All the Differences Between ‘Lilo & Stitch’ Live-Action and the Original Animated Version
If you thought movies based on books that change things made people upset, wait until you see what happens when a beloved animated movie gets the live-action adaptation treatment. Older movies can sometimes get away with making big swings, but not millennial classics, apparently! Here's what you need to know about how Disney changed Lilo & Stitch in the 2025 live-action film compared to the 2002 animated original. The broad strokes are the same. Lilo & Stitch is about a six year-old girl in Hawaii going through a hard time at home whose unruly alien pet threatens to tear her family apart further before bringing them back together. There are Elvis songs, ugly dolls, and surfing montages galore. Several voice actors from the original appear in the live-action film: Amy Hill, Jason Scott Lee, and Tia Carrere as well as Chris Sanders, who voices Stitch. But in telling a more complicated live-action story, both plot-wise and in terms of action sequences, there are several changes. Not all of them have been received, well, well! The movie kicks off with some minor differences & nods to the originalWe meet Lilo as she feeds her fish friend Pudge his sandwich and sneaks into an island resort on a side adventure en route to her hula recital–which Nani does not make it to in time. When Lilo gets in a fight with another girl, it's partially because she's being bullied and partially because she feels abandoned. This is an early indication that the film, while still rated PG, is a little darker than the original. Pleakley & Jumba are able to hide (and cause mayhem) in plain sightThe duo who come down to Earth use alien technology to disguise themselves as human tourists who happen to be played by their voice actors: Zach Galifianakis and Billy Magnussen. If you happened to hear on the internet (where everyone is always calm and informed) that Pleakley "no longer cross-dresses" in this movie... that's not entirely true. Sure, Pleakley does not fully dress in drag with a dress and a sassy bob wig like he does in the animated film. However, his enthusiasm for human clothing does not know gender, and he does in at least one scene wear a feminine blouse. The two of them are also a little more sinister, in their own ways. Jumba is more of a mad scientist, and at one point intends to remove Stitch's empathy so that he can be a more effective weapon. He does not join the ohana at the end of the film. And Pleakley, who does eventually become a hero, is a little too willing to turn on his partner and arrest him. Captain Gantu, the true villain from the animated movie, is not in this film. It's Jumba who temporarily kidnaps both Lilo and Stitch. To be fair, he does go rogue in the animated movie too, but for a different reason. Cobra Bubbles has a completely different missionIn the animated film, Cobra Bubbles is the social worker assigned to Lilo and Nani's case who happens to be a former CIA agent who met the Grand Councilwoman in Roswell, New Mexico in the '70s. In the live-action film, he's still with the CIA and goes undercover as the social worker's supervisor to investigate Stitch. There's a different social worker, named Mrs. Kekoa, who gives Nani a hard deadline to get her life together or relinquish custody of her little sister. Stitch gets heavy underwater now (?)New lore alert! In this movie, Stitch gains mass when he gets wet. That means that he's trapped on the island and needs Lilo and Nani to protect him since he can't, like, go anywhere else. That also means that he's the reason Lilo almost drowns and has to go to the hospital. At the end of the film, he almost drowns too! Related StoryWhen ‘Lilo & Stitch’ Will Be Avail on StreamingWhat's this I heard about Nani giving up custody of Lilo?! Alright, let's get into it. Because Cobra Bubbles is not actually a social worker, the social worker storyline is not as easily resolved in the live-action Lilo & Stitch. At the end of the film, Nani does give up custody of Lilo and goes to college in California to study marine biology. This has ruffled a lot of feathers online, though I think within the context of the new movie it's not as egregious as some hyperbolic folks are making it out to be. But that's just my opinion, and you are entitled to your own! I am not a big sister or a mom; nor am I Hawaiian. So take my interpretation with a grain of salt, please and thank you!Don't get me wrong: it's still jarring compared to the "happily ever after" ending. It's not awesome to see Nani fail and the system win in any way. We were rooting for her! But the solution that they come up with is kind of a best case scenario. Lilo is adopted by David's grandmother Tūtū, who lives next door to Lilo and Nani and has already been helping to take care of her after school. The way the live-action film sets things up, Tūtū is ohana just like Stitch. She's actually the character who introduces the concept in the movie. She's also the one who takes Lilo to the animal shelter where she meets Stitch! The film points out how Nani, who is still a teenager herself, has had to give up her education and the potential for a career she loves to be a single guardian. That's a lot to put on one person! Accepting help is not always a bad thing. There's no reason to believe that Nani, Lilo, Tūtū, David, Cobra, Pleakley, and Stitch won't be together after four years. And, thanks to Jumba's portal gun, Nani can visit Lilo whenever she wants. Family means so much more than what's written on legal documents. (While Lilo gets adopted, that loophole from the animated film where Lilo gets to keep Stitch because she signed papers at the animal shelters does not happen in the new one. Huh!) All I ask if that you watch the movie, either in theaters or streaming, and decide for yourself.
Comments (0)