The Lilo & Stitch live-action remake is drawing tons of debates and controversy online after the new film changed the original’s ending in a few ways.
The live-action version of Lilo & Stitch ends with Nani (played by Sydney Elizabeth Agudong) moving to California to go to college for marine biology. As for Lilo (Maia Kealoha), she and Stitch remain in Hawaii to live with a neighbor, with Nani giving up her sister to the state as a result. This is a change from the original, which sees Nani remaining Lilo’s legal guardian and living with Jumba and Pleakley.
The ending has led many fans of the original film to criticize the live-action. Specifically on platforms like X, posts about the film completely missing the point of the original have garnered a ton of reactions. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporterauthor Mariah Rigg notes that the new ending seems to overlook the original film’s messages of family and the colonial system in Hawaii.
“The original movie was so much about being against the carceral system in terms of foster care, Stitch’s imprisonment and the colonial system as a whole in Hawaii,” Rigg said. “I was fully surprised at the remake’s ending, in terms of Nani leaving the state altogether, because I feel like that really contributes to the narrative of displacement of Hawaiians from their ancestral lands. Obviously, there is all this discourse on how ‘ohana means family’ is not really represented in that ending, but in an even larger way, it’s harmful on how it contributes to that narrative of the displacement of Hawaiians from Hawaiian lands.”
Director Dean Fleischer Camp has also addressed the controversy in a way. He’s previously talked about the original film’s ending, noting that he believes it painted Nani with “a little too rose-colored glasses,” considering she is still a young woman in the movie. He also has responded subtly via social media, reposting various users’ posts about the new movie’s ending being a bit more realistic.
Despite the controversy, Lilo & Stitch’s live-action remake has been a big success for Disney. The film received strong ratings from critics and audiences alike and has already earned double the money that the original film did at the box office in its first week in theaters.
