After a lot of teasing and a Super Bowl cameo, we finally have a full trailer for the upcoming Lilo & Stitch live action remake and, well, it’s certainly a movie.
The Lilo & Stitch remake tells the same story as the original 2002 animated film. A cute but dangerous alien crash lands on Earth, pretends to be a dog, and becomes the pet and best friend of Lilo. Of course, as you would expect, shenanigans ensue.
Lilo & Stitch is set to arrive in theaters on May 23. Here’s the first official trailer:
Lilo & Stitch stars Maia Kealoha as Lilo Pelekai. The original voice of Stitch, Chris Sanders, is back behind the now CG incarnation of the alien. He wrote and directed the OG animated film back in 2002. Sydney Agudong also stars as Lilo’s sister and guardian Nani Pelekai.
It’s been a long time coming for Lilo & Stitch. The live-action remake was announced all the way back in 2018. Since then, the film has gone through a tumultuous development, with different directors and writers hopping on and off the project. At one point, Wicked director Jon M. Chu was attached to this thing! Wild. There was also casting controversy, too, with at least one actor replaced before filming after people spotted them using some slurs online.
But after all that, Lilo & Stitch is finally coming to theaters, and after watching this first trailer my reaction is: Ehh... okay. Fine, whatever. Meh.
I understand that my love of the original will make it nearly impossible for me to be impartial about this new remake, but I just don’t think we needed this movie. Stitch seems mostly okay, but the trailer feels really flat and people seemed bored to be involved. The kid seems uninterested in what’s happening, likely because she’s a child and is being asked to act alongside nothing or blue-covered tennis balls. Remember those stories of how the kids in ET cried because they thought he had died on set? That ain’t happening in an era where every film uses CG to create their alien characters.
Regardless, I get that Disney wants money and I know that kids aren’t as into 2D animation or even CG animation anymore, and prefer live-action stuff. As a result, we are getting a live action remake of basically every Disney movie ever made, including the horrendous-looking Snow White. And yeah, to be clear: This movie and Disney’s other live action remakes are all for kids. So while I don’t mind dunking on it or laughing at people posting jokes about the new trailer on Twitter, ultimately, what will determine if Lilo & Stitch is a success is if kids drag enough parents to the theater in May. We’ll find out this Summer.
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