Stitch

Stitch, also known as Experiment 626 ("six-two-six") as a birth name, is one of the two titular main protagonists (alongside Lilo Pelekai) of the .
He's an alien experiment created by Dr. Jumba Jookiba. Originally created to cause chaos across the galaxy, he is marked by his short temper and mischievous behavior, traits that endear him to his friend Lilo, who adopted him as her "dog" and taught him to love and care.
In the original film, he was introduced as a vicious monster, but thanks to Lilo, he reforms to become a kind-hearted, empathetic being.
In most of the franchise, including the original film, The Series, and video games, he is voiced by his creator and the film's co-director and co-writer . 
In Stitch! and Stitch & Ai, he is voiced by professional voice actor , who also voices Humphrey, Nigel Uno, Spook, Mega Man and Agumon. In Japanese dubs, he is voiced by .
==Personality ==
Throughout the course of the entire Lilo & Stitch franchise, Stitch is depicted as a character who is unlikable to many people except Lilo (on rare occasions, even she falls out with him, most notably in Lilo & Stitch 2, where she declares that he is "bad and always will be bad!" after he has an uncontrollable glitch attack) due to his destructive and temperamental behavior. It is interesting to note that individuals who are averse to Stitch (such as Mertle Edmonds, Gantu, and Dr. Hämsterviel) describe him as "ugly and deformed", while those who do love him (like Lilo, Nani, and Jumba) describe him as "cute and fluffy". This reflects the basic idea behind Stitch (and his cousins) that counters what societal standards are for good physical appearance. Despite having odd features such as an extra pair of arms, misshapen head, or unusual coloring, Stitch and his kin prove that you don't have to look "normal" to fit in.
Whether Stitch is displayed in his true alien form; complete with an extra set of arms, antennae, and spines on his back, or in his "dog" form (the one the audience is accustomed to seeing), sans the aforementioned features, his overall "cuteness" belies his extremely aggressive and destructive personality. This is especially apparent during and immediately after his escape from the Galactic Federation. He proves to be a complex character as he comes to terms with his own "good" and "bad levels" and struggles to find his place in the world. According to his creator Jumba, Stitch is a "machine" who was made without a greater purpose than to destroy. The fact that he becomes trapped on the island of Kauai, which has no large cities, he has more time to contemplate and reflect on alternative occupations. Although Stitch seeks to destroy because of his innate programming, he has a personality of his own (a fact that only Lilo and Jumba truly understand) and shows that he has the will and ability to make the choice not to follow his original design.
In comparison to his super strength and computer-like intelligence, Stitch is emotionally fragile, behaving almost like a child having a tantrum at times. Lilo relates to this and believes that a couple of main reasons for his naughtiness are because of some past trauma and receiving little to no understanding or sympathy from others. Of course, Stitch eventually becomes much more well-meaning after his betterment, but is frequently unable to control all of his impulses toward antisocial actions. Fortunately for him, Lilo (and later Reuben and Angel) is always there to support him, and he returns her support willingly.
There is a common misconception from viewers that Lilo is dependent on Stitch for protection and support; if anything, it is Stitch who is more dependent on Lilo. Despite her having her own troubles to contend with, Lilo makes every effort to help Stitch in life and, as the story progresses, he becomes more self-conscious and capable of making the right decisions. By the end of the series, Stitch has friends, family, loved ones, and a purpose worth believing in.
Stitch is still prone to having temper tantrums when things do not go as well as he hopes. He also gets easily angered by inanimate objects, especially the toaster. After it popped toast in his face once, he has since beaten the toaster and juiced it at least twice. Despite these tantrums, Stitch can sometimes display a little common sense and be more mature than Lilo. For instance, he occasionally discovers when Lilo goes too far in using the other experiments for her own personal gain (examples of which were seen in her schemes involving Sprout, Slugger, Checkers, Morpholomew, and PJ), believing it to be very selfish of her.
==Appearance==
Stitch is a blue, koala-like alien experiment with light blue patches around his eyes, and a light blue patch running from under his chin down to his stomach, two dark blue markings; one on the back of his head, and the other on his back, large rabbit-like ears with pink insides and dark blue tips on the back, a wide mouth with a pink inside, white teeth, a navy round nose, navy claws and toes, large black, tear-shaped, pupil-less eyes, a small, short, stumpy tail, stubby legs, two nose wrinkles, one chin wrinkle, three tuffs of sharp hair on top of his head and on his chest, as well as two extra, retractable arms, sharp navy retractable claws on his front and back paws, three thick, long, sharp, venomous retractable porcupine-like spines tipped with white and a very dark navy that run down his back and two long dark blue-tipped retractable bug-like antennae on his head, but his antennae and spines are a few centimeters longer than that of Reuben's and some of Jumba's other 600 series creations.
