Lilo & Stitch: A Live-Action Review for Kids and Parents

There are a string of Disney movies I didn’t see from the late 90s through 2010, including Lilo & Stitch. The perceived counter programming about Stitch being an uncontrollable, cute, alien mess was a welcome characteristic, but not enough to pull me into theaters or give up 90 minutes. Because I was unfamiliar with the specifics of Lilo & Stitch, it afforded a unique opportunity to review the film without any previous bias or memory from the original. Unfortunately for those who hold Lilo & Stitch in high regard, it might not follow the same welcome path that the original created.

Lilo & Stitch is mainly thought of as a comedy-drama. Was the original animated film funny? I ask that because the live-action film doesn’t produce many laughs. There are some cute moments of Stitch-induced hijinks, but only one or two of them made me laugh. The aliens who are disguised as humans offer up some lighter moments, and do have the funnier lines, but it’s never laugh-out-loud funny.

Lilo is a Hawaiian girl who lives with her much older sister, Nani. They were orphaned a couple of years ago and they live in a shack that they could probably rent out for $800 a night on Airbnb. It’s walking distance to the beach where the surfing is excellent and there’s even a tree house in the front with a swing. Seriously, if Nani is having such a hard time finding employment, all she has to do is subdivide her house and rent it; but, this isn’t her movie and that would’ve cut short one-fourth of the film.

Lilo is six-years old and having a hard time making friends. She gets kicked out of hula classes, misses her parents and wants Nani to be more of a sister, than a mother. Meanwhile, on a ship far out in space, Stitch, or Experiment 626 is introduced as a destructive creature that was created in a lab experiment. He’s about to be killed when steals a ship and crash lands on Earth. The Grand Councilwoman is so enraged that she sends two bounty hunters to the water planet to capture the rogue experiment.

Stitch’s ship is mistaken for a shooting star, which leads Lilo to make a wish on it. When it crashes, Stitch eats a power line that temporarily knocks him unconscious, which allows animal control to put the sedated blue alien in a dog cage. At animal control, he quickly escapes, sees a cute human girl looking for a dog and proceeds to do his best canine impersonation. The bounty hunters are hot on his tail and have morphed into human costumes.

Younger audiences in first through fourth grade will laugh at the sight gags and physical comedy that Stitch and the two bounty hunters encounter. It’s things like a freezer door hitting Nani in the face, one of the aliens being able to look at its own butt from the floor, and Lilo and Stitch having a squirt gun fight. Older audiences won’t find much humor in the dialogue and have seen these physical gags hundreds of times.

However, this movie isn’t for them, it’s for those kids five through ten who want a mildly enjoyable time with their family at the cinema. The parents won’t enjoy it too much, unless they’re fans of the animated version. But even then, I would wonder how much of the live-action version they really enjoyed, or if it just reminded them of memories when they saw the animated version? One thing going against new audiences who are still traumatized by Jar Jar Binks might also draw comparisons between him and Stitch. That was our first reaction, and while it did equal out by the of the film the thought was always there.

Our 13-year old saw the film and said that he liked the action and humor. I pressed and asked him to recall a funny scene, and he came up with nothing. He did say that the sight gags were amusing, but he didn’t laugh out loud at all. Lilo & Stitch is missing enough humor to be called a ‘comedy’. It’ll make lots of money, if nothing else, because it’s a PG film from Disney that has IP people recognize. The movie also has the “Disney’s best live-action remake” phrase that’s being said amongst reviewers and audiences. One might point out that description is a low bar, especially in today’s environment.

For us, Lilo & Stitch felt like a really long after-school movie. It’s got more gags than The Boy in the Bubble, but it certainly had that vibe for us. Lilo is angry, Lilo is screaming, Lilo and Stitch say they’ll behave, but then end up causing chaos and getting Nani fired from her job. Older audiences, anyone over 15, will be bored and wish that they’d simply watched the animated version at home. The generation that grew up with that version might complain about the missing dress scene or some other aspect that’s been changed. Some will certainly like it, but they most certainly got the memo that Lilo & Stitch has comedic moments, but is more often than not, a drama with light aspects and a quirky blue alien.

Lilo & Stitch is rated PG for mild violence.