Stitch

### Animators

Alex Kupershmidt, Andreas Deja, Travis Blaise, Rob Corley, Michael Benet and Noel Cleary

### Voiced By

Chris Sanders (2002-present)
 Benjamin Diskin (Stitch! and Stitch & Ai)

### Siblings

Leroy (Twin Brother)

**Stitch** (also known as **Experiment 626**) is one of the main characters in the Lilo & Stitch Franchise.

## Background

### Development

Chris Sanders first created the character of Stitch in 1985 for a planned children's book that never came to be.

Years later in 1997, when production on Mulan was currently wrapped up, he had the opportunity to pitch a film version of his planned story, beginning the development of the film.

In early drafts, Stitch was originally slated to have landed in Kansas but the setting was changed to Hawaii since the location would provide a greater degree of isolation from large cities and the islands were among some of Chris Sanders' favourite places. Also, the character himself started as an intergalactic gangster rather than a recently created genetic monster. In these early drafts, his gang (including ex-gang member Jumba) would have been the ones hired by the Galactic Federation to hunt him down.

### Personality

Throughout the course of the entire Lilo & Stitch franchise, Stich is depicted as a character that 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 behaviour. It is interesting to note that people 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 off features such as extra pairs of arms, misshapen heads or unusual colouring, 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 cutness 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 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 impuluses toward anti-social 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 may still become prone to having temper tantrums when things do not go as well as he hopes. He also gets easily angered by inanimate objects, expecially the toaster. After it popped toast in his face once, he has since beaten it and juiced it at least twice. Despite these tantrums, Stitch can sometimes display a little common sense and be more mature than Lilo. He occasionally sees when she goes too far in using the other experiments for her own personal gain, examples of which were seen in her schemes involving Sprout, Checkers, Morpholomew and PJ.

### Physical Appearance

Designed by his voice actor Chris Sanders, Stitch is a blue alien genetic creation standing around three feet tall. He strongly resembles a koala or a French bulldog and is referred to as both throughout the franchise, expecially since humans (with the exception of Lilo, Nani, Cobra and David) are completely oblivious to the fact he is an alien. He has sharp teeth inside his mouth along with a long pink tongue. A short, stumpy tail cuts out from his rear. He has a limited ability to change his physical appearance, only able to retract his second set of arms, his antennae and the three spines on his back into his body.

When Stitch was first introduced by Jumba and during his time as a criminal, he donned a red spacesuit with an upside-down triangle consisting of a red border and yellow center on the chest. Similar patches adorned the elbows of the sleeves and square patches consisting of a dark red border with an orange center showing on each of his legs. He also wore a black belt with a crimson square buckle and his cuffs, anklets and collar were also black. The suit survived when he crashed on Earth but it was torn to pieces when he was run over by a convoy of trucks.

When Stitch was captain of the B.R.B. 9000, he donned a black spacesuit similar to that of Gantu's which consisted of a black shirt with thick red brims on his shoulders. Unlike Gantu's tank shirt, this suit features wrist-length sleeves with red cuffs, along with matching vertical linings on both sides of the shirt and trousers. He also wore a gray belt with a light gray "V" on the front, along with a small gray mark on the upper left chest that resembles a tear drop with a black dot on it. The suit was destroyed during his fight with Leroy.

### 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 came move objects 3,000 times his size. His only instinct is to destroy everything he touches!"

