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"Even miracles take a little time."
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Lilo & Stitch is an upcoming American science fiction comedy adventure film. It is a live action remake of the 2002 Disney animated feature film of the same name. It was written by Chris Kekaniokalani Bright and Mike Van Waes, and is being directed by Dean Fleischer Camp. The project was announced in October 2018, and principal photography ran from April to July 2023, and then in February and March 2024. It will be released in theaters on May 23, 2025.
Premise
The film tells the story of "the bond formed between a lonely human girl named Lilo and a dog-like alien named Stitch, who is engineered to be a force of destruction. Pursuing aliens, social workers and the idea of the bond of family figure into the proceedings."
Cast
- Chris Sanders as the voice of Stitch[2]
- Maia Kealoha as Lilo Pelekai[3]
- Zach Galifianakis as Jumba Jookiba[2]
- Billy Magnussen as Pleakley[2]
- Sydney Elizabeth Agudong as Nani Pelekai[4]
- Kaipo Dudoit as David Kawena[2]
- Courtney B. Vance as Cobra Bubbles[5]
- Tia Carrere as Mrs. Kekoa[2]
- Hannah Waddingham as Grand Councilwoman[6][7]
- Amy Hill as Tūtū[2]
- Jason Scott Lee as Luau Manager[8]
Production
Development
A live-action adaptation of Lilo & Stitch was first reported in October 3, 2018, to be under development at Walt Disney Pictures, with Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich of production studio Rideback producing, and Mike Van Waes writing the film's script.[9]
On November 13, 2020, it was reported that Jon M. Chu was in talks to direct the film, while Disney was looking for a new writer to re-write Van Waes' script.[10][11] However, it was later reported in May 2021 that Chu decided to leave production to focus on his film adaptations of Wicked and China Rich Girlfriend.[12]
On July 14, 2022, Deadline reported that Dean Fleischer Camp will be the film's director, while Chris Kekaniokalani Bright was negotiating with Disney to rewrite the script.[13]
On March 1, 2023, it was reported that the working title for the film is Bad Dog.[14]
Kahiau Machado was supposed to play David Kawena but was quickly replaced with Kaipo Dudoit after it was discovered that Machado previously used a racial slur as part of the title of a Spotify playlist.
Filming
Principal photography was slated to start in Oahu, Hawaii on March 13, 2023,[15] and finish on June 16.[16] However, the first day of filming was later delayed to April 17, but was shortly postponed due to a fire.[17] Filming eventually began on May 1, when a portion of a road in Hawaii was closed for the film's production.[18] Filming was halted on July 14, 2023 due to the SAG-AFTRA strike; it later resumed in February 2024 and wrapped the following month.
Release
The DisInsider reported on February 4, 2020, that the film was originally planned for streaming release through Disney+.[19] However, Variety and The Hollywood Reporter contradicted this in November 2020, saying that Disney has yet to decide on either a theatrical or streaming release.[11][10] The release format remained unclear until November 2022, when it was revealed via a casting call that the film will be released via Disney+.[20] However, at the 2024 D23 Expo event in August, it was announced that the film was going to be a summer 2025 theatrical release instead.[21] Two months later, the film was given a release date of May 23, 2025 in the United States.[22]
Differences from the 2002 film
- Tūtū and Mrs. Kekoa are new characters that appear in the remake.
- Tūtū is also David's grandmother, as well as Lilo and Nani's neighbor. In the original film, David's relatives never appeared, and Lilo and Nani do not have any neighbors.
- The Grand Councilwoman's voice is slightly higher in the remake.
- Lilo is taller than Stitch in the remake. In the original, she and Stitch are almost the same height.
- Lilo and Nani's clothes are different in the remake.
- Also, Nani sometimes has her hair wrapped up in a bun in the remake. In the original, her hair is always down.
- Besides wearing her original red outfit with white flowers, Lilo also wears overalls.
