★★★

The furry blue foot remains very much within the box for Dean Fleischer Camp’s Lilo & Stitch, a live action replication of the Disney animated classic. 2002’s OG Hawaiian rollercoaster ride proved something of a rare bright spot in an era of woe for the House of Mouse. Amid a string of middling efforts in the noughties, only Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois’ toon enjoyed both critical and commercial success. Extoling the virtues of family and second chances, Lilo & Stitch struck a multi-generational chord, tickling the old and young alike. 2025’s effort boasts a little less Elvis but a lot more of the same.

Can anybody blame them? Tweaks and reinventions of The Little Mermaid and Snow White hardly gifted Disney vast financial rewards, while it’s the old school Stitch merch that brings in the real big bucks. Besides, maybe familiar is what folks want. A cinematic tribute act. Sanders and DeBlois’ original film was breezy, smart, sentimental and funny. Guess what? So is Fleischer Camp’s new one. 

How could it not be? Ok, so perhaps there’s something to be said about the loss of the animation’s watercolour backgrounds and popping painterly colours in the transition to live-ish action. It’s not like the target audience will care – in this case, kids and 20-somethings. Not with Sanders back on elasticated vocal duties as the unruly, impulsive, and freakishly strong genetic experiment, Stitch. There’s no Sonic-level misfiring in this production, CGI Stitch is every bit the cuddly terror you want him to be and as tactile as they come. You’ll wish you could run your fingers through his shimmering fur.

The story remains that of three orphans, each overwhelmed and lost in their own internalised way. There’s Stitch himself, of course: unloved by his odorous, boggle-eyed creator, Zach Galifianakis’ Jumba Jookiba, exiled by the United Galactic Federation and escaped to Earth. Then, there’s Nani Pelekai (Sydney Elizebeth Agudong), a straight-A overachiever with clipped wings, the recent deaths of her parents compelling her to care for her much younger sister instead of pursuing a bright future at college. Native Hawaiian newcomer Maia Kealoha rounds off the trio as Lilo, the film’s beating heart and rebellious spirit. She’s an effervescent and instant delight.

It doesn’t all hold up. An intergalactic and entirely CGI opening feels a tad clumsy in construction, for instance, dragging into something of a laden start. Likewise, with so much dialogue translated word-for-word from the original into a “new” script by Chris Kekaniokalani Bright and Mike Van Waes, the additions too often stand out as padding. This is particularly so in an emotionally weightier final act that tugs harder and more wilfully than did the animation but troubles the heart strings somewhat less. The ability of hand drawn animation to elicit genuine sympathy for two-dimensional imagery should never go under appreciated.

Though no stranger to winsome heart, following Marcel the Shell, Fleischer Camp bolsters his confidence more in the realms of the cute and comedic. With no great pretension for greater, and an innately marketable leading star, 2025’s Lilo & Stitch will surely land Camp Remake a much needed hit.

T.S.