The Good

Maia Kealoha plays Lilo well with the directions she was given. She's very witty, and her takes on Lilo are sweeter than the animated, but that plays well into the fact that this is a live-action and an actual child playing her. She's fun and is able to show both Lilo's lovableness and stubborn, knee-jerk decisions that often gets her into trouble.

Billy Magnussen as Pleakly. Yes, we lost the cross-dressing and a lot of Pleakly's bits, but thats on the writing. Magnussen does a very entertaining rendition of the character that still feels true to the animated. His peppy live action acting actually made up for the fact that Pleakly is human for half if not most the movie.

Soundtrack was still good, but the stronger instrumentals got lost. We also lost a lot of the Elvis. Still, some of the tunes I didn't recognize were still fun.

I'm glad they brought back some of the original voice actors.

In the context of the live action, I liked that it switched from Lilo getting kidnapped to Stitch getting kidnapped and Lilo being the one to board the ship willingly, even after finding out he was just using her as a human sheild. (Though note this only works because the live-action theme took a different direction from the animated, which wasn't greeeat but trying to fit with the times...kinda...mixed feelings).

Stitch sacrificing himself to save Lilo and letting himself drown. I knew

How it differed from the animated and what that meant for the narrative

Among the many changes the live action makes, the one that sums it up is that it is no longer misfits vs the system but rather Lilo, Nani, and Stitch vs the dying idea of Ohana. This stands out most in Nani. While animated Nani was steadfast in her belief in Ohana (which is a motivating factor of her character), the live action movie gives us more of a glimpse into how Nani is handling the death of her parents and how she feels alone, which makes her question the very idea of "nobody gets left behind" when she feels left behind. They also give Nani harder decisions to make when she is offered a scholarship to her dreamschool, but cannot take it due to having to take care of Lilo.

In the live action, their challenge to this idea is Lilo's (childlike, in Nani's view) belief in "Ohana" and how she is still desperately holding onto it. They answer this is the climax where Lilo begs Nani to save Stitch despite the danger and trouble he is, because Ohana. Where for the entire movie Nani has tried not to let herself fall for that idea, how ultimately having to give Lilo up in the scene previous solidifies the fact the concept of Ohana really cannot exist, Nani still wants to believe it and she still wants Lilo to believe it. So she goes and saves Stitch, because no one gets left behind. And in that sense, Lilo's belief is still at the heart of movie and what ultimately saves the characters: Nani believes in Ohana again, Lilo's love for Stitch and unwillingness to let him go is what makes him develop and lets him stay on Earth, and what makes Cobra make the decisions he makes.

Furthermore, at the end of the movie, they try to expand the message of "nobody gets left behind" to include "you cannot leave yourself behind either," by giving Nani neighbors to lean on. Nani is able to still follow her dreams and leaves Lilo in state care but with the neighbors that have always been there for them. It becomes a message about (1) belief in Ohana and (2) the answer for struggle is community and care. As a standalone live action, it is not a bad take-away and the story fits well with the time it was made it.

HOWEVER. Within the greater franchise of Lilo and Stitch, with the themes and characters that we've come to know and love and the original 2002 story that was the real smash hit, the live action just does not do it justice.

Important Parts It Lacked

Its important to remember that in the original Lilo and Stitch, there wasn't really an evil villain, just a bunch of people who believed that what they were doing was as right as it could be given the circumstances. The most evil villain in there was Gantu, who was the bad guy but was also just a guy doing the job he was assigned. The part that made him the biggest bad is that he didn't care about the people he affected, whereas even Jumba, Pleakly, and Cobra did. That's why the movie is a bunch of misfits (our lovable animated cast) vs the system (as represented by Gantu and his need to excel in his career, as well as the other conflicts each character faced).

