The live action remake of the Disney classic 'Lilo & Stitch' has been a long time coming, first announced back in 2018, over 6 years ago, and finally the film is premiering this May 23 in theaters, starring child actress Maia Kealoha as Lilo, and Chris Sanders (the original voice and one of the creator of the 2002 film) as Stitch.
Recently, Disney finally shared the first trailer for the film, where we can see the quality for some of the most important CGI aliens in the plot, not only our main creature Stitch, who according to fans on the internet looks perfectly adorable.
But despite people being happy with how the CGI looks this time, the film has had a lot of controversy, both with the cast and now that we're seeing the trailer, with the main criticism being that the actress playing Nani, Sydney Elizebeth Agudong, is not a native Hawaiian woman, which is very important to the character and the movie in general.
With the implications of Hawaii being the center piece of this movie, and how it subtlety comments on tourism and gentrification in Hawaii even for a children movie, the audiences are worrying that the live action adaptation will neglect this important conversation.
There hasn't been a first screening for critics, so opinions about the full movie are not out yet, so we'll have to wait until May 23 to see if the films delivers the essence of the original animated 'Lilo & Stitch'.