It’s official. Experiment 626 is set to regenerate in a live-action Hawaii next summer as one of the latest upcoming Disney remakes. The next version of the beloved blue alien made his first appearance at Friday night’s huge Disney Entertainment Showcase at the D23 Expo in Anaheim, California. Fans (including myself) are happily not repulsed one bit by the live-action Stitch reveal, but that doesn’t mean we’re all in on the new Lilo & Stitch movie.
Stitch Looks Adorable In First Look At Live-Action Movie
The live-action Lilo & Stitch movie has been in the works since 2018, but following the production filming between last year and this one, Walt Disney Studios finally shared the first official look at the lil guy. Check out the Instagram announcement:
A CG Stitch jumped out of the movie’s logo, along with word that it’s coming Summer 2025, and I was so surprised at how cute and fluffy he looks! The studio found a way to give the originally 2D character the same fun personality and sweetness in 3D, and I know it had me sighing some relief over the coming release. I was especially relieved since the original Lilo & Stitch director expressed some worry over Stitch as a 3D character, and I wasn’t sure if I’d be terrified of the blue alien in live-action.
What Fans Are Saying About The Reveal
And tons of fans had a similar reaction to me. Check out what a few people commented on the social media reveal following Stitch’s big D23 entrance:
- “WAIT HE LOOKS ADORABLE” @minel_jimenez
- “pleasantly surprised he looks good!” @ghoulish.vic
- “THANK YOU FOR MAKING HIM LOOK RIGHT.” @starrywisp
Over the years, there have certainly been numerous occasions of iconic characters finding an uncanny valley of creepy when they were adapted to be CG characters. I’m looking at you, the first version of Sonic the Hedgehog! Thankfully, that is not the case with Stitch, but other comments were not happy to see the movie being remade. As these fans expressed:
- “Disney seriously needs to stop ruining the classics with live action remakes that no one asked for. They have ALL been bad.” @talliwyler101
- “When will Disney realize that these live action remakes don’t work” @josh_davenport961
- “let’s just delete this and act like it never happened” @elijah1927
For many years now, Walt Disney Studios have been remaking their classics to mixed results. While many of them have been massive box office hits, with The Lion King and Aladdin making over $1 billion worldwide each, the last movie of its kind, last summer’s The Little Mermaid, made $569 million across the globe after topping its debut weekend. That’s still a huge win for Disney, but it perhaps goes to show some enthusiasm is waning around this trend.
My Big Concern About The Lilo & Stitch Remake
That brings me to my major concern about Lilo & Stitch. And this comes from someone who thinks the original is one of the best movies Disney has ever made! I just don’t think the movie will translate as well to live-action from its incredible original 2D animation.
I think Disney has often forgotten that there is a reason why their hits were told in the medium of 2D animation. That reason being, in some stories’ cases it makes more sense to be drawn and animated than played out in a realistic setting.
As adorable as the CG Stitch is, I just can’t stop thinking about the scene when Lilo gets Stitch from the pound and adopts him, and how odd it’s going to look to see him next to regular dogs.
Lilo and Stitch works so well as an animated movie, but I don’t think it will hit the same in live-action. Of course, we’ll have to see how the Lilo & Stitch cast looks alongside Stitch though to truly draw a conclusion about this upcoming film!