Lilo & Stitch creator Chris Sanders has said his only concern about Disney’s new live-action remake of the beloved animated film was a practical one.
In addition to co-directing the original Lilo & Stitch in 2002, Sanders also created and voiced the mischievous alien Stitch. He returned to voice the CGI character in the new version, directed by Dean Fleischer Camp.
Disney’s latest remake has divided critics, with some calling it the “best live-action remake yet.” Others have described the film as unnecessary, with The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey labelling it “a travesty” in a one-star review.
Speaking to The Independent, Sanders said he felt “completely confident” that the story would “translate beautifully” to live action.
He continued: “I think the biggest concern with Stitch, it’s a very practical concern, is just how big he is. His ears increase in scale! One of the things I was curious about was, how big will he actually be? When they did the walk around outfit for the Disney parks, he was limited in his head size because he needs to be packed on to airplanes and go through doorways and stuff like that.
“The real Stitch, the Stitch that’s in the movie, when he’s standing at full height he’s 18 inches high. He’s not very big, but because his head is so big and his ears are so big it kind of magnifies his presence. So they found a good size for him.”
The original Lilo & Stitch movie follows the story of a lonely six-year-old girl, who adopts what she thinks is a dog but actually turns out to be an extraterrestrial entity that has escaped prison.
Fleischer Camp’s remake follows the same plot, with some new characters and storyline additions.
Earlier this month, Fleischer Camp addressed fan complaints over the movie’s reinvention of beloved character Agent Pleakley.
The one-eyed alien was a major character in the original Disney animated franchise. A self-proclaimed “Earth expert,” Pleakley partnered with Jumba Jookiba on a mission to capture Experiment 626/Stitch. In the 2002 film, he went undercover wearing a dress and wig to try and fit in with humans.
Following the release of the Lilo & Stitch trailer in March, fans noticed Fleischer Camp’s version of Pleakley did not wear a dress. Instead, he wore a plain, blue long-sleeve shirt.
The Marcel the Shell with Shoes On director and co-creator has since responded to the criticism, insisting that he “tried” to keep his version of Pleakley (played by Billy Magnussen) in a dress.
“I have had people message me, ‘Why is Pleakley not wearing a dress?’” he said in a recent TikTok video, alongside a screenshot of one comment that read: “How dare they ruin Pleakley’s disguise like that.”
“And I just want to say, I tried… I tried,” the director said, sharing images of his original concept drawings showing Pleakley in a dress and wig.
He further touched on the changes in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, confirming that his team did “some tests and some character design work” to see if they could realistically render a CGI alien in human clothes. But the result felt “a bridge too far,” he admitted.
“The humor of them walking around Hawaii dressed in these terrible disguises where Pleakley still has one eyeball, it’s a little harder to buy in live action,” said Fleischer Camp.
Lilo & Stitch opens in cinemas May 21.
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