Live-action Disney remakes don’t need to exist, but the public keeps on going to see the damn things, so it looks like we’re stuck with them. Despite this popularity, it’s difficult to deny that adapting classic stories like The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, Aladdin, and now Lilo & Stitch robs them of their original animated magic. Everything is less colourful, less imaginative, and must work within the confines of a medium these stories were never intended for.
This dissonance has been apparent before, but it’s particularly hard to watch the debut trailer for Lilo & Stitch and not feel like something has been sucked out of the classic story. The first thing I noticed is that the design of every single alien creature – Stitch included – remains mostly unchanged, albeit with a muted colour palette that every single live action adaptation needs to have for some reason. Stitch isn’t as blue, and he also can’t be as expressive in live action when he has to act alongside a variety of human actors.
Thankfully, Chris Sanders is still providing the voice for Stitch. It wouldn’t be the same if he wasn’t.
Lilo & Stitch’s Live Action Remake Feels Lifeless
I want to give the live-action remake’s approach to narrative the benefit of the doubt, but there are a handful of alarm bells there too. Lilo and Nana are presented differently with a skin tone that doesn’t quite match their animated counterparts, while one of the pivotal reasons behind their ostracization in the original film is due to how they look and sound different to so many other people in their lives. Lilo is rejected and bullied by other girls at school because of this, extending to her bond with wild animals, the natural world, and eventually, aliens.
This could have been tackled with more authentic casting, as now it feels like one of the key themes has already been left behind. The ice cream man also has a snow cone now, which irks me far more than is reasonable. But what surprised me the most about this trailer is the presentation of Jumba and Pleakley, the two alien bounty hunters sent to Earth to hunt down and capture Stitch or face punishment from the Galactic Council.
WHATD THEY DO TO THIS DIVA?? https://t.co/T6gVHex9cf pic.twitter.com/H8NdnhKTAL
— scum 🐅 (@scummycore) March 12, 2025
I hate to sound like an old woman complaining that the films I loved as a kid aren’t relevant anymore, but this desperation by Disney to usurp them with live-action remakes devalues them while seeking to eventually position them as inferior. That just isn’t true.
They will be played by Zach Galifianakis and Billy Magnussen, but instead of presenting in their alien forms for the entire runtime, they will make use of a disguise that allows them to look and behave like normal human beings. An understandable compromise for live action that likely makes a massive dent in the VFX budget, but once again it’s a decision that heavily undermines one of the greatest things about the animated original.
There’s no denying the fact that Jumba and Pleakley are aliens. One has one giant eye, while the other possesses several little ones. No sane person can look at them and be convinced they are just normal human beings going for a stroll, but people believed it in the original, and that’s what made it so funny.
Jumba and Pleakley Are The Biggest Victims
Jumba and Pleakley would don disguises that anybody could reasonably see through, but not a soul ever did. Somebody would occasionally comment on how freaky they appeared, but it was so funny that it took laughably long for the penny to drop.
That joke won’t be a thing in the remake when they can simply push a button to look like humans whenever they like. It’s also worth noting that, at the time of writing at least, Gantu hasn’t been cast or featured in any of the marketing material. My guess is that Cobra Bubbles will take his place in the narrative, but why remake a film like this when it dictates removing one of its most important characters? It doesn’t make sense.
What disappoints me the most about Jumba and Pleakley’s alteration is that it may remove the latter’s fascination with human fashion from the narrative. Pleakley, as far as I know, is a male character, but the second they arrive on Earth and fall in love with many of their customs, they immediately begin dressing up in women’s clothing.
They pull off all of their looks too, often with stunning wigs and dresses they will tinker with and polish throughout scenes. It’s endearing, and speaks to a character who discovered a new side of who they are in the most unexpected of places. This diva was a drag icon, and now they’re nothing.
It feels weird to say that as a kid I saw myself in an alien who loved mosquitoes, but once they started dressing up in beautiful clothes and pushing aside preconceptions to pursue their own happiness, I did.
Considering the current political climate in the United States, I also find it difficult to ignore the corporate reasoning for altering a key character that loves dressing up in drag from a children’s movie. It could have been redefined to match up with the current definition of drag, but instead it’s potentially been removed entirely.
Jumba and Pleakley’s drastic changes are indicative of my wider feelings about the Lilo & Stitch remake, and how revivals like this have no reason to exist beyond profits, especially when you need to remove so many key themes, characters, and jokes to make them a reality.
When the original films already exist, hold up, and again and again wind up better than their live-action counterparts, you can’t help but bring their relevance into question. Pleakley used to be a diva, but now I’m not sure what they’re trying to be.
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