This review discusses the premise and performances without revealing the final confrontation or ending.
Disney’s Lilo & Stitch (2025) works because it understands that Stitch was never the whole story. The real heart has always been a lonely child, an overwhelmed older sister, and an unlikely creature slowly discovering what it means to belong.
This Lilo and Stitch review finds plenty to like in the new live-action movie. Maia Kealoha makes Lilo feel vulnerable, stubborn, funny, and genuinely young, while Sydney Elizebeth Agudong gives Nani’s struggle real emotional weight. Stitch also survives the move into live action surprisingly well.
The remake’s biggest weakness is that it sometimes plays things safer than the wonderfully strange 2002 animated film. Some of the original’s rougher edges and eccentric energy have been softened. But when the movie focuses on Lilo, Nani, and Stitch as a broken family trying to stay together, it finds a convincing reason to exist.
Quick Verdict
CinePulse24 Rating: 8/10
Best for: Families, younger viewers, and fans who want a warm new version of Lilo and Stitch’s story.
What works: Maia Kealoha, the relationship between Lilo and Nani, Stitch’s live-action transition, the Hawaiian setting, and the movie’s emotional focus on family.
Biggest weakness: The remake is more polished and conventional than the animated original, losing some of its strange, rebellious personality.
Lilo and Stitch Review: Does the Live-Action Remake Work?
Mostly, yes.
Director Dean Fleischer Camp faces the same problem that follows almost every Disney live-action remake: if the original already works, what does a new version add?
The answer here is not bigger action or a radical reinvention. It is the opportunity to make the human side of the story feel more immediate.
According to Disney’s official Lilo & Stitch movie page, the film runs 1 hour and 52 minutes, is rated PG, and was released on May 23, 2025. Dean Fleischer Camp directs from a screenplay by Chris Kekaniokalani Bright and Mike Van Waes.
The basic premise remains familiar. Lilo is a lonely Hawaiian girl being raised by her older sister Nani after the loss of their parents. Their already difficult life becomes considerably more chaotic when Lilo adopts what she believes is an unusual dog.
That “dog,” of course, is Stitch — Experiment 626, an alien created for destruction who has escaped to Earth.
The Lilo and Stitch live action remake follows many of the emotional beats viewers will remember, but its best moments are the smaller ones. Lilo and Nani arguing, reconnecting, or simply trying to live together often matter more than the extraterrestrial spectacle surrounding them.
That is exactly where this adaptation feels most comfortable.
It does not replace the animated movie. It does, however, understand why people cared about these characters in the first place.
What Lilo & Stitch (2025) Gets Right
The biggest success is Lilo herself.
Maia Kealoha does not play the character as an endlessly adorable Disney kid. Her Lilo can be difficult, angry, funny, lonely, and impulsive.
That matters.
The story loses much of its emotional power if Lilo becomes merely the cute girl standing next to Stitch. Her behavior needs to reflect a child who has experienced loss and does not always know how to process what she is feeling.
Kealoha brings that vulnerability without making the performance feel overly calculated.
Sydney Agudong is equally important as Nani.
The movie gives more space to the reality of a young woman suddenly carrying responsibilities she was never supposed to have. Nani loves her sister, but love does not magically make her situation easy.
That tension makes their relationship believable.
They can frustrate each other without the movie asking us to doubt that they are family.
Then there is Stitch.
Turning such an exaggerated animated design into a believable creature sharing scenes with real actors could easily have gone wrong. Instead, Stitch remains expressive enough to be funny and sympathetic without looking completely disconnected from the live-action environment.
Chris Sanders returning as his voice helps enormously.
The chaotic noises, sudden aggression, childish reactions, and flashes of vulnerability still feel unmistakably like Stitch.
The Hawaiian environment is another major strength. The tropical landscapes give the movie an identity that separates it visually from the more generic environments of many effects-heavy family films.
Most importantly, the setting does not feel like mere decoration. The sense of community surrounding Lilo and Nani contributes to the movie’s broader idea of family.
Where the Live-Action Remake Falls Short
The new Lilo & Stitch is enjoyable, but it is also safer than the movie that inspired it.
The 2002 version had an unusual personality. It could be sweet and deeply sad, then suddenly become bizarre, destructive, or aggressively funny.
That unpredictability was part of its charm.
The remake smooths some of those edges.
It still has chaos, especially whenever Stitch takes control of a scene, but the movie often feels more carefully designed to reassure its audience.
That makes it accessible as a family film, but slightly less distinctive.
Some supporting characters also struggle to compete with Lilo, Nani, and Stitch for attention.
The extraterrestrial storyline provides the necessary science-fiction conflict, yet the movie becomes less emotionally interesting whenever it moves too far away from the Pelekai sisters.
Jumba and Pleakley still bring comedy and momentum, but their material does not always have the effortless oddness of the animated versions.
The result is a movie with a clear divide: the family drama often feels sincere and grounded, while some of the larger comic and sci-fi material feels more conventional.
