The box office has been a tad slow this year. Aside from some successes like Sinners and A Minecraft Movie there have been very few big hits and some massive flops. One of those was Disney's most recent live action remake, Snow White, a massive critical and financial miss. Now we have the latest retelling of an old hit with Lilo & Stitch, one that even if it wound up being terrible would no doubt make a boatload of money. Luckily for Disney and even luckier for us, it's actually pretty good!
I'm sure everyone knows the story, but for those who don't: Lilo & Stitch follows Lilo, a little Hawaiian girl living with her sister Nani. Their lives are threatened to be drastically interrupted by social workers questioning whether Nani is best suited to be Lilo's guardian, and a crucial week for their case is thrown into jeopardy when Lilo adopts a chaotic alien named Stitch who is on the run from galactic authorities. But I'm sure you knew that already.
A lot of the recent Disney remakes have made some changes to their stories that ultimately worked against them. Snow White made a lot of changes, some good, but a lot very much to the film's detriment. Lilo & Stitch does have some elements that are different, but for the most part it is telling the same story just in live action. Some will no doubt take issue with that, but there was enough freshness here that I enjoyed myself quite a bit. There's an inherent cuteness to the story, and having an adorable kid playing Lilo and a photo-real fluffy Stitch just makes everything a little bit cuter. There are moments where the CGI looks a bit underdone, but for the most part it looks good and there was clearly a ton of attention placed on making Stitch look damn near perfect.
There are some areas in this adaptation that I think were lost in comparison from the original. For one we don't get to see Stitch dressed up as Elvis which is a major miss, but there are also characters that it kind of feels like the creative team didn't know what to do with. David for example is a pretty key character as the love interest for Nani, but in this version he just shows up every now and then. Everyone acts like he should be a more crucial piece of the film, but he never really has moments to shine and feels like a throw in rather than a fleshed out character. Bubbles is also a fan favourite from the original that is done a bit dirty here. His entire character is basically rewritten and in the context of the film he doesn't really make sense, nor does he have the charisma he does in the original. I don't think this is entirely Courtney B. Vance's fault in his portrayal, but more so just writing that didn't do the character justice.
Maia Kealoha was damn near perfect as Lilo. Admittedly the character annoys me in the original, but I thought she was just adorable here. I also thought Sydney Agudong did a pretty solid job as Nani, and the dynamic between the two of them was pretty much perfect. She is also wearing a Purple Rain shirt for the entire climax of the movie so that won some brownie points with me. Jumba and Pleakley, the aliens tasked with catching Stitch, are played by Zach Galifianakis and Billy Magnussen respectively. Galifianakis didn't wow me but I thought Magnussen mostly nailed his role. The highlight of course though is Chris Sanders' voice work for Stitch. He is the original voice for Stitch and I'm glad he worked on this version as he does the voice so perfectly and I don't think it would feel right without him.
I will say, I found the music and some tonal beats to be a bit too aggressively sentimental, but at the end of the day this is a cute feel good story that is hard not to enjoy. Director Dean Fleischer Camp (the man behind Marcel the Shell with Shoes On) was a great choice to helm this, bringing a ton of charm and endearment to an already adorable set of characters. It isn't the best thing you'll see this year, but it's a great time for the family and I look forward to seeing its success. 3.5/5
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