==Powers and Abilities==
While explaining his creation to the Galactic Council early on in Lilo & Stitch, Dr. Jumba gives the following rundown of Stitch's powers: "He is bulletproof, fireproof, shockproof, and can think faster than [a] supercomputer. He can see in the dark and can move objects 3,000 times his size. His only instinct: to destroy everything he touches!"
==Weaknesses==
==Relationships==
===Family/ʻOhana===
Stitch always and never had a family, as stated by Jumba who claims he's built to destroy. This changed since meeting Lilo after he escaped from prison and crashed on Earth in Hawaii. At first, he behaved destructively and was only using Lilo as protection from Jumba and Pleakley, but as he learned about her family's history, he started to reform. This also lead to him questioning his purpose; when he built a model city and destroyed it, Stitch realized he has nothing if he cannot wreak havoc. Upon reading the story of the Ugly Duckling, Stitch found himself in the same position, being "lost" and "sad" hoping to find a family like the Ugly Duckling. Stitch found his one true place of being a part of Lilo's family, with the approval of the Grand Council since he's owned by Lilo in the Hawaiian state, taking the motto of ʻohana after saving Lilo from Gantu, while the family is under the protection of the Galactic Armada.
Stitch shows dedication to the Pelekai family, having to learn the ways of Hawaii and their tradition as well as the meaning of ʻohana, taking the concept well-meaning as Stitch would take this extension to, not only Jumba, Pleakley, and David, but also the other experiments Jumba created before him.
====Lilo Pelekai ====
====Nani Pelekai====
====Dr. Jumba Jookiba====
====Wendy Pleakley ====
====David Kawena ====
===Experiments===
====627====
Coming soon
====Leroy====
Coming soon
==Quotes==
 
 
==Notes== 
*Stitch was originally never seen in pod form, in the movies, or the series. This is likely that Jumba never had time to put him in pod form before he was arrested, and while on earth, either Jumba never had the opportunity or he never needed to.
*Stitch's last name is never stated. It could be Pelekai or Jookiba. However, he simply may not have one since he was legally adopted by Lilo as a dog; pets normally do not get their owners' surnames. (This also means that "Experiment 626" is currently his "birth" name.)
*Several times in the franchise he has regurgitated food, like when he grabbed Lilo's cake from his stomach. This implies that he has no gag reflex.
*Stitch has never had to wear a spacesuit, which indicates he has an ability to withstand low pressures and have a minimal or no need of breathing.
*Stitch prefers to speak his own language because he has a limited English vernacular.
*Stitch is warm-blooded.
==Trivia==
*According to Chris Sanders' initial designs, Stitch was originally going to have green fur and smaller eyes. His ears flared at their bases instead of close to their tips, and his nose was below the eye line instead of above. He also had white or silver claws instead of dark blue claws, and wore a yellow-orange spacesuit with burnt orange pants instead of the more uniform red-orange spacesuit that he wears in the original film's first act.
* Stitch is the only Lilo & Stitch character to have his name in every title of the franchise.
* Despite not appearing in the show itself (as the show ran for about one year before the movie came out, although the film came out during its run on television), Stitch was featured with Lilo in some online games for the television series House of Mouse.
*In a deleted scene of the original film, Stitch was responsible for the death of Pudge the fish. This incident made him learn about the consequences of his evil actions and gain a better understanding of mortality. It was cut out because Disney figured that it would be too morbid for a protagonist to kill someone and would also set a bad example for children. Moreover, Stitch is more interested in vandalism than violence. 
**Also, the original version of the scene where Jumba attacks Stitch which results in the Pelekai residence accidentally being burned down was actually going to have more violent scenes like Stitch using a chainsaw to attack Jumba, as well as Stitch setting the house on fire by biting apart a gas pipe and tricking Jumba into shooting it with his blaster. The final version of the same scene has everything violent edited out and replaced in favor of making the scene more slapstick-oriented (Jumba knocking the ceiling down with dishes instead of laser blasts, Jumba's "shuriken" being made of hairbrushes and a tube of toothpaste instead of knives and a pizza cutter, and the entire chainsaw scene shortened), having more comedic scenes added in (exploding Scrump, Stitch catching Jumba's laser, Stitch yelling, "Blue Punch Buggy! No punch back!" when hitting Jumba with Nani's VW, the Elvis Presley song "Hound Dog" playing in the background, and Lilo saying, "Oh, good. My dog found the chainsaw."), and the house being destroyed by having Stitch stop up Jumba's blaster with a carrot and then having them both play "hot potato" with it until the blaster overloads and explodes.