* **Feral Mind**: In the original film, Jumba claimed that Stitch's "destructive tendency was taking effect" and that he would be irresistibly drawn to large cities to "back up sewers, reverse street signs and steal everybody's left shoe".
* **Dense body tissue**: Although we rarely see Stitch shot at with a bullet, he does survive the crash of his spaceship with not even a scratch, is only briefly stunned by a fall of several thousand feet and has to be run over by three tractor trailers in succession to be knocked out.
* **Fireproof skin**: He drives a tanker truck of gasoline into a volcano and ends up only a little singed from the resulting explosion.
* **Bulletproof skin**: Rounds fired from plasma guns seem to cause his discomfort, although he can hold the material in his hands long enough to throw the plasma back at his enemies.
* **Shockproof**: He has some resistance to electricity since he was able to take an electrical attack from Sparky, quickly recovering from it. However, he can still feel pain from these types of shocks despite his ummunity to it.
* **Hyper-cognition**: Thinking faster than a supercomputer is harder to quantify, but he does escape from captivity fairly ingeniously; builds a model of San Francisco after only glancing at a post card; grabs a crossword puzzle from the table and finishes it in about seven seconds; build a bomb out of a plasma bolt, a doll and a roller skate; creates a "bucking bronco" out of a toaster, vacuum cleaner and a lamp; reads aloud a description of a local museum's display, showing he is able to understand written language at a remarkable speed; manipulates moral compass by using a human being as a shield in Jumba and Pleakley's presence; and generally picks up quickly on what is happening around him.
* **Lingual intuition**: Stitch can converse fluently in over 20 different languages but prefers Tantalog (his native language).
* **Cooking intuition**: He can cook 372 recipes but prefers Chinese food most of all.
* **Parallel computing**: He is an information repository, containing an internal dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia and experiment catalog, and records every moment of his life in a reserved portion of his brain that can theoretically store up to 300 PB.
* **Instrument player**: He is also skilled at playing musical instruments, most notably the ukelele thanks to his quick learning.
* **Vehicle intuition**: Stitch can drive any sort of vehicle from something as simple as a tricycle to complex machinery like intergalactic spaceships.
* **Enhanced strength**: His ability to lift objects 3,000 times his own size and weight is seen several times throughout the franchise, including incidents where he picks up a descending blast door, hits Dr. Jumba with a thrown Volkswagen Beetle (shouting gleefully, "Blue punch buggy! No punch back!") and stops an 18-wheeled tanker of gasoline dead in its tracks. The reason why Stitch can lift 3,000 times his own weight, even though he has small arms, is because his muscles contain excessively compressed amounts of myofibril within one muscle cell. This muscular arrangement makes Stitch's muscles contract 1,000 times faster than a human's, making him much, much more powerful. The ability is sometimes joked about in the later series; for example, in Stitch! The Movie, when Hämsterviel loudly declares, to "three thousand and one!" times Stitch's weight, though he later admits it was intended as a joke. This was further validated in the Lilo & Stitch: The Series episode "Swirly", when Gantu correctly guessed that Stitch cannot lift even an ounce more than 3,000 times his size when he adds a small ticket to the given load.
* **Wall crawling**: While Stitch's claws are strong, the pads on his hands and feet can secrete a sticky substance, allowing him to scale and adhere to almost any surface, such as buildings and walls.
* **Spherical form**: His skeletal system is very flexible, allowing him to put his feet into his mouth and roll like a ball. This allows him to squeeze through tight spaces.
* **Enhanced speed**: Stitch was shown moving at super speed while carrying Jumba, during a bet made with Lilo to catch Experiments 501 (Yin) and 502 (Yang), and Lilo, while hurrying from Gantu's ship back to the fundraiser. His speed is also usually used when he's in his spherical form.
* **Enhanced jump**: Stitch's legs are small but thanks to the muscle advancements mentioned above, are powerful enough to enable him to jump several feet into the air.
* **Electromagnetic vision**: His eyes can magnify objects and pick up various forms of light, filtering out one or the other if necessary. Using normal vision, his eyes are a glassy, solid black.
	+ **Night vision**: His eyes turn green.
	+ **Infrared vision**: His eyes turn red.
	+ **X-ray vision**: His eyes turn a bright green.
* **Audio amplifier**: He can act as an audio amplifier, radio and/or microphone, illustrated when he uses his claw as the needle on a record player and plays music through his mouth like a sound horn.
* **Enhanced hearing and smell**: He has an acute sense of smell and hearing. Concept designs detailing Stitch's anatomy describe the sensory filaments of his nose being so dense and extensive that, if unravelled, could blanket the Earth. While listening for Jumba and Pleakley, who are hiding on a hill outside the dog shelter, he is able to detect Pleakley speaking at a whisper.
* **Skilled hand-to-hand combat**: He is dexterously skilled in hand-to-hand combat, whether using all four arms or just two.
* **Venomous spines**: In anatomy drawings of Stitch from the film's production, his spines are described as being poisonous and connected to venom sacs in his spinal cord.
* **Shapeshifting**: In his alien form, he has three spines on his back, two antennae on his head and an extra pair of arms. However, he is able to retract all of these features to look more like a dog while on Earth and used this to become Lilo's pet.
* **Semi-immortality**: Stitch canot age. When Skip flashed ten years ahead, he did not age whatsoever but for some reason, Babyfier's powder reversed him into an infant. This could simply mean he stops aging once his is physically mature.
* **Vacuum adaptation**: Along with the rest of his "cousins", Stitch can survive in the vacuum of space.

