LILO & STITCH (2025)

Name: LILO & STITCH (2025)
Item: LILO & STITCH (2025)
Author: Review

"Leave No One Behind or Unloved"

Family Content: +1 Moderately questionable elements. (Discernment required for young children.)

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

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What You Need To Know:

LILO & STITCH is a live-action remake of the 2002 animated science fiction comedy. Lilo is a sad, lonely and sometimes angry 6-year-old orphaned girl in Hawaii. Her parents died, so her older adult sister tries to take care of her. Lilo prays for a friend and finds a small, escaped alien creature whose spaceship crashed on Earth and pretends to be a dog. Lilo takes him home and renames him Stitch, but Stitch causes all sorts of trouble for Lilo and her sister. Meanwhile, the Galactic Federation sends two bumbling aliens to capture Stitch and return him.

The live action LILO & STITCH is lots of fun, with touching moments of rescue and redemption. Sometimes, however, the comical action is awkwardly shot. Eventually, Lilo’s love and devotion change Stitch’s heart, allowing him to feel love and want to be part of her family. Lilo won’t quit loving Stitch no matter how much trouble he causes. The live action LILO & STITCH has lots of comical action violence, however, and very brief light foul language. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for younger children.

Content:

(BBB, C, Pa, PP, CapCap, L, VV, N, M):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Very strong moral, pro-family worldview, with some Christian, redemptive content extolling sacrifice and offering an allegorical death and resurrection where answered prayer helps a lonely little girl find a friend she can love who will love her back, but the prayer is accompanied by a wish on a falling star that actually turns out to be a spaceship from the “heavens,” plus a CIA agent and a social worker apply some grace and mercy to a job, and a business owner clearly regrets firing a good employee when her out-of-control family pet causes a small fire;

Foul Language:

One “h” word, two light exclamatory profanities, alien creature sits in a punch bowl and passes gas, at least one other comical reference to passing gas, and alien creature belches;

Violence:

Some strong and light, and often comical action violence such as alien creature breaks out of a cage and steals a spaceship, other ships fire lasers at it, the ship crash lands in Hawaii, an alien on another spaceship presses a button multiple times but doesn’t realize he’s giving the alien creature he’s hunting electric shocks each time, alien creature crashes a wedding and sits in the punch bowl and attacks the cake to eat it, indestructible alien creatures accidently gets run over by a vehicle, alien creature accidentally wrecks things and starts a fire, alien creature sometimes wrecks things on purpose too, title character shoves another girl during a Hula dance after the girl accidentally knocked her down, two aliens try to capture the alien creature, alien gets caught between two portals and keeps falling though them repeatedly, two character almost drown to death;

Sex:

No sex;

Nudity:

Upper male nudity and females in swimsuits at the beach and while surfing;

Alcohol Use:

No alcohol use;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

No smoking or drugs; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

The villain lies more than once, an alien creature steals a spaceship and tries to deceive humans into thinking he’s some weird kind of dog, but he’s redeemed, and a CIA agent poses a social worker, but he joins the good guys.

More Detail:

LILO & STITCH is a live-action remake of the 2002 animated science fiction comedy about a lonely 6-year-old orphaned girl in Hawaii who longs for a friend and finds an escaped alien creature who crash-lands on Earth and pretends to be a dog, but who causes all sorts of trouble. The live action LILO & STITCH is lots of fun, with touching moments of rescue and redemption, as well as love and family.

Lilo is a sad, lonely, angry, little girl (about six or eight) who spends her time wandering on the beach, feeding fish by hand, taking Hula classes, and acting out. Her parents died in a car accident, leaving her to be raised by her older sister, Nani, on a beautiful island in Hawaii. Lilo acts out her frustration in bursts of anger, shouting and alienating the other children her age.

Though Nani tries her best, she can’t meet all of Lilo’s emotional needs as she juggles the pressures of being provider, sister and parent. This has come to the attention of Social Services. The Social Services lady has given Nani a short time to improve their situation, or lose her little sister to the foster care system. That night, Lilo sees a shooting star and prays to God on the shooting star for a friend who won’t leave her.

Meanwhile, in a galaxy far, far away, in a world of various interstellar creatures, the Galactic Federation is holding a trial for an evil scientist, Jumba. Jumba has broken their laws by genetically creating an illegal life form called Experiment #626. This creature is designed to create havoc wherever it’s unleashed. Incredibly strong, intelligent, agile, mean, fast, and bulletproof, 626 is a monster and considered a threat to all life. So, the Federation Council decides to lock him up and sentence Jumba to prison.

However, 626 escapes in a spaceship, which crash-lands in Hawaii. So, the Grand Councilwoman orders Jumba and an Earth expert named Pleakley (picture Don Knotts with an alien head) to go fetch him.

Back on Earth, Meanwhile, #626 causes all sorts of trouble at a wedding party and ends up in cage at the dog pound. That’s where Lilo finds him the next day when her middle-aged neighbor, Tutu, takes Lilo to the pound to find a dog. She grabs #626, takes him home and renames him “Stitch.”

Stitch causes more trouble at home. He also causes trouble when he realizes he’s being hunted by Jumba and Pleakely. Making matters worse, Lilo’s sister loses her job because of Stitch’s shenanigans.

Meanwhile, the CIA is investigating Stitch’s crash landing. So, Stitch is even being hunted by a CIA agent.

However, Lilo believes that “Ohana,” the Hawaiian name for “family,” is the most important concept of all. She will not quit loving the mischievous Stitch, even though he’s only interested in protecting his own hide. Hilarious antics, leading to an exciting and heartwarming finish, ensue.

The live action LILO & STITCH is lots of fun, with touching moments of rescue and redemption. It’s a different experience than the animate original, however. For example, the alien creatures look a bit animated, so the live action humans don’t entirely match with the human actors. Also, the director, who made the winsome animated classic MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON, doesn’t always know how to shoot action scenes. For example, he sometimes places his camera too close, with too many edits.

Eventually, of course, Lilo’s love, faith and devotion change the heart of Stitch, allowing him to feel love, want to be part of a family, and cherish Lilo and Nani. Also, Stitch turns out to be Lilo’s answer to prayer. At the end, he risks his life to save Lilo, and Nani risks her life to save Stitch. In fact, Stitch has to be brought back to life.

The live action LILO & STITCH doesn’t have the references to evolution and voodoo that the original animated movie had. It does have lots of comical action violence and brief light foul language. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for younger children.