The live - action " Lilo & Stitch " might be my final straw .
There are obviously despoiler ahead for the live - actionLilo & Stitch !
Disney’s latest live-action remake just hit theaters, and it’s already making quite a splash.Lilo & Stitchmade$341 million worldwideand became the biggestMemorial Dayweekend debut in history in the US.
Directed by Dean Fleischer Camp and written by Chris Kekaniokalani Bright and Mike Van Waes, the movie adapts the beloved 2002 animated movie by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois into the live-action medium, which is a patternDisneyhas been following for years.
Like previous live-action remakes,Lilo & Stitchessentially follows the exact same plot as the original…but it’s live-action. Which, as someone who adores animated movies, these aren’t typically my cup of tea, exceptCinderellastarringLily James, I loved that one.
So, you would think it would be pretty easy to just copy-paste the animated movie’s story into a new movie, and then Disney makes a lot of money at the box office, which is essentially what happened withLilo & Stitch, except there are some big changes that have caught original fans' attention.
For starters, the live-action remake gets rid of Captain Gantu, who was the original antagonist in the animated movie. That’s right, the movie completely cuts out Stitch’s main rival, and instead makes Jumba — YES, SWEET UNCLE JUMBA — the villain who looks to capture Stitch and Lilo as part of his own plot for galactic domination and glory.
Speaking about this changewith Entertainment Weekly, director Dean Fleischer Camp said, “Gantu arrives, and it turns into a more conventional movie. I thought there was a nice opportunity here for [Jumba] to turn and become the villain in the third act. To create real estate for all that emotional stuff and the deepening that we did, you have to get rid of stuff. And so Gantu was a casualty of that.”
Another change the live-actionLilo & Stitchmakes from the original is basically splitting the character of Cobra Bubbles, who is a social worker and former CIA agent in the original, who checks in on Lilo and Nani. In the live-action, he’s just a CIA agent who is sent to capture Stitch, while the character of Mrs. Kekoa was created to be a social worker. Mrs. Kekoa is actually played by Tia Carrere, who voiced Nani in the original movie.
And while those are two big changes, there is one more in particular that people, including myself, cannot get over. And it comes at the end of the movie.
In the originalLilo & Stitch, the film ends with the Grand Councilwoman deciding that Stitch can stay in exile on Earth with Lilo and Nani. Then, Stitch, Jumba, and Pleakley all join Lilo and Nani’s family, and they set out to rebuild their house, alongside David and Cobra Bubbles. With the message of the movie, “‘Ohana means family” ringing true.
Now, the live-action movie still has the Grand Councilwoman say that Stitch can stay with Lilo and Nani, but when they return home, Mrs. Kekoa informs Nani that Lilo will be given up to the state, but her guardianship can be given to David and his grandmother Tūtū, who is a new character for the live-action film, so she can stay living in town.
And Lilo gives Nani permission to go pursue her dream of marine biology, insisting that she will be okay. So, they all rebuild the house, and Nani goes to study at the University of California, San Diego. And she visits Lilo and Stitch back home using Jumba’s old portal gun whenever she wants.
Yup. You read that correctly. So unlike in the animated movie, where Nani does EVERYTHING to keep Lilo, the live-action movie ends with her leaving Lilo behind to go to school. I can’t even touch on the fact of why you would leave Hawaii to study marine biology somewhere else, but alright.
WHAT HAPPENED TO “‘OHANA MEANS FAMILY. FAMILY MEANS NOBODY GETS LEFT BEHIND OR FORGOTTEN.” Okay, I’m done. I’m sorry. I need to calm down.
Anyway, I’m not the only one who is annoyed at this change, so many fans voiced their concerns on social media after the opening weekend of the film.One popular TikTok with 7.4 million viewsand over 1.2 million likes reads, “everyone yesterday witnessing the most obvious propaganda encouraging native families to give up their children to the state.”
And another TikTok had one fanyelling, “WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE GIVES LILO UP TO THE STATE? WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE GOES OFF TO THE MAINLAND TO STUDY MARINE BIOLOGY?!!!”
They butchered Nani like we make love they would ! ! They really fix Sydney up to fail and she fell for it . I also finger like the masses who were white in the animated movie served a purpose in being white . Do n’t make me agitate against ashen erasure ! I do n’t even know if I really want a live action at law PATF . THEY CANNOT BE TRUSTED!!#liloandstitch#liveactionliloandstitich
People on X, formerly Twitter, were not happy with the change either:
So, um, yeah. TheLilo & Stitchlive-action movie did all of that. I hope the parents of the kids going to see this movie also show them the animated movie because it’s far superior and let’s continue to support original animated movies.
The live-action “Lilo & Stitch” might be my final straw.
