629 Genetic Experiments of Disney's Lilo-&-Stitch Franchise

This is a list of **experiments** from the Disney animated *Lilo & Stitch* franchise, most of them making their first appearance in *Lilo & Stitch: The Series*. These fictional experiments, also referred to as **Stitch's cousins**, are genetically engineered creatures created by Dr. Jumba Jookiba in his lab at "Galaxy Defense Industries", with the assistance of Dr. Jacques von Hämsterviel who funded the projects with "shady" business deals. Prior to the events of *Lilo & Stitch*, every experiment created was dehydrated into a small orb called an "experiment pod" and stored in a special container for transport. In *Stitch! The Movie*, the container was accidentally opened and the pods rained down on the island of Kauai. The experiments within the pods are reactivated upon contact in water, a point of concern because many of the experiments are dangerous and Kauai hosts one of the wettest spots on Earth.

Upon encountering each experiment, Stitch's human friend and partner Lilo gives the experiment a name just as she gave Stitch his name. The two then attempt to rehabilitate the experiments and find a purpose for them on Earth that suits their specific abilities, referred to as the "one true place" they belong.

Stitch, inspired by Hawaii's terminology, refers to the other experiments as his "cousins" and considers them all a part of his *ʻohana*, or "extended family". All of Jumba's original 626 experiments have their names and numbers listed alongside the credits in *Leroy & Stitch*.

## Background

### Biology

Due to different experiments' original purposes, the majority of experiments each have a unique appearance, powers, and weaknesses. Though all experiments have unique capabilities and functions, most of them have some abilities in common due to Jumba reusing DNA from one experiment as a prototype for a different experiment, like the similarities of body shape, appearance, and even for powers like in the case of Jumba reusing some of Twang (021)'s DNA in the creation of Bragg (145), granting the latter musical ability. Most seem capable of scaling walls like a gecko (as Stitch frequently does); many are able to grow and retract an extra pair of arms. Since they are genetic experiments each created with multiple kinds of DNA that Jumba sampled throughout the galaxy, they all age quite differently than creatures on Earth as seen with Lilo and the rest of humanity when time is lapsed 20 years in "Skip".

It is also shown that some experiments' powers (such as Mr. Stenchy (254)'s cuteness, and Checkers (029)'s hypnotic effect) do not affect other experiments, possibly so that these powers do not prevent other experiments from carrying out their primary functions. If affected by other experiments' powers, it might be temporary as Stitch managed to recover from Drowsy (360)'s sleep-inducing program without being exposed to water. Though Angel (624) primarily reverts other experiments (before her time) to evil, Amnesio (303) and Retro (210) can do so as well.

It is also shown that when an experiment is dehydrated, they will deactivate and turn into a small orb called an experiment pod. If an experiment pod gets wet, the experiment will be reactivated and released. According to Jumba, a home food dehydrator is the only known method of deactivating an experiment a second time.

### Creation

Upon each experiment's creation, it is important that their molecules be charged. If an experiment's molecules are not fully charged, about a year after their creation, they will suffer glitches, during which they will experience seizures and temporarily revert to their original programming. If the molecular charging process is not completed, these glitches will eventually burn out the experiment's circuits and kill them.

## Experiment series

The first digit of the experiment numbers reflects what series of experiments they belong to. The official series of experiments, as stated by Jess Winfield, one of the executive producers, are as follows:

* **0-Series:** Jumba's test batch, including many household helpers.
* **1-Series:** Civic disturbances.
* **2-Series:** Technological and scientific.
* **3-Series:** Psychological.
* **4-Series:** Top secret and mysterious series of militaristic and mostly failed experiments.
* **5-Series:** Elemental and environmental manipulators.
* **6-Series:** Battlefield and doomsday experiments with galactic implications.

For the most part, the colors of the experiment pods correspond to the series numbers; however, some of the pods are colored incorrectly.

