Cast members from the original 2002 animated film and the live-action remake explain what lured them to — or back to — “Lilo & Stitch.”
When Maia Kealoha learned that she was going to play Lilo in Disney’s live-action remake of “Lilo & Stitch,” she sobbed big, fat, happy tears.
“That might be the first time I was quiet in my whole entire life,” she said of the video call with the film’s director, Dean Fleischer Camp, in 2023, when he asked her to be his Lilo.
Kealoha, 8, is a big fan of the original animated film from 2002 about a destructive but adorable alien experiment named Stitch who crash-lands in Hawaii and befriends a young girl named Lilo.
The film, which earned more than $273 million (or $484 million when adjusted for inflation) at the global box office, was one of the first Disney animated movies to be driven by a nonromantic story line. It also won praise for its strong female characters and nuanced depictions of Hawaii.
“I’ve seen it 1,000 times,” Kealoha, who was born and raised on Hawaii’s Big Island, said in a recent video call. “It’s so good.”
Stitch, unsurprisingly, is her favorite character. The rambunctious blue troublemaker also reminds her of someone she knows: Her 1-year-old brother, Micah Kealoha.
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Source: Movies - nytimes.com
