Fun and anarchy in Disney's live action remake of Lilo and Stitch

The Age

24-05-2025

LILO & STITCH
★★★
PG. 108 minutes, rated PG. In cinemas
Lilo (Maia Kealoha) is a young Hawaiian orphan, full of high spirits but short on friends. Stitch (voiced by Chris Sanders) is a sharp-toothed but fluffy alien genetic experiment, who has fled the laboratory where he was created and is hiding out on planet earth.
That should let you know what to expect from Lilo & Stitch, even if you're unfamiliar with the 2002 cartoon of the same title – not the last Disney film to rely on traditional hand-drawn animation, but among the last to be viewed with widespread nostalgia.
Many members of the original target audience will by now have young children of their own, presumably what Disney are banking on with this live-action remake, a more faithful transposition than their remakes of their older animated classics tend to be.
As before, six-year-old Lilo stumbles upon Stitch at the local dog pound, though even in his new digitally-animated form he looks more like a previously undiscovered species of possum than a dog. It's love at first sight, despite the qualms of Lilo's elder sister and guardian Nani (Sydney Agudong), who's wrapped up in her own worries including an ongoing struggle with child protection services.
Stitch has worries too, such as the extra-terrestrial scientists on his trail, played in their disguised human form by Billy Magnussen and Zach Galifinakis. Still, before the climax kicks in there's ample time for him and his new human soulmate to cause trouble at the hotel where Nani works, along with bonding over Elvis records and teaching each other the meaning of family.
While the tone remains basically gentle, much of the fun comes from Stitch's anarchic, destructive streak – akin to one of my own childhood favourites, Mortimer the raven in the books by Joan Aiken, which some enterprising producer should try bringing to the big screen.