## Trivia

* According to Jess Winfield, during the development of *Lilo & Stitch: The Series*, the idea of it focusing on "the other 625 experiments" was birthed from an idea by artist and director Steve Lyons who "suggested that an evil villain clone Stitch into a bunch of different creatures that Lilo and Stitch would chase." Also, the phrase "the other 625 experiments" was coined either by Winfield himself, Bobs Gannaway, or possibly Barry Blumberg, although Winfield doesn't remember who was first to say it.
* *Disney's Stitch: Experiment 626* featured an experiment series numbered as 700, which were mass-produced by Jumba and served as enemies in the game.
* In *Stitch!*, eleven previously unseen experiments created by Jumba were introduced in addition to two experiments created by someone other than Jumba. The first, called Skunkuna, was created by Hämsterviel, and the second was Dark End, created by Delia. Since neither were created by Jumba, they do not fall under his numbering scheme.
* In *Stitch & Ai*, Jumba creates new experiments based on ancient scrolls he is given. Most are based on Chinese mythical creatures, while others appear to be derived from some creatures. It is unknown whether or not Jumba considers these experiments a part of his existing numbering scheme.
* According to the series episode "Skip" (as seen on a monitor) and the Magic Kingdom attraction Stitch's Great Escape! (as seen on wanted posters in the exit halls of the attraction), the official shorthand prefix for "Experiment" is "X-" (X with a hyphen). In addition, Jumba referred to Spooky as "X-300" (ex three hundred), Kixx as "X-601" (ex six-oh-one), and Morpholomew as "X-316" (ex three-one-six) in their respective eponymous episodes, further supporting this.
* To date, there are only 125 of Jumba's experiments that have appeared and have their names, numbers, and functions confirmed. This includes Coco who has only appeared in the *Disney Adventures* comics and was confirmed by Jess Winfield, Experiment 621 from *Disney's Stitch: Experiment 626*, and Experiment 000 who first appeared in *Stitch!*. This numbering scheme does not count the new experiments Jumba made in *Stitch & Ai* as stated above.
	+ Experiments 021, 024, 099, 143, 224, 274, 321, 340, 400, 412, 413, 414, and 415 have their names, numbers, and functions confirmed, but have never physically appeared.
	+ Experiments 607 and 611 have their names, numbers, and functions confirmed, but have never physically appeared, yet have appeared as stylized graphics on Jumba's computer and the experiment pod container's screen, respectively.
	+ Experiment 627 has physically appeared, but was never given an official name.
	+ Experiments 347 and 531 have appeared in the comics, but do not have their functions confirmed.
	+ There are several experiments that have appeared in DVD bonus features, comics, and *Leroy & Stitch* that have never been assigned to a name and number.
	+ Of the 123 experiments that have appeared and been confirmed (including Stitch), *Stitch! The Movie* introduced 7 experiments, the original series introduced a total of 91 with 44 of them appearing in Season 1 and 47 appearing in Season 2, *Leroy & Stitch* introduced 13, and *Stitch!* introduced 11 (excluding Dark End, Skunkuna, and the Sproutlings).
	+ We have met 20% of Jumba's experiments in the franchise that have their names, numbers, and functions confirmed, while we only know around 22% of the experiments' functions.
* In most of the franchise, Stitch typically prefaces the names of his fellow experiments (other than Angel) with "cousin".

### Continuity errors

* Several experiments have been given multiple numbers, such as Bonnie and Clyde, who are called 349 and 350 in their episode, but called 149 and 150 in the end credits of *Leroy & Stitch*. The same goes for Finder and Ploot, who are called 458 and 515 in their respective episodes, but called 158 and 505 in the end credits of *Leroy & Stitch*.
* Many of the experiments that appear in the background during the Aloha Stadium battle in *Leroy & Stitch* are duplicates or recolors and slight edits of existing experiments. They were put in as screen fillers to make it appear as if all 626 experiments were actually there. For example, Houdini appears five times in the frame, while Cannonball appears eight times; twice recolored, twice re-edited and four times copied. Phoon is also seen twice in the scene, both in normal and mutated form.
* Experiment 272 was listed as "Mamf" in the end credits of *Leroy & Stitch*. However, in *Stitch!*, Wormhole is called 272 while 275 is given to Tickle-Tummy, who was mistakenly left off the list in the movie. When asked about the numbers of theses three, Jess Winfield stated: "The best I can tell you about Tickletummy/Wormhole is that Jumba's genius does not extend to keeping a tidy database. There is some confusion in his records regarding Tickletummy, Wormhole, and a third experiment named Mamf, with different lists giving different numbers for them. Perhaps it will be sorted out someday."