People are being weird about 'Lilo & Stitch'

No, the movie does not quite end with Lilo being "given to the state"

Image: Disney

Disney’s remake of Lilo & Stitch, this time in “live action”—although Stitch, of course, remains an alien rendered in CGI—came out last Friday and was a huge hit at the box office. The film made $145 million domestically in its opening weekend, enough to beat out the new Mission: Impossible film.

I reviewed the film last week for Splice Today, and I thought it was mostly fine, although certain elements of it didn’t quite work in the “real world.” I acknowledge both that I’m not quite in the target audience for the film, nor does the original Lilo & Stitch mean that much to me, at least compared to some of the other Disney movies that have since gotten remakes.

One big reason it did so well? Parents, this time of year especially, really want to take their kids to the movies, and there are just about no other kids’ movies in theaters right now.

The reaction many seem to be having to the film’s success is that if it looked like Snow White flopping meant the end of Disney making live-action remakes of their animated classics, the success of Lilo indicates that maybe they’re not so done.

Then again, I never really bought that they were done doing that anyway- the trades all reported that the Tangled remake was on pause, but those reports about Disney backing away from remakes altogether seemed a bit thinner. After all, coming up with new versions of established IP is a huge part of what Disney is all about, especially under Bob Iger, and I never really believed doing so was a thing of the past.

However, not everyone is so happy with the Lilo & Stitch remake- especially some people who are really, really angry about the ending, leading to headlines like “‘Lilo & Stitch’ Fans Livid Over Live Action Movie’s New Ending.”