Lilo And Stitch – Review

Cert – U, Run-time – 1 hour 48 minutes, Director – Dean Fleischer Camp

Thinking he’s a dog, six-year-old Lilo (Maia Kealoha) befriends genetic experiment Stitch (Chris Sanders), while his creator (Zach Galifianakis) is on the hunt for him as he wreaks havoc across Hawaii, and puts her older sister’s (Sydney Agudong) status as her guardian at risk.

Disney has once again wielded the studio hammer and brought damage to their own product by doing so. The opening ten minutes of their live-action remake of Lilo And Stitch – until Moana comes along next year, currently the film with the least gap between the original and live-action remake for the studio, at 23 years – feel like a shot-for-shot, joke-for-joke, near beat-for-beat take adaptation of the original film. As things move from space to the shores of Hawaii there’s still a strong similarity in our introductions to both Lilo, Stitch and the supporting characters. It feels like the studio once more trying to remind us of how great the original is, and therefore just how much of a good time we’re going to have seeing the same thing again just in slightly different form.

When director Dean Fleischer Camp – behind the wonderful Marcel The Shell With Shoes On – properly gets the reins he takes a sincere look at sisterhood. Eighteen-year-old Nani (Sidney Agudong) is the legal guardian of her six-year-old sister Lilo (Maia Kealoha) after the passing of their parents. She’s struggling to hold things together at home, and is given four days by their social worker (Tia Carrere – the original voice of Nani) to get health insurance, stock up the fridge and pay the bills on the kitchen table or else the pair may be separated.

However, the arrival of genetic experiment Stitch (once again voiced by original film’s co-writer-director Chris Sanders), who is adopted from an animal shelter after crashing to Earth the night before, causes chaos in the pair’s lives. Especially with his creator, Jumba (Zach Galifianakis) and galactic agent Pleakley (Billy Magnussen) on his trail, sent to capture him by the Galactic Federation (led by Hannah Waddingham) – with Galifianakis and Magnussen providing both voices and live-action performances as the copied human bodies the pair adopt to blend in with the world around them. Although in both instances lacking any kind of double-act energy.

The comedy on display from all is much more slapstick based and to some extent brings Stitch down to just a chaotic figure rather than a creature designed for evil eventually trying to do good. He’s less positioned as one thing whilst the ohana that embraces him shows him that he can be good through their own kindness and is more displayed as mischievous with the havoc he wreaks. His bringing back home is less a housewarming for him and more just a continued instant spark that Lilo has with him. Only largely easing as the narrative develops and Fleischer Camp’s voice comes through more.

Yet, he’s more interested in the relationship between Lilo and Nani. The different bonds and relationships which they have, at one point Lilo says that she much prefers Nani as a sister than a mum. It’s a quiet and tender moment where the two, for a brief moment, don’t feel lonely or swamped under the rest of their lives. There’s a sincerity that’s not been on display for much of the studio-formed narrative beforehand. When bringing in its newer aspects and focuses, telling that more human story about relationships, this take on Lilo And Stitch is at its best.

There are some chuckles along the way, and generally things move along well enough, but it’s mostly the case when doing something different. When the film takes its time instead of rushing around trying to push a creature of chaos rather than – as the case was with the marketing for the original film, in regards to Stitch and previous Disney films – a character who stands out as different from all of his surroundings, but that can be embraced while dimming down some of his ‘badness’, as Lilo calls it. When taking its time there are slight reminders of the 2016 remake of Pete’s Dragon – still the best that Disney has spun out thus far. I just wish that happened more often instead of leaning back into attempts to remind the audience of all the points from the original film and just how much they may have enjoyed it.

There’s a sincerity to the gentle themes of sisterhood within Dean Fleischer Camp’s Lilo And Stitch, it’s a film that takes its time and still manages a good few chuckles. But, it’s paired with Disney’s remake of the same film, directly copying elements from the original just with more emphasis on chaos to diminish some of the ideas at play. Thankfully, there’s enough in the sincerity to make this likable viewing for the most part.