THB #708: Lilo & Stitch (2025)

I’m really writing this for Dean Fleischer Camp (not that I really know him) because I feel like he has been left hanging out in the breeze without a lot of support for why the film that opens this week (May 22) is not the film that might be what is expected.

To be direct, the film feels like a TV movie… like it was made for Disney+. You know why? Because it was. Then it tested really well and they moved it to theatrical. And they are going to have a big fat hit.

But here’s the thing… Maleficent coast (at least) $180 million… and that was decade ago. Snow White cost (at least) $250 million… released and bombed a few months ago.

The reported cost of this live Lilo & Stitch is $100 million. And I’m not even sure it is really that.

Remember Captain Gantu?

Me too. So, hang onto that memory, because he’s not in the new movie?

Remember how Jumba & Pleakley turned into human form when they got to earth, so they wouldn’t be recognized as they searched for Stitch?

Me neither. Because they didn’t.