Will's Watches: Lilo & Stitch (Live-Action)
Lilo & Stitch (2025), OG Lilo & Stitch (2002), The Goonies (1985), and more
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Ready to dive in to the newest live-action remake of a classic animated movie. Slop or not slop?
Spoiler Free Section:
Lilo & Stitch (2025):
Almost all the Disney live-action remakes have been lifeless and absolute money grabs. While this one is almost certainly is a money grab, it’s got some juice.
A lot of people really, really hate live-action remakes of animated classics. My opinion is as follows: if you’re going to do it, I want an exact copy & paste. Do literally the exact same thing, line for line, bar for bar, just in live-action. If you make any changes, it better be to a plotline that was negatively received in the original to improve. Don’t change any of the good stuff and make it worse or I will hate you forever.
The 2002 original is one of the best non-Pixar movies they’ve ever put out. It’s a timeless classic of a little girl adopting a weird alien freak that becomes her Ohana! The remake doesn’t meet those heights, but it isn’t a complete waste.
Here’s what works: Both Lilo and Stitch. While Lilo doesn’t have all of the weird, funny quicks and random quotes she has in the original, I think the actress did a great job. She’s an adorable little girl and is far better than most child actors you see these days. That characters exact style and mannerisms are really hard to mimic in live-action, so I think playing up the cuteness factor was a good alternative. Stitch is just hard to mess up. Little CGI freak, as long as you get the voice right and put him up to his usual hijinks, you’re going to accomplish your goal. Nani, I love you.
Here’s what doesn’t work (there’s going to be some spoilers here if you’re a fan of the original, but who cares this movie has been out for like two weeks, plus this will help you set expectations): Zach Galifianakis as Jumba is just bad. No accent, he’s in a human form for most of the movie, and he’s the main villain. They completely remove Captain Gantu (big shark man with the deep voice) from the movie, probably to save CGI money, but they’re making cash hand over fist so I harshly disagree with that decision. It throws off the entire ending that could’ve been so much better if they kept it more similar to the original. They also mess around with Mr. Bubbles’ story, which I am also not a fan of. Just leave it the same and bring back Ving Rhames.
A lot of people are up in arms about the change they make to the ending, which I knew going in. It wasn’t as bad as people are saying, they have an easy cop out to make it fine.
Here’s what I’ll say, this was definitely a fun summer movie experience. It had people in my theater laughing and crying, and it had some good moments. Was it a shell of the original? Yeah, probably, but if you know that going in then I think you’ll definitely have a positive experience here. Kids are loving it, so it’s bringing in a looooot of money. My overall rating might not show it, but would definitely recommend for the families out there, saw it with a group of friends and had a great time. Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride still slaps.
Also shoutout my friend Colin who unveiled the best Stitch impersonation I’ve heard in my life during the credits. Who knew?
TL;DR: Firmly in the upper-echelon of Disney live-action remakes, the central characters are well done, Stitch is great, but changes with the villains and secondary characters bring it lower than it could have been. Solid time and good for the family.
Ranking: 3 stars (68 raw score)
Lilo & Stitchrivia:
Tia Carrere, the voice actress for Nani in the 2002 original movie, plays one of the social workers in the new film. Chris Sanders, the director, writer, and story creator of Lilo & Stitch (2002), reprises his role as Stitch. He had to juggle his voice work with making his blockbuster hit animated drama The Wild Robot (2024) at the same time. This film is dedicated to David Ogden Stiers and Zoe Caldwell, the original voices of Dr. Jumba Jookiba and the Grand Council woman in the original animated franchise.
Extra Bites:
See below for the other content I’ve been watching lately. As always, all my movie reviews go up first on my Letterboxd account. To keep it simple, the four categories here are: Absolute Cinema (incredible content), Would Watch Again (good stuff, recommend), Probably Wouldn’t Watch Again (it’s okay at best but would not recommend), Nico Harrison (it’s the worst thing to ever happen to my life)
Lilo & Stitch (2002)
Just absolutely goated. Core memory of my toddler years was watching this for the first time and then waking up to watch the TV show every morning before going to school. Haven’t watched it in forever and it was a judo kick right in the childhood. Lilo is sneakily one of the funniest animated characters there’s ever been. The original Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride is top 3 original songs from an animated movie ever made. Try to listen to that song and be sad, I dare you. Ohana means mf family.
Verdict: Absolute Cinema
This Week’s Edition of “What? You Haven’t Seen That Before???”:
The Goonies (1985)
Data and Chunk are the best things to ever happen to me. Great movie, can see why it’s a classic. Can also see how every movie/TV show centered around a group of kids that band together against a bigger threat since then has taken inspiration from this one. Was also insane how, even though this movie came out before her birth, they were able to use my sister as inspiration for the character of Sloth!
(Bang boom roasted just kidding love you)
Verdict: Would Watch Again
Coming Soon:
Included below are some of the movies coming out over the next month
How to Train Your Dragon (live-action) - June 13th
Materialists - June 13th
28 Years Later - June 20th
F1 - June 27th
Jurassic World: Rebirth - July 2nd
Superman - July 11th
For Me: Wes Anderson or Ana de Armas, Ana de Armas or Wed Anderson? The answer is Ana de Armas.
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SPOILER SECTION
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Yeah Jumba with no accent is trash. Them being human for most of the time is trash. One of the funnier parts of the original is that they are these freak aliens blending in by just wearing Hawaiian shirts and wigs
Mr. Bubbles does not start out as a social worker, he’s a CIA agent from the beginning who then goes undercover as a social worker with the other social worker played by Nani’s voice actress. Personally thought this worked a lot worse, I think they should’ve just had a few little flashback scenes of Lilo & Nani with their parents and have their mom played by Tia Carrere, but maybe that’s just me
There is one point where Stitch finds a soda gun from a machine and squirts Lilo in the face with water. I would just like to say, that as an alien, he had no idea what that gun would do. For all he knew, that could’ve been a laser gun. That’s the only gun he’s been exposed to at that point. So, theoretically, Stitch attempted murder. Just saying
The ending: originally, the ending finds that Nani and Lilo stay together. Those two, Mr. Bubbles, David, and a reformed Jumba and Pleakley form a dysfunctional but good family that rebuild their house. I was spoiled beforehand and told that the updated ending was Nani going to college and Lilo going to a foster home. Here’s what actually happens: Nani has a free ride to a marine biology school that she put aside to take care of Lilo. Instead of being sent to a foster facility, Lilo goes to their neighbors house with David and his mom who are obviously like family to them. Nani goes to college but takes the portal gun from earlier in the movie with her so she can visit Lilo whenever she wants. Not as good as the original, but not as bad as presented
Again, the ending of this doesn’t touch that of the original. Instead of Lilo getting kidnapped accidentally by Gantu and everyone else going to save her, Stitch gets taken by Jumba while Lilo sneaks on the plane and they crash it. Stitch almost drowning was borderline harrassment of the audience, I won’t snitch but it did bring one of my fellow movie-goers to tears