Live-Action Lilo & Stitch: 5 Reasons To Be Excited (& 5 Disney+ Should Drop The Project)

For one reason or another, major studios have gotten it into their heads that audiences need to see live-action adaptations of previously animated films. The top contender for this idea goes to Disney, who’ve been remaking animated movies for a good while and now have their sights set on the classic Lilo & Sitch.

Now, there may be some good to come out of this. Perhaps Disney will make a worthwhile adaptation. Then again, given their track record, maybe it won’t. Here are five reasons to be excited about a live-action Lilo & Stitch and five why Disney + should drop it altogether.

10 Excited: Performances

It goes without saying that animation is a versatile and phenomenal way to convey a story. Many times, the animation is able to convey emotional performances, hilarious comedy, and amazing performances with simply just the voices of the actors.

Done in live-action, the performances can be elevated by tenfold, allowing emotions unable or conversations that either didn’t work or connect in animation to succeed fully in physical performances that could define the characters in more ways than one, allowing Nala, Lilo, and even Sitch to shine.

9 Drop: Animation

There’s a difference between animation and live-action for a reason. While live-action can deliver some truly amazing and well-executed tales, animated can pull it off almost just as well and bring eye-popping visuals that can really set a film apart from any other.

While other adaptations have the advantage of CGI, CG can bring about other issues. Instead of looking beautiful visually, through the usage of CG, the animation can become bland and lose what made it so distinct and different from the rest.

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8 Excited: New Aliens

Whether it be a book, comic, tv-series, or another film, adaptations only take liberties and licenses with the material and characters. On multiple occasions, some films have either taken out or added characters to improve the story and allow it to shine fully.

Given that Lilo & Stitch isn’t just limited to the Hawaiian island but the entire galaxy as well, the possibilities for new characters, whether they be human or fascinating aliens from other worlds that could add to the story, are endless.

7 Drop: Frame For Frame

Animated to live-action remakes usually suffer from one singular issue: being a frame for frame remake of the source material. Instead of trying to find new stories, characters, or ideas to visit, the films instead rely on the same old story with no change save for the realistic look and feel.

Lilo & Stitch could suffer from the same problematic formula,  relying too heavily on the age-old tale and not allow themselves to grow become something new, to find its own voice unlike previous attempts such as The Lion King. 

6 Excited: Emotional Undertones

The premise of a blue alien and a little girl running around the island of Hawaii and getting into hijinks and shenanigans sounds like a fun ride. Yet, below the surface, there lies a taut story about two sisters struggling to make it.

The story of Lilo and Nani is something that many animated and even live-action films fail to deliver upon, one full of heartache and love between sisters. The bond between the pair and the struggle to remain together is something that many would love.

5 Drop: Ohana

When audiences walked into Lilo & Stitch, they expected a funny, enjoyable romp with a human girl and her blue alien. Despite there being plenty of hilarious moments, there were many emotional ones as well, tying the theme of Ohana, family, into the overall story.

A live-action film could deliver the same level of emotional weight as the animated movie, but given previous attempts at live-action features, the themes of Ohana could end up being overwhelmed or overlooked in place of cheap jokes and stabs at humor.

4 Excited: Expanded Stories

Adapting an hour and a half film into a feature-length film usually allow for a little more room for the story and characters to grow. In other words, with live-action adaptations, there can be opportunities for the material to be expanded upon in greater ways and methods.

With Lilo & Stitch, there’s a lot of room to expand upon the characters and stories, to show more sides of characters such as Cobra Bubbles or the sister’s mother and father in a way that the animated show couldn’t.

3 Drop: Unnecessary Backstory

Sometimes with stories and expanding upon characters, it’s not necessarily a matter of could they do it but rather should they do it. The latter response is, few times, the correct path to go, with many studios moving ahead with backstories and expanded stories without really giving it much thought.

By adding backstory or exposition that doesn’t really better the plot, such as with Belle’s mom in Beauty and the Beast. The film runs the chance of overshadowing the key story everyone has come to know and love.

2 Excited: Live-Action Characters

Every fan or audience member has, at one point, wondered how characters will look like in a real-life scenario, specifically animated characters. The internet has become chock full of interesting and fascinating pieces of fan art, reimagining animated characters in live-action form.

To finally achieve that in a live-action adaptation would and is amazing, to feel and see the once 2D characters become almost three dimensional is enough to make any fan squeal with joy and feel a spark of excitement deep in their body.

1 Drop: CGI

No matter how hard a studio tries to bring animated characters to life, there are always some that they will never manage to nail down completely. While they’ve managed to bring Baloo and The Beast to life, bringing the Stitch to live-action… is another issue.

While Stitch may be strangely cute in animation form, Disney has a bad reputation of not using CGI properly, such as with Mulch Diggums in Artemis Fowl. Done right, it could work but going the route of Fowl, the CG, the film could crash.

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