**A similar treatment was done to the climax, where Jumba, Pleakley, Stitch, and Nani fly through the sky to pursue Gantu after he accidentally captures Lilo as a result of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
** When Jumba attacks Stitch on the ceiling using plates like shurikens in the original film, he claims that he wants to reprogram Stitch to be "taller" and "not so fluffy", hence highlighting Stitch's failure as Jumba's "ultimate monster" experiment, and foreshadowing the creations of both Experiment 627 and 629/Leroy in Lilo & Stitch: The Series and Leroy & Stitch, respectively; coincidentally, both of them are improved versions of Stitch that are more evil and destructive and less fluffy than Stitch himself.
*Stitch is considered to be one of the first successful prototypes for Jumba's "ultimate monster" experiment, though he is technically a failure because he wanted to belong and find a family. Other notable attempts for this prototype are 000, 262, 600, and 625, and each failed for its own reason: 000 is uncontrollable, 262 is good, 600 is clumsy, and 625 is lazy. 627 and Leroy are additional attempts Jumba made after Stitch, but both of them also failed: 627 is weak to laughter while Leroy is weak to a song. However, Leroy can also be considered a success, since Jumba deliberately programmed the weakness into him.
*Stitch appears, along with several other Lilo & Stitch characters, in a parody of the Disney Channel Original Movie High School Musical, which was broadcast as part of the High School Musical: Around the World one-year anniversary special.
**In said parody, when Stitch and the other experiments are looking up at the ceiling, Stitch is colored red and 627 is colored blue due to a coloring error.
* Stitch's English-language speech capabilities, which are usually broken and childish, vary throughout the franchise and other works.
**In the original film, he starts out only speaking his native language, Tantalog, but gradually speaks English over time as he acclimates to Earth, though most of the time, he only makes various noises that are mostly animalistic due to him needing to keep up with the dog disguise. He speaks more during the third act, especially after he reveals his true alien nature to Lilo and Nani. 
***In terms of the actual production, his limited intelligible speech is due to Chris Sanders not wanting the character to speak anymore than what's absolutely necessary and keeping his dialogue to a bare minimum.
**Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch continues from the first film by having Stitch become more proficient in English, though with occasional moments of his more familiar childish English, and he almost never speaks in Tantalog. However, after he has his final glitch at the end of the film, which causes him to crash-land Jumba's ship, he only says a few words in brief sentence fragments from then on out.
**Lilo & Stitch: The Series and its films has Stitch speaking mostly in Tantalog, which was developed by the show's writing staff based on Chris Sanders' alien gibberish in the original film. When Stitch does speak English, it's usually as brief, broken sentence fragments with some brief pauses between words at times and a few possible instances of echolalia.
**The Stitch! anime series gives Stitch more dialogue than in any other work in the franchise, making him more talkative compared to his Western and Chinese portrayals. In the Japanese original, he maintains his broken and simplistic speech patterns, including his trademark illeism, and more clearly has echolalia, showing a tendency to repeat that last thing someone else says. However, in the English dub, his English improves, he talks in more complete sentences, and he develops a considerable wit. This is likely to reflect the long passage of time since the events of Leroy & Stitch, as Stitch may have spent enough time on Hawaii before leaving to actually get a decent grasp on English. (It should also be noted that English is heavily taught as a second language in Japan.)
**Stitch & Ai has Stitch's speech revert back to his broken, childish English, and he mainly speaks Tantalog again, much like in Lilo & Stitch: The Series. Interestingly, despite having the same English voice actor as his anime counterpart (Ben Diskin), he speaks with a lower-pitched and somewhat less energetic voice than that used in the anime.
*Stitch has illeism, which is the act of a referring oneself in the third person. He developed this habit probably because of his broken English or he had gotten it from Jumba, who also refers to himself in the third person.
**Interestingly, he only does this twice in the original Lilo & Stitch film, after he was apprehended by the Grand Councilwoman. He says "Stitch" instead of "I" when he asks her if he has to go into her ship, and if he can say goodbye to Lilo and Nani. All other times he refers to himself in the original film have been in the correct first-person. It is likely that, since this trait of Stitch's is more prominent in the sequels and spin-offs, his illeism (along with his broken English in a franchise where aliens can speak English fluently) ended up being a case of Flanderization for his character.
**In Stitch Has a Glitch, he is shown to do this less often up until the climax.
** In the English dub of the Stitch! anime, he does it even less often than before, but over the course of the series, he seems to have grown out of this habit: he talks in complete sentences, his English has improved, and he has more dialogue.
