One thing I really enjoyed about having Disneyland season passes (prior to price hikes) was wandering around the parks and seeing random celebrities. From the Kardashians to Modern Family’s Eric Stonestreet, Main Street, USA is a bit of a celebrity haven, and the latest star to pop up seems to have been Lilo & Stitch’s own Tia Carrere.
The timing is probably not a coincidence. Lilo & Stitch live action just became available for those with a Disney+ subscription last month, and Carrere was in the parks celebrating the release. While I dug her overall Hawaiian vibe, it was the Lilo-esque Minnie Mouse ears she rocked that really caught my eye.
The ears are from Disney’s famous bucket list Hawaiian resort, Aulani, and are called the Plumeria ears, featuring the famous flowers from the region. They came out a while ago in a slew of colors, including the black variant warn by Carrere, but they also came in pink, rose gold, purple and coral and hit shelves around 2020 or so. Now they are a bit of a tough find –though enterprising shoppers can find them secondhand – but it’s very cool the actress hung onto hers to rep the great state Carrere hails from.
The actress has been a member of the Lilo & Stitch franchise since the very beginning. In the original 2002 movie, she voiced Nani. Then, she was asked back for the live action version. While Sydney Elizebeth Agudong plays the big sister movie in the 2025 Lilo & Stitch movie, Carrere returns to play Mrs. Kekoa, a social worker who keeps tabs on Lilo & Nani.
She previously told us she was happy the movie got a second round so the movie could rectify a mistake she'd made in the OG Lilo & Stitch.
Animated mistakes or no, CinemaBlend’s review of Lilo & Stitch (2025) specifically cited bringing Carrere back as a much-needed human element to the original alien story, and I couldn’t agree more. It's nice she's been a part of the franchise for nearly 25 years now and is still repping it with as much enthusiasm as she did earlier in her career.
Now, I'll just go ahead and add Carrere to the list of celebs including Sydney Sweeney who rock ears better than I do. But I'm going to partially credit the cool ears, so please excuse me while I track them down. They are gorgeous and I must own them for my next trip to the parks.
