Warning: Contains SPOILERS for 2025’s Lilo & Stitch!
Disney’s live-actionLilo & Stitchremake made a lot of controversial changes to the 2002 animated classic, and while Nani’s changes have been the subject of a lot of discussion, many viewers missed one of the most important changes to her story. The 2025 version of Nani is incredibly different from her 2002 counterpart, with her having different motivations and a different conclusion atthe end ofLilo & Stitch. While this ending has upset many, one change from much earlier in theLilo & Stitchremake signaled the strange path that the film was going down.
While2025’sLilo & Stitchis faithful to the originalwhen compared to the other Disney live-action remakes, it still makes a lot of changes. Unfortunately, almost all of these changes are for the worse. Many of the changes surround the character of Jumba, who becomes the main villain of the film. Other characters, like Tutu and the social worker, are either given bigger roles or completely added, whileoriginal movie characters like Captian Gantu are completely cut. However, Nani giving Lilo away to her neighbors at the end of the film is the remake’s most controversial decision, but it isn’t the only controversial one.
Nani Takes Lilo To Adopt Stitch In The Original Movie (But She Isn’t Involved In The Remake)
She Does It Because She Loves Lilo
One of the most shockingchanges in the live-actionLilo & Stitchremakehas to do with Nani’s involvement in the adoption of Stitch. In the original film, Lilo is incredibly lonely. When Stitch crashes on Earth, Lilo believes that it is a shooting star, with her praying for a friend. Nani overhears this, with her deciding to take action. The next day, Nani takes Lilo to the animal shelter. She agrees to let Lilo adopt a dog, hoping to fulfill Lilo’s wish. This is where Lilo meets Stitch, with the sisters choosing to adopt him, leading to the rest of the movie.
Things go down very differently in the remake. In the 2025 film, Lilo still prays for a friend after seeing the shooting star. However, this is not connected to Lilo’s adoption of Stitch. Instead, Tutu, the neighbor of Nani and Lilo, later overhears Lilo talking about needing a friend. So,Tutu decides to take Lilo to the animal shelter. While with Tutu, Lilo adopts Stitch. She takes Stitch home, surprising Nani with their new dog. Nani is incredibly unhappy about Stitch’s adoption, although she eventually warms up to him by the end of the film.
Nani Not Being Involved In Stitch’s Adoption Takes Away From Her Love Of Lilo
It Makes Their Relationship Weaker
The decision to not have Nani be involved in Stitch’s adoption is an odd one, as it takes away a layer from her love of Lilo. In the original film,Nani is attempting to secretly answer Lilo’s prayer. This shows how much she cares about her sister, as she recognizes that Lilo is lonely and actively tries to fix this problem. Nani is already incredibly busy, with her having to work and take care of Lilo. Getting a dog would undoubtedly add to her stress. However, Nani still decides to do this anyway, because she loves Lilo.
By not having Nani make the decision to get Lilo a dog, this layer of love is removed. Nani’s frustrations with Stitch don’t mean as much anymore. She was previously putting up with these frustrations because of her love for Lilo, whereas she now just has to deal with them because she has been saddled with an unwanted dog. This is a bizarre choice, one that does a disservice toNani and Lilo’s relationshipin a film that purports to be more focused on it than the original was.
Tutu Taking Nani’s Role Makes The Controversial Ending Make More Sense
Based On The Controversial Ending
Although this change is undoubtedly a bad one, it does set upLilo & Stitch’s controversial ending in a way. Since Tutu makes the decision to get Lilo a dog,it shows that she does really love her. It is odd for her to sign Nani up to take care of a dog, but nevertheless, it shows that she cares about Lilo. So, it makes sense for her to be the one that Nani leaves Lilo with when she goes to college. It still doesn’t work as an ending, and it would be hard to make this ending work no matter what. However, it is at least a positive in favor on theLilo & Stitchremake.