*Stitch's weak grasp of English throughout the franchise (especially in the original 2002–2006 continuity) does not make logical sense, considering his hypercognition, the fact that he shows no apparent signs of struggling in understanding English, the fact that the aliens in the franchise can speak fluent English (including his own creator more or less), and the fact that he spends most of his time with Lilo, who has a very complex vocabulary (especially for someone her age). The indirect explanation that he does not have "advanced language programming" like his predecessor Reuben also does not make sense considering the above, and in fact leaves a plot hole as to why Stitch doesn't have such an ability when his predecessor, who is said to have every power and ability that Stitch has, does. 
**Adding on to this, Chris Sanders published a TikTok video in June 2022 for the film's 20th anniversary in which he unofficially (as it was not made nor authorized by Disney) voices Stitch again, albeit in narration. The video has Stitch speaking in fluent English throughout, with only his famous illeism sticking around. This suggests that Sanders sees Stitch as eventually becoming naturally fluent or near-fluent in English over time.
*While Stitch and the other experiments are technically siblings, sharing the same creator, "cousins" is a Hawaiian term, like "ʻohana", for extended family and close friends, although Stitch only uses it in regard to the experiments. 
**However, in Stitch & Ai, when he reunites with Jumba and Pleakley, he tells Ai that they're "cousins", despite never having called either of them "cousins" before.
*Stitch loves reading his favorite storybook, The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen, which he obtained from Lilo at some point. 
** The plot revolving around the book mirrors Stitch questioning his purpose, as it revolves around his loneliness and desire to find a family, to which he did in the end.
**Stitch also developed a fondness for ducks as he showed some ducklings the storybook, as seen in the credits of Lilo & Stitch.
*Stitch apparently has a fondness for frogs as seen in Lilo & Stitch, where Stitch saves one from being blasted by a plasma gun of Gantu's ship.
*He is also very fond of sea turtles and even sleeps with a stuffed one, as seen in Stitch Has a Glitch.
**In the end credits of Lilo & Stitch, Stitch is also seen covering a turtle and its baby with a leaf.
*Stitch likes to dress up as Elvis Presley and is very skilled at playing the ukulele.
*His favorite foods are coconut cake and coffee, which are the very first Earth-based food and drink he has ever eaten, as seen in the original film and also mentioned in Stitch! The Movie. However, when he drinks coffee, he gains a massive amount of uncontrollable energy. Ironically, in "Slugger", he drank a large bowl of cappuccino, along with Lilo's cappuccino, but didn't go crazy at all. 
** Stitch also enjoys soda, as he steals a can from the Pelekais' fridge in the original film, angrily drinks the rest of the soda from a pitcher at Macki Macaw's restaurant in "Phantasmo" when Pleakley doesn't pour him some after Lilo had Stitch wait his turn, and enjoys a can after stuffing Mr. Stenchy into the Pelekais' pantry in "Mr. Stenchy" before being interrupted by Gantu.
**He has also been shown to eat anything inedible and very rarely doesn't like to eat something. An exception was in "Spooky", when he spat out a lemon, saying, "Ew, organic!", implying he might not like lemons. 
***However, in "Shortstuff", Stitch, as a giant, drank some lemonade from the cart he accidentally smashed without expressing any disgust, and in "Swapper", he drank a whole bowl of lemonade (albeit modified by Jumba to cause those who drink it to temporarily change colors), again without expressing any disgust, which would contradict this supposed dislike of lemons. It could be that either Stitch doesn't like organically-grown foods (as his heightened senses might have the unintended side effect of him tasting even the tiniest amounts of manure residue), he doesn't like the taste of unsweetened lemons or lemon juice, or him spitting out the organic lemon was nothing more than a simple joke.
** In the Stitch! anime, he also loves Yuna's blue crab sushi.
*Due to a continuity error, Stitch's ear notches have a tendency to disappear or change position in some works and merchandise. This has also caused countless fan art and even some official artwork to reflect these and other errors, such as reducing his four toes on each foot to three or changing his paw pads or body markings from dark blue or indigo to the same aqua color as his countershading.
* Following after Stitch! The Movie, Stitch's toes have changed from dark blue to black. 
**Additionally, following after Stitch Has a Glitch, Stitch's fur color has changed from dark blue to light blue.
*Stitch's blood is revealed to be pink when a sample was taken out of his body with a syringe. 
**Since then, Stitch has developed trypanophobia (a fear of needles) as evidenced in "Sample", when he showed fear of going to the vet to get his shots.
*When Stitch has a glitch, his eyes glow green. 
