Cute encounters: The alien returns in ‘Lilo & Stitch’.
LILO & STITCH *** (108 minutes) PG
There’s nothing all that special or distinctive about Disney’s latest live-action remake of an animated classic, which is precisely as its army of beancounters want it.
There are, of course, some tweaks and changes to the retelling of the 2002 smash hit about an aggressive, genetically engineered alien who is adopted as a pet by a little girl.
Yet, overall it’s a by-the-numbers do-over, with the original’s traditional themes about the value of community and family dialled up a few notches.
Having lost their parents to an ill-defined tragedy, little Lilo (Maia Kealoha) is under the dubious care of her sister Nani (Sydney Elizebeth Agudong), who is having such trouble coping she’s in the crosshairs of welfare officer Mrs. Kekoa (Tia Carrere, who voiced Nani in the original).
Enter Stitch, who drops in from space with its trigger-happy creator Jumba (Zach Galifianakis) and Suess-esque associate Pleakley (Billy Magnussen) in hot pursuit.
A sort of cross between a koala and a bull mastiff, Stitch is built to destroy, yet the subsequent mayhem creates a bond between it, Lilo and Nani.
Director Dean Fleischer Camp (Marcel the Shell with Shoes On) with writers Chris Kekaniokalani Bright & Mike Van Wae have dutifully coloured within the lines, careful to make the film sufficiently different while preserving the family appeal of the original and hitting all the same beats.
The charm of the original’s traditional cel animation is here replaced with the cool precision of the standard state-of-the-craft digital rendering, a regrettable price to pay with any such update.
Thankfully, the casting of leads and the lush Hawaiian location help overcome this.
In terms of timing, Disney can’t be faulted here.
Intentional or not, the film’s emphasis on family, community and good parenting keys in to the current mood in America where traditional values have been championed in the pushback against “progressive” ideas. This will no doubt enhance whatever appeal to family audiences the film would otherwise have had.
Also, Disney’s long-standing practice of strip-mining its legacy by remaking classic films has taken on renewed purpose as the corporation enters its post-Woke phase and seeks to re-establish audience trust.
The recent spate of Woke-infected films such as Strange World, Lightyear, Pinocchio, Elemental and the unfairly trashed Snow White, (now one of Disney’s most infamous theatrical failures – that’s pre-stream, of course) exacted a heavy commercial and reputational price.
If anything, the remaking of Lilo & Stitch serves as a much-needed reminder of how Disney was way ahead of the curve long before diversity and representation became buzzwords.
Disney’s slate has been reflecting a broad cultural spectrum pretty much since its early short films – Mickey Mouse once came to Australia – so the Islander milieu of Lilo & Stitch (and Moana) is nothing new.
The big mistake with the studio’s “woke” phase, including some Star Wars titles, is that it began forcing its progressive points, which audiences resent. People want stories not lectures.
This remake is part of the swing back to Smart Disney with values embedded in narrative, not scrawled on sandwich boards.
As delightful as Lilo & Stitch is, one has to note how Disney is running low on classics to remake. Hopefully we’ll soon see titles not based on proven brands or theme park rides.
WILDING *** (76 minutes) PG
This very good enviro-doc from Britain tells of a couple who sought to revitalize the dying soil on their sprawling estate by reintroducing free-roaming animals to their patch. Beautifully shot, their efforts prove sterling, both for sticking to a vision that involved bringing long-absent creatures into the fold and for enduring a glacial bureaucracy. The film, from 2023, presents another sobering illustration of how land management best combines human ingenuity and the natural processes that turns dirt into life.