The live action reimagining of Disney’s Lilo & Stitch has been on my family’s must-watch list since we heard it was coming to the big screen. My 10-year-old daughter Sofia is obsessed with Stitch, even though the original film came out more than a decade before she was born. When she saw the trailer, she “meeeeped” with excitement at how cute the live-action Stitch is (he’s CGI but looks so furry and adorable!). Even my 4-year-old Saide loved him immediately.
Director Dean Fleischer Camp and screenwriters Chris Kekaniokalani Bright and Mike Van Waes understood their assignment. The original film is irreplaceable, but this version adds to the beauty of that 2002 story in a way that makes it live on its own.
My kids, of course, loved watching the familiar story with a cast of characters that resembled them in many ways, and seeing a real-life Stitch was icing on the cake. I loved Lilo SO much! Disney could not have found a better little actress than Maia Kealoha to portray the stubborn and fiercely loyal Lilo. And I was so happy to see that the only CGI character was Stitch. The aliens hunting down their escaped killing machine Stitch — Zach Galifianakis’s Jumba, Billy Magnussen’s Pleakley, and Courtney B. Vance’s Cobra Bubbles — were a joy to watch as well.
But our love of the movie runs deeper. There’s something incredibly familiar about this movie and this is why it resonates with our own little clan. It’s not just that the original movie is so touching and an enjoyable watch for kids and adults; it’s the message that “ohana,” that sense of togetherness and community that goes beyond just blood relatives to incorporate our entire village, is the most important part of any family, whether that family includes just the nuclear familia, or it extends to primos, tíos, abuelos, even our friends who become family.
This sense and significance of family is something I’ve always reiterated to my kids since they were younger. Even the way our family has grown to three kids and three doggies, two of which we have rescued, has instilled in the kids that sense of ohana: family is more than immediate relatives, it’s also chosen friends, neighbors, even our pets. Through little spats and big arguments, no matter what, family is most important and we will be there for one another always. Just like Lilo, Nani, and Stitch.
This Memorial Day Weekend, get ready for some mischief (nothing wrong with that!), grab your familia (immediate, extended, and beyond!) and get your tickets for Lilo & Stitch, only in theaters May 23.
