Dust off your surfboards, Elvis cosplay, and drag outfits (if you’re Pleakley, that is), because Disney is taking us back to Hawaii! 2025 delivers not just March’s Snow White remake, but also a live-action redo of Lilo & Stitch, which follows its forebear into theaters this spring.
Lilo & Stitch is one of the most influential all-time favorite for children. Set on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, the franchise introduced one of the most iconic and adorable characters in Disney’s canon — namely Stitch, the mischievous blue alien that lands on Earth and is taken in by eccentric local girl Lilo. With Stitch masquerading as Lilo’s extremely weird dog, the two get up to all kinds of hijinks while trying to avoid Stitch’s capture by the Galactic Federation.
The first movie was so successful that, over the years, Disney went on to produce three more animated Lilo & Stitch movies, as well as a trio of animated series. While the shows can be watched on their own, the movies follow a timeline, and, unfortunately, their release order doesn’t quite match up with the franchise’s chronology. Before you dive into the animated universe ahead of the live-action, here’s the best way to enjoy the various movies on your walk down memory lane.
All the Lilo & Stitch movies, listed in chronological order
- Lilo & Stitch (2002)
- Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch (2005)
- Stitch: The Movie (2003)
- Leroy and Stitch (2006)
As you can see, the best way to revisit the Lilo & Stitch films is to switch the second and third movies around in your watch order. Stitch: The Movie was actually the first sequel released and was essentially a pilot for the spin-off Disney Channel animated series in which Lilo and Stitch rescue the alien’s fellow genetic experiments, or “cousins,” that have crash-landed in Hawaii. The third, confusingly titled Lilo & Stitch 2, is a much more standalone story that is set before the events of Stitch: The Movie and the TV show.
The reason why Stitch Has a Glitch is so standalone is because it was released as a straight-to-DVD film whereas the others were Disney Channel originals. As such, the final film, Leroy & Stitch, again ignores it and instead concludes the narrative that began in Stitch: The Movie and continued in the TV series. Stitch later returned, however, in the 2008 anime Stitch! and the 2017 donghau (Chinese animated series) Stitch & Ai. These latter two shows are harder to access, though, as they are not readily available on Disney Plus like the American-made entries in the franchise.
The 2025 live-action adaptation is unfortunately being hit by controversy from a few different quarters (so pretty much par for the course for Disney’s remakes), which is a shame as the Lilo & Stitch animated universe is immensely beloved by any Mouse House-loving kid of the early aughts. Still, rewatching all the original movies should help you block out all the bad news and prepare you for Stitch’s return. Ohana means family, and in this case family means no Lilo & Stitch film gets left behind.
Published: Mar 14, 2025 08:09 am