Stitch (Lilo & Stitch)
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Stitch is the name of the genetic experiment 626, a fictional alien protagonist from the Lilo & Stitch films and television program. 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 puppy dog. He is voiced by his creator and the film's co-director, Chris Sanders.
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[edit] Appearance
Stitch is a mixture of several miniature animals. He uses a mixture of rabbit, chimpanzee, dog, cat, tasmanian devil, and koala, for the appearance of Stitch. He also seems to have blue fur, big black eyes, huge ears, sharp claws, two antennae, three spines from his back and can change to have 4 arms to 2 arms. He stands 3 feet 6 inches tall.
[edit] History
As revealed in Lilo & Stitch, Stitch was created by "evil genius" Dr. Jumba Jookiba, who called him "Experiment 626", with the genes of the galaxy's strongest and most ferocious creatures being zapped with electricity to start the molecules forming and starting to solidify into the form and fully formed, but when the experiment was finished, Jumba was disappointed to see how cute and fluffy he was. Nevertheless, Jumba soon sees 626's destructive potential and begins to charge Stitch's molecules. However, before Stitch is fully charged, both he and Jumba are captured by police officers of the Galactic Federation.
626 is then sentenced by the Grand Councilwoman to life in exile on a desert asteroid and Captain Gantu escorts him. Stitch escapes and crash-lands in Kaua'i, Hawaii. Disguising himself as a dog (although he actually looks like a koala), 626 was adopted by a little girl named Lilo, who names him "Stitch".
Stitch is trained by Lilo to be good, using Elvis Presley as a model for his behavior. Lilo's efforts prove to be fruitless at first, as Stitch is unable to suppress his destructive programming. Nevertheless, Lilo enjoys her new "puppy". Although at first he only wanted to use the girl as a human shield from Jumba and Agent Pleakley, whose mission is to capture the fugitive experiment, Stitch slowly develops feelings for Lilo, to the point where he saved her life from Gantu. After his heroics, the Grand Councilwoman allows Stitch to serve his exile on Earth with Lilo as his warder, citing her dog adoption certificate (subsequently, Lilo seems to have become not only a best friend but also a sister figure to Stitch).
In Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch, Stitch is living well and is reasonably well-behaved (although still hot-tempered and mischievous) with the exiled Jumba and Pleakley in Lilo's house until he begins malfunctioning. Since he was not fully charged after his creation, Stitch experiences periodic glitches that have him reverting back to his original destructive programming, appearing to suffer from a "fit" or "seizure". Seeing this, Jumba strives to create a proper charging chamber for Stitch. Not wanting to hurt anyone and not knowing about Jumba's plan, Stitch attempts to leave Earth for a remote planet, while Lilo, Jumba, and the others desperately try to have him return so they can recharge him. Although they are too late when they place him in the recharging pod, Stitch seems to be revived by Lilo's love, in accordance with her belief that love is more powerful than death.
Afterward, in Stitch! The Movie, 626 discovers the remaining 625 genetic experiments locked in a crate, in the form of dehydrated pods. In order to rescue a kidnapped Jumba a trade between Dr. Jacques von Hämsterviel and Jumba for the experiments is organized, but it instead results in the freedom of the experiments and the capture of Lilo and Stitch. Hämsterviel then tries to clone Stitch but he was rescued by Experiment 221 ("Sparky"). Stitch then rescued Lilo and landed Hämsterviel's spacecraft back in Kaua'i, where the Grand Councilwoman waited to arrest Hämsterviel.
In the subsequent television program Lilo & Stitch: The Series, Stitch resides in Lilo's house, continuing to disguise himself as a dog in order to conceal his identity from humans. Along with Lilo, he re-captures and rehabilitates Jumba's genetic experiments, as well as keeping them from Hämsterviel's possession.
