Director Defends Shocking Character Cut in Disney’s ‘Lilo & Stitch’ Remake
Disney fans have had a lot to celebrate lately. From thrilling theme park announcements to theatrical returns, the House of Mouse has been going full force in 2025. And among the most anticipated projects? The live-action remake of Lilo & Stitch, which finally arrived in theaters on May 23 after months of teasers, trailers, and Stitch wreaking chaos in hilarious promos.
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The film, based on the 2002 animated favorite, tells the story of Lilo, a young Hawaiian girl dealing with the challenges of growing up and holding her family together after tragedy. Her life is turned upside down when she adopts a strange creature she thinks is a dog, only to discover he’s actually an alien fugitive. What follows is a heartwarming tale of friendship, loss, and the true meaning of ‘Ohana — family.
But as with nearly every Disney live-action remake, Lilo & Stitch didn’t escape controversy. Fans were quick to spot a few changes from the original, and one decision in particular sparked immediate backlash. Before the movie even hit theaters, news broke that Captain Gantu — one of the animated film’s central characters — would not be appearing in the live-action version.
Disney fans took to social media in droves, questioning why such a “massive change” had been made. Adding fuel to the fire was the earlier announcement that the character Pleakley would no longer have his moment dressing in disguise, a scene many fans remembered fondly from the original.
Now that the film has officially premiered, director Dean Fleischer Camp is speaking out. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, he shared that the omission of Gantu was intentional and necessary for the tone he was aiming to create.
“Something that live-action films do by virtue of taking place in reality is that they are already more grounded,” Fleischer Camp tells Entertainment Weekly. “If you have a story like Lilo & Stitch that does actually have this pretty terrestrial drama between the sisters and staying together, you can actually do them a greater service in a live-action movie. You can make those relationships deeper, hopefully more emotionally resonant.”
“To create real estate for all that emotional stuff and the deepening that we did, you have to get rid of stuff. And so Gantu was a casualty of that, but one that I felt pretty confident about from a storytelling perspective.”
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The director also spoke about how the live-action format raises the emotional stakes in a way that animation simply doesn’t.
“You end up thinking about how it is a very different experience to see an actual 6-year-old girl potentially being threatened with being torn from her caregiver sister after grieving the loss of their parents,” Fleischer Camp says. “That is a very different kind of responsibility from a filmmaking perspective than what you can get away with in an animated film.”
While Gantu may be gone, his absence helped make room for a new character: Ms. Kekoa, a social worker portrayed by Tia Carrere — the original voice of Nani in the animated version. Fleischer Camp’s team believed it was “not realistic” for Cobra Bubbles to remain in that role, so he was reimagined as a CIA agent while Kekoa was added to carry the social work storyline.
Despite early criticism, Lilo & Stitch has proven to be a major box office draw. The film is expected to gross nearly $200 million over Memorial Day weekend, a period that has historically been hit-or-miss for theaters.
Do you agree with the decision to remove Captain Gantu from the story? Did it make the live-action version feel more grounded—or less magical? Let us know what you think in the comments!
