Disney has been pushing the go button on a variety of movies that turn their animated fare into live-action projects. The latest to warrant that treatment is 2002's Lilo & Stitch.
Directed by Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders, the film followed Lilo, a lonely Hawaiian girl who forms a bond with a doglike extraterrestrial creature, whom she names Stitch. Stitch, who is engineered to cause chaos, has a change of heart as Lilo teaches Stitch the importance of "Ohana", the Hawaiian concept of family and introduces him to the music of one Elvis Presley.
The film was successful enough to spawn to straight-to-home-entertainment sequels, a TV movie and a TV series. Of all the recent Disney conversion jobs, this feels the least suited to live-action, mostly because the animated nature of 2002 film allowed for a lot of wacky action that would surely be more expensive to pull off with real people and a CG critter.
Still, producers Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich (who are working on the new version of Aladdin) and writer Mike Van Waes seem to think they can make it work. There's no word on when this one would be out and whether it's taking aim at cinemas or, like the new Lady And Tramp will end up on Disney's streaming service. As for Aladdin, the Guy Ritchie-directed film will be on UK screens on 24 May next year.
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