It’s not the worst-made Disney remake (which is a low bar to step over), but the changes to the story in adaptation are evil colonialist nonsense.
Lilo & Stitch revisits the story of the 2002 cartoon. Early parts of the movie feel like a standard inferior, unnecessary remake of the original. One downside of close remakes is that it highlights an adaptation’s failure to rise to the original material. In this, pacing is rushed and lacks art; the visuals are not stunning like the original; the dialogue is labored, more obvious, and over-explains.
We can assume this movie isn’t intended for an audience familiar with the original, though. They’re bringing Lilo & Stitch to a new generation of children. I can concede I’m gonna be put-off by a lot because the 2002 movie is from my childhood. Maybe Kids These Days really will prefer to a hurried intro. If you don’t know the original, you won’t know the luscious art you’re missing. New audiences won’t know Jumba sounds weird, nor will they know Jumba was once part of the ohana too. Lots of little stuff like that.
Usually, when the 2025 edition parts ways with the 2002 version, it’s better. Lilo and Stitch’s shenanigans aren’t as direct in adaptation, and the actress is so cute, I didn’t mind it.
I could give it a couple-three stars for probably entertaining children and being actually tolerable, unlike The Lion King.
Yet this movie has had all the soul sucked out if it in exchange for blandified cuteness – and a hearty dose of propaganda. No joke.
Nani and Lilo are islanders. The original movie centers the dissonant relationship between islanders and colonists/tourists. Lilo’s difficulty get along with her classmates, the tourist-based industry, and even her family’s economic struggle help give the 2002 movie soul. It actually believes in ohana.
Originally, one of Lilo’s charming quirks is objectifying the tourists the way that tourists objectify Hawai’ians and their culture – and that has been stripped from this movie.
Most background characters have been made into islanders, sucking all meaning out of moments like the one gentleman who can’t keep ice cream on his cone. Even Lilo’s bullies seem to be islanders too.
One reason it’s so upsetting for social workers to try to separate Nani and Lilo is because it’s an intrusion by the colonial American system into the lives of islanders. Instead, here, we get a social worker urging Nani to surrender Lilo to the state, with full narrative approval. They say this will get healthcare for Lilo…except that Hawai’i has socialized medicine. They specifically state Lilo’s lack of insurance as a problem, when there’s no reason for it to be, except to separate the ohana.
They also send Nani on a scholarship to a marine biology program in California – even though Hawai’i’s university is great with this.
Instead of pushing together this lovely ohana – which includes Jumba as well as Pleakly, in the original – the 2025 movie splinters them, placing Lilo into foster care. Her first placement is with a neighbor. Let’s hope that lasts twelve years until Lilo is an adult and the sweet elderly neighbor doesn’t kick the bucket before then, because now Lilo is in the state’s hands.
If you don’t know the history of separating indigenous families from each other in America – and other colonialist countries – do yourself a favor and have a google about it.
These adaptational changes aren’t occurring in a void. They’re occurring amidst an historic and contemporary context of genocide, and it’s really no coincidence that this was the direction Disney chose. Just like it’s no coincidence that Pleakly no longer gets to spend the movie dressed as a woman.
Going into Lilo & Stitch saying “genocide!!!” surely seems intense, but media has meaning, even when you try your darndest to take all the meaning out of it. You can’t sterilize away the real world and the way media reflects real attitudes.
Disney has taken a warm love letter to Hawai’i and delivered propaganda encouraging separation of nonwhite families. I wouldn’t even give it a half star if it were possible on Letterboxd.
