Back up the money truck: Lilo & Stitch remake dumbs down a masterpiece

Jackson Weaver · CBC News

· Posted: May 23, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 10 minutes ago

In deciding whether 2002's Lilo & Stitch or the caller CGI-aided remake mightiness beryllium much enjoyable to beryllium down and watch, we amazingly person a benignant of lawsuit survey to notation backmost to. 

It tin beryllium recovered successful 1 of the strangest cases of accidental plagiarism successful history: the information that the satellite has 2 iterations of Dennis the Menace.

One is apt the mentation you know: the happy-go-lucky, tow-headed, ham-armed small lad of the Hank Ketcham comic portion that debuted in the U.S. successful March of 1951. The different is simply a somewhat little adorable, somewhat much gritty export from the U.K. Also debuting successful a comic strip, astir unbelievably connected the nonstop aforesaid time nether the nonstop aforesaid name, this Dennis is simply a possibly much honorable illustration of the motivations down — and outlook for — a lad who routinely commits borderline felonies.

While the American Dennis would innocently devour a fewer much cookies than his ma would like, his grimacing English relative would saw a array successful fractional conscionable due to the fact that helium was bored.

How realistically either represent the interior workings of children is up for statement — particularly fixed however the erstwhile perchance helped destruct the beingness of the lad upon whom it was based.

But what's evident is which mentation had much cosmopolitan appeal. While U.K. Dennis whitethorn bask much popularity successful his autochthonal England (under the title Dennis & Gnasher), Ketcham's franchise has spawned astatine slightest 3 movies, 3 TV shows and an ongoing comic portion that astatine 1 clip was syndicated successful 48 countries and 19 languages.

Perhaps astir importantly, Ketcham's was the 1 that ended up keeping the name.

WATCH | Lilo & Stitch trailer: 

This is not to accidental the comparative differences recovered wrong these 2 popular civilization pairs are identical. We person much than a 20-year separation between the 2 versions of Lilo & Stitch. And Disney's newest mentation of the Hawaii-set household fable is not, similar with Dennis, an accidental remake. 

But peculiarly erstwhile comparing this animated outing with its live-action afterbirth, Lilo & Stitch's parallel productions bash person thing successful communal with the Menaces. While the 2002 diagnostic depicted its alien anti-hero arsenic a loveable, huggable small brother, 2025's Stitch is simply a spot much similar the 1 sawing the array successful half. 

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That's contempt the information that, extracurricular of a somewhat extended opening that sets america up for a mostly much juvenile code (buckle up for the archetypal of many, galore mucus-based jokes), this Lilo & Stitch sticks rather intimately to the original. Or astatine least it appears to.

It includes ocular gags that run astir similar shot-for-shot remakes. We inactive travel Lilo Pelekai (Maia Kealoha), a small miss increasing up connected the land of Kauaʻi, plagued by a mischievous streak. Her parents person inactive precocious passed, leaving her large sister Nani (Sydney Agudong) liable for Lilo, their amazingly immense location and the aggregate jobs she indispensable enactment to support it each afloat.

Meanwhile, we inactive spot Stitch — an amerciable alien-experiment gone incorrect — flight from the galactic federation, crash-land connected Earth and yet get scooped up from the lb by Lilo, who mistakes him for an disfigured dog. 

And we inactive spot fraying, mended and fraying-again relationships arsenic the thematic centrepiece. Nani is excessively young to instrumentality attraction of Lilo, but Lilo is excessively young for Nani to fto her go. Lilo is inactive excessively impulsive, destructive and unusual to marque friends, but besides excessively free-spirited, unsocial and sincere to betray her existent self. And Stitch is inactive the dangerous, growling beast we cognize and love from immoderate modern carnal movie — the benignant of irredeemable life-destroyer successful everything from War Horse to Because of Wynn-Dixie to Marley and Me that, despite bringing thing but demolition and hardship to a household connected its past legs, is inexplicably defended to the end.

That said, it's a winning formula. Here, everyone's beset by conflicting quality traits that are neither genuinely bully nor genuinely atrocious — and that are some adjuvant and destructive successful antithetic settings. 

When the societal idiosyncratic assigned to negociate their lawsuit (Ving Rhames's hulking Cobra Bubbles successful the original, a somewhat little incongruously absorbing Tia Carrere arsenic Mrs. Kekoa successful the remake) tells Nani to springiness up Lilo, it is tragic — but not needfully unfair. Departing from the cookie-cutter and censor-safe children's stories Canadians are used to, there's small banal invested successful a singular and elemental big-bad to obstruction against, which makes it each the much refreshingly real. 

But here, a antithetic benignant of existent is besides 1 of the main problems: the ever uncanny quality of converting hand-drawn creation to a operation of quality actors and machine graphics. While Kealoha gives a fantastic performance, being a human, her actions are needfully slower and much sluggish — making the recreated ocular gags enactment infinitely little good successful a mean they were ne'er designed for. 

And erstwhile we get to the abomination that is Stitch, we are instantly confronted with the shortcomings of a much realistic Menace. In cartoon form, our alien small buddy spitting greenish liquid has nary of the unsettling realities of the remake's hyper-detailed phlegm physics; it is overmuch easier to consciousness attached to our bluish shot of mayhem erstwhile his inclination to lick retired the contents of his ain chemoreceptor is not rendered successful graphic 4K format.

But what's really much disappointing is the ways successful which the caller Lilo & Stitch has decided to kiddify the story. 

While the 2002 film was sanitized from its intended scope (a country criticizing American tourists was cut, Lilo hiding successful a laundry instrumentality was changed to hiding successful a pizza container and a finale involving an airplane clang was revised to debar 9/11 comparisons), it still managed an engagingly mature tone. 

Aside from the motivation grey areas — and the gorgeous hand-drawn creation benignant that astir relaunched the medium, evidently wholly absent present — the original Lilo & Stitch operated arsenic some a taste commentary and astir a capital-D drama. 

Lilo's obsession with Elvis arsenic a "model citizen" and the farmer-tanned achromatic tourists — some mostly absent successful the remake — added astatine slightest a subtextual commentary connected Hawaii's cannibalized civilization and transportation to America astatine large. 

Cobra Bubbles's overmuch much domineering beingness successful the archetypal movie contributed to a darker and much realistic menace to Lilo and Nani's continued narration — each supported by mostly much mature dialog alternatively of the lighter code of the remake. 

In the caller version, when the 2 aliens tasked with recapturing Stitch — Pleakley (Billy Magnussen) and Jumba (an unrecognizable Zach Galifianakis) make their entrance, the regression is obvious. Where 2002's Pleakley was objectively obsessed with feminine manner — disguising himself successful wigs, constitution and dresses — the new Pleakley opts to formal small much garishly than an H&M bargain-bin hunter. 

Granted, a drag-less alien is improbable to gully complaints from the halfway assemblage of five-year-olds. But fixed the information that manager Dean Fleischer Camp reportedly tried to see a dress-wearing Pleakley and was unopen down, it works arsenic a bully metaphor for what is incorrect with the remake successful the archetypal place.

Regarded successful a vacuum, 2025's Lilo & Stitch is fine, and apt to entertain the littles. But compared to a stimulating, genre-defining, all-ages masterpiece from 2 decades ago, it's thing but demoralizing. Where erstwhile we could expect to determination guardant with our movies, Lilo & Stitch shows we'd alternatively conscionable marque them brighter and dumber.