Lilo & Stitch Remake Director ‘Tried’ to Include Pleakley in a Dress
Dean Fleischer Camp, the director of the upcoming Lilo & Stitch live-action remake, recently addressed the mini controversy that’s sparked up regarding the character of Pleakley in the movie.
What did Dean Fleischer Camp say about Pleakley’s dress controversy?
In a recent video on the TikTok channel for Marcel The Shell With Shoes On (the film he directed in 2021 based on the shorts created by himself and Jenny Slate), Camp responds to various comments on the remake’s latest trailer.
Toward the end of the video, Camp says he’s had several people ask him why Agent Pleakley isn’t wearing a dress like he does in the original. To that, Camp simply says he “tried” to make it happen, while showing some concept art as to what it may have looked like in the film.
The controversy surrounding Pleakley stems from the character’s depiction in the original film. In the 2002 animated movie, Agent Pleakley is an alien who serves as The Galactic Federation’s expert of Earth. He and Dr. Jumba Jookiba, a mad scientist who created Stitch, spend most of the movie trying to hunt down Stitch in Hawaii.
Throughout the movie, Pleakley and Jumba have to disguise themselves as humans to not stick out, and do so by wearing human clothes. While Jumba is dressed in whatever outfit he can find, Pleakley is always shown in very elegant and elaborate outfits, mostly in drag as the two pretend to be a married couple.
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When the remake of Lilo & Stitch was first being shown, many fans were quick to note that, instead of obvious aliens dressing up as people, Jumba and Pleakley are instead disguised as actual humans. Fans theorized the change had something to do with animation costs or Disney simply wanting a more “realistic” approach, but there has been no official reason as to why.
Lilo & Stitch’s live-action adaptation will arrive in theaters on May 23, 2025.
Source: Comingsoon.net