Both of the two East Asian animated spin-offs add additional abilities to Stitch not shown in the original Western continuity.

* The third season of the Stitch! anime shows that he also has a natural battery in his body that can supercharge his powers.
* Stitch & Ai shows that Stitch has a metamorphosis code in his DNA to assist him in carrying out his primary function. When the metamorphosis programming is activated, he transforms into a gigantic and unstoppable monstrosity with four tentacle-like blasters capable of destroying not just cities but planets and potentially entire star systems. He is also seen sprouting quills around his neck. It is also revealed that Stitch has a retractable patagium, a parachute-like membrane found in bats, birds and other animals that assists in gliding or flight, granting Stitch the ability to glide.

### Weaknesses

* **Water**: Stitch's greatest weakness is his inability to float, let alone swim in water due to his molecular structure being much denser than the average human or animal. This causes him to instantly sink like a stone. Stitch originally had an instinctive aquaphobia (which was even used against him by Spooky) but he was able to overcome it thanks to Lilo's influence.
* **Memory erase**: It is shown in "Kixx" that if Stitch consumes two different elements which form to create a particular chemical compound, all of his training skills will be wiped. Eating a left show and macadamia nuts together will result in this.
* **Mucus drain**: Stitch is 62.7% mucus, which is similar in composition to Snootonium. If this is drained from his body, he will become temporarily exhausted from dehydration (evident with Snooty sophons Stitch's mucus).
* **Sonic blasts**: Another weakness is the fact that his super-sensitive hearing can lead to temporary deafness when exposed to sonic blasts, such as Yaarp's destructive sound blast.
* **Strength limit**: As stated above, he cannot lift even an ounce past the 3,000 times limit.
* **Trash ingestion**: If Stitch consumes vast amounts of trash, he will become incredibly sick as shown in "Ploot". He first gets sick to his stomach and sneezes, then his fur turns yellow, his tongue becomes orange and his nose turns red. Another symptom is, with each sneeze, an arm grows from random areas of his body. Stitch's garbage-eating illness was theorised as a rare space disease by Jumba. Stitch was cured when he drank a barrel of orange juice and took medicine from an eyedropper, though it was only for a few seconds. When he sneezed again, he developed yellow stripes and grew legs instead. The only permanent cure is inhaling steam from a vaporiser.
* **Sauerkraut**: Stitch is allergic to sauerkraut.

## Appearances

### Film

* Lilo & Stitch
* Stitch! The Movie
* Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch
	+ The Origin of Stitch
* Leroy & Stitch

### Television

* Lilo & Stitch: The Series
* Stitch!
* Stitch & Ai

### Other Appearances

* Treasure Planet: Stitch made a brief cameo as a stuffed toy on a shelf in Jim Hawkins' bedroom when he was a child.
* Virtual Magic Carpet Ride: Stitch appears in the game included on Disc 2 of the 2004 Aladdin Platinum Edition DVD, riding his spaceship while passing by Aladdin and Carpet briefly three times.
* The Lion King 1½: A silhouette of Stitch is seen at the end of the film crawling on the wall inside the dark theater. He bounces off Goofy, Rabbit, Mad Hatter and Donald as he makes his way to his seat. Donald is heard quacking angrily as Stitch laughs at him.
* Brother Bear: Stitch makes a surprise cameo in the outtakes.
* Big Hero 6: Stitch is referenced twice. The first as a costume worn by Mochi in a panting and the second as one of the pillows on Fred's bed.
* UniBEARsity: Stitch, alongside Angel and Scrump, appear in the fourth UniBEARsity story OhanaBEARsity. In it, Stitch reads the UniBEARsity storybook and comes up with the idea of making their own teddy bears. His teddy bear, named Blue, is based on his likeness.
* Ralph Breaks the Internet: Stitch appears as one of the residents of Oh My Disney.

