Movie Review: ‘Lilo & Stitch’ (2025)
There are two types of people who won’t like the live-action remake of Lilo & Stitch.
The first group consists of those lacking in whimsy and/or empathy. The second group, probably the larger group, includes those who were diehard fanatics of the original.
Photo: Disney
Anyone who can quote Lilo & Stitch dialogue from memory will feel a bit disappointed in the 2025 version of the story.
That’s because the film takes a different approach to the same territory. I’d expected a broad strokes recreation of the original. After all, why would you mess with perfection?
Photo: Disney
Instead, Lilo & Stitch takes the same characters and positions them in slightly different settings, thereby altering the beloved story that many fans know by heart.
Does that strategy pay dividends? Here’s my review of Lilo & Stitch, a charming tale that will delight almost everyone but isn’t as good as the original.
About the ‘Lilo & Stitch’ Franchise
For those of you who have never read my writing, there’s a running joke in my household.
Whenever new Stitch merchandise comes out, I know I’m buying it. My wife loves Lilo & Stitch probably more than she loves me.
Photo: Disney
We were early on the bandwagon for the charming original film that somehow fell beneath the radar during its theatrical release in 2002.
As proof, consider that Chicken Little, a Disney movie without a significant pop culture imprint, earned $40 million more in theaters when it came out three years later.
Photo: Disney+
Of course, focusing on the box office misses the point a bit. Stitch has since become a merchandising juggernaut of the highest order, a fact that Disney may have overlooked for too long.
After years of searching for the data, I recently learned from the Wall Street Journal (*hat tip to Justin Hermes) that Stitch merch earned Disney $2.6 billion last year.
Stitch plush
So, we’re long overdue for new Lilo & Stitch content, at least domestically. You probably don’t know this, but there’s a Chinese series called Stitch & Ai that came out in 2017.
That deal only happened because Chinese fans have fallen in love with Stitch to a fairly epic degree. In America, Lilo & Stitch content has been largely ignored.
Photo: Disney
Weirdly, that fact plays in Disney’s favor now, as the people who loved the film and its follow-up, a Disney Channel series, have aged by 20 years.
Now, many of them are parents and can share their love of the characters with their own children. And the core concept of Lilo & Stitch has resonated over the years.
Photo: Disney
By this point, the words are like a mantra to Disney fans. ‘Ohana means family, and family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten.
About My Connection to Lilo & Stitch
A few days ago, based on a suggestion by Tori Carle, I explained why I was “nervtimistic” about the Lilo & Stitch remake.
I’ve known for a while that the movie would absolutely eviscerate the box office and have said as much.
Lilo & Stitch
That Lilo & Stitch Super Bowl ad was like a license to print money. From that moment forward, the film was always going to be a blockbuster.
So, the financial viability of Lilo & Stitch has never been a concern. For my family, it’s the fact that my wife willingly chooses to spend her birthday breakfasts at ‘Ohana.
Photo: Disney
She does that so that she can start her birthday at the Best Friends Breakfast featuring Lilo & Stitch. Basically, she wants to hug Stitch on her birthday.
She didn’t do that this year, but she has done it at least six times over the past decade, which means more than half of her birthdays. It’s a thing.
Photo: Disney
Similarly, we used to have one of those red wagons, and she stuffed the entire thing with Stitch stuffed animals.
At the movie theater tonight, we bought a Stitch popcorn bucket, a Stitch head (it’s a refillable mug, I guess), and some sort of Stitch mystery box.
Photo: AMC
This isn’t an unusual date for us. It’s been my life ever since I took her to that movie in 2002. She’s got literally hundreds of pieces of Stitch merchandise. And I get it.
Back in my previous life as a movie critic, Lilo & Stitch finished in my top ten in 2002, and my opinion of it has only increased since then.
Photo: IMDb
Spirited Away and it would be in my top four, and that’s even accounting for the fact that 2002 was an amazing year in cinema.
About the ‘Lilo & Stitch’ Remake
My personal connection to Lilo & Stitch and fondness for the first film explains why I felt extreme trepidation when I entered the theater for the remake.
I knew that if the movie weren’t good, it would hurt my heart. Even worse, it’d crush my wife. She’s one of those people I mentioned who could recite every line of dialogue.
Photo: Disney
And I also knew that this film had originally been a straight-to-streaming release, which meant that it was going to have a lower budget.
Disney eventually spent $80-100 million on the film, depending on who you believe, but that wasn’t the initial plan.
Image Credit: Disney
For this reason, the script faced financial restrictions. Do you know the biggest expense for the live-action remake of Lilo & Stitch? It’s Stitch.
You can pay actors to play Lilo, Nani, and Cobra Bubbles. Stitch requires computer animation for every moment he’s onscreen, and that gets expensive.
Photo: Disney
Where am I going with this? There are moments you expect in the film that never happen.
Without doing spoilers, I’ll mention that Captain Gantu isn’t in Lilo & Stitch (2025). You can imagine what that does to the plot. And that’s the point.
‘Lilo & Stitch’ Is a Charming Movie
You may know in general terms where the story is going, but I can assure you that the new film plays out MUCH differently than the original.
Diehard fans probably won’t enjoy some of the changes, either. I won’t list specifics. However, my wife definitely shared a list of grievances as we left the theater.
Photo: Disney
Long story short, Disney dialed down Stitch in favor of some of the other characters in the film. And it works! This is a charming movie.
More importantly, Disney delivers precisely the family film its critics have been begging the company to do for several years now. Lilo & Stitch returns Disney to its roots.
Photo: Disney
As a standalone title, it’d charm audiences with its natural warmth and spirit. The problem, at least in my household, is that it’s not the original.
For all the grief that Disney gets when it creates live-action remakes eerily similar to the originals, that’s what I wish had happened here.
Photo: Disney
The new version of the film leaves out a few of my favorite moments, many of which involve Stitch, in favor of character development for others.
Nani benefits greatly from this decision, with actress Sydney Elizebeth Agudong delivering a star-making performance. And child actress Maia Kealoha IS the ideal version of Lilo.
Photo: Covered Weekly
So, the news here is relatively good. I fully expect that the overwhelming majority of people who watch this live-action remake will adore it. But…
Final Thoughts
The first thing I asked my wife afterward was whether the movie had broken her heart, a possibility we’d dreaded for years.
She happily confirmed that it didn’t. Thankfully, the biggest Stitch fan I know enjoyed the Lilo & Stitch remake, as did I.
Photo: Disney
Still, we left the theater certain of one thing. The original is better. This is a time when Disney shouldn’t have strayed so far from the source material.
Lilo & Stitch (2025) provides a warm hug of a moviegoing experience, the kind we all crave.
Photo: Disney
However, the original film is objectively better because it understands that Stitch is the star.
The new version substantially dials back his character growth arc, a decision I found detrimental to the final product.
Photo: Disney
Right now, I’m describing a movie I’d give an 8.5 out of 10 and warmly recommend to one and all.
The catch is that the original Lilo & Stitch is a 10 out of 10. So, I’m happy with the movie I watched, but I’ll always choose the animated version when I want to watch Lilo & Stitch.
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