- Lilo's pajamas consist of a white shirt and black shorts instead of a blue-green nightgown.
- Stitch's spacesuit does not have the triangular holsters or kneepads from the original, but it now shows his experiment number in the Tantalog font on the left chest area.
- Cobra Bubbles' body size is smaller in the remake. Unlike the original film, he helps the Grand Councilwoman hunt down Stitch.
- Cobra also has an assistant with him in the remake, while in the original, he works alone.
- Additionally, Cobra has a mustache and wears eyeglasses. He lacked any facial hair and wore sunglasses in the original.
- While surfing, Lilo and Nani wear wetsuits instead of swimsuits. In addition, Stitch has orange inflatable armbands ("water wings") on when surfing, which is absent in the original.
- Cobra was also spying on them in this scene. He was not present in this scene in the original film.
- Unlike the original film, Jumba and Pleakley disguise themselves as humans using devices that make them appear human via holograms, rather than just dressing up as humans.
- They also use a portal teleportation device in the remake.
- Jumba's plasma gun is white instead of red-orange.
- Pleakley does not disguise himself as a woman.
- Unlike the original film, the Ice Cream Man eats a rainbow shave ice instead of chocolate chip mint ice cream.
- The pet store scene has a couple of differences:
- When Lilo and Stitch met, Lilo screamed and Stitch pounced on her before saying hi and then hugging each other. They never do any of this in the animated film and instead just said hi to each other before hugging.
- The pet cages are smaller in the remake and Lilo interacted with Stitch's cage after he escaped. In the original, she did not and just passed by it. Also, the pets didn't take refuge on high ground.
- In the original film, Stitch retracted his extra arms, antennas, and back spine before meeting Lilo. In this film, he only does this with his antennas.
- There was more than one female worker running the store.
- In the remake, the workers tried to restrain Stitch and put a leash on him. In the original film, this instead happens with the single worker and Nani, and no leash was used in that scene.
- This scene takes place inside the store rather than at the front desk. Nani wasn't present in that scene.
- The workers also claimed that dogs cannot talk while trying to keep Stitch under control in the remake. This was not stated in the original.
- Stitch acts a lot more like a dog than he did in the original, including excitedly running on all fours and scooting with his backside on the floor.
- David is slightly younger in the remake.
- Unlike the original film, Lilo and Nani's parents have passed away a few years from the present time.
- Some members of the Galactic Alliance have different appearances or voices in the remake.
- Nani owns a pickup truck instead of a Volkswagen Beetle like in the original film.
- The outdoor café scene happens in the daytime instead of at night.
- David does not get burned in this scene, as he wasn't performing a fire-wielding show at this time.
- Nani escorted Lilo and Stitch to a table in this scene. In the original, this was omitted, as Lilo and Stitch were already at the table, and Nani was already working.
- Stitch was on a leash and secured to a highchair by Nani, though he easily frees himself. This does not happen in the original film.
- Stitch plays with a water sprayer, which he uses to spray Lilo in this scene. This also doesn't happen in the original film.
- Rather than devouring a cake before vomiting it out and giving it to Lilo, Stitch instead eats a crayon and does not spit it out.
- Lilo's classmates call her "Weirdie" rather than "Weirdlo" in the remake.
- Besides having a job, Nani also still attends school in the remake.
- The Galactic Alliance's weaponry have turrets that move along the floor while shooting at targets. In the original film, the turrets did not have this function.
- When Lilo uses Stitch as a makeshift phonograph, she does this in the dining room instead of in Nani's room. She also opens and closes Stitch's mouth in a different way compared to the original film.
- When David performs a fire-wielding show in the remake, he does this alongside other male performers. In the original, he performs alone.
- Stitch also tries performing a fire-wielding act himself in the remake.
- Jumba and Pleakley hid their ship at the bottom of a lake instead of in the jungle.
- Stitch has an ice cream cone instead of shaved ice like in the original animation film.
