Disney’s latest foray into live action is bloated and cynical filmmaking
There is no gripe over the actors of Walt Disney’s latest live-action adaptation of Lilo & Stitch (2025), directed by Dean Fleischer Camp. This is pleading to the spirit of Walt Disney to haunt the current board of Disney’s company, just to hit the brakes on these live-action adaptations.
They are lazy, and nobody clamored for them. This is quite pitiful for the director Camp, who has made excellent animated work with Marcel the Shell with Shoes On to situate the power of non-computer-generated animation with heartfelt stories and compelling characters. Camp is an indie animation stalwart, and he drowned in this tidal reworking of the 2002 classic Lilo and Stitch.
One could imagine if a multi-billion-dollar behemoth like Disney would take a chance on independent-minded creators and support their works, not just regurgitating the studio’s glory days back when hand-drawn 2D animation was supreme.
The Walt Disney Studios used to be a fount for innovation and wonder. Disney was an American visionary who dared to take risks and earned himself a place in the global popular heart, where people from different cultures grew up with his works. In the age of visual onslaught, a heavy cynicism is involved that businesses should take precedence over artistic endeavors. This is a shame, for the spirit of innovation and risk made Disney and the United States of America the prime mover of soft power brought by the arts and entertainment.
Recently, the Chinese animation feature film NeZha 2 (2025), directed by Jiaozi, has overtaken Pixar and Disney as the biggest global box office hit. Of course, China is still very distant from overtaking the American imagination machinery. Still, Hollywood’s eventual demise will be quickened by relying on intellectual property and, now, by the U.S. President’s frenzied attempt to control American filmmaking with his odious tariffs. Disney is now working on a live adaptation of Moana, considering the movie is not even that old.
One should note that the cast of indigenous and diasporic voices is crucially the best part of Lilo & Stitch (2025). Filipino-American actress and singer Tia Carere (who grew up in Hawaii), who voiced the original Nani (the big sister of Lilo), plays a government social worker who is not stereotypically jaded, exhausted, or inefficient, but one who cares.
Another Filipino-American stars as Nani is Sydney Agudong, who reminds us of Andi Eigenmann. However, there is some negative buzz over Agudong because she is not a Hawaiian native and half-white. Many shrill cultural activists are hellbent on overcorrection with ethnonationalist indicators, meaning to shoehorn identity politics just for the sake of identity politics while not having to contribute to any significant changes.
Now that is another danger for Disney—to pander to a shallow approach of “Wokeness.” Suppose Disney was actually for emerging voices and being open to diversity as they deal with the white supremacist past (and present) of this company. In that case, they should support marginalized voices and help these ignored visions be seen worldwide. Please stop with the remakes. There is a world of stories out there.
You may reach Chong Ardivilla at kartunistatonto@gmail.com or chonggo.bsky.social.
