Review: Lilo & Stitch (Live Action)

I decided to watch the live action movie of Lilo and Stitch. Did I make a mistake? No, since I was able to watch it for free a la gift certificate. But for those of you contemplating on whether you should watch this movie on the big screen or not, it might be worth your time to read my thoughts on the movie and perhaps, read others’ thoughts as well.

Honestly, I never truly understood the hype of Lilo and Stitch. I’m thinking a lot of it came down to POC representation, possibly. And I say this because practically everyone in the Asian American community, especially Filipino Americans were obsessed with Lilo and Stitch, with Stitch merchandise being a very big thing. If I can compare the Stitch craze to anything, it was almost akin to the Labubu craze we have now, except the Labubu craze is another level of crazy where it involves so many vendors selling Lafufus as Labubus.

As for the Pacific Islander population, I am not too sure how they feel about Lilo and Stitch. If we remove the whole representation aspect, I feel that it’s safe to say there may have been mixed feelings about the Lilo and Stitch cartoon. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were people concerned about a surge of unnecessary tourism, which of course only leads to resources potentially being dwindled or taken away from locals and natives of the islands. (Ex. building resorts) As for the live action movie, people may be harboring even more mixed feelings. Netizens seem to have a variety of thoughts around Nani, the character as well as the actress who plays her. You can google all that if you’re interested.

Now, let’s talk about Lilo and Stitch as a live action film. (Note that there may be spoilers.) I don’t think the movie was bad but I don’t think it was great either. As someone who’s watched Lilo and Stitch (cartoon) before, I guess I felt that it would’ve been better for me to watch a totally different movie. I saw a preview for How To Train Your Dragon and all I could think before I even got to the halfway point of Lilo and Stitch was how I’d rather be watching that! Seriously, I think that movie would be so good on the big screen with a big dragon soaring all over the place. lol Anyway, like I said earlier, the movie wasn’t bad but for someone who never went berserk for Lilo and Stitch or Stitch himself, it makes sense why I felt this way. I think the people who will enjoy the live action most are: people who’ve never watched Lilo and Stitch (cartoon), people who are true fans of Lilo and Stitch and people interested in seeing POC actors or better yet, seeing POC actors that look like themselves or a beloved relative.

I actually did a quick search online on how people felt about this movie when I was deciding on whether I should watch Lilo & Stitch or not. I am glad I didn’t listen to the naysaying netizens. A lot of netizens seemed to be against whatever changes came about in the live action and more! Let me just say that if you want to watch this movie, watch it – be it on the big screen or in the comfort of your own home some time later from now. When I consider whatever netizens were bothered by, all I can say is that I wasn’t bothered by it at all. So what if the two educated aliens are in human form for the most part? I found them silly when they had trouble walking as humans and pronouncing certain words. And so what if there are a lot of “special effects” or whatever it’s called for a live action movie, making it supposedly less live action? Honestly, most people back then (when Lilo and Stitch, the cartoon first came out) would’ve gone berserk if they could see a live action movie like this. I thought it was good in this regard. Even when the educated aliens were in their real forms, they still looked “real” to me and I didn’t see a problem with the movie appearing less live action in any way. I don’t know what some people are complaining about but then again I don’t go around watching a bunch of live action movies so I don’t know if it meets the standard of other present day live action movies. I guess not? I don’t know!

Anyway, I eventually got a headache with the movie and it stems around Stitch and Lilo. I saw a hard working Nani doing all that she could at entry level jobs when she’s still a literal kid herself in order to tend to the home and her kid sister. I found it frustrating to see Lilo and Stitch creating so much havoc for this “parentified” sister but at the same time knowing that you can’t be frustrated at a child and pet (creature, actually) that just doesn’t know any better. It was a tug and pull type of sensation where Lilo is just being so darn nonchalant about everything because she’s a child but here’s someone (Nani) that’s suffering in so many ways just to make everything work for everyone and I think people are failing to realize that, big time. Post-movie, per my mini google searching, I learned that many didn’t like that Nani ended up making a certain choice as well as going off to UCSD. Ok, I admit that I don’t exactly recall whatever the original story line was in the cartoon but I’m guessing Nani made a choice that was more in alignment with what’s more culturally acceptable among Pacific Islanders (as well as Asians). I suppose it’s why the phrase “ohana means family” became so popular and overused after all.

But is it fair to Nani? Why does Nani have to sacrifice so much? Sure, the cultural norm is for Nani to take the route of self-sacrifice in order to ensure that Lilo and her continue living together as one family. But what about Nani’s wants, needs and dreams? She had to let go of her own aspirations. Fortunately, in a weird way, her situation is a bit different in that her “parentification” wasn’t forced by a parent figure; it was forced upon her per a situation. Because of needing to become a “parent”, she gave up her dreams of going to school on the mainland. She gave up on competing in a sport she excelled in. She gave up her teenage/young adult years. She has prioritized Lilo and has done all that she could until it practically became impossible because with a child, being a child, it’s not going to be easy.

At one point in the film, I thought that maybe Nani would end up married to David and every problem would be solved because you’d now have one additional income and additional people to tend to Lilo and her obnoxious pet, Stitch. That of course didn’t happen and I could tell that Nani didn’t think of David that way. David is obviously interested in Nani and perhaps Nani would consider the idea of entering a relationship (maybe not necessarily with David) IF she didn’t have so much going on (ex. Making sure that she can keep Lilo).

For anyone wondering, it all works out in the end and I think I liked that about the movie. Sure, I may have said that the movie wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad either. I hated how the movie ended up giving me a headache (thanks to both Stitch and Lilo) but I’m so glad that Nani could be happy. Nani deserved to live her dreams, as well. For all the naysayers, keep in mind that she sacrificed a lot and was willing to continue the sacrifice but it all worked out, with no drastic changes committed to Lilo. That was truly the best situation. As to how that actually would work in the real world, that’s a different story.