After they have successfully captured all the remaining experiments in Leroy & Stitch, The Grand Councilwoman offered Stitch the chance to become the captain of the Galactic Armada and its new flagship, The BRB (Big Red Battleship) 9000. However, that would require Stitch to be separated from Lilo. Not wanting to make Lilo sad, he chooses to return to Kaua'i. However, Lilo tells him he should go. Before he leaves with Jumba and Pleakley, Lilo gives him a necklace with a tiki of the god Ku Tiki to give him strength. She also gives Pleakley a rock, and Jumba an Elvis record. When Gantu breaks out Dr. Hämsterviel in an action of frustration, Stitch is sent on his first mission to capture the evil rodent once more. But when he arrives at Galactic Defense Industries, Stitch faces off against a new experiment - Leroy, who is an enhanced clone of Stitch. Stitch fights well and is about to beat Leroy when Pleakley shows up unexpectedly, allowing Leroy to take advantage of Stitch's lapse in concentration and beat him. He is placed in a cage and sent with Jumba and Pleakley heading towards a black hole. After they are sent towards the black hole, Leroy heads off towards earth to capture all of the other experiments for Hamsterviel. Later, Stitch, Jumba, and Pleakley escape from the black hole, and arrive on the planet Turo. There they rescue Lilo, 625 (now known as Reuben), and Gantu, in whose spacecraft they fly back to Earth to assist the other 624 experiments in the defeat of an army of Leroys. Now, with Leroy defeated, Stitch, Jumba and Pleakley return to Earth with Lilo, realizing family is more important than spaceships, laboratories, and prestige.
[edit] 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, and can think faster than [a] super computer. He can see in the dark and can move objects 3,000 times his size. His only instinct - to destroy everything he touches!"
In the original Lilo & Stitch movie, 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 everyone's left shoe." Though this never happens, Stitch can do all of these things.
Although we rarely see Stitch shot at with a bullet, he does survive the crash of his spaceship with only 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. As for fireproof, he does drive a tanker truck of gasoline into a volcano and ends up only a little singed. Weapons fire from plasma guns seems to cause him discomfort, although he can hold it in his hands long enough to throw the plasma back at his enemies. Thinking faster than a supercomputer is harder to quantify, but he does figure out how to escape from captivity fairly quickly, builds a model of San Francisco after only glancing at a postcard; grabs a crossword puzzle from the table and finishes it in about 7 seconds; builds a bomb out of a plasma-bolt, a doll and a roller skate; operates automobiles with ease; builds a "bucking bronco" out of a toaster, a vacuum cleaner, and a lamp; and generally picks up quickly on what is happening around him. However, his ability to lift objects 3,000 times his own size and weight, meaning if he weighs 50 kg, he can lift 150,000 kg or 150 metric tons, amply demonstrated when he lifts a building off its foundation and hurls it, picks up a descending blast door, hits Dr. Jumba with a thrown Volkswagen Beetle (shouting gleefully, "blue punch buggy! No punch back!"), plays with an airplane and its 234 passengers like a giant Frisbee, and stops an 18-wheeled tanker of gasoline dead in its tracks. This ability is sometimes joked about in the later series; for example, in Stitch! The Movie, Hämsterviel, while physically restraining Stitch for a cloning experiment, counters Stitch's strength with restraint devices, that are equal in strength themselves, as Hämsterviel loudly declares, to "three-thousand and one!" times Stitch's own weight. He has an extra set of retractable arms, three retractable spines that run down his back, retractable claws on his front paws, and two retractable antennae on his head.
His greatest weakness is his inability to float or swim due to his dense molecular structure, which causes him to sink like a stone in water. He later gained the ability to run across the surface of water. Another weakness is the fact that his super-sensitive hearing can lead to temporary deafness when exposed to sonic blasts. At the beginning of the first movie, Stitch had an instinctive fear of water and avoids pools but was able to overcome it because of Lilo's influence over him. His claws are able to grip anything: pads on his feet and paws contain a sticky substance allowing him to adhere to almost any surface and scale buildings and walls. His skeletal system is very flexible, allowing him to put his feet into his mouth and become a rolling ball/buzzsaw, while his legs are powerful enough to enable him to jump ten feet into the air. His eyes can pick up infrared and ultraviolet light as well as visible light and he can filter out one or the other if necessary. He can see in normal vision (that he can see things in a 163-degree radius,) night vision which is green, can see in heat vision which is red, have binocular vision and can see in ultraviolet light which is purple and allows him to see animals that have left their scent marks. He can grab the pure plasma burst in his hand and hurl it back. He also can act as an audio amplifier, radio and/or microphone. He can put his finger on a record player, open his mouth and play music. He can instantly regrow his fur. He has an acute sense of smell and hearing as well as some ability to receive and transmit microwave radio energy via a pair of antennae on his head. According to Jumba, Stitch's body is 62.7% mucus that makes up most of his blood. It was originally a pinkish-purple color on the first movie when Stitch was hung from the ceiling and had the needle stuck into his head to collect a blood sample, however in the series he apparently has green blood. His maximum speed at over 190 mph average (meaning he can run 305.78 km/h) is demonstrated amply when he runs across land or water, even running across a bridge of dirt that he threw into the air. He is mostly physical, but also has four plasma guns on hand.
