Disney is being criticized for Lilo & Stitch remake casting

Disney is set to make a live-action remake of ‘Lilo & Stitch.’ Sydney Elizabeth Agudong, a 22-year-old actress with Hawaiian ancestry, has been cast as Nani, Lilo’s older sister. But there are debates and online criticism of the company over how the actress doesn’t reflect the character’s visuals in the original animation.

People accused Disney of “blatant colorism” after revealing the actress’ casting. Some fans have voiced out how she is not representative of how Nani was shown and designed in the 2002 animation, where the character had darker skin, black hair, and ethnic features, more akin to a local.

A critic tweeted: “Not being Indigenous or from a PoC community, it may not be easy to see a problem with this casting, but within our communities, this is a big issue. Nani is an Indigenous Hawaiian with strong features and dark skin, this casting is blatant colorism.”

And another fan from the state who was dissatisfied with the casting wrote, “Listen, she’s probably a lovely woman but I can’t help but feel disappointed. I wanted Nani to look like me.”

Read some of the reactions from the online users:

https://twitter.com/wateryonce/status/1646715669227139073?s=20

The same thing occurred when they announced that Kahiau Machado would play ‘David,’  Nani’s love interest in the show, stating that the actor doesn’t look like a local and is more visually similar to a Caucasian man.

Disney has a history of facing criticism for its casting choices in past live-action remakes. One of which was casting Naomi Scott, a biracial British actor of Indian ancestry, as Princess Jasmine in their ‘Aladdin’ remake, despite the character’s design having darker skin in the original movie.

Disney has not made any comments on the criticisms of the casting.

 

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