Lilo & Stitch opens in the rooms of Friday, May 23.
In the apparent quest for Disney to redo each of their lively animated classics, the difference between the good films (The Jungle Book) and the Bads (Pinocchio) comes down to filmmakers and their choices. Their approach of some of the best known and appreciated stories ever told on the screen enough to make us neglect undeniably cynical and business focused on “you liked this before, maybe you will pay again for that?” Business spirit? In the case of the new Lilo & Stitch, the answer is, fortunately, yes – and it is thanks to the choice inspired to trust the story of an extraterrestrial fugitive linking an orphan earthworks to the director of the Director Dean Fleischer. The co-creator of the hitchhiking sensation Marcel the shell with shoes, the camp is an expert proven in the mixture of oddity and stupidity with an authentic heart and depth. And although he and the screenwriters Chris Kekaniokalani Bright and Mike Van Wae do not make shocking differences compared to the original of 2002, they make the significant choice to root their comedy out of the world in terrestrial concerns.
They found the perfect Lilo at Maia Kealoha, who says something given that a large part of the film rests on the shoulders of this little girl. She just exercises the right attitude, charm and humor in the role, and does a particularly strong job to sell the reality of her scenes with the CGI point (expressed once again by the co -director of the original film, Chris Sanders). The script gives Lilo a little less an advantage than her animated counterpart: she always pushes another girl who insults her, but she does not throw any blow as she does in the original. But that does not fear his anxiety about the death of his parents either. It is clear that Lilo is a sweet child channeling deep sorrow through his volatile behavior; Just the type that could use the company of a fuzzy powder barrel with Beyond the Stars.
While the friendship of the title duo remains the key to this version of Lilo & Stitch, his most important relationship is in fact that between Lilo and his older sister Nani (Sydney Elizebeth Agudong). They are the eye of the hurricane whipped by the arrival of Stitch, working together to overcome a loss whose consequences are more deeply felt than the death of other mothers and fathers sprinkled so generously throughout the Disney barrel. Kealoha and Agudong have a pivotal report, the two actresses, which makes it difficult not to invest in Lilo and Nani and their obligation. The possibility of their separation – a social worker must decide if Nani provides a solid education to his sister – feels really overwhelming due to the connection that the two establish and the public. AGUDONG can also play new Nani shades, diving in his personal aspirations and how difficult it is to balance them with the responsibility of being an unique caregiver for the sister that she loves so much.
The amplification of the role of Nani allows her and Lilo to shine continuously together, and the transformation of Stitch of the non-stop chaos monster to someone who forges a real link with Lilo plays just as endearing as in the original. But the more Lilo & Stitch obtains from this formidable nucleus, the more he stumbles. The two extraterrestrials who pursue Stitch, Jumba and Pleakley, have always been a slightly strange adjustment with this story, largely there to add a little more madness on the edges. Here, they show how difficult it is to balance the classic “cartoony” aesthetics of the original with a more realistic cinema approach. Their comic incompetent attempts to blend into their Hawaiian environment would be even more difficult to buy live, so they display entirely human costumes: Zach Galifianakis plays Jumba, while Billy Magnussen is Pleakley. The two actors are certainly a game, with Magnussen in particular, seeming to have a lot of pleasure in becoming really clumsy. But where humor with Lilo and Stitch almost always works, the eccentric hijinks with Jumba and Pleakley are more affected.
One of the most curious adaptation choices concerns the character of Cobra Bubbles, the work worker of G-Man who has become of Lilo & Stitch. The remake shares its role in two, with Courtney B. Vance playing bubbles as an active agent of the CIA investigating foreign observations, while the physical form of Nani as a goalkeeper is determined by a new character, Mme Kekoa (played by the original voice of Nani, Tia Carrere). He ends up making one of the major figures in the Lilo & Stitch universe feels a little stranger and leaves the fantastic vance without doing too much. (Better served: Amy Hill as a gentle and sassy neighbor of Lilo and Nani Tūtū and Kaipo Dudit as the potential love interest of Nani, David Kawena.)
Visually, a few moments ago where the camp felt considered to reproduce a memorable image of the original in terms of framing in the same way. Fortunately, this kind of “what is the point?” Mimicry does not become widespread. The director is also able to have fun with some of the greatest science fiction moments, including smart visual gags involving an extraterrestrial pistol that can create portals.
While Lilo & Stitch is coming to an end, some of his biggest gaps are needed. I do not want to give too much, but I can say that we imply giving the film a more specific and hostile antagonist, while other changes come to the very end to underline what this version of the story is. It is a striking conclusion apparently designed to make you say “AWW” – and as so much of Lilo & Stitch, he certainly succeeds on this front.
