Recently on May 23rd, 2025 Disney released a live action remake of the beloved Lilo and Stitch film. Lilo and Stitch is a film about a young girl named Lilo and her older sister Nani whose parents passed away. Nani is busy supporting her house, Lilo and herself giving Lilo a lot of alone time. Lilo adopts an intergalactic dog whose name is Stitch who crashed on Earth. The meaning of the word Ohana is family which is the entire film’s theme.

The live action Disney released erases that message. In the original Nani struggles to fight for her sister to continue staying with her. But in the live action Nani gives up her little sister to the government to pursue college for marine biology in California. The irony of this is that while it is normal for her to want to pursue college, Native Hawaiians who are studying marine biology at the University of Hawaii have reduced costs, waivers, and free tuition options to encourage more Hawaiians to pursue a higher education. 

While there is an appreciation towards the creation of the original film the main controversy surrounding it is the fact that the original movie of Lilo and Stitch was to showcase the struggle of indigenous lands being taken over by the U.S. government. The song Nani sings to Lilo before she has to give her up is “Aloha Oe” which is the song that the last monarch of Hawaii sang before Hawaii was annexed by the U.S. 

On social media people have explained that they felt by having Nani give up her sister felt like it was an erasure of what the original creators meant to portray. It has a 3.0 stars rating and a 72% approval of rotten tomatoes rating. In the news it has been reported that the movie has been making $32.5 million dollars in the box. 

By erasing that message with the portrayal of Nani giving up her little sister to the foster care system it is an allegory to the annexation of Hawaii and erases the message indigenous people have fought for.