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Whether you want it or not, a live-action adaptation is Disney’s Lilo & Stitch (2002) is coming to Disney+, and the studio just found its lead.
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There’s no stopping Disney from taking all their beloved animated classics and turning them into soulless live-action remakes. After a string of disappointments since 2019’s Dumbo, Disney will continue to push their VFX department to their limits by pumping out a dozen more remakes in the foreseeable future.
Soon, audiences will see a live-action version of The Little Mermaid (2023), a Peter Pan adaptation of Peter Pan & Wendy (2023), and a remake of Walt Disney’s first animated film, Snow White (2024). Other films in the works are The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, and the recently announced, The Aristocats.
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Most notable is the Lilo & Stitch remake. Out of all the classic animated films on the list, it’s the youngest. Disney has gone through most of the movies from the 90s and still has plenty more classics from the 80s and 70s to go through, but Lilo & Stitch will be the first film from the 2000s to get a remake.
While the film has no official release date yet, a director is already attached. Dean Fleischer Camp, the director of the Oscar nominee Marcel the Shell With Shoes On (2022), will be on board to direct. And the casting for the film has also begun, with Zach Galifianakis signing onto the movie back in February. No word yet on who he will be playing.
Today, it was revealed that Disney has found their Lilo.
Newcomer to the industry, Maia Kealoha, will play the misunderstood, Elvis-loving, hula-dancing girl who finds a best friend in a dog-looking alien. Not much is known about the young actress, but surely that will change as the film approaches production.
Kealoha will be in for quite the Hawaiian roller-coaster ride, with fans already upset about having a remake for an animated film that was released just twenty years ago. It seems as though audiences no longer have high-hopes for live-action adaptation these days. Audiences will just have to ride them out, until Disney gets to the point where they are remaking Frozen (2013).
How do you feel about the wave of live-action remakes from Disney? Let us know in the comments.