## Printed Material

### Kingdom Keepers

Stitch appears in the third and fifth book in the saga. In Kingdom Keepers III: Disney in Shadow, he is an Overtaker and along with some of the pirates from Pirates of the Caribbean, pursues Finn and Maybeck through Tom Sawyer Island. In Kingdom Keepers V: Shell Game, he seems to have freed of the Overtakers, for he saves Finn from the rescue dummies at Typhoon Lagoon. This makes Finn get to the conclusion that Stitch was under a spell from the Evil Queen.

### Stitch & the Samurai

In this manga, Stitch's escape from the Galactic Federation sends him through time back to Sengoku Japan instead of modern Hawaii. Upon crash landing, Stitch encounters the army of a samurai warlord named Yamato Meison and ends up joining them in their war for the throne.

## Video Games

### Lilo & Stitch Franchise

* Disney's Lilo & Stitch

* Disney's Lilo & Stitch: Trouble in Paradise

* Disney's Stitch: Experiment 626

* Lilo & Stitch: Hawaiian Adventure

* Lilo & Stitch Pinball

* Lilo & Stitch 2: Hämsterviel Havoc

* Disney Stitch Jam

* Motto! Stitch! DS: Rhythm de Rakugaki Daisakusen

### Other Games

* Kingdom Hearts II
* Kingdom Hearts III
* Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep
* Kingdom Hearts χ
* Kinect: Disneyland Adventures
* Disney Infinity
* Disney Infinity: 2.0 Edition
* Disney Universe
* Just Dance: Disney Party

## Disney Parks

Stitch quickly became a staple character in the Disney theme parks due to his popularity. He is usually seen with Lilo or by himself. In the Disney Parks franchises, he sometimes accompanies Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto, replacing Daisy at times.

Stitch is also a meetable character at PCH Grill located in Paradise Pier Hotel. He only appears during the Mickey and Friends character breakfast with Lilo and lots of other characters.

He is always seen in Tomorrowland at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland, Shanghai Disneyland, Arabian Coast at Tokyo DisneySea and sometimes seen at Disneyland, Disney's California Adventure, Disney's Hollywood Studios, Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney Studios Park for meet-and-greet sessions.

### Disneyland

In Mickey and the Magical Map, Stitch can be seen towards the end, when Mickey chases the ink spot into the Hawaiian painting. Stitch is seen on the screen, before ducking down and coming onstage from the side of the screen. He dances with a group of cast members to the song of "Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride".

In World of Color at Disney California Adventure, Stitch can be seen during the "Transformation" sequence at the end of the show. In World of Color: Season of Light, Stitch and his family are featured celebrating the holidays in their own segment.

In It's a Small World, Stitch can be seen with Lilo on a surfboard in the Hawaiian area.

### Walt Disney World Resort

Stitch was the main character of Stitch's Great Escape!, where he had a chance to interact with the live audience. This attraction later became a meet-and-greet area where guests can have photos with him until the signage was dropped. It is currently unknown where he will meet in Tomorrowland.

He also appeared during 'Ohana breakfast times with Lilo, Mickey and Pluto in Disney's Polynesian Village Resort until 2020 when it was closed to be Moana-themed for the summer of 2021. So it is unknown if he will return for character dining appearances.

Stitch is the star of Stitch's Supersonic Celebration, initially on a video screen and then in costumed form. The Stitch character on the video screen could interact with guests, using the same technology as in Turtle Talk with Crush.

Stitch is one of the characters that appears on the riverboat in the finale of the WDW version of Fantasmic! beginning in mid-2002. He used to be in the Disneyland version but was since omitted.

In Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, Stitch also made a cameo inside a piece of luggage in the baggage check section of the ride, Star Tours: The Adventures Continue. G2-9T, when noticing Stitch inside, removed the luggage and quarantined it, due to animals not being allowed on the flights. He was eventually replaced with Figment.