- In the original movie, Lilo beats up Mertle for insulting her, and Moses ends hula class early for her bad behavior and decides Sunday they'd try again. In this remake, Nani says that Lilo got kicked out of hula class, which never happened in the original. She only finished school early after her tantrum, and she was still in hula class at the end of the original.
- In the original movie, Lilo orders cake for dessert at the luau until Stitch eats both of them and spits them out, giving them to Lilo with his backwash making her change her mind about it. In this remake, she doesn't order any cake for dessert or have Stitch eat it all.
- In the original movie, Lilo doesn't complain about being at Nani's luau, but in this remake, she does complain when she was forced to go to work with Nani.
Videos
Gallery
Trivia
- This is the first remake of a Walt Disney Animation Studios film that is from the post-Renaissance era.
- This is the eighth Disney remake to release in the 2020s after Mulan, Cruella, Pinocchio, Peter Pan & Wendy, The Little Mermaid, Mufasa: The Lion King, and Snow White.
- In this variant of the 2015 "Regal Roller Coaster" policy trailer, Stitch gets on from above the screen and says, "Hi!" at the audience. He pushes some buttons on the coaster and surfs the waves. However, on the way, Stitch gets run over by a soda fountain between Pepsi cups and gets back on. He then sees popcorn popping, to which he excitedly yells, "Oh, popcorn! Yummy!" and runs off-camera.
- Chris Sanders and Courtney B. Vance both share the same birthday, March 12.
- This will be the second Disney film to be composed by Dan Romer after Luca.
- This will be Zach Galifianakis' fifth Disney film after G-Force, The Muppets, Muppets Most Wanted, and A Wrinkle in Time.
- This will also be the second time that Zach Galifianakis will do a voice role for a Disney film, after Ron from 20th Century Studios' 2021 film Ron's Gone Wrong.
- This will be Billy Magnussen's third Disney film after Into the Woods and Aladdin.
- This will also be the second time that Billy Magnussen will do a role for a Disney remake, after portraying Prince Anders in the 2019 live-action adaption of Aladdin.
- This will be Hannah Waddingham's second role for a Disney film after playing The Witch Mother in Hocus Pocus 2.
- This will be Courtney B. Vance's first role for a Disney film since starring in The Adventures of Huck Finn.
- Chris Sanders, Tia Carrere, Amy Hill and Jason Scott Lee had previously co-starred in the original animated film.
- Sanders is the seventh actor to reprise his voice role as Stitch for a Disney remake of a previous Disney animated production, after Jim Cummings, Brad Garrett (both of whom reprised Winnie the Pooh, Tigger; also voiced by Cummings since the late 1980s; and Eeyore, whom Garrett voiced previously in Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree: Animated StoryBook and recently in Ralph Breaks the Internet and in the 2018 film Christopher Robin), Nancy Cartwright, Patton Oswalt (both of whom reprised Rufus and Professor Dementor in the live-action Kim Possible film), Frank Welker (who reprised the vocal effects for Abu and Rajah and the voice of the Cave of Wonders in Aladdin), and James Earl Jones (who reprised his role as Mufasa in The Lion King).
- Coincidentally, the first names of one of this film's writers and this film's director are the same as those of the original film's co-writers and co-directors: Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois.
- Additionally, this film will be released the same year as Universal/DreamWorks' How to Train Your Dragon, another live-action remake of an animated film written and directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois.
- During production, Chris Sanders had to juggle voicing Stitch in the remake while writing and directing The Wild Robot at DreamWorks Animation. Because of this, he could not go to Hawaii to film on set.
- As depicted in the official trailer, this will be the first time the word "hell" is said uncensored in any Lilo & Stitch production.
- When Pleakley's appearance was shown, many fans were upset that the character's cross dressing habit was not included. When asked, Dean Fleischer Camp simply responded, "I tried", before showing concept art.[23]
- To celebrate release of the movie, Disney Heroes: Battle Mode added Captain Gantu as playable character.
