'Lilo & Stitch': Satisfying live-action remake of Disney favorite

"Lilo & Stitch," from 2002, might be the closest thing to an indie movie that Disney’s animation division ever produced. The story of a troublesome Hawaii resident girl, Lilo, who befriends a destructive space alien, Stitch, it combined an offbeat screenplay, kitschy humor (Elvis Presley dominates the soundtrack) and themes of poverty and single parenting that bordered on social realism. It was more "Juno" than "Sleeping Beauty," but the movie steadily found its audience and became something of a cult favorite in the Disney canon.

The studio’s new live-action remake feels a little slicker, with a fair amount of CGI, much less Elvis and a streamlined screenplay (by original creator Chris Sanders and others). But it also retains the oddball spirit of the original film thanks to director Dean Fleischer Camp, an indie darling best known for his Oscar-nominated stop-motion gem "Marcel the Shell with Shoes On" (2021). With winning performances from newcomers Maia Kealoha as Lilo and Sydney Elizebeth Agudong as her sister-turned-guardian, Nani, "Lilo & Stitch" is one of the rare Disney remakes that should satisfy fans of the original while bringing some new wrinkles to the material.

The heart of the story remains the same: On Earth, orphaned Lilo takes revenge on the world by disrupting her school hula dance, sneaking into tourist resorts ("I’m in town for the convention," she tells a skeptical hot tubber) and refusing to accept that her older sister is now her parent. Meanwhile, in the Kweltikwan galaxy, Stitch has been created by Doctor Jumba Jookiba (Zach Galifianakis) as a weapon of mass destruction. (Stitch once again looks a bit like a koala, but blue and vicious.) It makes sense that the two pint-size balls of fury would enter each other’s lives and melt each other’s hearts. (A CGI-disguised Hannah Waddingham, of "Ted Lasso," plays the Grand Councilwoman who inadvertently sends Stitch on his journey.)

Tia Carrere, voice of the original Nani, steps into the role of the social worker who threatens to separate the sisters, while Courtney B. Vance plays CIA agent Cobra Bubbles (a fine choice, though Ving Rhames, who first voiced the character, would have felt more symbolic). Billy Magnussen plays Pleakley, the alien eco-scientist who accompanies Jumba on his mission to retrieve Stitch (once again voiced by Sanders). If anyone in the cast underwhelms slightly it’s Galifianakis, who excels at playing social misfits but looks a little uncertain in the role of a straight villain.

One of the nicest surprises is Nani, rewritten as a fuller character with dreams of her own and played beautifully by Agudong, who has the sparkle of a young Emma Stone or Lindsay Lohan. Die-hard fans might quibble with this movie's dramatically reworked ending, but it also strikes a nice balance between hard reality and Disney fairy tale. There’s a chance this new "Lilo & Stitch" could become the out-of-the-gate hit that the original never quite was.

By Rafer Guzmán

rafer.guzman@newsday.com