In A Totaly Tomorrowland Christmas, Stitch is one of the special "guest characters" alongside Buzz Lightyear and Mike Wazowski. Unlike the others (until towards the end), Stitch does not appear onstage. He broadcasts himself from a television screen. The host checks back in with him between musical numbers, given the important job of tracking down Santa to make sure he comes for the big finale. As Stitch learns more about Santa from the guests, Stitch mistakes Santa for a "spying snitch who breaks into houses" and almost uses his ship's lasers to shoot down Santa and his sleigh. Luckily, he's stopped in time and he now learns the real meaning of Christmas. However, Stitch loses track of Santa afterwards and decides to appear onstage dressed as Santa for the big finale.

In March 2016, he and the Genie were replaced by Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde from Zootopia in the Magic Kingdom parade, Move It! Shake It! Dance and Play It! Street Party. He also appeared in Town Square near the flagpole replacing Marie for more meet-and-greet sessions but was moved back to Tomorrowland when Stitch's Great Escape was not in use. There, he currently meets on the Tomorrowland stage along with Buzz.

### Disneyland Paris

Stitch also appeared in Stitch's Hawaiian Paradise Party in Disneyland Paris on June 9, 2011 and Merry Stitchmas in 2017.

### Tokyo Disneyland

In The Enchanted Tiki Room: Stitch Presents Aloha e Komo Mai!, an animatronic Stitch was added in the attraction since 2008. Throughout the show, the Birds of Paradise discover a writing believed to be done by "Big Kahuna" who is thought to be a tiki god and anyone who angers him would put the Tiki Room in trouble. During the musical number "Hawaiian War Chant", Stitch disrupts the song by popping out of the flowerbeds where the orchids are singing (though his full body is not physically seen until the end of the show). During the Showgirl Birds' act, the Birds of Paradise discover the Showgirl Birds wearing Stitch ears in which they explain that a strange creature (referring to Stitch) put blue ears on them as they plan on not finishing the song until Stitch is gone. Waha Nui, one of the Birds of Paradise, gets upset to tell the prankster ruining the show to show up but Stitch gets insulted when he hears Waha Nui calling him a prankster. When Stitch rises from the fountain, the Birds of Paradise think he is Big Kahuna but Stitch himself declares he is not. The Birds of Paradise then scold Stitch for disrupting the show in which Stitch explains that he wants to perform in the Tiki Room.

The Birds of Paradise let Stitch perform in the show, on the condition that he not interfere with the show anymore. Stitch agrees, asking the Birds of Paradise and the audience if they want to join his 'ohana. Stitch and the Birds of Paradise then close the show with a reprise of "Aloha, E Komo Mai". Stitch declares, "Everyone... 'ohana!" and the show ends with him spitting out of the fountain.

In the defunct Tokyo DisneySea version of Fantasmic!, Stitch starred in his own segment, conducting the water and lights to an instrumental rock version of "Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride" while Angel drives around in a speedboat with a plasma pistol.

In the Polynesian Terrace Restaurant, Lilo's Luau & Fun ran from 2005 to 2020. In it, Lilo and Stitch, as well as Mickey, Minnie, Chip and Dale came on stage and danced with some hula dancers and a ukelele player to the music from Lilo & Stitch.

He also appeared in the now-defunct attraction Mickey Mouse Revue in 2007 during the Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo segment where he was holding a can with yellow paint and a paint brush and he was with Cinderella, then when the Fairy Godmother used her magic for Cinderella's dress, he disappeared and left remaining was the can with yellow paint.

### Hong Kong Disneyland

At Hong Kong Disneyland, Stitch used to show up for meet-and-greet sessions in Tomorrowland and Fantasy Gardens, and sometimes appears in Disney's Hollywood Hotel. He also appears in It's a Small World with Lilo and the Flights of Fantasy Parade and appeared in the defunct version of The Golden Mickeys.

Recently, he greets guests most often (especially alogside Lilo) in the Karibuni Marketplace in Adventureland.

### Shanghai Disneyland

Stitch met in Tomorrowland and appeared in the caboose in Mickey's Storybook Express until 2020. He also appears in the second segment of Summer Blast in front of Enchanted Storybook Castle.

### Disney Cruise Line

Stitch also greets guests on the Disney Cruise Line ships. On board the Disney Fantasy, Stitch interacts with guests boarding the ship in CGI through a screen much like his attraction Stitch Live! (or Stitch Encounter).

He is also present on the Disney Fantasy cruise ship with Lilo in the show Disney's Wishes.