Lilo & Stitch Remake Director Was Most Excited About Bringing Back One Iconic Character

The following contains spoilers for Lilo & Stitch.

The Lilo & Stitch director talks about the one character he was most excited to bring back. Adapted from the 2002 animated movie of the same name, Dean Fleischer Camp’s Disney live-action remake is now in theaters, bringing many fan-favorite Lilo & Stitch characters to the big screen, including Lilo (Maia Kealoha), Stitch (voiced by Chris Sanders), Nani (Sydney Agudong), Agent Pleakley (Billy Magnussen), Jumba (Zach Galifianakis), Cobra (Courtney B. Vance), and the Grand Council Woman (Hannah Waddingham).

In an interview with ScreenRant‘s Ash Crossan, Camp revealed the one character he was most excited to bring to the big screen. The director shared that he “was really stoked about” bringing the Ice Cream Man to life, but the Grand Council Woman was the most intimidating to create because of the significant role she plays in the film’s opening sequence. Check out his comment below:

The whole thing I was intimidated by. [laughs] I think that the ice cream guy was a really…The ice cream guy I was really stoked about. I really loved bringing, I mean all of it, but the Grand Council Woman’s character design I think is so beautiful from the original and it was really fun figuring out how to make her exist in live action, but also, she is one of the few characters that has to actually make the jump from our fully animated opening in space and the live action settings later. So added challenge, but I really love how intimidating she is.

Camp Was Passionate About Bringing Ice Cream Man To The Big Screen

The Ice Cream Man is part of a running gag in the original movie, where his ice cream would fall on the ground every time before he could eat it. Despite being a character with no lines, the 2025 live-action version brings him to the big screen, but not without a few changes. In the original movie, the Ice Cream Man is a bold guy who wears sunglasses and holds an ice cream cone, but as seen in Lilo & Stitch‘s trailer, the Shave Ice Man (Ethan Suplee) doesn’t share these characteristics.

Since the live-action version of the Ice Cream Man made its debut, the character design has been met with criticism. However, Camp’s comment sheds some light on the creative team’s enthusiasm for the original animation and their hope to bring as many iconic characters to life as possible. The high stakes and pressure of the Grand Council Woman’s design also reveal the enormous pressure the creative team faced during production.

Our Take On The Ice Cream Man’s Design

It’s Different, But Not Without A Reason

The Ice Cream Man does appear more than once in the movie, and it actually makes sense why they changed the design to Shave Ice Man. It’s not hard to imagine that filming an entire ice cream melt or fall from the cone would be difficult. Shave ice, on the other hand, is easy to drop. With a live-action movie taking place in a more realistic setting, the character in the running gag also needs to be able to fit into the same setting.

Having the Shave Ice Man not bold or wearing sunglasses adds realism to the character, even though it involves changes from the source material. The Grand Council’s Woman’s design, on the other hand, is gorgeous and captivating, not to mention how animation-accurate it is. Currently sitting at an audience approval rate of 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, the highly-rated Lilo & Stitch certainly lives up to expectations.

Lilo & Stitch

7/10

Release Date

May 21, 2025

Runtime

108 Minutes

Director

Dean Fleischer Camp

Writers

Chris Kekaniokalani Bright, Mike Van Waes, Chris Sanders, Dean DeBlois

Producers

Tom C. Peitzman, Dan Lin, Ryan Halprin

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  Chris Sanders

  Stitch (voice)