Brief Story Line
Dr. Jumba Jookiba (Zach Galifianakis - Ron's Gone Wrong, The Hangover trilogy etc) did an illegal experiment in his home planet Turo where he created a destructive creature called Experiment 626 (voiced by Chris Sanders - The Croods: A New Age etc). After 626 somehow escaped and landed on the island of Hawaii, Jumba and Earth expert Agent Pleakley (Billy Magnussen - Road House 2024 remake, No Time to Die etc) were assigned to capture him. 626 who arrived on earth realized that in order to save himself, he need to be shielded by humans. He managed to be "adopted" by 6 year girl named Lilo (Maia Kealoha) who was living together with her older sister Nani (Sydney Elizebeth Agudong).
However, CIA agents led by Cobra Bubbles (Courtney B. Vance - Project Power, Law & Order: Criminal Intent TV series etc) was aware of the alien who was later named Stitch by Lilo. He was also trying to capture him. Meanwhile Nani who was struggling to juggle between her work and taking care of Lilo was very reluctant on having Stitch, especially with the social worker Mrs. Kekoa (Tia Carrere - Showdown in Little Tokyo, Kull the Conqueror etc) worrying about their living condition.
So what would happen to Stitch and Lilo? You could find out in this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
Well that was really fun. I had wonderful time watching this together with my wife especially looking at the very naughty Stitch trying to avoid capture by Jumba, Pleakley and Cobra while growing close with the adorable Lilo. At first I actually thought that Lilo was cute but my wife said it correctly that physically she did not exactly look like the one in the animated original version. But as the story progressed, we thought that she became more and more convincing and her chemistry with Stitch was just heart warming.
Yes, this movie was indeed a live version remake of the pretty successful animated 2002 version. It's been so long that both of us did not exactly remember the complete story. All we did remember was the naughtyness of Stitch. After reading more about this movie on the internet, I found out there were several major changes including the main villain, additional new characters and the ending. From what I understand, the ending here was more realistic.
All the cast here did a great job to my opinion, including newcomer Maia Kealoha despite its her debut. Aside from the ones I mentioned above, the other characters in this film were Lilo's kind neighbor Tutu (Amy Hill - Magnum P. I 2018 version, All-American Girl etc) and his grandson David (Kaipo Dudoit) who had a crush on Nani, Jimmy the owner of Jimmy's Luau (Jason Scott Lee - Mulan live version, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny etc), the leader of United Federation Grand Councilwoman (Hannah Waddingham - The Garfield Movie, Sex Education TV series etc) and several others. One funny thing was apparently there were some who were the voice cast of the animated version and reappeared here such as Chris Sanders reprising his role as Stitch, Tia Carrere who previously voiced Nani, Jason Scott Lee previously voiced David and Amy Hill who previously voiced a different character. I thought that this was a really nice touch of the movie maker.
This remake was directed by Dean Fleischer Camp who was nominated for Academy Award for his feature film Marcel the Shell with Shoes On and directed documentary Fraud. His directing here was certainly not disappointing cause I noticed the box office performance was great in its first week. And since it was very well received by audience (though not critically acclaimed), I believe it has a strong chance to be a major hit for Disney. I even read a possibility for sequels in the future, just like its animated version which had spawned into sequels and TV series. Btw the movie was having 108 minutes duration and there was some interesting mid credit scene (though no post end credit scene).
Overall this was an entertaining kid-friendly film that would please children due to the hilarity of Stitch and the adults due to warm feeling of looking at his friendship with Lilo, plus the lovely sisters relationship. The characters were just fun to see and although there was a villain, but he was not so extremely bad that we really hated his guts and would wish for the worst. For a Disney live version remake, this was one of the better ones and best for me, it was not a musical. My wife and I had great time seeing this with its humor and touching moments that made us emotional. So if you are interested in watching a movie that would warm your heart, then I think you would love this one. Happy watching!
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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