After seeing all the responses to it, I decided to ☠️ the live action Lilo & Stitch to see the damage for myself. Setting aside the common criticisms (no gantu, jumbas... everything, Nani and Lilo's relationship or lack thereof, cobra bubbles/the social worker, The Ending), something that honestly killed the movie in its infancy for me is its pace and its noise.
This movie is allergic to beats of silence or introspective moments, which is bonkers, because that's one of the things that makes the original so strong. Lilo walking home alone after hula practice. Nani sneaking to hear Lilo's prayer. The quiet after the incident at the beach before Lilo says, "You ruined everything." Stitch alone in the woods before he cries out that he's lost. All of these moments so many more are cradled by silence as the movie urges us to look and listen with patience. In the live action, these moments are rushed (at least the ones that are still in it, as not all of them are) and they suffer for it. Hell, even Stitch's escape sequence is undermined by how rapid the pacing is.
So many times, I found myself just wishing for the movie to *breathe*. There are so few moments of quiet introspection, and the ones that are there are still littered with extra things that just clutter the simple, powerful story underneath it. Tack on that almost every single intimate character moment or interaction is punctuated with a joke of some kind. It's like the movie is insecure about its own sincerity, so it buries it under cheap jokes and quips.
What really gets me is that the original is funny in part because of its ability to be quiet. Lilo showing Nani Stitch's record player trick is funny as fuck in the original because of how its quiet. Lilo's deadpan face, Nani's stunned silence, and the pauses when Lilo closes his mouth all service the comedy of the scene. The scene also acts as another reinforcement of Nani's understanding of Lilo in that she simply watches to see what the fuck her weirdo little sister has figured out.
In the live action, they have Lilo talking throughout the whole bit, and Nani just offhandedly responds while only looking at her phone (the movie is so confused as to how Nani feels about Lilo in my opinion) and it just falls flat, even with the read that the scene is meant more to illustrate their strained sister relationship.
It honestly stinks cause the little girl playing Lilo is adorable and doing a great job, especially for her age and for the crappy movie she's in. Her dynamic with Stitch, while altered (she's more of a little troublemaker type in this, sneaking into resorts, freeing someone's chickens, sneaking candy to feed the shelter dogs, etc.), is still well done and very wholesome. I just wish they'd gotten a better movie to be in.
Tldr; the movie lacks dynamic pacing and the quiet moments that made the original movie's simple, grounded (lol sort of) story so impactful.