The Lilo & Stitch Trailer Reveals More Live-Action Characters Than Necessary

Less than a month ago, Polygon’s Petrana Radulovic urged the marketing campaign for Disney’s live-action Lilo & Stitch remake to showcase characters beyond just Stitch. Now, with the release of the first full trailer, I can confidently say: “Whoa, hold up—too many live-action characters! What have they done to Jumba and Pleakley?”

This might sound overly nitpicky, but part of why Petrana—and other fans of the animated classic—were eager to see more of the film was to get a glimpse of how its alien characters (aside from Stitch) would be adapted into a photorealistic style.

She even pointed this out in her original piece:

“It’s easy to sell Stitch—he’s a super-beloved character. Just make him a bit more textured, and bam! You’ve got a solid ‘live-action’ design. But what about the original movie’s evil scientist Jumba (David Ogden Stiers), with his big head and four blinking eyes? Or one-eyed, green, mildly rubbery Pleakley (Kevin McDonald)? Or large, lumbering, whale-like Gantu? What are they going to look like?”

The new trailer hits plenty of nostalgic notes—Stitch stealing the red fighter, ice cream cones tragically hitting the sand, and the unmistakable melody of Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride. But it also introduces a twist: Jumba and Pleakley, played by Zach Galifianakis and Billy Magnussen, appear as holograms rather than fully realized aliens.

And to that, I say: Boring. Cowards! If we can buy into the idea that Stitch could be mistaken for a dog, why not go all in? A four-eyed giant sloth-man and a sentient sticky-hand toy could absolutely pass as humans with the right disguises.

Jumba and Pleakley’s bizarre attempts at blending into human society weren’t just comedic gags in the original Lilo & Stitch—they played into the film’s deeper themes. Their ability to “pass” as human simply by throwing on Hawaiian shirts and bucket hats wasn’t random; it reflected how tourists, much like aliens, can feel out of place in unfamiliar cultures. Their physical weirdness was part of the point.

Disney has already made two Lion King movies with zero human characters—so the precedent exists. Jumba and Pleakley didn’t need to be entirely CGI, either. Prosthetics, animatronics, or creative makeup could have made them feel strange and otherworldly. They should have looked weird. All the time.

Sure, I get it. This is a minor grievance in the grand scheme of things. Disney’s live-action remakes rake in absurd amounts of money no matter what. And actors like Galifianakis and Magnussen can undoubtedly bring the weirdness without elaborate effects. But if we’re going to do a live-action Lilo & Stitch, we owe it to the film to fully embrace its quirky, alien heart.