Disney Announces Release Date For LILO & STITCH, FREAKIER FRIDAY
By Movieguide® Contributor
The year’s not over yet, but Disney is already looking ahead to summer of 2025, announcing release dates for some of their most highly anticipated movies.
A live-action version of the popular LILO & STITCH will be making its way to the big screen on May 23, 2025.
“Newcomer Maia Kealoha plays Lilo in the live-action version of the Hawaii-set 2002 animated pic; the new take was originally developed for Disney+ before shifting to a theatrical release,” Deadline reported.
The cast also includes Zach Galifianakis, Sydney Elizebeth Agudong, Courtney B. Vance, and Billy Magnussen, with MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON’s Dean Fleischer Camp serving as director. Chris Kekaniokalani Bright wrote the script, working from a previous draft from Mike Van Waes.
A portion of the Movieguide® review for the original LILO & STITCH reads:
Wonderful animation and storytelling, as well as a fun soundtrack that features Elvis Presley music, makes LILO & STITCH a very exciting and moving movie experience. LILO & STITCH is very enjoyable for adults and children, but adults should be prepared to counter the few objectionable points and use them as teaching opportunities. Finally, it is interesting that Disney and other animators are finally drawing cartoon people with believable, imperfect bodies.
LILO & STITCH extols love, perseverance, commitment, faith, family, and redemption. Some action violence and references to evolution and voodoo make the movie inappropriate for younger children
Disney also gave a release date for FREAKIER FRIDAY, the sequel to the popular 2003 movie FREAKY FRIDAY, starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan. The sequel will be hitting theaters August 8.
FREAKIER FRIDAY sees Curtis and Lohan reprising their roles as mother and daughter. Original cast members Chad Michael Murray, Mark Harmon, Christina Vidal Michell, Haley Hudson, Lucille Soong, Stephen Tobolowsky and Rosalind Chao will also be returning.
“The film picks up years after Tess (Curtis) and Anna (Lohan) endured an identity crisis,” a press release about the movie’s plot reads. “Anna now has a daughter of her own and a soon-to-be stepdaughter. As they navigate the myriad challenges that come when two families merge, Tess and Anna discover that lightning might indeed strike twice.”
Curtis spoke to Good Morning America about the movie, calling it “a love letter to mommies.”
“It’s a love letter to mommies and daughters and families. This is a love letter to them to just being mothers and the beauty of it all,” the actress concluded.
Movieguide® previously reported on FREAKIER FRIDAY:
Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis are starring in the upcoming comedy FREAKY FRIDAY 2, and while Lohan “can’t say much” about the movie, she’s having fun being on set.
“It’s going to be a really freaky Friday. Much freakier than you would expect,” Lohan said in a GOOD MORNING AMERICA interview Thursday.
Lohan added that “It’s fantastic” to film with much of the same cast and crew 22 years after the original’s release.
“I mean, we all just have so much fun and it’s so great to have that on set,” THE PARENT TRAP star said. “You just always really want to have a good time. So it’s just yeah a lot of love, a lot of fun, a lot of laughs. It’s a great experience.”
The actress and her on-screen mom, Jamie Lee Curtis, have kept up with each other throughout the last two decades.
“It’s kind of, you know, they always say, like, when you have a best friend or someone who you’re really close with…you cannot see them for years and years but when you see them again it’s like you never separated,” Lohan shared. “And I think just always women supporting women is such an incredible thing. It’s exciting.”