Lilo & Stitch director Dean Fleischer Camp has addressed the reaction that followed after he changed the film’s ending.
Based on the 2002 animated version of the same name, Disney’s live-action remake was a huge hit at the box office, where it managed to outperform Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning in its opening weekend.
The film, which follows the friendship between six-year-old Lilo (Maia Kealoha) and a chaotic alien named Stitch, was also a hit among critics, who hailed the remake as “the best Disney live-action to date”.
However, some fans of the original animation were left unimpressed at the director’s decision to change the ending of the film, which sees Nani leave Lilo behind to go and study marine biology in San Diego.
Speaking about the ending, Camp defended his decision, saying much of the backlash came from those who are yet to see the movie.
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“I’ve had some time to think about this,” he told Variety. “I do think that a fair amount of the people who are dunking on that premise have not actually seen the movie, and they write me stuff that is clearly wrong.”
According to Camp, the director wanted to “expand the meaning of ohana”, which is a significant term in the original film that “means family”.
Camp explained that screenwriter Chris Kekaniokalani Bright, who is Hawaiian, pointed out that the Hawaiian community wouldn’t leave the orphaned sisters “to fend for themselves”.
“That led him to create this character of Tutu, and she ultimately takes Lilo in as hanai,” Camp said. “Which is this culturally specific term and tradition that is a form of informal adoption. It isn’t about blood or paperwork, but love and responsibility for the greater good and for one’s community.”
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He continued: “I think you can’t satisfy everyone with these remakes. You are treading on hallowed ground when you make one of these, because these are films people grew up with, and I’m one of them, and I totally understand it.
“But we didn’t want to just restage the beats of the original film, as much as we both loved it. We wanted to tell a story that’s honest about what it means to lose everything and still find a way forward. People do get left behind, like what Nani says, this is, and it’s incumbent upon the community to make sure that they aren’t forgotten.”
Lilo & Stitch is out now in cinemas.
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Harriet is a freelance news writer specialising in TV and movies at Digital Spy.
A horror enthusiast, she joined Digital Spy after working on her own horror website, reviewing films and focusing largely on feminism in the genre.
In her spare time, Harriet paints and produces mixed-media art. She graduated from the University of Kingston with a BA in fine art, where she specialised in painting. She also has an MA in journalism from Birkbeck University.
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