LILO & STITCH Director Responds to Backlash Over Live-Action Ending: “It Just Felt Like the Right Thing to Do”
Disney’s Lilo & Stitch live-action remake has been a financial success, pulling in over $360 million globally, but not everyone is thrilled about the creative choices, especially when it comes to the film’s reimagined ending.
Now, director Dean Fleischer Camp has stepped in to address the controversy and offer some insight into the thinking behind the film’s most debated change.
Unlike the 2002 animated original, the new version shifts who ends up raising Lilo. Instead of Nani and David taking on guardianship together, David and his grandmother become Lilo’s foster family, while Nani leaves for college.
She’s still part of Lilo’s life, visiting regularly through Jumba’s portal gun, but this change has sparked criticism from some fans, who feel Nani “abandoned” her sister.
Camp doesn’t see it that way. Responding on X, the Marcel the Shell filmmaker linked to an article defending the movie’s ending and wrote: “For anybody questioning the ending of our film, this beautiful piece [...] nails it.”
He later followed up with: “Thank you for sharing your stories with me. It seems like the people with actual lived experiences like this are the ones with whom this ending resonates the most.”
For Camp, the decision to have Nani pursue her own dreams wasn’t about removing her from Lilo’s life, it was about deepening the story’s emotional layers. Speaking to Deadline, he explained:
“I think that was one of the things that we talked about, thematically modernizing and updating for this live-action version was broadening the idea of Ohana and complicating it with a little more nuance. It just felt like the right thing to do.”
He elaborated on how Nani’s arc felt incomplete in the original, adding:
“Given that Nani, who I always felt was a little too rose-colored glasses for somebody in her situation, was so smart and has had to abandon a lot of these dreams or defer them because she had to take care of her little sister and inherited all this responsibility at such a young age.
“It just felt like she might not have such an easy time buying into, 'Nobody gets left behind' because she certainly would feel like, well, I’m struggling here. So that informed the approach that we took with the story and with the arch between the two sisters and what the resolution ended up being.”
These changes are part of a broader update to the film’s themes. While the original leaned into the sweetness and simplicity of Ohana, the remake digs into the complications that come with sacrifice, ambition, and the many ways families evolve. It's a creative choice that doesn’t sit well with everyone, but it’s a choice Camp 100% stands by.
The new Lilo & Stitch stars Sydney Elizebeth Agudong, Billy Magnussen, Tia Carrere, Hannah Waddingham, and introduces Maia Kealoha as Lilo. Chris Sanders reprises his role as the voice of Stitch, with a script by Chris Kekaniokalani Bright and Mike Van Waes.
Whether you’re on board with the new ending or not, it’s clear the creative team aimed to expand the story rather than simply replicate it. As Camp’s comments make clear, the goal wasn’t to rewrite what made Lilo & Stitch special, it was to explore it in a different light.