Lilo & Stitch has been a massive box office hit, grossing over $360 million worldwide since opening over Memorial Day weekend. Reviews have been mostly positive (it currently sits at 69% on Rotten Tomatoes), with an "A" CinemaScore suggesting moviegoers enjoyed it more than critics.
While Lilo & Stitch closely adapts the 2002 animated movie of the same name, there are still some significant changes. To name just a few: Cobra Bubbles is split into two characters, Captain Gantu is completely MIA, and Jumba is positioned as the lead villain.
The ending is similarly overhauled. Rather than Nani and David becoming Lilo's main caregivers (alongside Bubbles, Jumba, and Pleakley), the title character is fostered by David and his grandmother. Nani, meanwhile, goes to college and uses Jumba's portal gun to frequently visit Lilo and Stitch.
The main complaint is that Nani "abandons" Lilo to chase her own dreams. However, that simplistic view does somewhat miss the point of what filmmaker Dean Fleischer Camp is attempting to get across by giving the teenager more agency. Nani also leaves at Lilo's urging.
Taking to X, Camp shared a link to an article defending Lilo & Stitch's ending. He captioned it with, "For anybody questioning the ending of our film, this beautiful piece [...] nails it."
After reposting several positive messages from fans, he later added, "Thank you for sharing your stories with me. It seems like the people with actual lived experiences like this are the ones with whom this ending resonates the most."
Ultimately, it feels like these live-action adaptations are a lose/lose prospect for Disney. Make too many changes, and fans aren't happy; faithfully adapt the cartoon as a shot-for-shot remake, and it's criticised for being unnecessary or unimaginative.
During a recent interview with Deadline, Camp explained why it was important to him that Nani have her own dreams (beyond becoming a mother to her little sister following the death of their parents).
"I think that was one of the things that we talked about, thematically modernizing and updating for this live-action version was broadening the idea of Ohana and complicating it with a little more nuance. It just felt like the right thing to do."
"Given that Nani, who I always felt was a little too rose-colored glasses for somebody in her situation, was so smart and has had to abandon a lot of these dreams or defer them because she had to take care of her little sister and inherited all this responsibility at such a young age."
"It just felt like she might not have such an easy time buying into, 'Nobody gets left behind' because she certainly would feel like, well, I’m struggling here. So that informed the approach that we took with the story and with the arch between the two sisters and what the resolution ended up being."
Lilo & Stitch is the wildly funny and touching story of a lonely Hawaiian girl and the fugitive alien who helps to mend her broken family.
The movie is directed by award-winning filmmaker Dean Fleischer Camp (Marcel the Shell with Shoes On), with a screenplay by Chris Kekaniokalani Bright and Mike Van Waes, and stars Sydney Elizebeth Agudong, Billy Magnussen, Tia Carrere, Hannah Waddingham, Chris Sanders, with Courtney B. Vance, Zach Galifianakis, and introduces Maia Kealoha.
by Jonathan Eirich, p.g.a. and Dan Lin, with Tom Peitzman, Ryan Halprin, Louie Provost, Thomas Schumacher serving as executive producers.
Lilo & Stitch is now playing in theaters.