Disney's first live-action Lilo & Stitch teaser is here, and yeah, that's Stitch alright. There's not much more to be gleaned from it, both because the clip is so short and because there isn't much to differentiate it from the original Lilo & Stitch. When Stitch crashed on the scene 20 years ago, his toddler-esque destructive antics were funny because the character was totally original. Seeing him up to his old tricks now, looking exactly the same but ever so slightly more uncanny, may provoke a twinge of nostalgia but not a ton of true excitement.
As you probably remember, "Lilo & Stitch is the wildly funny and touching story of a lonely Hawaiian girl and the fugitive alien who helps to mend her broken family," as per the Disney synopsis. Lilo (not seen in the teaser) will be played by newcomer Maia Kealoha, while Stitch is voiced by Chris Sanders, who co-wrote the original film and played Stitch in that movie and its subsequent spin-offs and TV series. The new film, directed by Marcel The Shell's Dean Fleischer Camp, also stars Zach Galifianakis, Billy Magnussen, Sydney Agudong, Kaipo Dudoit, Tia Carrere, Courtney B. Vance, Amy Hill, Jason Scott Lee, and Hannah Waddingham.
The Lilo & Stitch teaser is perfectly designed to play ahead of screenings of the imminent Moana 2. The gorgeous tropical water and bright, sunny beach may trick the unsuspecting viewer into believing this is a softer princess movie, until Stitch comes cackling onto the scene. The destruction of a sandcastle that looks like the classic Disney castle seems meant to remind you that the character is a mischievous little iconoclast, but how can this Stitch be iconoclastic when he's more or less a carbon copy of the version that came before?
We don't mean to pick on Stitch specifically; this is an issue across the board, with Disney and the industry at large. Disney is releasing Moana 2 while filming a live-action Moana at the same time (also featuring voice actors from the original reprising the same exact role they played in the first one). Universal Pictures just released a teaser for the live-action How To Train Your Dragon, and much like Stitch, the titular dragon looks exactly the same as it did in animated form (and that movie also features voice actors from the original reprising the same exact role they played in the first one). It's enough to make you wonder, "What's the point?" Except we know the point, which is for the studios to extend their IP, juice those copyrights for all they're worth, and upsell merch without having to change any of the designs. Don't worry, your Stitch plushie from 20 years ago will still be totally in vogue when the movie premieres on May 23, 2025—unless you'd like to replace it with a new one that looks exactly the same!
