The Beloved 2002 Disney Animated Classic is a One-of-A-Cind Wonder. This Live-Action Remake Feels Like a Shrill, Suless IMITATION.
Photo: Disney
Did the People who Remade Lilo & Stitch Think Remking Lilo & Stitch was a good idea? One assumes they did-too work goes into these live-action Disney redos for anyone to make one against their will-this new version A palpable whiff of frustration. Dean Fleischer Camp’s Picture is offten ruthlessly Faithful to Christopher Sanders and Dean Deblois. 2002 Original, Buts tone and Spirit Are All Wrong – As if the Filmmakers Realized they have erred in Attempting this Remake and Desperately Loked to Cover for it. And SO, what Was Once a Lazy, Crazy, Charming AFTHNOON DAYDREAM OF A MOVIE IS NOW A FRANTIC, Insistent, Often Unfunny Sci-Fi Comedy. IT MIGHT DISTRACT YOUNG CHILDREN WITH ITS HYPER, FAMILY -FORWARD Story Line, but Most of the Magic Has Vanished.
The full points Remain Pretty Much Intact, Howver. Stitch, a bizarre Little Experiment Created by aliens in a more Advanced Corner of the Universe, Escapes from Captivity and Lands in Hawaii, on the Remote Water Planet of “EEE-AAWRTH.” There, he context to be a dog and is adopted by irkscible tyke lilo pelekai (Maia Kealoha), who lives with her overended teenage sister nani (Sydney Elizebeth Agudong). Their parents are dead, so nani struggles to make ends and serve as a respectible guardian for lilo in hopes of keeping childs at bay. The deranged stitch (Voicmed by Sanders Himself, Who Left Disney Years but Contractually Still Gets to Voice of His Most Indelible Creation) Matters that Much More Difficult, Especally Since Heing Being the Odd-Co Duo Duo Pleakley (Billy Magnussen) and Dr. Jumba (Zach Galifianakis), who have dysguised themes as humans but haven’t quite masters the ways People Walk and Bahave.
ITH’S A SILY Story, and It WORKED Marvelously Back in 2002 Becuses it felt off the cuff, like a spontaneous burst of imagination and whimsy. That had a lot to do with its look. The original Lilo & Stitch Was Among Disney’s Last Hand-Drawn Animated Features. At the time of its Production, the Company’s Partnership with Pixar Had Already Yielded Several Computer-Ananimated Megahits, Such As Toy Story (1995) and A Bug’s Life (1998), and Some Executives Wondered if Lilo & Stitch SHOULD ALSO HAVE BEEN MADE IN THAT SNAZZY AND POPULAR NEW FORM. But so Much of the film’s wonder came from its animation style – from the rounded faces and figures of the character designs; From the Dreamy, Painstakingly Produced Watercolor Backgrounds (Unseen in a Disney Feature Sine 1940s); from the way the whole Movie, with its goofy blend of sci-fi, slapstick, and sentiment, seed to unfold as if someone we have macing it as they were along. To try and place this tale in a photorealistic world-eather via live-action or computer graphics-would have been self-defaiting.
And it is. And it Feels at Times like the filmmakers realized it somewhere along the way. SO the new Movie Makes up for the original’s offhand Poetry with Speed and Engineered Rambunctiousness. This new Lilo & Stitch is fast and loud, and not in a participle entertaining way. The Picture Plays at Stitch’s Pace, Every Skene an Exercise in Chaos-WHICH COUNTERINTUITY UNDOES THIS DESTROY-WEGHEATING-IN-Sright Bear’s Singulariy. The Soft Edges of the Animation and the Languorous Mood in the Original Contrasted With the Creature’s Antics, SO we really felt the disruption; Stitch was liked a joke the movie was playing on itself. That Irreverence Powered the narrative, and it also enured that we are quiets quieted down – when stitch became part of lilo’s family and achieved a sense of Belonging – The Emotional Sobrity of the Moment Hit US. IT’s one of the Reasons Why Lilo & Stitch Remains one of the Few Mouse House Effforts from the period following the disney renaissance to effecatively jerk tears from the samp of eyes.
As for this one… not so much. Which does come as a Surprise, SINCE Director Camp’s Previous Feature Was 2022’s Marcel the shell with shoes onan adorable live-action and stop-motion hybrid with an effervescent sensitibility not dissimilar to the first Lilo & Stitch. Both Pictures Felt Like Stray Thoughts that drifted into into utexppedly Moving Climaxes. To give any movie the Quality of a Compelling doodle is hard enough, but to pull it off in animation, or in a film that incorporations Animation (and thus requires of preparation and deliberation), is downright superhuman. We can see what made of Camp an Ideal Match for this material.
Maybe the dutup alternation of this project was it undoing. Mary Scenes Feel Like they’ve Been Duplicated with Near-Perfect Fidelity, right down to the composition of the shots. (There are Also the Requisite Fan-Fryently Winks, Including Welcome Cameos from Original Cast Tia Carre and Jason Scott Lee.) Unfortunately, The Faithfulness Highlights The Singulary of the Source and the Soelerssness of the Copy. It Reminds US THAT Lilo & Stitch‘s form and its essence were one and the Same. This Remake Doesn’t Feel Like Its Own Movie, But Rather a doomed attempt to reengineer a miracle.
