Lilo & Stitch (2025) Reviews: What Critics Said

Editorial note: This is a roundup of published criticism of Lilo & Stitch. Celluloid has not screened the film for this piece, and it carries no Celluloid rating. The critics are named and linked under Sources.

Is Lilo & Stitch worth watching?

Critics were divided, with a slight lean towards yes: several found Disney’s live-action remake charming, heartfelt and well cast, while others saw a longer, tamer retread of the 2002 animated film. The warmest praise went to Sydney Agudong as Nani, to Chris Sanders returning as the voice of Stitch, and to the film’s emotional pull. The recurring complaint is that it follows the original closely without matching its anarchic energy, and that its additions make it longer rather than better.

What is Lilo & Stitch about?

Dean Fleischer Camp’s film is a live-action remake of Disney’s 2002 animated feature. In Hawaii, a lonely young girl, Lilo, lives with her older sister Nani, who is struggling to keep the household afloat. Lilo adopts what she takes to be a strange-looking dog, but the creature is a fugitive alien whose arrival brings chaos along with a chance to mend their broken family. Maia Kealoha plays Lilo and Sydney Agudong plays Nani, while Chris Sanders, who co-directed the original, again voices Stitch. Zach Galifianakis, Billy Magnussen, Courtney B. Vance and Tia Carrere also appear. The film was released in 2025 and runs 108 minutes; certificates and streaming details are on the Lilo & Stitch film page.

What critics praised

In Entertainment Weekly, Maureen Lee Lenker was the most enthusiastic, finding the remake lively, playful and sincere, and an improvement on its source. She saw Kealoha as a major talent in the making who lets Lilo’s grief show beneath the mischief, admired Agudong’s exasperated but deeply loving Nani, and thought the real Hawaiian landscapes lend the story a beauty animation could not match.

Olly Richards of Time Out ranked it among the best of Disney’s live-action remakes. He argued that the original’s modest scale leaves room for a remake to find its own personality, and likened its energy to an 1980s Amblin film such as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. He thought Kealoha a terrific discovery whose comic delivery is spot on, and credited Agudong with giving the story real heft and stakes that feel genuine.

Cooler reviews still found positives. William Bibbiani of TheWrap felt Kealoha keeps pace with Stitch’s mayhem, said Agudong carries much of the film, found Sanders’s vocal performance surprisingly complex, and admitted the familiar ending still moved him. In Empire, Helen O’Hara singled out Kealoha as excellent and welcomed both the extra weight given to the sisters and the shift towards Hawaiian music. Peter Debruge of Variety credited the 2002 screenplay with giving the remake a sturdy emotional foundation, and enjoyed Galifianakis and Magnussen’s physical comedy, and Jacob Oller of The A.V. Club conceded that Stitch is still endearing.

Where critics were divided

The central objection is that it copies its source without the spark. O’Hara found it loyal to a fault and a washed-out copy of the original, with emotional moments that feel muddled in the edit and a Lilo softened from her wilder animated self; she argued that remakes should either take real liberties or not be made at all. Debruge made a similar case: to him the film has mislaid the original’s wild unpredictability and is so dutiful that it becomes timid, feeling more like a television comedy set in Hawaii than a Disney spectacle. He also found the furrier, koala-like Stitch slightly off.

Length and new characters drew criticism too. Bibbiani noted that the original was a model of efficient storytelling, and felt the remake stretches it out, dividing Cobra Bubbles’s role between him and a new social worker, Mrs. Kekoa, which in his view swaps one memorable figure for two bland ones. He concluded that it still works, only slightly less well, and was never needed. Oller was far harsher, finding the cinematography perfunctory, the live-action Jumba and Pleakley grotesque and jarring, and the thinly drawn new human characters a drag on the original’s found-family theme.

Kealoha herself split opinion. Where Lenker, Richards, Bibbiani and O’Hara praised her, Debruge thought her too polished for such a frenetic role, and Oller found her mostly flat.

Who is it for?

Families are the obvious audience: the film is rated PG in the US and U in the UK, and its admirers stressed its focus on sisterhood, grief and belonging. Critics who judged it on its own terms were kinder than those who measured it against the 2002 film, so newcomers may enjoy it most. More titles for all ages are on the family genre page.

The critical verdict

Lenker and Richards saw a warm, well-cast remake among Disney’s better attempts, and Bibbiani found it effective if unnecessary. O’Hara and Debruge felt its faithfulness drains the original’s wildness, and Oller dismissed it outright. The steadiest praise went to Agudong and Sanders’s Stitch; the steadiest complaint was that it adds length without adding much else.