There is also the unavoidable question hanging over any remake this faithful: why not simply watch the original?
Lilo & Stitch never completely eliminates that question.
But it comes closer than many remakes because its young cast and more grounded treatment of the sisters create enough emotional value to prevent the film from feeling like a purely technical recreation.
Lilo, Nani and Stitch Are the Heart of the Movie
The strongest decision in the 2025 movie is keeping the emotional triangle between Lilo, Nani, and Stitch at the center.
Lilo and Stitch may provide the title, but the relationship between the two sisters is equally important.
Nani is trying to protect Lilo while also confronting the possibility that love alone may not be enough to hold their life together. Lilo, meanwhile, is too young to fully understand everything Nani has sacrificed.
Then Stitch arrives.
At first, he creates even more problems.
But the alien outsider eventually becomes a strange reflection of the family itself: chaotic, incomplete, damaged, and looking for somewhere to belong.
That is where the movie’s idea of ʻohana still works.
Family here is not presented as something perfect. It is something the characters repeatedly choose to protect even when circumstances make that difficult.
Maia Kealoha, Sydney Agudong, and Chris Sanders carry most of that emotional weight.
Readers looking for the actors behind the supporting roles rather than a review can see our full guide to the Lilo & Stitch characters and cast.
Does Stitch Work in Live Action?
Yes — and that was far from guaranteed.
Stitch has an extremely exaggerated design. Making him too realistic could have destroyed the character’s appeal, while making him too cartoonish could have made his interactions with human actors distracting.
The 2025 film finds a workable middle ground.
He still has enormous eyes, oversized ears, impossible physical abilities, and the instantly recognizable blue appearance. But lighting, texture, and interaction with the environment make him feel present within the live-action world.
More importantly, the visual effects do not erase his personality.
Stitch still needs to move from destructive experiment to someone capable of understanding attachment. That transformation only works if audiences can read emotion in a character who communicates as much through movement and expression as dialogue.
The effects generally succeed at preserving that.
Stitch is funny when the movie needs chaos, but he can also carry quieter emotional moments without suddenly feeling like a special effect inserted into the frame.
How Does It Compare With the Animated Lilo & Stitch?
The 2025 version is more grounded, but the 2002 film is more distinctive.
That difference defines much of the experience.
The original animated movie could embrace exaggeration effortlessly. Its aliens, comedy, action, and Hawaiian environments all belonged to the same stylized visual universe.
Live action changes that equation.
Interestingly, the filmmakers were aware of the problem. In Disney’s official behind-the-scenes discussion of the live-action adaptation, Fleischer Camp explained that the intention was not to make a one-to-one translation of the animated film. The production instead looked for ways to preserve its spirit while adapting the material to a medium where human characters can feel more grounded.
That approach is visible in Nani.
Her responsibilities, ambitions, and relationship with Lilo receive additional room to breathe. The sisters feel like people dealing with a difficult reality rather than characters simply waiting for the next plot event.
But something is inevitably lost in the transition.
The animated movie had a rebellious quality that made it unusual within Disney’s catalog. Its humor could be strange, its protagonist could be difficult, and Stitch could be genuinely destructive.
The remake retains pieces of that personality but packages them more neatly.
For viewers discovering the story for the first time, that probably will not matter much.
For people who know the 2002 movie well, the difference will be obvious.
Is Lilo & Stitch (2025) Worth Watching?
Yes, particularly as a family movie.
The remake does not surpass the animated original, but it does enough differently to avoid feeling completely unnecessary.
Young viewers get a funny and accessible adventure built around one of Disney’s most recognizable characters. Adults — particularly those who grew up with the original — may find more value in Nani’s situation and the film’s treatment of grief, responsibility, and family.
Parents should know that the movie carries a PG rating and includes action, danger, family conflict, and themes involving the death of Lilo and Nani’s parents.
But the overall tone remains firmly family-oriented.
The biggest reason to watch is not the novelty of seeing Stitch rendered in live action.
It is the relationship between the three central characters.
Whenever the film trusts that relationship instead of trying to reproduce familiar moments, the remake becomes warmer and more convincing.
Watch the Official Lilo & Stitch (2025) Trailer
The official trailer gives a good sense of the movie’s balance between Stitch’s chaotic comedy and the more emotional relationship between Lilo and Nani. It also offers a spoiler-light look at the live-action Hawaiian setting, Maia Kealoha as Lilo, Sydney Agudong as Nani, and Stitch’s visual design.
Final Verdict
Lilo & Stitch (2025) earns an 8/10 from CinePulse24. Maia Kealoha, Sydney Agudong and an expressive Stitch give the family story warmth, although the remake’s safer supporting material lacks some of the animated original’s eccentricity.
Watch Lilo & Stitch in Action
Disney’s official “Water Fight” clip gives a spoiler-light look at how Stitch’s chaotic personality works in live action. The scene highlights the movie’s playful humor, family dynamic, and visual effects, offering a quick taste of the 2025 remake without revealing any major story developments.
