Disney just can’t seem to get it right anymore. After years of alienating its core fan base with politically charged remakes and tone-deaf casting decisions, the entertainment giant is once again in hot water—this time over its live-action remake of the beloved 2002 classic Lilo & Stitch.
The film hasn’t even hit theaters yet, but it’s already facing a wave of backlash from fans who feel yet another treasured childhood memory is being warped to fit the company’s increasingly confused agenda. At the center of the controversy this time? A missing dress—and the question of why Disney seems more focused on identity politics than preserving the charm that made its original films iconic.
In a TikTok Q&A posted Monday, Lilo & Stitch director Dean Fleischer Camp revealed he tried to include a fan-favorite moment from the original animated film in which the alien character Pleakley disguises himself in wigs and dresses while trying to capture Stitch. In the 2002 version, this quirky bit of humor helped give the film its offbeat appeal and was never treated as political—just fun and silly.
But not anymore.
@marceltheshellwshoeson #disney #liloandstitch #animation ♬ original sound – Marcel the Shell
“I have had people message me, ‘Why is Pleakley not wearing a dress?’ And I just want to say, I tried… I tried,” Camp said, visibly frustrated, as he shared a concept drawing of the character wearing a floral dress and wig. But in the actual trailer, Pleakley—now played by The Many Saints of Newark actor Billy Magnussen—is dressed plainly as a man, no disguise in sight.
Fans instantly smelled corporate interference—and many aren’t buying the idea that this was Camp’s decision. With Disney’s recent track record, it’s no stretch to assume the company is trying to walk a political tightrope, terrified of triggering outrage from either side of the aisle.
Comments on Camp’s post ranged from confusion to outrage. “That ‘I tried’ speaks volumes,” one fan wrote. Another added, “Disney are such cowards if they don’t include Pleakley in a wig and dress… No way a movie made for an audience 20 years ago had a more accepting climate than current times.”
But let’s be real: the issue here isn’t whether an alien wears a dress. It’s that Disney once again seems incapable of producing a film that respects its own source material—and worse, it’s doing so while trying to appease radical Twitter mobs and bean-counters instead of families.
This mess follows a string of embarrassing failures for Disney. The live-action Snow White was a box office disaster, plagued by political controversies and bizarre casting decisions, including the use of CGI dwarfs and an actress who made inflammatory political statements. Mulan stripped away its fan-favorite characters and musical heart. And don’t even mention The Little Mermaid’s creepy-looking Flounder.
Fans are growing tired of watching beloved classics be gutted and Frankensteined back together into something unrecognizable, all in the name of “modernizing” them. With over 100 million views on the Lilo & Stitch trailer, the interest is clearly there—but unless Disney course-corrects fast, they may soon find their magic touch completely gone.
Maybe instead of rewriting the past, Disney should try learning from it.
