Lilo & Stitch (dir. Dean Fleischer Camp)
By: Adam Freed
It’s been a tough road to hoe for Disney’s live-action remakes. Even the financially lucrative films like Jon Favreau’s The Lion King (2019) have been met with a less than enthusiastic critical response. Still licking its wounds from the catastrophic misstep that was Snow White (2025), the omnipotent studio has gracefully righted the ship with its 24th live-action remake, Lilo & Stitch. The 2002 animated Gen Z classic seemed ripe for the picking as it is a distinctly human story, making the live-action treatment feel like an inevitability. Where previous iterations of Disney remakes have leaned into unsatisfactory digitally rendered images and unnecessary plot alterations, Dean Fleischer Camp’s Lilo & Stitch is a gorgeously captured, emotionally resonant film about the meaning of ohana, the Hawaiian word for family.
Lilo is a 6-year-old Hawaiian girl who lives under the care of her adult sister Nani after the untimely death of their parents. Nani, played with emotional gravity by Sydney Agudong (At Her Feet), is painstakingly attempting to juggle her roles as both big sister and newly appointed mother, all while desperately trying to keep her small fractured family afloat in a world of mounting bills and absent health insurance. It is the bond between sisters Nani and Lilo that acts as the film's heartbeat, a feat that wouldn’t be possible without the outstanding performances from Agudong and her counterpart, Maia Kealoha, who instills in Lilo a desperate yearning curiosity rarely achievable by a child actor. The bond between the two actresses is so believable and immersive that there are moments in Dean Fleischer Camp’s film that feel they could anchor a stand alone family drama, free of the alien lore of the Disney source material. Given the sturdy foundation provided by its central cast, when the story chooses to introduce the titualar Stitch, a chaotic alien banished to Earth for the purpose of destruction, to the serene Hawaiian locale, the family fun reaches its crescendo.
As much as Lilo & Stitch will accurately sell itself as a fun-loving intergalactic romp, the Trojan Horse of extraterrestrial playfulness delivers a deeply connectable film about the sacrifices that parents and loved ones make in the name of preserving family. Lilo & Stitch sagely reveals that ohana is a philosophy that goes far beyond birth certificates and bloodlines. The concept of found family represents ohana in its purest form as it demonstrates the profound impact of choice and free will. Lilo and her azure otherworldly counterpart desperately require a tidal wave of optimistic empathy to embrace them, despite behaviors that haven’t earned such grace. Camp’s delightful family film is the rare example in which thematic heft rivals the pace of its narrative without the burden of feeling preachy. Despite its long and shaky history of live-action remakes, Disney Studios has at long last found a winning formula with its powerful story about a fractured family and the extraterrestrial being that mends the fraying ends of their unstable existence.
Target Score: 8/10 - Lilo & Stitch achieves the unthinkable thanks to the laudable performances of gifted young actresses Maia Kealoha and Sydney Agudong. Set in the cinematographer’s dreamworld that is Hawaii, Disney’s live-action remake of its 2002 animated classic is a playfully chaotic reminder that the warm embrace of family is best served unconditionally.