**Ironically, in the original film, Stitch's eyes were shown green after he crash-landed on Earth, but he displayed no glitch whatsoever.
**In Stitch Has a Glitch, the animation was reused in the beginning.
* Usually when Stitch rolls into a ball, he puts his feet into his mouth and covers his face with his butt. In "Dupe" and "Snafu", his ball form resembles Cannonball's ball form in Leroy & Stitch.
*Since Lilo's adoption of Stitch was a legal process under State of Hawaii law (complete with legal documentation), it can be said that his legal name is indeed "Stitch" and not "Experiment 626". Disney Infinity seems to re-enforce this by describing him as "Dr. Jumba's former Experiment 626" on the description for Stitch in the games' Hall of Heroes. 
**This may also provide additional context when he interrupts the Grand Councilwoman to clarify his name in the denouement of Lilo & Stitch, as he may also imply that it would no longer be considered proper to refer to him as "Experiment 626" in any further formal or legal matters. Since he is referred to as "Captain Stitch" when he joins the Galactic Armada in Leroy & Stitch, it could also be that the United Galactic Federation does formally acknowledge "Stitch" as his proper legal name; if they didn't, then he would have been "Captain 626" instead.
*In the Disney Adventures prequel comic "Experiment 626" and The Origin of Stitch, it is revealed that Stitch's genes contain those of some of the most powerful creatures in the galaxy, as well as some of Jumba's for "brains and good looks". One of the genes was a puppy, explaining Stitch's apparent resemblance to a dog (though Jumba did not know how it got in there).
**Notably, Stitch appeared on more covers for issues of Disney Adventures than any other character, appearing on the cover of twelve issues.
*In each of the franchise's three TV series, Stitch grows into a giant at least once per show via some method. 
**In the Lilo & Stitch: The Series episode "Shortstuff", Stitch uses Jumba's Protoplasmic Growth Ray to make himself bigger, but he is considerably clumsier in this larger size since he was not designed to be large. The episode's titular experiment also becomes bigger and defeats the enlarged Stitch at the carnival. Stitch would later be returned to his normal size in order to fight back and win.
**In the Stitch! anime episode "Experiment-a-palooza", Shrink zaps Stitch with an energy ray after the latter falls into a swimming pool, causing him to grow into a giant. Due to Retro reverting Stitch to his original destructive programming, Stitch goes on a rampage in this giant form until Yuna reaches out to him and reminds him of his promise. Shrink would be used again to revert Stitch to his original size.
**Stitch & Ai has the aforementioned metamorphosis program, which transforms him into a gigantic monster armed with four tentacle-like blasters. Notably, unlike with Lilo & Stitch: The Series, Stitch does not become clumsier as a giant in this series, which had some of the same crew members as the Western series. 
***However, a deleted version of the opening of the original film contradicts this. In this opening, the Galactic Council shows video footage of Experiment 626 – in his familiar small size – causing chaos and destruction in an alien city, including tipping over a skyscraper by lifting it from its base. The existence of this scene strongly suggests that Chris Sanders, Stitch's creator and original voice actor, never intended or at least considered giving Stitch this metamorphosis ability, thus likely making the monstrous "destruction form" in Stitch & Ai a retcon or a "revision" of the character. (Sanders did not work on either Stitch & Ai or the Stitch! anime series in any capacity.)
*Toothless, a Night Fury from DreamWorks Animation's How to Train Your Dragon franchise, bears a strong resemblance to Stitch. Even their facial expressions are similar, especially those showing excitement, wariness, and anger. However, their personalities are somewhat different, as Stitch is far more mischievous and anthropomorphic than Toothless. This is not a coincidence; Chris Sanders was the designer for both characters and co-directed both films with Dean DeBlois. It is also possible that Toothless was inspired by Stitch. 
**Sanders left Disney to join DreamWorks Animation (a rival animation company to Disney) in 2007 due to creative differences over Disney rejecting his original Bolt script and designs. Despite his departure, though, Sanders still continues to voice Stitch in video games, such as Kingdom Hearts II, Birth by Sleep, Disney Infinity 2.0, and in many other appearances of Stitch, having established a contract with Disney Character Voices. The notable exceptions are the Japanese Stitch! anime and the Chinese Stitch & Ai series, which had their English voice acting done with Studiopolis instead of in-house at Disney.
* In Big Hero 6, Stitch is referenced twice: the first as a costume worn by Mochi in a painting, and the second as one of the pillows on Fred's bed (alongside a Splodyhead pillow).
*The number 626 is the area code for San Gabriel Valley in Southern California, the place where one of the writers of the film used to live, albeit unconfirmed.Disney Hidden Secrets
==References==
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