’t have found a better Lilo. She’s perfect in this movie.
Stitch is that mischievous alien that we all fell in love with decades ago. To this day, Stitch merchandise is sold everywhere, and he’s an iconic character. It makes sense why Disney would go all-out with him in the marketing, putting him in other Disney posters and even a Super Bowl ad. Chris Sanders returns to voice this role, and he’s just as amazing as ever. One of the funniest moments in the movie is one that plays with how Stitch is determined to go to a city and destroy it like Godzilla, but he can’t because he’s trapped on an island. It’s genuinely hilarious.
I also really loved Sydney Elizebeth Agudong as Nani. She brings the perfect amount of humor to her role while also completely selling the role of a young woman who is in over her head, trying to step up to be a mother for her little sister. She captures that energy perfectly, and she sells all of the sisterly chemistry with Kealoha. Kaipo Dudoit doesn’t have much screen time as David, but he’s very likable too. The way I feel about the casting in Lilo & Stitch compared to that of Disney’s recent Snow White remake is night and day. It proves that you don’t need big stars of questionable acting talent to make a good movie. These actors, all relative unknowns, capture their characters really well.
Two of the bigger names in the cast are Zach Galifianakis and Billy Magnussen as Jumba and Pleakley, the aliens sent down to Earth to capture Stitch. The screenwriters made a wise choice here by having Jumba and Pleakley take on human forms (which match their voice actors). Although I missed seeing Pleakley dressed in drag, it’s far more believable in a live-action film to see them as humans. Galifianakis is an excellent actor I haven’t seen in a while, and he’s not doing David Ogden Stiers’s Russian accent, but he’s putting his own spin. They’re both giving wonderful comedic performances filled with energy, and the direction they take during the latter half of the film was a surprising, but effective change from the original.
Courtney B. Vance does a good job as Cobra Bubbles in a slightly different take from what we saw in the first movie. Hannah Waddingham, who appears in two movies coming out the same weekend (this and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning), is perfectly cast as the voice of the Grand Councilwoman. There isn’t a weak link in the cast, especially as the movie brings in some new characters played by voice actors from the original film. And you can’t have a Lilo & Stitch movie without an Elvis soundtrack, and this movie doesn’t deviate from that. You do miss that visual gag of a live-action Elvis photo in an animated movie here, but the antics that Lilo and Stitch get up to make up for it.
There are some issues that hold it below the original. Camp does a great job with accurately adapting Stitch to live-action; his 3D model is perfect, and I wouldn’t change a thing about it. However, a lot of the cinematography in this movie is a bit bland. Some of the dialogue is a bit rushed. As you can see in the image above, there’s a scene where Lilo points at Stitch, but she’s pointing at the completely wrong place because they may have changed where they wanted Stitch to be during post-production.
Ultimately, this movie changes just enough from the original Lilo & Stitch while keeping in the heart and soul of a broken family learning to be whole again. It has those real issues surrounding a family grieving their parents and trying to stay together, as a social worker tries to see what’s best for their family. It doesn’t commit as many obvious mishaps as the other live-action remakes. No weirdly realistic talking animals and not nearly as many bad creative decisions. It’s fun for the whole family, and a safe bet to satisfy young moviegoers. This may not soar to the heights of the original, but I appreciated its revisions and attempts to make something new while keeping what has kept Lilo & Stitch from getting left behind or forgotten.
SCORE: 7/10
As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 7 equates to “Good.” A successful piece of entertainment that is worth checking out, but it may not appeal to everyone.
Disclosure: ComingSoon attended a press screening for our Lilo & Stitch review.
Source: Comingsoon.net