Lilo & Stitch: Venting about live action remakes and current era Disney

Hi, guys, good morning.

For this edition, I decided to focus only on one subject because it is indeed bothering me a lot and it really saddens me. The live-action remake of Lilo & Stitch was recently released in theaters, and the original work was an important part of my childhood. It was my first obsession, literally the first word I spoke in my life was "Stitch" (pronounced more like "Titch"), it is very special to me. The mere existence of a live action version offends me.

Disclaimer, I have no intention of watching this version (only if it's by "alternative" means so as not to give money to Disney). "Wow, Fe, aren't you exaggerating?" Maybe, but there are many negative implications about these remakes.

At the beginning of this trend, when Maleficent (2014) was released, it was a very interesting proposal to tell new versions of fairy tales, to show the other point of view, a very Once Upon A Time (2011-2018) vibe. Disney even kept this idea with Cruella (2021), but other than these films the new scripts were a "copy and paste" of the animation on which they were based, with a few changes here and there to make it more modern and extend the duration. What's the point? If it's to tell the same story, make a remaster of the original films and put it in theaters again. I would love to watch Disney’s classic movies in the cinema, since I wasn't born when they were shown here in Brazil. It would be much cheaper, you could continue promoting merchandising and it would make a lot of money. But I understand that the executives find it more interesting to deliver the old with a novelty face, the buzz is unfortunately greater.

Until a few years ago, I believed Disney would be producing these live action films as if this was a superior way of telling stories over animation. Nowadays I don't believe this is the main reason, but it doesn’t help to combat the prejudice that many people have that animation is inherently for children only.

I strongly believe that some stories are better told in specific media. Some live action movies wouldn't make as much sense if they were animated, and vice versa. I think a lot about the pre-production period of our short thesis film, Final Act, when we had our pre-pitch round (a simulation of a round of a pitch session before the official selection of the projects to be produced, in which the teachers give feedback), one of the screenwriting teachers asked our group "Why do you want to tell this story in animation? This script fits very well in live action". The entire auditorium full of students and other animation teachers rolled their eyes, after all we were doing a bachelor's degree in animation, of course we couldn't use other media to do our thesis film. But ignoring the context, this becomes a valid question. In our case, despite being a detective story with a lot of dialogue that would make sense with real actors, we wanted to play with different visual languages through flashbacks, which wouldn’t work as effectively if they were live action. Even if it didn't have the flashbacks paying homage to different styles and eras in the history of animation, there is something so charming, interesting and visually stimulating in the cartoonish designs created by Vinícius Roman in collaboration with Babi Astolfi and Regina Akiyama that it was clear that it was the best choice to tell this story in 2D animation.

To prove I’m not biased against live action, let me tell another example from another media: Omori. Created by Omocat, Omori was initially designed as a webcomic, but the artist quickly realized that the story they wanted to tell would be better in a role-playing video game. Really, there are several different routes and endings that make the story a unique experience for each player, it was the biggest success, but then Omori was adapted into a manga. I read the first few chapters and agree with many people that it lost some of the magic that made the original work so interesting. These are different mediums with different purposes. So, I feel the same way about most of the Disney animated films that have been retold in live action, especially The Lion King (which is actually an ultra-realistic animation) and Lilo & Stitch.

I may not have much property to criticize the 2025 film, but I rewatched the 2002 original a few days ago and confirm that this was the best way to tell the story created by Chris Sanders (co-director of the film, along with Dean DeBlois). The initial chase sequence in space after seeing the live action trailer makes you want to see it in realistic 3D, because I feel it could be more dynamic than it was in 2D. If Disney had made a new story of Stitch's adventures in space, very much science fiction, with this medium I would pay to watch it. However, the rest of the film only works amazingly in 2D. The art direction is spectacular, it is of immense delicacy, which is what the story asks for. The character designs are diverse and incredible, the watercolor backgrounds are drop-dead gorgeous, the animation even if at certain times is imperfect, you can feel the love and dedication of all the human hands that collaborated for this film to happen. The message is very powerful, about the importance of family in our lives, and that it doesn't have to be only blood, just love and fidelity to sustain it. Chris Sanders has a theme, and it's found family (he also directed How to Train Your Dragon, along with Dean DeBlois, and Wild Robot).

