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Maybe a Live-Action Lilo & Stitch Remake Wasn’t Such a Great Idea
The beloved 2002 Disney animated classic is a one-of-a-kind wonder. This live-action remake feels like a shrill, soulless imitation.
Stitch, a bizarre little experiment created by aliens in a more advanced corner of the universe, escapes from captivity and lands in Hawaii, on the remote water planet of “Eee-aawrth.” There, he pretends to be a dog and is adopted by irascible tyke Lilo Pelekai (Maia Kealoha), who lives with her overextended teenage sister Nani (Sydney Elizebeth Agudong). At the time of its production, the company’s partnership with Pixar had already yielded several computer-animated megahits, such as Toy Story(1995) and A Bug’s Life(1998), and some executives wondered if Lilo & Stitch should also have been made in that snazzy and popular new format. But so much of the film’s wonder came from its animation style — from the rounded faces and figures of Sanders’s character designs; from the dreamy, painstakingly produced watercolor backgrounds (unseen in a Disney feature since the 1940s); from the way the whole movie, with its goofy blend of sci-fi, slapstick, and sentiment, seemed to unfold as if someone were making it up as they went along.
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