Lilo & Stitch's Super Bowl Trailer Is Unusual With 3 Months To Go Until The Movie's Release
Just three months before the release of the live-action Lilo & Stitch, the film's creative team has made a peculiar choice with their Super Bowl trailer. When the animation studio started making live-action versions of Disney films, they focused on the most popular movies, like the Disney Princesses and Princes. As such, it was a pleasant surprise when they announced a live-action adaptation of Lilo & Stitch, which comes out on May 23, 2025. The animated film was a surprise hit, being the perfect example of Disney's "weird period."
The lore goes that Disney wanted to focus on 3D movies, so they gave their backup Florida studio, which was the only 2D animation studio left, free rein to make whatever they wanted. From this came a beautiful story about a weird girl named Lilo and her older sister named Nani, who adopt an evil space alien named Stitch. Though it wasn’t a box office hit, Lilo & Stitch became a fan favorite, making audiences excited but nervous about the live-action movie. Unfortunately, the Super Bowl trailer goes in an odd direction that doesn’t show fans much about the upcoming film.
Lilo & Stitch Still Hasn't Released A Proper Trailer & It Comes Out In 3 Months
Lilo & Stitch Might Come Out Without A Proper Trailer
Although the movie comes out in just three months, Disney hasn't provided a proper trailer for Lilo & Stitch. The Super Bowl would've been the perfect time to give audiences a proper glimpse of the upcoming film, but they were left instead with Stitch running across the field and yelling into the microphone. While this teaser does capture the goofy and chaotic aspect of Lilo & Stitch, it doesn't say anything new about the live-action movie.
People are mostly familiar with the odd but cute-looking blue alien, and the past teaser trailer showed what he looks like in live-action. As such, there's nothing new revealed about Stitch's appearance in Lilo & Stitch. The first trailer also included his voice and laugh, so Stitch yelling into the announcer's microphone didn't feel particularly exciting. If they weren't going to show any clips from the actual Lilo & Stitch film, they could have at least shown something fresh about Stitch to increase excitement.
Why Disney Didn't Use The Super Bowl To Give Lilo & Stitch A Bigger Push
Lilo & Stitch's Super Bowl Trailer Forgets What Made The Teaser Trailers So Special
The smartest time for Disney to release a proper Lilo & Stitch trailer would've been the Super Bowl, but they most likely tried to capture the spirit of the teasers for the original animated film. The 2002 film only got one proper trailer, and the studio instead chose to focus on Stitch causing chaos by interrupting these movies:
- Beauty & the Beast
- Aladdin
- The Little Mermaid
- The Lion King
These Lilo & Stitch teasers became iconic due to the zany premise, and many fans campaigned for the live-action trailers to do the same thing. Unfortunately, Disney's approach to the Super Bowl trailer fell flat because they forgot the reason everyone loved the teasers – they changed some of the most iconic moments in Disney animated movies.
There's no thrill to Stitch momentarily interrupting the Super Bowl because he's not disrupting an iconic moment. He's not inserting himself into an impossible touchdown or stealing a Super Bowl ring. It's simply a bland moment of the game. Ultimately, they lost out by taking the approach they did with the Lilo & Stitch Super Bowl trailer.
Lilo & Stitch
- Release Date
- May 23, 2025
- Runtime
- 108 minutes
- Director
- Dean Fleischer Camp
- Writers
- Mike Van Waes, Chris Kekaniokalani Bright
- Producers
- Dan Lin
Cast
Maia KealohaLilo
Sydney AgudongNani
- Franchise(s)
- Disney
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