Real person of Walt Disney Pictures Lilo & Stitch Opened on Memorial Day weekend. While it produced a lot of numbers for the studio, fans of the original film were shocked by the dramatic changes in the adaptation of the animated film.
There are smaller things like Pleakley's distance from Drag, but the personality version of the movie is still very fantastic. Gantu, the Galaxy Union's strongman, was also angry, and you could say that in the ending of the heavily populated animation feature, he felt like a random third act villain (known for the 2002 film that changed a lot because its original ending happened on a hijacking plane). More importantly, culture has changed a lot over the past few decades. So it makes sense that some changes have been made in the new film, including providing a more solid perspective on the story.
In particular, the ending is inspiring a fierce discussion on the internet about the custody of Nani's (Sydney Agudong) sister, Lillo (Maia Kealoha). In the 2002 film, Nani overcomes her social worker, former CIA Cobra Bubbles (Ving Rhames from the original film, Courtney B. Vance in a live action movie), trying to take Lilo away from her; he eventually puts the family behind the protection of the Interstellar Galaxy Federation. This is not what happened in the remake at all. Here, Nani handed over custody to their grandmother’s neighbor, Amy Hill, who spent the entire movie watching the sisters watch their parents and children energetic so Nani could leave her home to go to college.
Nani is considered just out of high school and it's really hard for him to get her little family to surface in the new movie, especially after Stitch's collapsed land enters their lives. With the help of their case worker Mrs. Kekoa (Tia Carrere), who expresses Nani in the animated film, playing a new role completely separated from Vance's Bubbles, who is still an agent of the CIA), stays the girls with sisters but still has a childhood. In Nani's case, this means the opportunity to keep her sister safe while following her goals, and to better provide Lilo and Stitch in the future.
This redefinition of the story theme drives this change, and not everyone is happy about it. The important theme that connects everything in these two films is the exploration of the word “Ohana” of Hawaiian “family” and emphasizes that “no one is abandoned or forgotten.” original Lilo & Stitchplaced in a broader context of Hawaii's cultural relationship with the United States and colonial underpinnings between the two nations (touched on in both the original and the remake when Nani sings “Aloha Oe” to her sister, a traditional song often interpreted as lamentation of the loss of Hawaii's sovereignty under American annexation), has often been considered as critiquing US interests in Hawaii and the historical legacy of colonialism. Therefore, many criticisms of the new ending argue that Nani seems to have abandoned her sister into the system to follow her desire to go to college, betraying Ohana’s idea advocated by the original film.
Instead, the live action movie comes from the struggle of Nani being forced to grow up for years to take care of Lilo. In the original film, Nani is much older than the live-action movie (she is Lilo Guardian by Lilo, a fact that she is at least 18, although it has never been explicitly stated), which always shocks me that this is a comment on girls, as girls have to see it as traditionally more traditional mothers falling into expectations at a certain age, even when they are expected and when they are young. While Nani's story is more explicit about the complex fanaticism of her struggle to balance the efforts to take care of Lilo with Stitch's arrival, the story of young women, especially women of color, is forced by circumstances to grow up too quickly, and there is no doubt that the film resonates like a vast audience. Lilo & Stitch have.
Now, as a mother, I can look back at the 2002 movie and see Nani still a child and prioritize it Her sister is for her potential dreams and wishes. After losing her parents, she left herself with her sister, especially since that version of Nani and Lilo did not have a village to look for them.
Producer Jonathan Eirich shared in his speech to Cinemablend that Chris Kekaniokalani Bright, who co-recorded the 2025 film, has some understanding of the lack of community around Nani and Lilo. “something [Chris] He said early on, and he thought, “I don’t think in Hawaii, if these two sisters had just lost their parents, I don’t think they would be so isolated.” [Knowing] The Hawaiian community will support them. “So we have an idea about this neighbor character Tutu, which was actually there earlier in the story.”
In live-action movies, the expansion of the community as a family becomes Ohana’s new reinterpretation. Replacing the case worker is the bubble, trying to thwart Nani's attempt to keep Lilo in the animation function (and his ex-cia background (and his ex-cia background), bound him as a cultural background to the Us-Hawaii relationship), and in the new film, the case worker is now a case worker and now a companion to the Hawaiians, he encourages Nani to come to see Nani and see if she can make the transition work. realIn a broader sense of Hawaiian culture, we repeatedly remind us that Nani’s “kuleana” or responsibility is to bring the best future to Lilo.
In this case, you really want Nani as a girl who works hard to keep her family alive while suffering. This is before Stitch arrives at the picture, which does focus on sisters who need their childhood as they venture with the new “dog”. But, no matter how the original changes are handled, Lilo & Stitch In any case, given the widespread cynicism about Disney’s live-action remakes in recent years, no matter their box office success, it will be inevitable. Nani didn’t give up on her sister in the foster care system, as many people may not have seen the movie. Mrs. Tutu and Mrs. Kekoa help them sail toward the solution, with the family they found. She saw that she could rely on the extended family she had been there, while also having the opportunity to experience adulthood without sacrificing herself or her sister.
Hill himself recently elaborated on the idea of discovering the family in Ohana's concept before fighting back. “It's not just a family, it's a big family now. I'm part of that big family. I don't have blood with them. I live next door. I know parents. I know the kids are small. And I just feel very close. She said in an interview posted on stage.
Tutu plays Guardian's role not only Lilo, but Nani, which makes sense in supporting her pursuit of higher education and rediscovering her love for surfing. The film even provides a more wonderful solution to Nani's problem, leaving her sister and Hawaii in the film. Remember the portal gun Jumba used to reach various locations where the stitches were seen? Finally, it is revealed that Nani has it now, which means she can go home after school and is still very useful in Lilo's life. When you can easily transport to your room to your home, it will surely sleep in the dorm and still keep the sisters together – the best sisters in these two worlds can make the remake have a theme similar to the animation original.
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