Disney’s CGI Lilo & Stitch is causing major Sonic flashbacks

When it comes to CGI movie adaptations, we’ve seen a few character design clangers in recent years. The most notable has to be Sonic the Hedgehog, whose terrifyingly human teeth had to be edited out in a hasty redesign after the trailer caused a furore in 2020. And now, for better or worse, the new live action CGI Lilo & Stitch remake is bringing back memories of the blue hedghehog.

Disney gave fans their first glimpse of the CGI character design for Stitch, the titular koala-like creature. And while some think it shows that 3D character design has some a long way since the original Sonic, others think it’s just as bad – or even worse. 

In a short teaser clip shared by Disney (above), Stitch is seen bursting through the background (which reveals the release date of summer 2025). It’s certainly a furrier and more textured take on the original cartoon character, and there’s arguably nothing wrong with the design itself. But we’re dealing with a character that everybody people already have strong childhood associations with – and as Sonic proved, there’s such thing as too realistic, even for an anthropomorphised sort-of-animal. 

Indeed, everyone and his hedgehog is comparing the design to Sonic. It seems the big question is: does Stitch look better or worse than Sonic? We’ll let the tweets do the talking:

For our money, we’re not quite looking at another Sonic situation here. CGI Stitch is still Stitch in spirit, although realistic fur on a previously 2D character is always going to send us to the uncanny valley. Although nothing is giving us the creeps quite like those Flux AI ‘photos’ right now.