The live-action remake of Disney’s classic Lilo & Stitch arrived in theaters over Memorial Day weekend — and since it dropped, the film has been on the receiving end of nearly equal amounts of praise and criticism. The new version of the beloved story does make quite a few glaring changes to the original, but the one that seems to really be firing fans up is the decision to have Nani, Lilo’s older sister and guardian, take the complete opposite approach to her and Lilo’s future in the new ending.
Warning! Spoilers for the Lilo & Stitch live-action remake follow:
“Nani agreeing to give custody of Lilo to the state and then Lilo going to live with other people so Nani could go to California for college is so amazingly stupid I can’t believe they went with it,” one fan put it bluntly in a comment on a discussion post about the film in the r/Disney subreddit.
A few other fans who hadn’t quite made it to the theater yet were shocked to read about the changes made to the ending. “Is this real?” one user inquired in a reply comment on the post. “This is shockingly different from the original movie and subsequent sequels/animated series.”
“Don’t you remember the iconic line? ‘Ohana means giving your orphaned sister to the state to study marine biology,’” another user quipped sarcastically, indicting the change for being irreconcilable with the story’s message. But not everyone felt the movie’s tweaked finale was bad, or even that it was straying from the original intention.
“Only if you’re toxic enough to believe that going to college and trying to secure a future for yourself beyond minimum wage resort work means that you left behind and forgot your family,” a fan wrote in response to the comment about the movie’s iconic line. “The remake emphasizes that 1) family is not just blood related and 2) when family moves, they’re still your family and have not forgotten you.”
A debate was sparked about the addition of Nani’s desire to go to college to study marine biology — which, according to some fans, is both achievable on very little money in Hawaii, where the programs are world class due to the locale, and generally unnecessary for the story.
“I don’t know why moving to Honolulu was more unrealistic than going all the way to San Diego to study marine biology while giving your sister up to foster care where she can be adopted out,” another user replied to the defense of the changes. “Like yeah, ‘oh she’s going to get an education to get a better job to help take care of her sister,’ but the point in the original film was that she does have the found family of Jumba, Pleakley, and Cobra to help her with Lilo and Stitch. She didn’t even talk about college in the original film. They invented an entirely new storyline that didn’t need to be there.”
One user made it a point to full-on explain why it wouldn’t make sense for Nani to go out of state for her education. “I don’t know why you’re doing backflips defending a storyline that did absolutely zero research on Hawaii or how its schooling system works,” they wrote in a reply. “For example: the university of Hawaii at Mānoa allows native Hawaiians to receive in-state tuition. There are also options for some of them to get tuition completely waived if they study marine biology. It’s an incredibly dumb storyline done to push whatever weird messaging they’re trying to push, on top of being completely nonsensical.”
Ultimately, though, there were more naysayers than defenders it seemed. “Sacrificing for family after tragedy, losing out on a possible future, and working hard in the lower class are NOT character faults,” one Redditor replied in agreement with the folks who were against the choices. “The original navigated a complex issue where a loving family sticking together was more important than personal pursuits.” Another Redditor replied in response: “A personal pursuit that could better their lives?” to which the original user mic-dropped with: “The same personal pursuit that could be had right there in the same state, at what are literally the globally leading schools in her chosen major? The movie is nonsensical.”
“Ohana” was trending over the weekend on X (Twitter), with fans taking to the social media platform to discuss changes to the live-action Lilo & Stitch ending. pic.twitter.com/qAS8tUrDzm
— IGN (@IGN) May 27, 2025
For many fans, it’s the poignant and powerful themes being erased — but it’s also the sanctity of Hawaiian culture being erased too.
“Of all the overblown complaints in the last several years about all the other live-action remakes, I cannot f—ing believe that this one which actually strips away all the beauty and depth and themes of the original is getting praise,” a fan lamented in the comments. “I’m starting to think people did not get the messages in the original and just saw it as a shallow cute alien movie set in ‘exotic Hawaii.’”
Another fan added: “But also, why does Nani have to pursue some ‘greater’ goal? What’s wrong with a native Hawaiian wanting to raise her sister, work for a living, and then vibe on the beach until sunset? Literally thousands of native Hawaiians live perfectly happily this way. It’s also such a weird idea to make Nani unable to chase a dream as a caregiver when it’s done by amazing single parents all the time.”
At the end of the day, it seems as though this change isn’t sitting right with some fans — and is even making some decide to sit it out. “I just heard about this, which is the whole reason I will not go see this movie,” a fan wrote on Reddit. “You cannot change what the theme of the movie is about.”
Despite the reaction to the ending, the Lilo & Stitch live-action remake is already hugely successful for Disney, with a huge $341 million global box office haul. Disney knows it’s on to a winner, and is already considering sequels.
Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.
