Controversy splashes the live action remake of Disney’s ‘Lilo and Stitch’: Whitewashing and racist insults

Working in Disney’s communication and public relations department has to be a real headache. While some are tearing their hair out because Halle Bailey’s new ‘Little Mermaid’ is black, others are screaming to the sky because an “too” white native Hawaiian is going to play a Hawaiian in the live action remake of ‘Lilo and Stitch’.

Disney’s new live-action is already underway, and this time the lucky one to have a new version will be ‘Lilo and Stitch’, the Disney animated classic that tells a charming story about a girl with few social skills and an alien created to destroy planets who manage to form a very special friendship on an island in Hawaii.

Fans of ‘Lilo and Stitch’ already know that it’s so much more than just a fun kids’ movie: It’s a touching and emotional story of self-acceptance, unconditional friendship, and family above all else (“Ohana means family, and family means that we will always be together..”). But for the “other” fans, the toxic community that inhabits Twitter, ‘Ohana’ means chaos and destruction.

The first controversy came with the election of Sydney Agudong as Nani, Lilo’s older sister who acts as the head of the family after the death of his parents in an accident. Disney was accused of whitewashing (bleaching) for choosing a light-skinned actress for a character who had a slightly darker tone in the film than, let’s remember, cartoon. Agudong, like her character Nani, is originally from Hawaii.but that doesn’t seem to be enough.

‘Lilo and Stitch’ changes one of its actors for racist insults

So far, all normal. The Disney controversy of the week so that the comment tray is filled with indignation for “the woke agenda” that governs us and blah blah. But, as if this were not enough, from the announcement of an actor last week another controversy has arisen that has even caused the express change of the interpreter.

Newcomer Kahiau Machado joined the cast as Nani’s love interest, David Kawena, but everything seems to indicate that his film debut will have to wait. Within hours of the announcement, Twitter user @ctrlcentered discovered a Spotify account purportedly belonging to the actor that contained a playlist titled “nigga noise”which would roughly translate as “nigger noise”.

The “N-word” (word with N) is a very serious insult in English-speaking countries, and Disney seems to have taken action on the matter. In a new round of cast additions, the company has eschewed the previous announcement and introduced yet another newcomer, Kaipo Dudoit, as the new David.

Will this end the controversy, or make it even worse with trolls waging their fight against cancel culture…while looking to cancel another cast member? Oh, the hypotenuse.