Liberals Are Mad That Pleakley Doesn’t Dress As A Woman In Live-Action "Lilo & Stitch"

Disney has dropped the trailer for the live-action adaptation of Lilo & Stitch, but fans are not excited. In the animated film, aliens Jumba and Pleakley wear disguises to track and capture Stitch.

Pleakley would dress as a woman and was dubbed a "drag icon" for his elaborate wigs and outfits. Jumba looked like he grabbed whatever floral-print button-up was available. The live-action version showed both the duo as human men.

Users have vented their frustrations over the switch, with some even going as far as to label the move as signs of "fascism." Others believe Disney is trying to "appease transphobes."

@angel_valderie on X wrote, “Erasing Pleakley's drag and substituting it for human suits is bad because Disney wants to appease transphobes. But it's also bad because it completely misses the joke! I get it's probably a budget thing, but the whole point is that Jumba and Pleakley's disguises are terrible!”

Meanwhile, X user jit_consumer wrote, “no married couple jumba and pleakley allowed in trump’s america.”

The Ice Cream Man Controversy

People are also upset that the ice cream guy—who famously drops his treat whenever Stitch is around—isn’t white anymore.

There’s also been some outrage over the casting of Nani, which is worth mentioning. Sydney Agudong is of European and Filipino heritage. However, she was born and raised in Hawaii. One tweet reads, “Y’all freaking out about Jumba and Pleakley, but I haven’t seen a single haole (non-Hawaiian) talk about how the actor playing Nani isn’t fucking Hawaiian. THE WHOLE POINT OF THE MOVIE IS TALKING ABOUT HOW NATIVE HAWAIIAN FAMILIES ARE RIPPED APART BY OUR COLONIAL STATE.” So swapping a white character for a POC is okay, but when it's the other way around, it's a problem.

While I do think the online outrage over the film was unnecessary and dramatic, I’m happy to see Disney catching strays. At this point, Disney’s live-action machine isn’t about telling better stories; it’s just mass-producing nostalgia bait, cutting costs wherever possible, and hoping audiences will accept the new versions as their childhoods repackaged.

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