Why I’m Nervtimistic About ‘Lilo & Stitch’

In a matter of days, Walt Disney Studios will finally remember that it has a potent brand in its arsenal, one whose potential remains largely untapped.

That franchise is Lilo & Stitch, and I’ve anxiously awaited a sequel since 2003.

The odds of my getting one have increased exponentially in recent weeks as the film’s live-action remake is tracking as an absolute blockbuster.

So, I’m optimistic about its box office performance, yet nervous about the quality of the film.

I guess I am nervtimistic about Lilo & Stitch. And I suspect that many of you are as well. Let’s discuss this week’s impending excitement.

An Impactful Surprise

In a former life, I was a movie reporter and box office analyst. For a period of 20 years, I watched literally every wide release in theaters.

Here’s the thing that nobody ever tells you about going to see all the movies. Most of them are bad.

 

Okay, bad is a bit of an exaggeration, but let’s say instantly forgettable. At times, I’ll search for the details of a film, only to realize I’ve watched it.

Given the blasé nature I have toward a lot of cinema, I’m always that much more impressed when I really like something.

More importantly, I recall all the times when a trip to the movie theater proved a memorable, meaningful experience.

And one such occasion occurred on June 21^st, 2002. I took my then-girlfriend to the movie theater where we watched the latest Disney movie.

This title was an unheralded animated film with very little buzz due to its unusual production.

A renegade group of animators working at Disney’s Hollywood Studios (!) had crafted a uniquely Polynesian film.

Disney legitimately had no idea how to market this movie, which remains an endless source of amusement to me to this day.

Lilo & Stitch opened to a modest $35.3 million, a more than adequate total for an $80 million production.

Still, given what we all know about Stitch, this total appears ludicrous with the benefit of hindsight…and it was!

Disney officials involved with the project have readily admitted that they didn’t know what to do with this heartwarming tale of a struggling family.

Lilo & Stitch didn’t fit the Disney formula in any way other than it involved the child – well, children – of a dead parent.

At the time, nobody could have expected Lilo & Stitch to become a seminal movie.

‘Ohana Means Family

While Lilo & Stitch started modestly as a theatrical release, it quickly gained momentum. A buzz grew about the innate kindness of the story.

Lilo, the heroine, only had one person in her entire world, a wonderful big sister named Nani.

Due to their age difference, Nani became the responsible adult almost overnight.

So, Lilo didn’t just lose her parents but also her friend, Nani. Now, her sister was her legal guardian, her de facto parent, and their relationship dynamic changed.

In the process, Lilo became lonely and in need of companionship, a feeling we all know too well.

Nani took her to a pet shelter where she adopted the scariest “dog” there, Stitch.

For his part, Stitch was a genetic abomination, a creature created for the sake of destruction. He had no other purpose in life.

That’s the funny thing about our existence as well as the emotional core of Lilo & Stitch.

Sometimes, we encounter someone who will change our lives and our very being, even though we may not realize it at first.

When Lilo chooses Stitch, it’s the first time in his life that he discovers purpose, that he feels like something of value.

For Lilo, Stitch provides companionship, something she has desperately needed even though she was too young and wounded to know it.

While the two of them evolve into the scariest tag team since the Road Warriors, their relationship is built on mutual trust and, quickly, unconditional love.

Along the way, they learn the underlying spirit of the islands, the wisdom of ‘Ohana.

And as you should all know by now, ‘Ohana means family, and family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten.

After more than 20 years, that message resonates among Lilo & Stitch fans.

Mismanaging an Empire

For my wife and me, Lilo & Stitch embodies several wide-ranging elements. The first is that we had a lovely date that night.

Another is that my old website, Box Office Prophets, was one of the earliest, loudest champions of Lilo & Stitch.

Here’s my wife’s review, and here’s what she said about Stitch! The Movie the following year.

Frankly, there weren’t many reviews of the straight-to-DVD sequel on the internet at the time. Kim posted one because she loved the original so much.

But her 2003 review of the follow-up underscores the fear we’ve shared all along about the live-action remake of Lilo & Stitch.

Soon after making this film, Disney suffered a regrettable falling out with Chris Sanders, the creator of Lilo & Stitch.

It obviously wasn’t a dramatic one, as he once again voices his iconic character, Stitch.

However, Sanders has since made several impactful films, such as the How to Train Your Dragon franchise and The Wild Robot, for other studios.

Sanders knows as well as anyone that Disney missed on Lilo & Stitch at first, treating that animation team as second-class citizens.

For whatever reason, Disney has never had a handle on this brand, which is maddening to me.

While I’ve never found precise totals – and believe me, I have LOOKED! – I’m confident the company has earned billions on Stitch merchandise.

My own house features literally, not figuratively, hundreds of pieces of gear, most recently a novelty Squishmallow as big as my wife.

A Shady Decision

Given my (limited) knowledge of Disney’s Stitch merchandise empire, I’ve repeatedly expressed confusion over the years about the lack of a sequel.

We’re talking about a popular movie that spawned an entire franchise of new content…but no new theatrical releases.

