Review: 'Lilo & Stitch' is a so-so movie for kids, but parents will recognize Disney's cash-grab remake of its animated title

Among the live-action remakes Disney has done of its animated movies, “Lilo & Stitch” is not the worst — Robert Zemeckis’ atrocious take on “Pinocchio” has that trophy locked up. And it’s not the most unnecessary one; “The Lion King,” which is the animated version with different animation, holds that title.

The 2025 “Lilo & Stitch” just exists, a serviceable copy of the 2002 animated movie — which is beloved by many who saw it when they were kids, and probably not as good as they remember.

Director Dean Fleischer Camp (who made the sublimely wonderful “Marcel the Shell With Shoes On”) zips fairly quickly through the set-up to the plot: The Galactic Federation catches a rogue genetic experiment, a little blue monster labeled Experient 626, but the thing escapes and lands on an unremarkable planet called Earth. The galactic commander (voiced by Hannah Waddingham) sends two creatures to retrieve 626: Its four-eyed mad-scientist creator, Jumba, and a dweeby one-eyed operative, Pleakley.

The fugitive beast lands on the island of Kauai, where he’s quickly run over by a tour bus and taken to an animal shelter, because the locals have mistaken him for a dog. That’s where the alien meets Lilo, a 6-year-old girl (played by newcomer Maia Kealoha) with a love for Elvis Presley and a talent for getting into mischief. Perhaps that’s why she takes to the odd fuzzball, which she names Stitch.

Lilo’s older sister, Nani (Sydney Elizebeth Agudong), has bigger concerns, like holding down a job, helping herself and Lilo through the grieving process for their parents, ignoring the crush her surfing buddy David (Kaipo Dudoit) has on her, and making sure the town social worker, Mrs. Kekoa (Tia Carrere), doesn’t put Lilo in a foster home. (Fun fact: Carrere voiced the role of Nani in the 2002 movie.)

Nani doesn’t know she’ll have bigger problems, some of them caused by Stitch’s rampant misbehavior — and even more when Jumba and Pleakley, taking human form (specifically, by Zach Galifianakis and Billy Magnussen), start hunting Stitch. There’s also a CIA agent, with the improbable name of Cobra Bubbles (Courtney B. Vance), who arrives in Kauai and goes undercover as Mrs. Kekoa’s supervisor. (This slight alteration to the character cleans up one of the off-key parts of the 2002 version, when the Ving Rhames-voiced Agent Bubbles was ex-CIA and actually was Lilo’s social worker.)

Fleischer Camp doesn’t mess with the core of the story or characters — he’s not allowed when Disney’s quarterly earnings are depending on the movie and its ancillary merchandise — but he and writers Chris Kekaniokalani Bright and Mike Van Waes do some work around the edges to keep the proceedings lively. And Agudong and young Kealoha, as the sisters, give heartfelt and grounded performances despite the computer-animated chaos around them.

It’s hard to find anything really wrong with this version of “Lilo & Stitch” that wasn’t a problem with the first one — namely, a threadbare plot and a labored effort to make Stitch (voiced, then and now, by Chris Sanders, who co-directed the 2002 film) cute instead of vaguely creepy. The biggest problem with this version of “Lilo & Stitch” is that the reasons to make it aren’t cinematic ones but fiduciary ones. Kids may enjoy the slapstick, but the adults accompanying them will only see the ticker of Disney’s share price.

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‘Lilo & Stitch’

★★

Opens Friday, May 23, in theaters everywhere. Rated PG for action, peril and thematic elements. Running time: 108 minutes.