Lilo and Stitch Review – Now Showing at Ayala Malls Cinemas
Here’s my Lilo and Stitch Review which is now playing in cinemas and stars Maia Kealoha, Sydney Agudong, Chris Sanders, Zach Galifianakis, Billy Magnussen and Tia Carrere and directed by Dean Fleischer Camp. Now showing from Walt Disney Studios!
Lilo & Stitch joins Disney’s live action adaptation club following Snow White earlier this year. But does it join the club when it comes to box office returns and quality?
Lilo & Stitch Trailer
I personally enjoyed Lilo and Stitch mostly because of the endearing moments between the two main characters. Lilo’s actress Maia Kealoha delivers a solid and endearing performance. She’s adorable and innocent and sweet and her interaction with the CGI Stitch. She was pretty good with her acting and line delivery especially in those sad scenes that I can’t believe made me shed a tear.
The cast was pretty good too especially Fil-Am Sydney Agudong who plays Lilo’s sister Nani. I loved those scenes where she’s so stressed out and exasperated were straight up from the animated movie. She nailed it just right. There’s also Kaipo Dudoit who plays David who’s still that fun dullard character. We also have new characters for the movie like Amy Hill as Tutu, the siblings’ next door neighbor who treats them like family and social worker Tia Carrere as Mrs. Kekoa; both of them were fun characters and really helped round up the plot.
There’s also a unique added subplot for the film which was Nani’s future which was not there at all in the source material. I think this was a good addition and reinforces the idea of family continuing to be a family despite the distance. In the film, Nani opts to go abroad to pursue her studies in Marine Biology which was completely understandable. In the animations’ ending, it ends with the family returning to normal but for this live action adaptation, we get big sis Nani to shove off to college and forging a better future for her and Lilo.
Stitch’s CG was top notch. Whether its those funny bits
There are of course a number of stuff that I’m disappointed at in this film but its just a little bit here and there. For starters it feels like they run out of budgets for VFX for other characters like Jumba and Pleek. So rather than having these two aliens bumbling around trying to capture Stitch, we got two white guys which isn’t as funny (although my kid was laughing in those comedic set pieces) with one of them being “The Hangover” star Zack Galifianakis who I hardly recognized here as Jumba. The humor between the two is present but I feel like I wanted more of the slapstick from the source material.
There’s also a missing character here that could have made the film even better and that’s Captain Gantu.
Overall, Lilo & Stitch did its two main jobs mainly to entertain and appeal to the kids and kids at heart. I find it a little lacking in some areas but they did come up with a neat way to wrap things up. Can it stand side by side with the original? In my honest opinion yes.