We live in a world where The Scorpion King and Sniper have five or more movies, yet a merch machine like Stitch never got one. Until recently.

I should state that I feel the same way about Bob Chapek that I do about hangnails, boy bands, and the New Orleans Saints. They’re all various degrees of terrible.

That’s why I’ve been so nervous about the remake of Lilo & Stitch since its inception.

When Disney announced this project, Chapek was the CEO at Disney, and he staked his entire career on streaming.

We all know how well that worked out for him, but that’s beside the point.

Disney selected Lilo & Stitch as the subject of a live-action remake, an idea it’d had since 2018 but one that wouldn’t come to fruition until 2022.

In between, John M. Chu (!) was in talks to direct the film. He dropped out to make a little movie called Wicked instead.

Disney’s mixed message about the Lilo & Stitch remake and its sluggish timeline forced him to bail.

That’s the story of Lilo & Stitch as a Disney franchise. Nobody knows what to do with it.

A Modest Investment

Throughout the discussions about the live-action version of the film, Disney executives demonstrated ambivalence.

At times, they referred to it as a Direct-to-Streaming title. In other instances, they hedged that a theatrical release was possible.

Under Chapek, we could have bet all the money in our bank accounts on a streaming debut. Once Bob Iger returned, the conversation changed.

Lilo & Stitch at least had a chance at screening in movie theaters, but it still had a modest budget.

Disney spent only $100 million on this project. When we adjust for inflation, the original had a de facto budget of $142 million. And Stitch has only grown more popular since then.

For whatever reason, Disney hasn’t treated Lilo & Stitch like a tentpole blockbuster film…but they should have.

Current box office tracking suggests that Lilo & Stitch will open well over $100 million during its four-day holiday release.

That’s a polite way of North American audiences telling Disney, “More of this, please!”

Based on all the underlying metrics, this film will wreck the box office. So, why am I still nervous?

Me and My ‘Ohana

(This section requires a trigger warning. If you’ve recently lost a pet, you should skip to the next section.)

For many people like my family, Lilo & Stitch embodies more than just a movie. It’s a way of life, a symbol for a meaningful existence.

I’ll personalize this a bit to make the point. At my previous home, we had a framed sign that simply stated, ‘Ohana Means Family.

That sign used to be on the wall by our bedroom, and I looked at it 20 times daily.

Whenever I did, I admired the underlying sentiment, which is profound.

That’s only part of why we love Lilo & Stitch, though. My wife and I are a childless couple who both work at home. Our pets are our everything.

In 2019, Tamara, my little soldier, died after shrugging off an allegedly fatal medical condition for two calendar years.

She actually passed away on the final day of the 2019 D23 Expo, for which I had tickets. If I’d gone, I would have missed saying good-bye to her.

Two years later, Jack-Jack, my familiar, suddenly developed stage 4 brain cancer and died. I wrote several million words with him purring in my lap.

And six weeks ago, Olive, my Kawaii Queen, suffered a brain lesion and unexpectedly died at 14, which is young for one of our pets.

She once knocked my laptop off the table while I was in the middle of a MickeyBlog podcast because she demanded attention right that second.

In a matter of five and a half years, my wife and I lost an entire generation of our ‘Ohana. It was our family throughout the 2010s.

We’ll Raise Them to Be Good

We have since restocked with a new crew of first-round draft picks, including Jettie, our Sky Empress, Roy, our squeaky-voiced alpha, and Kokoruda, our dungeon crawler.

After Olive died, one of the few concepts that held us together was the notion of ‘Ohana.

Even though our home family was broken, it was “still good,” as Stitch lovingly states.

I’ve thought about this quote a lot over the past ten days as we’ve introduced our latest draft pick to the house.

His name is Henry, and yes, as a lifelong Atlanta Braves fan, I am absolutely calling him Hank the Hammer.

Chris Sanders told a story about life, perseverance, and the nature of family. And he did it in the gentlest, subtlest way possible.

I was in the hospital a year ago today being tested for heart issues – I’m fine – and that just irked me. But losing my furry ‘Ohana crushed me.

The original version of Lilo & Stitch understands that pain as well as any movie I’ve ever watched. It’s an important movie to a lot of people like me.

Nervtimistic

Based on the trailers and advertising campaign so far, I’m optimistic that new director Dean Fleischer Camp has captured the spirit of the film.

But I’ll be devastated – and I mean emotionally wrecked – if I leave the theater feeling disappointed about the Lilo & Stitch remake.

That pain will be exponentially greater if my wife, owner of one of the world’s largest Stitch collections, feels let down by the movie.

Thus, I’m nervous about watching the new version of a story that matters deeply to me and mine…but I’m also optimistic.

I cannot wait to experience this story anew after all this time. If done right, Lilo & Stitch will be perfect.

I know this because the original movie already was.

Thanks for visiting MickeyBlog.com! Want to go to Disney? For a FREE quote on your next Disney vacation, please fill out the form below, and one of the agents from MickeyTravels, a Diamond Level Authorized Disney Vacation Planner, will be in touch soon!