Stitch & Ai

**Stitch & Ai** is an animated television series. It premiered on March 27, 2017 on CCTV-14. The series ended on April 6, 2017 after airing one season.

It is third television series in the Lilo & Stitch Franchise.

## Plot

Stitch & Ai follows the events of Lilo & Stitch and its subsequent film and television sequels up to and including Leroy & Stitch. The series show Stitch kidnapped by the Jaboodies, a faction of alien criminals who want to use him to have their own destructive genetic experiment. However, thanks to a rival faction called the Woolagongs trying to kidnap Switch themselves by stealing him from the Jaboodies, Stitch escapes back to Earth, ending up on China's Huangshan mountains. There he befriends Ai, a spirited local girl who is at risk of being separated from her older sister Jiejie. Stitch becomes Ai's "dog" and the two help one another dealing with the other's problems; Ai helps Stitch deal with the space crimimals, while he helps her stay in the mountains with her family. Jumba and Pleakley later show up initially trying to bring Stitch back to the United Galactic Federation, but Ai and Jiejie convince the two aliens to let Stitch stay with them. Although Jumba and Pleakley also stay to keep a watch on Stitch and to help out him and his new family, Jumba gets concerned that a previously-unrevealed metamorphosis function that he secretly programmed in Stitch, a function that, among other possible transformations, causes the experiments to grow into a giant beast when his destructive programming is triggered in a large city, could be unleashed if the space criminals figure out how to subconsciously manipulate Stitch into triggering it.

### Continuity

The series has various flashbacks to key scenes in the franchise which appear in episodes 1, 2 and 13. The flashbacks consist of closely re-animated sequences, copying the originals to the best of their ability. Flashback scenes include:

* "Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride" from Lilo & Stitch
* "Jumba's Trial" from Lilo & Stitch
* "Stitch's Escape" from Lilo & Stitch
* "The Birth of Stitch" from Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch
* "626 Simulation" from The Origin of Stitch
* "Jumba & Stitch" from The Origin of Stitch

In co-ordinance with this, there are occasional cameos from previous characters of the franchise, including Captain Gantu, the Grand Councilwoman, Cobra Bubbles and the Ice Cream Man.

## Cast and Characters

* Ben Diskin as Stitch
* Erica Mendez as Wang Ai Ling
* Laura Post Wang Jiejie / Daiyu
* Jess Winfield as Dr. Jumba Jookiba
* Lucien Dodge as Agent Wendy Pleakley / Qian Dahu
* Cherami Leigh as Meiying
* Richard Epcar as Mr. Ding

## Production

Stitch & Ai is produced by Anhui Xinhua Media and Panimation Hwakai Media in association with Disney with additional work by Showfun Animation, Shanghai Fire & Ice Media and Shanghai Aoju Media. The series began broadcast on CCTV-14 on March 27, 2017. Unlike Stitch!, this series was produced in co-operation with American Disney animators to maintain a sense of virtual continuity to the original American-produced films and TV series. The series was produced as part of an effort by Disney to enter the Chinese animation market. It was originally produced in English then dubbed into Mandarin Chinese.

Tony Craig, an executive producer of Lilo & Stitch: The Series who directed two episodes of the show, and directed and produced its respective pilot and finale films Stitch! The Movie and Leroy & Stitch, served as director for Stitch & Ai. Victor Cook, who was a director for both seasons of Lilo & Stitch: The Series, was initially signed onto the Chinese series and even visited China to assist making the eighth episode. At first, Cook contacted Craig to storyboard the first episode but when Cook had to drop out due to other commitments, he had Craig take over directing. Craig joined during pre-production and had to delay joining in full due to a prior employment issue, although Panimation waited for him. Craig oversaw the storyboards, animatics, animation, most of the designs and all the edition sessions, but he was not involved with the dialogue recordings, which happened in Los Angeles while Craig lives in North Carolina.

The show made its English premiere on Disney Channel Asia on February 5, 2018. The series (except for the ninth episode) later became available in the United States for free streaming on DisneyNow on December 1, 2018. It was later removed from the service in June 2019.