I initially really wanted to see the live-action Lilo & Stitch. I loved the original, as did a lot of people. The story was funny and heartfelt, and introduced a lot of kids to the concept of a “found family.” 

When this remake was announced, I was cautiously optimistic. After being disappointed by Aladdin, and avoiding Mulan after the negative reviews, I was (and still am) hesitant to watch any live-action Disney remakes. They all just seemed like soulless cash grabs, only being used to strengthen Disney’s stranglehold on certain IPs before they entered the public domain. But, I thought Lilo & Stitch would be different. It was one of the few Disney films that wasn’t based on an existing fairy tale or book. Some scenes were cut or changed for the sake of keeping the focus on Stitch’s growth rather than Lilo and Nani’s relationship (something that was criticized about the original). With new sets of eyes on the movie and a higher budget, I figured we’d get a heavier focus on Lilo’s and Nani’s struggles, as well as some creative visuals for Stitch’s mayhem. Maybe we were even going to get some more commentary on how the tourism industry is negatively impacting Hawaii.

Personally, the main reason I wanted to see the movie is for the aliens. Seeing Stitch himself rendered in 3-D took a little getting used to, but that was a big part of why I wanted to see the movie at all. The movie contains an entire federation of aliens in the intro sequence. From the behemoth that is Captain Gantu, to the one robot council member that barfed up nuts and bolts before passing out, there were aliens of different shapes and sizes, and I wanted to see what the animators did with them. Up until last week, I was pretty excited, and was trying to decide which local theater to watch the movie in.

Now, after seeing some preview footage, and some major changes to the plot that were made public this past week, I’m skipping going to the theater.

A big half-criticism of the movie is how Jumba and Pleakley’s human disguises are being handled. I say “half” because while people are disappointed that Jumba and Pleakley aren’t just wearing wigs and big sunglasses, people are understanding of why the hologram human disguises happened. According to director Dean Fleischer Camp, he tried to keep Pleakley’s “drag icon” status intact, but couldn’t due to a combination of THE BUDGET and the terrible human disguises not translating well to 3-D. 

Regardless, having Jumba and Pleakley be two “business guys” faffing around the island still made sense, so people were willing to let it slide.

Now, after getting over that nugget of information, I was still optimistic about the movie…up until I found out that Gantu isn’t in it. Aside from Stitch and the Grand Councilwoman, the alien I was most excited to see rendered in 3-D was Gantu. He’s a big, hulking whale man with elephant feet! Who doesn’t want to see giant aliens?

According to the filmmakers, in order to expand more on the relationship between Lilo and Nani, and also because THE BUDGET, some things had to get the axe. One of those things was Gantu. So, Jumba and Cobra Bubbles will be given more antagonistic roles.

Getting rid of Gantu and changing Cobra Bubbles’ character took away, in my opinion, one of the strongest themes of the original movie: growing and changing to be a better person. Stitch obviously gets this treatment, dialing back on his destructive tendencies and genuinely wanting to be part of Lilo’s family. Jumba gets this after realizing an innocent child got caught in the mess he created. Cobra didn’t need to go through this arc, since he wasn’t trying to take Lilo away for a nefarious purpose; he was simply doing his job and keep a child safe. The only antagonist who stayed an antagonist throughout was Gantu. In fact, he went through the “being a better person” arc backwards, following orders to keep a destructive monster away from the public, and ending off with endangering the life of a civilian to accomplish that goal. But, this theme is getting axed in favor of modifying and expanding Nani’s personal story arc (an important one to have, but still).

I’m not one of those people that will just shit on something because it’s different or new. Nostalgia for the original got me interested in the remake. Discussions about possible changes and seeing what could be done with a larger budget got me excited for it. But, seeing what changes were implemented made me not care about it anymore. I may watch it in the far future, but for right now, I’ll pass.