The 2002 animated film “Lilo & Stitch” is the latest to be swallowed by Disney’s remake craze. This would perhaps be acceptable if the casting was not, for the most part, a disaster. While the media giant managed to somewhat save face by recasting David Kawena’s character to Kaipo Dudoit (“My Partner”), fans are still displeased at the rest of the lineup.
Rightly so, because while Dudoit still does not look exactly like David, Sydney Agudong (“Infamously in Love”) looks absolutely nothing like Nani Pelekai. Choosing actors and actresses with Polynesian names is not good enough, they have to actually look like the characters they are meant to represent.
Nani, Lilo and David are all darker-skinned indigenous Hawaiian characters. To cast them as lighter-skinned people feels backhanded and colorist, which is not new for Disney at all. For instance, Princess Tiana appeared with notably lighter skin and hair in “Wreck-It Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks the Internet.” That movie came out in 2018, the same year that the live action for “Lilo & Stitch” was first announced according to the Disney Wiki.
Tia Carrere, the original voice actress for Nani, has been cast as a new character named Mrs. Kekoa which is a small win. Carrere is 56 years old, of Chinese and Filipino descent and still a closer match in appearance to Nani than Agudong is.
One thing the casting team did manage to do correctly was choose the cutest Lilo. Maia Kealoha will make her film debut as the plucky and sweet defender of Pudge the fish. According to Collider, Kealoha has experience with Tahitian dancing and has previously competed in Little Miss Kona Coffee pageants. This makes her the perfect choice for Lilo.
The role of Cobra Bubbles has been given to Courtney B. Vance (“Lovecraft Country”) and has not met as much resistance as the other casting choices. The character was originally voiced by Ving Rhames (“Pulp Fiction”). Chris Sanders, who created Stitch, is set to return as the voice of the little blue alien. This will all be for naught if the CGI makes the character ugly, proving yet again that some things are only meant to exist in traditional 2D art.
Hopefully while the public is distracted by casting choices, the integrity of the storyline will stay intact. While other Disney movies are based in myth and fiction, “Lilo & Stitch” is based on a real location: the islands of Hawaii and the people who live there. Fans of the original movie can recall when Nani dissed the restaurant she was fired from, calling it a “stupid, fakey luau.” Two decades ago this was a pretty spicy statement, bringing attention to how tourism overtook the islands and suffocated native traditions into clichés.
Today it is important that indigenous peoples be fairly and accurately represented in media, especially in material oriented towards children. Now more than ever, creators should commit to having honest portrayals of characters. This is especially true when a remake is being made because the blueprint is already right in front of them. Let us hope the magic of “Lilo & Stitch” survives this bumpy road to completion.
Image from Disney via YouTube
