First Take: Lilo & Stitch - ohana means family… even in live action

SYNOPSIS: A lonely Hawaiian girl befriends a runaway alien, helping to mend her fragmented family.

I’ve had a love/hate relationship with the Disney live action adaptations of their most beloved IPs, and this was one that for many, arguably thought would be off limits because of how iconic the original films have become since 2002. Luckily what we ended up getting a fairly good take on the story, but one that does have a few minor tweaks to make it different enough for new audiences.

With a film like this, having a director who is skilled with animation is a must, so Dean Fleischer Camp felt like a good call - having done stop motion film Marcel The Shell with Shoes On four years ago, this is his first big budget, CG heavy, live action effort, and he does a good job at turning in a relatively well paced 1 hour 48 minute film that generally sticks to Disney conventions. While there have been some changes to the plot, some characters, a switch of villain too, this is a relatively faithful reimagining of the original film in a live action setting, but sadly one which has a bit of a messy script. Chris Kekaniokalani Bright and Mike Van Waes do keep it fairly safe but like many family films, it is a bit predictable at points. On a more technical level there’s not much to report on beyond the fact that both the cinematography from Nigel Bluck and Dan Romer’s score are very much doing what they say on the tin.

With the cast, Maia Kealoha is fantastic as Lilo, and paired alongside Sydney Elizebeth Agudong, they create a duo that carry a lot of this film’s narrative incredibly well considering just how much talent wanted to be involved - Hannah Waddingham, Zach Galifinakis, Billy Magnussen, Courtney B. Vance round out the main cast, but naturally there was one thing they couldn’t change: co-director of the original film Chris Sanders returns as the voice of Stitch, picking up exactly where he left off, and popping up in new roles for the remake is the original Nani in Tia Carerre, alongside Amy Hill (who was Mrs Hasagawa back in 2002). There’s enough fan service to satisfy fans of the franchise, but enough to make it a new retelling of the story, and crucially, one that is a U certificate - we don’t get many of those these days.

THE VERDICT

Yes, it may be formulaic but I now get why this opened above Mission Impossible during its cinema run - Lilo & Stitch’s live action remake is a wholesome U certificate movie that just about gets the job done without getting overly saccharine or emotional. It’s not the strongest family movie in town but all things considered, this film has shown enough legs to get a sequel greenlit already.

RATING: 3.5/5