By India McCarty
The ending of the live-action LILO & STITCH is drawing criticism online, but is it warranted? Warning: spoilers for the end of the movie ahead!
“In the original LILO & STITCH, the message was simple and powerful: Family comes first,” Evie Magazine wrote. “In Disney’s 2025 live-action remake, that message gets scrubbed and swapped for something far more marketable: self-actualization through abandonment.”
In the original movie, much of the plot centered on Nani, Lilo’s older sister, and her struggles to retain custody of her younger sister following the deaths of their parents. They end up staying together, with Nani as her primary guardian.
However, in the 2025 live-action remake, the ending gets a new twist. After Lilo almost drowns, Nani worries she will have to surrender her sister to foster care. Instead, Tutu, a neighbor and close family friend, volunteers to take custody of Lilo, allowing Nani to go back to college and pursue her love of marine biology.
While many are criticizing the 2025 LILO & STITCH for this change, others are pointing out that it still fulfills the original movie’s central theme of family, or “Ohana.”
“While many feel it’s disrespecting ‘Ohana’ and the idea that nobody gets left behind or forgotten, Lilo is not getting left behind or forgotten,” Laura Sirikul, a writer for Forbes, explained. “She has her family with her, including Stitch, Tutu, and their newfound family in Cobra Bubbles (Courtney B. Vance) and Pleakley (Billy Magnussen). Nani is only a portal blast away from seeing her little sister, and plans on returning to be reunited physically as a family.”
It was unfortunate that the filmmakers even put Nani in this situation, but as Sirikul pointed out, “The ending is actually paying a service to the phrase, as Nani herself doesn’t get left behind in her life and her dreams. Nani is a person, and those aspirations shouldn’t be forgotten or abandoned.”
Related: LILO & STITCH Actress Shares Favorite Movie Moments in Adorable Interview
“Disney’s live-action LILO & STITCH may not be the childhood nostalgic ending that we remember, but it’s a realistic (minus the aliens) portrayal of what ‘Ohana’ really means,” she concluded.
Dean Fleischer Camp, LILO & STITCH’s director, posted Sirikul’s piece on X, writing, “For anybody questioning the ending of our film, this beautiful piece […] nails it.”
For anybody questioning the ending of our film, this beautiful piece by @lsirikul nails it https://t.co/k8ZCz1YbTA
— Dean Fleischer Camp (@DFLEISCHERCAMP) May 26, 2025
“Thank you for sharing your stories with me,” he added in a later post. “It seems like the people with actual lived experiences like this are the ones with whom this ending resonates the most.”
Movieguide® also praised 2025’s LILO & STITCH for its “very strong moral, pro-family worldview.”
While some fans might be disappointed with the changes made to the 2025 remake, the new LILO & STITCH still more than upholds the original movie’s core themes of family and putting others first.
Read Next: LILO & STITCH (2025)
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