The live action “Lilo & Stitch” movie, which is set for release on May 23, recently caused concern after the official trailer appeared to have cut many crucial elements of the original movie, including the effects of tourism, the struggles of native Hawaiians and queercoded characters.
The trailer, which was published on March 12, advertised a remake of the Disney classic “Lilo & Stitch” scrubbed of complex themes and ready to sell the product of Stitch.
Beginning with the first major change, the Diamond Head volcano tuff was the opening frame of Earth in the trailer at around the 20 second mark, which has relocated the setting of the movie to O’ahu, Hawaii, according to the official trailer, which can be found on Youtube.
In the original film, Stitch crash landed on Kaua’i, which prevented him from causing mayhem, because this island has the smallest population in Hawaii at 73,987 residents, according to World Population Review.
Conversely, O’ahu is the most populated island in Hawaii, housing over 978,568 residents, according to World Population Review.
Besides having introduced a major plot hole, the location being moved to O’ahu is notable in other ways, as it is where Disney’s Aulani Resort and Spa is located, according to the Aulani official website.
It’s unlikely that this decision was coincidental, and the remainder of the trailer supported this idea.
Discussed within the original film, “Lilo & Stitch” seeks to show the impacts of tourism, non-Hawaiian residents, and government intervention on Native Hawaiians through three recurring side characters: Ice Cream Man, Myrtle, and Cobra Bubbles.
First, The Ice Cream Man, who is overweight and visibly sunburnt, appeared randomly throughout the film, which highlighted that tourism was everywhere, following Lilo and Nani no matter where they were on the island.
Second, Myrtle, a white redhead in Lilo’s hula class who, despite not being a Native Hawaiian, continuously antagonizes Lilo and pushes her out of the space dedicated to her culture.
Lastly, Cobra Bubbles, Lilo’s social worker and a former CIA agent, was Nani’s main antagonist throughout the film, and eventually took Lilo out of Nani’s custody, in one of the most memorable scenes of the movie.
However, all three characters appeared to have been scrubbed of their original narrative purposes in the live action trailer.
The Ice Cream Man has been replaced with a Native Hawaiian man, Myrtle’s actress, while unconfirmed to be Native Hawaiian, is at the very least no longer an obvious outsider, and Cobra Bubbles was removed as the social worker, now a full time agent attempting to catch Stitch, according to the official trailer.
While The Ice Cream Man and Myrtle being changed for the film is worrying, the complete rewrite of Cobra Bubbles is confirmation that Disney is likely abandoning the native characters of the film to instead profit off of Stitch, a rambunctious alien dog.
Nani has also experienced changes in the film, as Sydney Agudong, who will be playing the character, came under scrutiny due to her physical differences with the original character.
According to The Direct, Agudong is of multiracial descent, with her father being Filipino and Polynesian, and her mother being of mixed caucasian descent.
While she was raised on Kaua’i Island, many people were concerned due to her skin tone being significantly lighter than Nani’s, as well as having less discernible Hawaiian features.
To take things further, many viewers thought that Agundong might have had makeup applied to make her skin appear darker, according to the clips from the official trailer.
The combination of these changes made it evident that the live action “Lilo & Stitch” is being produced first and foremost for profit and tourism, desecrating the original messages of the movie.
