Lilo And Stitch Live Action Changes Nani Lilo
Disney's latest live-action remake just hit theaters, and it's already making quite a splash. Lilo & Stitch made $341 million worldwide and became the biggest Memorial Day weekend debut in history in the US.
Directed by Dean Fleischer Camp and written by Chris Kekaniokalani Bright and Mike Van Waes, the movie adapts the beloved 2002 animated movie by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois into the live-action medium, which is a pattern Disney has been following for years.
Like previous live-action remakes, Lilo & Stitch essentially follows the exact same plot as the original...but it's live-action. Which, as someone who adores animated movies, these aren't typically my cup of tea, except Cinderella starring Lily James, I loved that one.
So, you would think it would be pretty easy to just copy-paste the animated movie's story into a new movie, and then Disney makes a lot of money at the box office, which is essentially what happened with Lilo & Stitch, except there are some big changes that have caught original fans' attention.
I should point out that the animated movie is easily in my top five favorite Disney movies of all time, so I am extra critical here.
For starters, the live-action remake gets rid of Captain Gantu, who was the original antagonist in the animated movie. That's right, the movie completely cuts out Stitch's main rival, and instead makes Jumba — YES, SWEET UNCLE JUMBA — the villain who looks to capture Stitch and Lilo as part of his own plot for galactic domination and glory.
Speaking about this change with Entertainment Weekly, director Dean Fleischer Camp said, "Gantu arrives, and it turns into a more conventional movie. I thought there was a nice opportunity here for [Jumba] to turn and become the villain in the third act. To create real estate for all that emotional stuff and the deepening that we did, you have to get rid of stuff. And so Gantu was a casualty of that."
Yes, this means that Jumba doesn't end up staying with the family in the end.
Another change the live-action Lilo & Stitch makes from the original is basically splitting the character of Cobra Bubbles, who is a social worker and former CIA agent in the original, who checks in on Lilo and Nani. In the live-action, he's just a CIA agent who is sent to capture Stitch, while the character of Mrs. Kekoa was created to be a social worker. Mrs. Kekoa is actually played by Tia Carrere, who voiced Nani in the original movie.
Speaking about this change, Fleischer Camp told Entertainment Weekly, "If the dramatic stakes of Lilo is that she's going to get separated from her sister, then you need a person who actually services those stakes in a credible way. You can get away with that being Cobra Bubbles in an animated film — a 6-foot-5 huge dude with 'Cobra' tattooed on his knuckles is somehow a social worker in that world."
And while those are two big changes, there is one more in particular that people, including myself, cannot get over. And it comes at the end of the movie.
In the original Lilo & Stitch, the film ends with the Grand Councilwoman deciding that Stitch can stay in exile on Earth with Lilo and Nani. Then, Stitch, Jumba, and Pleakley all join Lilo and Nani's family, and they set out to rebuild their house, alongside David and Cobra Bubbles. With the message of the movie, "'Ohana means family" ringing true.
Now, the live-action movie still has the Grand Councilwoman say that Stitch can stay with Lilo and Nani, but when they return home, Mrs. Kekoa informs Nani that Lilo will be given up to the state, but her guardianship can be given to David and his grandmother Tūtū, who is a new character for the live-action film, so she can stay living in town.
And Lilo gives Nani permission to go pursue her dream of marine biology, insisting that she will be okay. So, they all rebuild the house, and Nani goes to study at the University of California, San Diego. And she visits Lilo and Stitch back home using Jumba's old portal gun whenever she wants.
Yup. You read that correctly. So unlike in the animated movie, where Nani does EVERYTHING to keep Lilo, the live-action movie ends with her leaving Lilo behind to go to school. I can't even touch on the fact of why you would leave Hawaii to study marine biology somewhere else, but alright.
WHAT HAPPENED TO "'OHANA MEANS FAMILY. FAMILY MEANS NOBODY GETS LEFT BEHIND OR FORGOTTEN." Okay, I'm done. I'm sorry. I need to calm down.
Anyway, I'm not the only one who is annoyed at this change, so many fans voiced their concerns on social media after the opening weekend of the film. One popular TikTok with 7.4 million views and over 1.2 million likes reads, "everyone yesterday witnessing the most obvious propaganda encouraging native families to give up their children to the state."
And the comments on the TikTok also added to people's frustration with this change:
People on X, formerly Twitter, were not happy with the change either:
So, um, yeah. The Lilo & Stitch live-action movie did all of that. I hope the parents of the kids going to see this movie also show them the animated movie because it's far superior and let's continue to support original animated movies.
What do you think about these changes in the Lilo & Stitch live-action movie? Heck, did you even go see it? Tell us everything in the comments below!
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