Its important to remember that all of the main characters who end up on Lilo's side are all some kind of misfit with their roles in life: Lilo who doesn't have friends and is labelled as difficult and a "good kid with a bad attitude"; Nani who is trying to fill in and prove she can be a parent to Lilo, even though Lilo explicitly says "I liked you better as my sister than my mom"; Pleakly, a field agent who really doesn't belong in field, who doesn't want to hurt anyone; Jumba who's been labelled evil and embraced that, even when we see he does have a humble and compassionate side throughout the movie (LIVE ACTION JUMBA DOESN'T EXIST, WE DONT SPEAK THE DEVIL'S NAME IN THIS HOUSE); Cobra Bubbles, a tough guy with a good heart in a role where he has to break apart someone's world; and Stitch, who shouldn't have even existed in the first place, who is supposed to be a destructive force. They are all people who doing things because the system and position they live in requires them to, even if it goes against their own wants and motivations. They are people that the system cuts out and ignores in favor of what it believe is the "greater good."

And the answer to this is Ohana, where nobody gets left behind or forgotten, and the person that best represents this is Lilo (and by extension Nani) and Stitch. Lilo refuses to let Stitch be left behind, even after insistence that he's no good. He was literally created to destroy, and question posed to us is "can this little girl with no power change him?" Even when her life is falling apart, she tells him "If you want to leave you can. I'll remember you though. I remember everyone who leaves." She only truly rejects him when she finds out he lied, and at the point even her belief in Ohana is failing—which Stitch redeems when he (because of the development that he had with Lilo) makes friends with Jumba and Pleakly and rallies everyone to save her.

Its also why it is so very important that LILO HAS TO BE THE ONE RAISE WHY STITCH SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO STAY ON EARTH. The live action writes it off as "well he's in exile anyway, but he's happy here, and you've changed him, so he can be exiled here." And it does somewhat get the point across that Lilo's love and belief in Ohana can change the narrative, but it pales to how the animated did it.

Again, in the animated, nobody wants this family to fall apart: not Cobra nor Jumba nor Pleakly nor the Galatic Council Woman. Every character sees this as unfair, but rules are rules and they cannot change it. So its important that Lilo adopts Stitch. Because this allows Lilo to raise that she adopted Stitch for five dollars, has the crumpled piece of paper to prove it, and taking him would be stealing.

Lilo is 6 years old, she is facing an interplanetary council's head, and a system that literally cares more about mosquitoes than humans. By all means, she is a character with no power, because who would listen to some random little kid who's nothing but trouble? BUT. That crumpled piece of paper and fives dollars is enough reason as any to keep Stitch on earth. Everyone wants to keep this family together, but no one can find the right reason to, and here Lilo is, presenting her crumpled piece of paper and that is enough because it makes the rest of the characters realize how silly it is to follow rules for the "greater good." Especially when Lilo has proved that the system and labels they gave Stitch is BS, because he's not a destructive force, because all he needed was someone who wouldn't leave him behind.

Lilo is 6 years old, and she moved a whole galactic council with the power of Ohana. Her love allowed all these people to see that there was another way, that following a system that preaches greater good but then hurts the people its supposed to help is BS, and that you can change and develop from the thing you've been labelled as. And if thats all true, then any one of them can change the way this story ends for Lilo and Nani. And they do. Because Lilo and Stitch proved that it could.

The live-action losses its punch when it comes to the power Lilo holds. While it does circle back to Lilo's belief in Ohana is what changes the narrative, the live action doesn't explicitly make that connection. In addition, it losses many of the emotional beats that would have made it more impactful (the Ugly Duckling story, the scene where Jumba tells Stitch he doesn't have a family and feels bad about it, "I remember everyone who leaves", the understanding of Pudge controls the weather and "they were driving and it was raining", etc). This kind of dilutes the emotional connection between Stitch and Lilo

Conclusions

The live action does well as a standalone movie that is trying to say something about family and community. However, its greater focus with relaying the conflict through Nani's struggles ultimately takes away from the high emotional impact moments between Stitch and Lilo. Whereas the live action was about saving the dying idea of Ohana, the animated was about using the power of Ohana to face a system that left, ignored, and boxed people in for what was supposedly right and good. Personally, it felt like Stitch was more of a conduit for Lilo and Nani's relationship, rather than the other way around (the movie is called Lilo and Stitch, not Lilo and Nani).

This review still hasn't even touched other major points it left out: critiques on tourism and colonialism in Hawaii, Lilo's grief and heavier moments, the importance of Jumba seeing Stitch grow from what he originally intended, the idea of being alone, etc. But needless to say, at least to me these parts were sorely missed.