Lilo & Stitch (2025)

Written by CinemaSerf on May 29, 2025

Hmmm! I wasn’t sure if I was watching a sentimental edition of “Hawaii Five-O” here or a collection of outtakes from a “Sonic” movie as this rather disappointingly trundles along for the guts of two hours. It’s starts off quite promisingly as we see the “Grand Councilwoman” sentence the latest creation of madcap scientist “Jumba” to exile under the supervision of himself and Earth expert “Pleakley”. It turns out that the eponymous blue critter is actually quite a malevolent beastie adept at causing no end of mischief, and with the authorities now on his tail, he concludes that the safest thing to do is to hide in plain sight and get him self adopted by the none-too-bright “Lilo” (Maia Kealoha) who actually thinks he’s a dog! What is even dafter is that her elder sister “Nani” (Sydney Agudong) also reckons there is nothing so abnormal about a lively blue pet that can enunciate - though that’s perhaps because she is dazzled by the affections of the beefcake poster boy next door “David” (the hilariously wooden Kaipo Dudoit). Anyway, that’s the scene set as the predicable character arcs take us on a journey from bereavement and rebelliousness to the certainty of it’s long-in-coming denouement. It has it’s Laurel and Hardy moments, and at times there is some very light comedy - usually from Billy Magnussen, but I’m afraid that the story hasn’t the courage of it’s initially mischievous convictions and I rather lost interest as a sea of sentiment washed over me. Maybe it needs a “Brightburn” style director’s cut to spice it up a bit, but as it is it is an ok watch for the kids but not much more.