Another day and another one of those mandatory Disney remakes. Though, when I saw the trailer, I became mildly interested—I couldn’t resist because they made the Stitch quite cute. In addition, Dean Fleischer Camp, who made Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, was on to direct, so I had my hopes quite high—to no avail.

There were certain things in this film that worked and most things that didn’t. What worked? The comedic partnership of Zach Galifianakis and Billy Magnussen was incredibly funny. In addition to the intelligent camera work, some scenes really did hit home its comedic punch. There was a scene where, after Jumba threw a tracker under Nani’s truck, the camera zooms out to a car honking him as he continues to drag Pleakley across the road. Other than these, not much of the film worked out that great. From an acting standpoint, Sydney Agudong, who played Nani, was the standout of the bunch.

I haven’t watched the original Lilo & Stitch in a long time, but I do remember one thing—Jumba was not depicted as villainous as this. I don’t remember Jumba being this cynical and hostile in the original film. In addition, the child actor playing Lilo was not as expressive as expected—it translated as being kind of flat. The pacing also didn’t really work out. The first opening sequenced were laid out so fast that we didn’t have the time to get to know the characters or even relate to them.

This wasn’t that bad but it wasn’t good either. Out of most of the Disney remakes so far, this is actually one of the better ones. Though, it’s not good enough to earn a rewatch. I guess hiring an A24-alum director doesn’t always work out for the best.