Lilo & Stitch review: A lavish Disney production with oodles of oddball charm
A classy cast add credibility and comic chops to the much-loved material in this latest live-action remake.
Described as the ‘flawed product of a dangerous mind’, blue-hued extraterrestrial experiment Stitch ain’t your typical cute Disney critter. Conceived by Chris Sanders as early as 1985, before finally hitting cinema screens in the 2002 Oscar-nominated animation Lilo & Stitch, Stitch is an agent of chaos and destruction who rocks up in Hawaii and forms an unlikely attachment to an Elvis-loving orphan.
Directed by indie helmer Dean Fleischer Camp (an Oscar-nominee himself for the wonderful Marcel the Shell with Shoes On), 2025’s Lilo & Stitch is the latest in Disney’s spate of recent, largely lucrative remakes. In this near-seamless mash-up of live-action and CGI, Stitch is brought to life in tangibly textured, state-of-the-art animation (and once again voiced by creator Sanders), with a classy cast adding credibility and comic chops to the much-loved material.
Adorable newcomer Maia Kealoha plays Lilo, a wilful and friendless six-year-old Hawaiian girl being raised on the island by her twenty-something sister Nani (Sydney Agudong), following the death of their parents.
Amy Hill is a scene-stealer in the role of Tūtū, an elderly neighbour of Lilo and Nani, who looks out for the siblings, while Tia Carrere (who voiced Nani in the original) appears as social worker Mrs Kekoa, who is monitoring their situation closely as Nani struggles to cope.
Lilo and Nani’s lives are upended further when Lilo brings home Stitch from a rescue centre, believing him to be some kind of colourful canine. Originally known as Experiment 626, Stitch has fled an emergency meeting of the Galactic Council, presided over by Hannah Waddingham’s Grand Councilwoman, stealing a police cruiser and ending up on Earth.
In pursuit of this anarchic escapee are his creator Dr Jumba Jookiba (Zach Galifianakis), a mad scientist, and the Galactic Federation’s Earth expert, Agent Pleakley (Billy Magnussen).
The pair disguise themselves as humans once they land on the planet, yet prove utterly hopeless at blending in. Courtney B Vance appears as Agent Cobra Bubbles (a role originally voiced by Ving Rhames), a CIA operative unconvincingly posing as Mrs Kekoa’s social worker superior.
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Since the release of the first film, the Lilo & Stitch brand has proved persistently popular, with merchandise of every conceivable variety flying off the shelves, so it certainly makes sense for Disney to capitalise on its continuing appeal. It’s also one of the studio’s more enjoyably idiosyncratic offerings, and the new script from Chris Kekaniokalani Bright and Mike Van Waes strikes a nice balance by honouring the highlights and story beats of the 2002 movie, whilst adding plenty of askew, Taika Waititi-like humour of its own.
After the debacle that was the live-action Snow White, it’s a pleasure to report that Lilo & Stitch is far more successful. It helps that the filmmakers are working with a less problematic property and the film has been made with great care, attention to detail and love for Hawaiian culture, with the story fleshed out nicely (the runtime is 108-minutes compared to the 85-minute original).
Although the animated characters are appropriately out of this world, the film is grounded by its appealing and sensitively drawn relationships and enhanced by its eccentricity. Kealoha is a perfect match for her cartoon counterpart – she’s an endearingly awkward, baby-faced moppet who stops short of being cloyingly cutesy – with Agudong excellent as her stressed-out sister, while Magnussen excels in the comedy stakes, bringing just the right amount of silly to his Earth enthusiast.
Lilo & Stitch hammers home the ‘family matters’ message during the climax, which feels like it could have been trimmed, but overall this is expertly executed, cross-generational fun that combines the look of a lavish Disney production with oodles of oddball charm.
Lilo & Stitch will be released on Friday 23rd May 2025.
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