Lilo & Stitch info:
Director: Dean Fleischer Camp
Writer: Chris Kekaniokalani Bright, Mike Van Waes, and Chris Sanders
Starring: Maia Kealoha, Sydney Agudong, and Chris Sanders
Hello and welcome to another week here at 1guysmindlessmoviereviews.com. I hope everyone is enjoying the great weather we have been having. I know I have. I also hope that everyone is enjoying some time away from work and/or school for a bit. It’s always nice to get away and relax for a bit if you can. But, we don’t have time for that right now, as we are in the full swing of summer movie release time. There are several good movies that have already been released and several more on the horizon.
This week’s big release was sold out, so we went back a week to watch Disney’s latest live-action remake of “Lilo & Stitch”. This is a remake of the original 2002 cartoon of the same name. For better or worse, I have not seen that version in about 23 years, so I have no idea how well the story follows along in this 2025 retelling. But before I start too far down that path. Just like Stitch likes to spoil things (by accident, of course), I don’t want to spoil anything for you, so if you haven’t watched this yet, please go back and read some of my other reviews first, then come back and finish this.
Disney’s newest “Lilo & Stitch” was directed by Dean Fleischer Camp. This is by far the biggest picture he’s directed to date, with most of his work coming from shorts or TV mini-series. Boy, did he pick a good one here. Stitch has been a global phenomenon since he was first seen in 2002, and you can still see him featured on T-shirts and other items to this day. If you are a Disney fan, you also know this to be true if you ever visit a Disney Park. So, this had success written all over it before it was even started, if you ask me.
Digging deep into the filesystem in my brain, I still didn’t remember the start of “Lilo and Stitch” taking place inside a spaceship. But here we are with Stitch (Sanders) and his creator, Jumba (Zach Galifianakis), under scrutiny from the Grand Councilwoman (Hannah Waddingham. So, when Stitch escapes, she sends Jumba and Earth expert Pleakley (Billy Magnussen) to go and bring him back. Once on Earth, they follow the trail to Hawaii, then start the arduous task of tracking him down and capturing him.
Luckily, Stitch is found by Lilo (Kealoha) and is adopted by her. He disguises himself like a dog… or as close as he can get, so Tutu (Amy Hill) will allow her to get him. Once he gets to his new home, he has constant issues staying out of trouble and making messes. This is much to the chagrin of Lilo’s older sister Nani (Agudong), who is fighting hard to become her legal guardian. Again, I don’t know if the cartoon is this sad, but this is very much a sad story in a lot of ways.
Apart from being sad, Kealoha does a fine job acting in her first major Hollywood role. If she chooses, she should have plenty of opportunities to continue after this. Agudong also does an ok job, although as heartbreaking as some of these scenes were, I think she could have looked a little more upset or angry than her character Nani did most of the time. The best casting decision, however, came with bringing Tia Carrere on board as Mrs. Kekoa (the social worker assigned to Lilo’s case). For those that don’t know, Carrere did the voice of Nani in the 2002 version of “Lilo and Stitch”.
Anyway, as Nani struggles to find a stable home life for Lilo, Stitch continues to cause chaos as well as draw the attention of Cobra Bubbles (Courtney B. Vance)… who we later find out isn’t a bad guy. So now he is being hunted down by Jumba, Pleakley, and Cobra. Just as Nani’s life is about to get turned upside down by losing Lilo, everything comes to a breaking point.
Jumba finds and captures Stitch, Nani’s house gets destroyed during the fight, and Lilo hides away on Jumba’s ship as he tries to flee the area. They are able to work together to escape the ship, Nani rescues both Lilo and Stitch, and Jumba is taken in by the Grand Councilwoman. As she does that, she also banishes Stitch to be exiled where he can actually stay in Hawaii with his new family.
Overall, this is a touching movie that I think mimics the cartoon identically, from what I can recall. I also think it was a good message for young kids. I just felt like it could have been a little bit more fleshed out on the character attributes and a few retakes on some of the acting jobs. I also felt like the story was predictable and a bit frustrating when you know things are going to go wrong, and you watch it happen.
I think both kids and parents alike will enjoy this movie (kids more so)… and just like my family, the kids will like it better. I squarely fall into the category of being right down the middle. It was fun and cute, but it could have improved in many different ways. Because of all this, I give this a 6 out of 10!
Now, it’s your turn. Have you seen “Lilo and Stitch” yet? If so, what are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments below if you think there was room for improvement or any changes you would have made. This is it for this week. Join me next week here, where I will hopefully have another mindless movie review of some sort to share with you.
