Disney continues its trend of making live-action remakes of its classic animated films, this time adapting the fan-favorite 2002 film of the same name. Although Disney’s live-action remakes have been very hit or miss, Lilo & Stitch actually ended up being one of the better ones. Of course, it doesn’t execute the film’s themes of family and acceptance quite as impactfully as the animated original did, but those elements coupled with Lilo and Stitch’s endearingly chaotic antics were still very much present. For the most part, thanks to some solid performances and the special effects for the film’s more sci-fi elements, the cast and crew did a pretty nice job translating these characters from animation to live-action. Other changes made from the animated film, such as the absence of certain characters and the altered character traits of other ones, while noticeable, didn’t stop me from appreciating this remake as a standalone. (Snow White mainly had this issue.) Overall, this was a fairly solid remake that didn’t copy and paste the original film, but also didn’t completely forget the emotional core that made the original film so memorable, which is honestly all a remake needs to be. Score: 7/10
Noah Robinson 