“ ‘Ohana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten.” Not even a full year after the live action Lilo & Stitch being released, it is now confirmed that the ‘Ohana will be making a comeback with a live action Lilo & Stitch 2! Lilo & Stitch 2 was officially announced on Disney’s official Instagram page on March 19, showing the title design of the movie and sharing the release date of the movie for May 26, 2028, stating in their caption “Our ‘Ohana is back 💙 #LiloandStitch2 is coming to theaters May 26, 2028!”
Now that Disney has been making a comeback with good live actions and sequels with their movies, Disney is taking advantage by announcing and teasing many live actions and sequels to come within the next few years. How could they not drop another Lilo & Stitch movie with the original being so beloved by many. With how the first live action of Lilo & Stitch went, there’s so much to think about with what this sequel will give us.
In my personal opinion, I truly enjoyed the first live action Lilo & Stitch! Not as good as the cartoon, but it was a good live action remake of the movie. I did like how Disney focused on Nani’s story besides taking care of Lilo in the remake because of the simple fact that people seem to forget that Nani is still very young and a teenager at the end of the day. Nani had a whole future ahead of her but decided to put it to the side to make sure her sister still had an adult figure in her life, since they both lost their parents at a young age.
Although myself and others did enjoy the first movie, not everyone did and there were many mixed reviews. People mainly didn’t like the movie because of the fact that Nani went to college and had her neighbors, that are basically her family, look after Lilo because people thought that she was abandoning Lilo. However, Nani really wasn’t trying to go to college no matter what anyone said and the only reason she decided to go was because Lilo wanted her to go make a future for herself, as she told Nani: that’s what their parents would have wanted for her. I actually think that this was a good addition to the movie because if you think about it, if Nani goes to college, she will have a better chance of getting really good jobs so that she could take care of Lilo and make sure she gets a better future as well.
However, what I can agree with everyone on is that it was terrible that they made Jumba the villain. Yes, Jumba was a crazy mad scientist in the original cartoon, but he honestly was a good person and did care about Lilo and Stitch, so I was very annoyed and confused that Disney made him the villain in the live action. I feel like everyone gets mad at Disney’s live actions because they change the story up and it’s not a copy and paste from their original movies. But the thing is, you can’t do remakes the exact same way, you have to change something up to add more to the story and answer the unanswered questions, you just have to do it properly and not make so many changes that it ruins the story.
With all of the thoughts about actually making a sequel to this remake and all of the changes that were made for the first movie, a question that keeps popping up in my brain is what approach will Disney take with this movie? We already have the cartoon version of Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch which is such an amazing movie and adds on to the story. But with Jumba being the villain in the live action Lilo & Stitch, he’s most likely not going to be the one to make the machine that is going to help save Stitch, like in the original cartoon. So does this mean Disney may be coming up with a whole new original story for Lilo & Stitch 2 or are they going to stick with the original story from the cartoon version and make lots of changes, since they changed the first story in the live action version already?
Although Disney is truly becoming repetitive coming out with all these live actions and sequels, this technically is the first real live action sequel from one of their original movies, since I feel like Maleficent: Mistress of Evil and Alice Through the Looking Glass doesn’t really count since the movies aren’t technically from the original cartoon versions, which is honestly really cool. Plus, how could you not want the most adorable creature to get the sequel movie that he deserves? So at the end of the day, I will be going to the theaters to go see Lilo & Stitch 2 to see how well Disney could pull off this live action sequel since they have made lots of crazy changes to the story, which I feel like was a way to tease that we will be getting more Lilo & Stitch in the future.
I just hope that people will actually give Lilo & Stitch 2 a chance because, no matter if Disney keeps making live action sequels or making changes to the storyline so that it won’t be a copy and paste of the original cartoon, people are never satisfied with what Disney gives them. I will admit, it is a lot with the live actions and sequels, but I still get very excited and give the movies a chance even though some aren’t the best and just keep dragging the stories on, because almost all of the live actions and sequels are really good in my opinion. For now, we just have to wait for updates, teasers, and trailers for Lilo & Stitch 2. So I hope everyone goes and brings their ‘Ohanas to the theaters on May 26, 2028 to go see Lilo & Stitch 2 so we can see what the story has to offer and what the future of Lilo & Stitch looks like!