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Pleakley is more of a drag than a queen in live-action Lilo & Stitch
Pleakley seen with a similar facial expression as queer fans watching the 2025 live-action film Lilo & Stitch.
Out reviews the 2025 live-action adaptation of Disney's Lilo & Stitch, now in theaters.
Walt Disney Pictures continues to bet on the lucrative trend of transforming some of the studio's most popular animated movies into live-action remakes. After 2015's Cinderella, 2017's Beauty and the Beast, 2019's The Lion King, and 2025's Snow White, Disney has now released a remake of Lilo & Stitch — the live-action adaptation of what is arguably a near-perfect animated movie.
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The argument for making these films is to expand on the original stories, add depth to characters who deserve more of a story, or correct something that may be seen as not so politically correct (the latter is less common). But in Disney's latest remake, they over–corrected with the character of Pleakley.
Two decades after the original movie was released, the entertainment company behind some of the best animated movies decided it was time to give the movie a remake. The remake somewhat follows the same story, except for a few major changes. It starts off the same with Stitch escaping from intergalactic space prison while on trial and Jumba and Pleakley are sent to Earth to find and capture him. In the animated movie, the two characters disguise themselves by wearing human clothes and at one point, Pleakley puts on a wig to cover up his antenna. However, in this remake, the two aliens use a cloning device to take the form of humans (which is honestly for the best because the CGI of these two characters was unsettling).
But this storytelling device takes away the main comedic element of these two characters: Two aliens who think they're passing as humans by just wearing fun little outfits. In the live-action movie, we see human Pleakley wear feminine clothes — but the magic of him experiencing gender euphoria while wearing dresses, wigs, and makeup are totally erased from the movie. We see him wear a feminine floral blouse as his first outfit and then a black knit long sleeve with a daisy in the middle and black and yellow checkered pants, but that's it for the feminine clothes. For the rest of the movie, he's just a guy.
The director, Dean Fleischer Camp, responded to some comments on TikTok reacting to the movie's trailer. He saved the comment asking about Pleakley wearing a disguise all the way until the end and shared a mock sketch of what we could have gotten and said, "All I want to say is that… I tried."
@marceltheshellwshoeson #disney #liloandstitch #animation
This implies that Disney told him "no" and that is troubling to say the least. It's not the first time we've seen a story about gender identity be completely erased from a Disney project. Back in December, The Hollywood Reporterannounced that Disney removed a transgender storyline from a Pixar animated series called Win or Lose. In a statement to THR, Disney said, "When it comes to animated content for a younger audience, we recognize that many parents would prefer to discuss certain subjects with their children on their own terms and timeline."
But even after watching, the character's identity comes through. These major changes to stories like this are a troubling trend as the Trump administration continues to push their way into every facet of American life, even the arts (see the major changes at the Kennedy Center) and punish artists for creative expressions or criticizing the government. Now, we are seeing the heads of these major corporations bend to Trump's will to avoid retaliation.
Pleakley's character didn't see gender, he just enjoyed the clothes and the idea of humans — which, to the movie's credit, it does a good job of portraying. On top of Jumba losing his random seemingly Russian accent and now sounding like a white guy from New Jersey, we lost the most important piece of costume design: Pleakley's bob! There's a hilarious moment in the original when our genderless green alien finds the wig and tries it on and starts love his new look, so much so that Jumba gets jealous and wants to try it on.
We are living in bob deficit, and our alarm bells are going off. With The White Lotus off the air and we no longer have Leslie Bibb's impeccable bob, what else do we have?! We could've had it all, but Disney's new Lilo & Stitch didn't understand the assignment when it comes to serving.
The 2025 live-action Lilo & Stitch film is now playing in theaters.
Moises Mendez II is a culture journalist based in Brooklyn, New York. He covers internet culture and entertainment including television, movies, music, and more. For the last two years, he was a Culture Reporter at TIME Magazine. Before that, he was a freelance journalist and his work has appeared in The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Fast Company, and more. Moises holds a master's degree in Arts and Culture journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.
Moises Mendez II is a culture journalist based in Brooklyn, New York. He covers internet culture and entertainment including television, movies, music, and more. For the last two years, he was a Culture Reporter at TIME Magazine. Before that, he was a freelance journalist and his work has appeared in The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Fast Company, and more. Moises holds a master's degree in Arts and Culture journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.
