Having enjoyed the original Lilo & Stitch when it was released in 2002, I knew I would eventually watch the live-action remake to see how it compared. So after missing its theatrical run on the 2025 movies schedule, I streamed the new Lilo & Stitch with my Disney+ subscription last weekend. Overall, I thought it was fine, albeit inferior to its predecessor, which is often the case with these live-action Disney movie remakes. What really annoyed me, however, was how Cobra Bubbles was incredibly short-changed in this new version.
As disappointing as it was to learn months back that Gantu wouldn’t appear in the live-action Lilo & Stitch, I honestly didn’t find myself missing him that much upon actually watching the movie. Frankly though, I feel like it also could have gotten away with excluding Cobra Bubbles. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with Courtney B. Vance’s performance, it’s just that as a result of tweaking his role for the new Lilo & Stitch, he feels superfluous to the story.
I wouldn’t mind this altered characterization as much if Cobra was given more to do, but again, there’s nothing remotely interesting about him. Unlike his animated counterpart, this Stitch incident is his first encounter with alien life, which basically takes away all of his intriguing mystery. We don’t learn why Vance’s Cobra Bubbles decided to dedicate his life to investigating aliens, which would have helped make him feel more like a three-dimensional character.
By the end of the movie, his most useful moment comes when he agrees to keep an eye on both Pleakley and Stitch, and I feel like that was something that could have been sidestepped completely or by having Lilo or Nani being a little more persuasive while speaking to the Grand Councilwoman. Yes, it was mildly amusing to see Cobra chilling with Billy Magnussen’s one-eyed alien character in front of the TV during the Lilo & Stitch mid-credits scene, but ultimately this version of him came across as a poor reflection of his predecessor.
Lilo & Stitch 2 been officially greenlighted by Disney, which Dean Fleischer Camp, the director of the original Lilo & Stitch and voice of Stitch, will write. I strongly urge him to either give Cobra Bubbles more to do in the sequel or just leave the character out completely. Courtney B. Vance is too talented to be underutilized in this role again, so fingers crossed they either get it right the second time or just move on from Agent Bubbles.
Feel free to let me know in the comments what you thought of how Cobra Bubbles was used in the live-action Lilo & Stitch. Meanwhile, the next live-action Disney remake lined up is Moana on July 10, 2026, but I’ll be over in my corner still championing that fellow early 2000s Disney movies Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Treasure Planet should get the live-action treatment.
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