Everything I've read about this movie sounds like a travesty. I already had no intentions of watching it, but everything I've heard about the changes to the story make it absolutely certain I won't.
The one thing I will comment on, though, is the strangeness of making Nani's dream to be a marine biologist, because . . . in the original movie she already did have a dream that she gave up pursuing to take care of Lilo, albeit it's only shown through the background of her room.
Nani's dream was to be a professional surfer.
Now, I'm not going to say that I know anything about professional surfing, or its cultural impact on Hawaii. I'm not here to claim that Nani's original dream was more or less relevant to her home or anything like that. What I will say is that Nani is shown surfing with Lilo, Stitch, and Danny in the original movie, so it at least seems like something she could do from her home, even if tournaments had her travel for periods of time. (Which might be why she gave it up to raise Lilo; she can't afford to bounce when she has a six-year-old to take care of.)
So it's weird to me that they were like, "OK, let's have Nani have a dream that she had to give up to take care of Lilo," and instead of using the one that she originally had in the movie, they instead invented a new one for her that would "force" her to leave Hawaii. (Because why does she have to go to a school on the continent? Why not the universities right there in Hawaii?)
And that's not even getting into the fact that like . . . yes, Nani gave up her dream of being a professional surfer in order to take care of Lilo. But this is not something that Nani was agonized over. Would she have preferred that her parents didn't die so that Lilo would be taken care of and she could surf professionally? Fucking obviously, she loved her parents. But she also loves Lilo. I'm not saying that people never make painful sacrifices for the ones they love, because of course they can and do. But I am saying that what would otherwise be a painful sacrifice is much less if it's for one you love, because that person will mean more to you than what it is you're giving up. Yes, Nani loved surfing, but she loves her sister more, and it's not like can't still surf, she just doesn't do it as a professional athlete. And letting go of that dream for the sake of her beloved little sister is so, so much better than if she had to let it go because she just wasn't skilled enough (she was), or if she had an injury or something.
Nani having a dream / the ability to become a professional surfer in the original film was, in my opinion, put there to show just how much Nani loved Lilo. Because Nani had this dream, and it was achievable for her given all the trophies and such in her room, but she chose to give it up because she loves Lilo that much. And we know that she does, because in the original film she fights tooth and nail to keep custody of Lilo, to the point where Cobra Bubbles even tells her, "It seems to me like you need her more than she needs you."
This choice to not only give Nani a dream that requires her to leave her home, but also to act like this is a "happy" ending for her, feels like it came from someone who completely missed the point of the first movie (and Nani's character). Nani giving up her dream of being a professional surfer wasn't a bad or negative thing, because she did it for love. She did it because she loved her sister. And the ending in the live action remake, where she doesn't love her sister enough to want to be there with her as she grows . . . it really is just awful.