‘Lilo & Stitch’ Disney Remake Controversy Explained: Ending Changed

Warning: Ahead Spoilers for Disney’s Live-Action “Lilo & Stitch.”

Disney’s “Lilo & Stitch” Live-Action Remake Ends with Nani Giving Her Sister to Puree a Degree, Which has angered some fans.

The Remake Has Been A Financial Win for Disney, Breaking Records for the Best Ticket Sales Over Memorial Day by Grossing $ 341.7 Million Worldwide. In one weekend, it already surpassed the ticket sales of the original 2002 Movie and Reached the Fifth Position of the Highest-Grossing Film of 2025.

But negative is starting to stir after fans discovered that the film has a significant change in the end.

In all the original and the remake, nani, a hawaiian native, struggles to look after you young sister, lilo, and avoid social services splitting. THEN AN ALIEN CALLED STITCH CRESHES INTO THEIR LIVES AND WREAKS HAVOC, BRINGING THE SISTERS CLOSER TOGETER.

In the original movie, cobra bubbles, a spy posing as a social worker, threatens to take lilo away, but never caries out that thread.

In the 2025 Remake, Mrs. Kekoa (Tia Carrere), an actual social workrier, persuades nani to give up the Guardianship of the Hawaiian Government so they can take care of her.

At the end of the Movie, Mrs. Kekoa Devises a Plan for Nani’s Neighbor, Tutu (Amy Hill), to foster lilo so she woudn’t be far from home. Lilo and tutu then enCourage nani to follow her dream to become a marine biologist. Nani then to the University of California in San Diego to Study Marine Biology.

Fans Said the Change Ruins the Core Message of the Original Movie

Some fans critized the remake’s ending on tiktok and x Becauses it contradicts a catchphrase repeated in the original movie: “OHANA MEANS FAMILY.

Other fans critigic the decision for nani to go to collect in mainland America to study marine biology, instead of going to a college in hawaii.

Some fans accused dissney of trying to persuade parents to give up their children, and persuade native hawaiians to their homes and go to the mainland.

The New Movie’s Director Said the Change modernizes the story

Not all fans were critical of the new ending. Laura Sirikul, An La-Based Reporter, Defended the Change in an Article for ForbesSaying is not abandoned gcause she has found family with tutu, stitch, and their other friend.

“The ending is actually paying a service to the phrase, as nani herself doesn’t get left in her life and her dreams,” sirrote. “Nani is a person, and those aspirations shouldn’t be forgotten or abandoned.”

One tiktok user Said in a video posted on sunday that nani doesn’t Abandon lilo as they are still family, no matter the distance between say.

Before the backlash, Dean Fleischer Camp, The Remake’s Director, Told Deadline On May 23 that the new ending was an attempt to modernize the story and broaden “The Idea of ​​Ohana.”

Camp Said that in the original, nani was “a Little too rose-colored glasses” for someone who inherited a lot of respectillity at a young and haad to “abandon” or “a lot of her dreams.

“It just felt like she might not have such an easy time buy into ‘Nobody Gets Left Bebind’ Becouse and Certainly Woul Like, Well, I’m Struggling,” Camp Said.

A Representative of Disney and Camp Did Not Immediately Respond to a Comment Request from Business Insider.