Warning: Contains SPOILERS for the live-action Lilo & Stitch remake!
Nani makes a big decision in the live-actionLilo & Stitchremake that she didn’t make in the original film, and I am incredibly upset by it. Nani was one of thecharacters that the live-actionLilo & Stitchremakeattempted to expand on the most, with the filmmakers wanting the remake to be a more personal story about Lilo and Nani’s relationship as sisters. Unfortunately, the ending ofLilo & Stitchmade a bizarre decision that seems to undercut all of this, with this Nani choice leaving me and many others scratching our heads.
I have not been a fan of any of the live-action Disney remakes, and this has held true withLilo & Stitch. Overall,I think that the 2025 remake fundamentally misunderstood the themes and emotions of the original movie, as can be seen with many of the changes.Making Jumba the main villainproves that the movie doesn’t understand how key his redemption was to the familial themes of the original. The same can be said for Lilo’s fascination with mainland tourists, something that is also absent from the remake. Of all these changes, however, the ones surrounding Nani are the most shocking.
Nani Gives Up Lilo To The State When She Goes To College
And This Is Presented As A Good Thing
Lilo & Stitch’s live-action remake attempts to expandon Nani’s backstory, showing who she was before their parents' deaths. In the remake, Nani was a prolific surfer who seemed to have a bright career ahead of her. She also excelled in school and had dreams of leaving Hawaii to go to school for marine biology. Once her parents died, however, Nani put these dreams aside to take care of Lilo. While Nani is in the same position in both takes onLilo & Stitch, the remake attempts to highlight how much she gave up for her sister.
Throughout the remake,Nani’s neighbor Tūtū and several other characters encourage her to pursue her dreams. She is struggling to balance her life as an individual with her care for Lilo, getting her in trouble with child protective services. At the end of the remake, the social workers say that Nani needs to find a new home for Lilo. Nani makes the shocking decision to agree, making Lilo live with Tūtū. Nani then leaves Lilo to go to college, following her dreams. While this is painted as a feel-good moment, it is shockingly out of character for Nani based on the original film.
Nani’s Decision In The Remake Deviates From The Original Lilo & Stitch Movie
Where She Continues To Live With Lilo
Nani giving Lilo up to the state is a shocking deviation from the 2002 classic, which ends with Nani keeping Lilo. When the Grand Councilwoman comes to Earth, she makes Lilo and Nani Stitch’s guardians, convincing Cobra Bubbles not to divide the family up. Lilo goes back home to live with Stitch and Nani,as well as Jumba and Pleakley. The state ceases to bother the family anymore, with Cobra Bubbles even becoming a friend of the family in future animatedLilo & Stitchprojects.
Nani’s willingness to give up Lilo in the remake is a massive change of character, as she never would have done this in the animated film. There, she fights tooth and nail to keep Lilo, with her continuing to improve as a parental figure in laterLilo & Stitchstories. While the remake does contain a montage of Nani trying to get a job, it doesn’t feel like she is trying as hard.
For example,it was Nani’s idea to get Lilo a dog in the original film. She can tell that Lilo is lonely, and she makes this decision because she loves her sister. In the remake, it is Tūtū’s idea, ripping away this major character moment. While this may seem like a small adaptational change, there was a thematic purpose to it being this way in the original film. Changes aren’t inherently bad, but when the change takes emotion away without adding anything, then it is a bad change.
I’m Upset Because This Ending Change Ruins The Whole Point Of Nani & Lilo’s Story
And I’m Not The Only One Who Thinks So
I am not the only one who is unhappy with this change. It is arguably the remake’s most controversial story decision, with many fans of the original expressing their issues with the change online. Many realize thatit takes away one of the biggest emotional beats from the original movie, hurting Nani’s character and the themes ofLilo & Stitch.
I’m not sure why the team behind the remake thought that this was a good deviation to make, as it ruins the whole point of Nani and Lilo’s story.Lilo & Stitchis all about family, and how Lilo’s is no less of a family just because it is an odd one. It may be made up of one sister being raised by another sister, a talking blue dog, and two aliens, but it is just as valuable as any other family unit. This family is what Lilo calls home, and throughout theLilo & Stitchfranchise, all the characters grow through their love for each other.
At theend of theLilo & Stitchremake, Lilo is sent away to live with a neighbor, Nani goes to a different state, and Jumba is not redeemed. While the movie says that “Ohana” means “nobody gets left behind,” Lilo is literally left behind in Hawaii. It will probably be years until Nani and Lilo live together again, and this change makes Nani feel like a less strong and less loving character.
Another reason that this change is bad has to do with a broader theme of the originalLilo & Stitch: colonialism. Throughout the 2002 film, Lilo is made to feel like a stranger in her own land. She is fascinated by the tourists from the mainland, and they treat her like a tourist attraction more than a person. The social worker’s attempt to break up Lilo and Nani is meant to represent the United States breaking up Hawaii when the country annexed it.
Nani even sings “Aloha ‘Oe” to Lilo the night before she is taken, with this being a song written by Hawaiian Queen Lili’uokalani in the years before Hawaii was annexed. While the remake is far less anti-colonial than the original film, this Nani change is an odd decision considering what it means in the context of the original film. If the remake is saying that Nani giving up Lilo is a good thing, this would parallel with the remake saying that the colonization of Hawaii is a good thing. This just goes to show how misunderstandingLilo & Stitch’ssource material can lead to disastrous thematic consequences.