Here's the trailer for you to remember how beautiful this movie is

Unfortunately, from what I've seen in the live action trailer, this charm is completely lost. Hawaii, one of the most beautiful and colorful places I've ever visited, represented only by throwing a warm filter (of course not too orange because it's not a desert or Latin American setting). All very sober compared to the animation.

Live action trailer for comparison

Everyone also commented on Peakley and Jumba's bland disguises, which we later found out that director Dean Fleischer Camp tried to include, but the designs were denied. Among these new versions, this one had one of the smallest budgets, so it really could be financially unviable, but we all know that the executives wanted to avoid controversy with a character in drag. Other issues that we don't know how much were the director’s choices or the screenwriters’ or the executives’, but from reviews I read, Captain Gantu was deleted, new characters were added diluting motivations and challenges of the existing characters, the story of the ugly duckling was never mentioned. The theme of the original work was distorted, reaching a very problematic new ending.

Talking a little more about the director, he is known for Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, a beautiful film that mixes stop-motion with live action. After his Oscar nomination in the Best Animated Feature category, it makes sense that Disney chose him as the best option for Lilo & Stitch (2025), since Stitch would continue to be animated and actors would need to interact with him. Based on the trailer, I don't feel that Stitch fell into uncanny valley, as many feared, but I feel that Camp didn't have the chance to shine as he did in Marcel's feature and in the shorts, available on his YouTube channel. However, comparing the ending of both films demonstrates the director's view on similar themes. Although the conclusion of Marcel's journey works well, I don't think it makes much sense with the arc of Lilo and her sister Nani.

I was also thinking a lot about Chris Sanders' opinion about this production. I remembered a news article in which the son of one of the directors of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) said that it was disrespectful to the original work and that David Hand and Walt Disney would be extremely displeased. It is known that Walt Disney himself valued more original stories than sequels, so I'm sure he's turning in his grave for the lack of truly new films. But it seems that this is not the case here. Sanders returns to do the original voice of Stitch once again and, as he stated to The Independent, his only concern was about the alien's size.

Leaving Lilo & Stitch aside for a while to talk about Sanders' other work, How to Train Your Dragon will also have a live action remake released in July of this year. Another movie that I also have a gigantic emotional attachment to and I am infuriated by its existence. Unlike Lilo & Stitch in which I already lost all my faith I had in Disney, I felt very betrayed. First, this version is being produced by DreamWorks itself, a production company that has constantly been anti-Disney, putting itself down unnecessarily. Second, when I saw the trailer, I thought it was ridiculous and weird that it was a frame-by-frame copy of the animation, and that's when I found out that the one who is directing it is himself, Dean DeBlois. Does he really not care? Why is he remaking his own live action film? I was so pissed when the trailer says that "the story comes to life" as if the 3D animation had less life than the live action 3D toothless. The sentence implies that the animation is inferior to this new version. With all due respect, God forbid I, along with my fellow directors, produce a live action version of Final Act. I don't think even billions of dollars could convince me.

At the end of the day, it's all about money. Disney already has so much, it wouldn't even need to make these remakes, playing dirty with nostalgia. Since they refuse to make new quality animations, they could use this money to, for example, save the environment, instead of producing more and more waste. In fact, with these billionaire budgets, it would be possible to make several feature films in 2D. Just look at the case of The Day the Earth Blew Up (2025), with the budget so small that it wasn't worth it for Warner Bros. to throw it away to get the tax write-off, that’s why it managed to be released.

I know I'm no longer part of the more general target audience, but this subject infuriates me. It is disrespectful to animation artists, who fight so hard to prove themselves as cinema and works of art. So, I'm sorry for the sad mood of this edition, I promise that for the July post I'll be in an excellent mood with the release of chapters 3 and 4 of Deltarune.

Don't support these remakes, go watch animations from smaller studios and especially Brazilian productions. Kisses.