[edit] Other appearances
Since the first movie's release, Stitch has emerged as one of Disney's most popular and marketable characters. As a result, he has popped up in additional films, TV series, comic books, video games, and merchandise.
A doll that looks similar to Stitch can be seen briefly on a toy rack in the beginning of Disney's 2004 film Treasure Planet. He also received cameo roles in a few other Disney movies, including The Lion King 1½, and in a blooper reel from Brother Bear.
Stitch was featured in a Disney Adventures comic called "Experiment 626". The storyline explained that he was created with the genes of the galaxy's strongest and most ferocious creatures, but somehow the genes of a puppy got mixed into the batch. Stitch was created using the so-called "Jumbatron 6000", apparently some kind of cloning or splicing device. After his creation, 626 was determined a failure and Jumba decided to fix him (in the flashback in Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch, the rest happens). As shown in a deleted scene from Lilo & Stitch, 626 promptly proved Jumba wrong by causing various acts of mayhem, resulting in panic among the populace before the events of the first movie see him captured. However, it appears that this plot has been retconned, since in Lilo & Stitch 2 he is shown to have been captured before he is able to cause any further damage.
Numerous Stitch toys have been produced by a variety of manufacturers, such as Mattel's Concept 626 Car, a vehicle resembling Stitch in the Disney Wild Racers offshoot of the very popular Hot Wheels die-cast car series. Stitch is can also be found depicted on merchandise at the Walt Disney World and Disneyland resorts, including trading pins and Santa hats that sport Stitch-ears. He also appears for meet and greets.
Stitch made a cameo appearance in The Lion King II: Simba's Pride 2-Disc Special Edition in Disc 2 in Timon & Pumbaa's Vitural Safari 2.0 where he flies in his spaceship with Timon & Pumbaa up in space, if you go to the left vine.
In November 2004, Stitch received his own attraction at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, Stitch's Great Escape!. The attraction features an Audio-Animatronic Stitch interacting with the audience. Hong Kong Disneyland opened a similar attraction named Stitch Encounter on July 13, 2006. Also in 2006, he became the center attraction of Disneyland Paris Resort's annual Halloween festivites, being featured in a morning cavalcade event, stage shows and a Villain's Parade takeover. The 2007 Halloween events will have him taking over the "Once Upon A Dream" parade and be part of a stage show, and at Disney World, hosts a dance party in Tomorrowland at "Mickey's Not-So-Scary" Halloween hard-ticket event at the Magic Kingdom dressed as Elvis. Stitch will have an interactive attraction in 2008 at Walt Disney Studios Paris as well.
Stitch appears at Hollow Bastion in the 2006 Disney/Square Enix video game Kingdom Hearts II. He was indirectly responsible for getting Sora and the gang into the alternate Tron world of Space Paranoids by accidentally catching the attention of the Master Control Program. He eventually becomes a summon character to use shortly after. His fighting style includes use of his laser pistols and a ukulele attack, all while climbing around the screen, even when the player is looking in first-person. He is seen helping various Final Fantasy characters defend Hollow Bastion during a massive Heartless attack on the city. Koichi Yamadera provides his Japanese voice, while Chris Sanders reprises his role as Stitch in the U.S. version. Lately there has been a High School Musical/Stitch crossover music video of "We're all in this together".Lilo & Stitch | |
|---|---|
| Movies | Lilo & Stitch | Stitch! The Movie | Stitch Has a Glitch | Leroy & Stitch |
| Other media | Video game | Televison series (episodes) | Stitch's Great Escape! |
| Characters | |
| Humans | Lilo | Nani | Mertle Edmonds | Cobra Bubbles |
| Aliens | Jumba Jookiba | Pleakley | Gantu | Dr. Hämsterviel | Grand Councilwoman |
| Experiments | 627 | Angel | Reuben | Stitch |
