SPOILERS: Disney’s Live-Action ‘Lilo & Stitch’ Makes Massive, Controversial Change To Original Ending
Par for the course with such adaptations, a number of changes have been made to the tale of Disney’s Lilo & Stitch in its jump to live-action – but perhaps none are more significant or as baffling as the rewrite given to the film’s original ending.
[SPOILER WARNING: Significant spoilers for Disney’s live-action Lilo & Stitch follow below. If you’d like to avoid them, please refrain from reading any further.]
As readers who have seen the 2002 animated original may recall, one of its central themes is the concept of ‘family’, as exemplified by the relationship between the titular Lilo and her older sister Nani.
Recently made orphans thanks to the untimely car crash death of their parents, the film opens with Nani preparing for a home visit from social worker Cobra Bubbles, who is soon arriving to evaluate her capability as Lilo’s caretaker.
Unfortunately, thanks to a string of miscommunications between all three, Cobra walks away from the visit with strong doubts regarding Nani’s capacity to be responsible.
“Let me illuminate to you the precarious situation in which you have found yourself: I am the one they call when things go wrong and things have indeed gone wrong,” he tells her. “In case you’re wondering, this did not go well. You have three days to change my mind.”
But despite her best effort, after another recapture attempt by Jumba and Pleakley ends with her house being blown to smithereens, Cobra decides to remove Lilo from her custody and begin the process of placing her in foster care.
Understandably confused, Nani frantically declares to Cobra, “You don’t know what you’re doing! She needs me!”, only for him to bellow back, “IS THIS WHAT SHE NEEDS?! It seems clear to me that you need her a lot more than she needs you.”
However, after the Great Councilwoman officially sentences Stitch “to life in exile” on Earth, in doing so formally designating his new family as his official ‘wardens’, Cobra not only revises his initial judgement and grants Nani full custody of Lilo, but also goes on to become a genuine friend of the family.
And though the live-action Lilo & Stitch still attempts to embody the spirit of “O’hana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind”, it completely misses the mark thanks to the aforementioned change to its ending.
In the film’s new take, rather than serving as Lilo’s guardian, Nani instead accepts an offer by David’s grandmother, Tūtū, to leave her in their care so she can pursue her dream of studying Marine Biology at UC San Diego.
And though she initialy protests the idea on the grounds that “It’s my kuleana [a native Hawaiian word referring to the concepts of privilege and responsibility to one’s community and land] to take care of [Lilo]”, she ultimately changes her mind after Tūtū shoots back, “It’s also your kuleana to not leave yourself behind.”
To summarize, whereas the animated original ended with Nani fulfilling her goal of being deemed responsible enough to care for Lilo, the live-action version concludes with her winning Lilo back only to leave her to the care of local family friends in order to attend college.
A controversial change to be sure, audiences will have to wait until the film’s post-release interviews begin to get any insight into the reasons behind Lilo & Stitch‘s new ending.
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