REVIEW #437 Lilo & Stitch (2025)

Lilo & Stitch (2025)

Synopsis

When an experimental alien crash lands on the island of Hawaii, he makes a new family trying to avoid capture.

My Review

I want to start to the review by immediately praising Maia’s performance as Lilo, who captured the essence of the character perfectly. Her performance made the more emotional moments in the story hit even harder, ensuring this live action remake had all of the heart of the original, and then some! The CGI characters, for the most part, looked pretty good, with the only exception being Pleakley, who looked like he must have caused the animators nightmares. I was apprehensive about the changes they were going to make to the story, but I actually liked more than I disliked in that regard. The addition of elderly character, Tutu, worked really well and it echoed the Ohana message, blending it with that sense of community, whilst creating a more logical conclusion for the film too. But eradicating Captain Gantu from the story and making Jumba the primary antagonist was a big mistake, clearly they didn’t want the cost animating him!

Unfortunately that iconic Lilo and Stitch soundtrack was pretty much non-existent here which was a real shame. But all in all, as far as live action remakes go, they done well here, it was enjoyable, Stitch was as cute as ever and above all, the heart of the film was never lost. The animation still clears though, going from the vibrant colours of 2D animation to live action just gives everything a certain dullness.

My Rating: 7 out of 10

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