Lilo & Stitch (2002) "Experiment 626" was created by "
evil genius" Dr. Jumba Jookiba to cause and create chaos around the galaxy. They were both captured and put on trial by the United Galactic Federation, who sentenced 626 to
exile on a desert
asteroid.
The Grand Councilwoman assigns
Captain Gantu to escort him. 626 escapes, crash-landing a spaceship on Earth in
Kauai,
Hawaii. Disguising himself as a
dog to hide from his captors, 626 is adopted by a little girl named
Lilo, who names him "Stitch". Lilo tries to teach Stitch to be good, using
Elvis Presley as a model for his behavior. While these efforts prove to be fruitless at first, with Stitch unable to suppress his destructive programming, Lilo enjoys having Stitch as her "puppy", although he at first only wanted to use Lilo as a
human shield from Jumba and
Agent Pleakley. Jumba and Pleakley were sent to capture him by the Grand Councilwoman. Stitch slowly develops a strong love for Lilo, to the point where he saves her from Gantu, who is the antagonist of the film. After his heroics, the Grand Councilwoman allows Stitch to serve his exile on Earth with Lilo as his warden, citing her dog adoption certificate (subsequently, Lilo seems to have become not only a best friend but also a sister figure to Stitch).
Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch (2005) In this sequel film, set between the first film and
Stitch! The Movie, Stitch is living well, reasonably well-behaved (although still hot-tempered and mischievous) with the exiled Jumba and Pleakley in Lilo's (and her older sister Nani's) house, until he begins malfunctioning. Jumba reveals that since Stitch was not fully charged after his creation, he will experience periodic
glitches that revert to his original destructive programming, appearing to suffer from a "fit" or "
seizure". Seeing this, Jumba creates a new charging chamber for Stitch. Not wanting to hurt anyone, Stitch attempts to leave Earth for a remote planet, while Lilo, Jumba and the others desperately try to have him return so his life can be saved. Although they are too late when they place him in the recharging pod, Stitch seems to be revived by Lilo's love (similar to the story of Hiʻiaka and Lohiʻau as told in the movie), which goes in accordance with her belief that love is more powerful than death.
Stitch! The Movie (2003) After the events of
Lilo & Stitch 2, Stitch begins to feel lonely as his "freaky" appearance and behavior drives away other people outside of his
ohana. After Jumba gets kidnapped by Gantu, Stitch discovers the remaining 625 genetic experiments (actually 624; the
625th was also taken by Gantu during the kidnapping) stored in a special container, in the form of
dehydrated pods. He and Lilo then activate Experiment 221 (who the latter names "
Sparky" later on), who then runs amok on Kauai for several hours until the duo catches him. Stitch then bonds with Sparky and begins to view him as a "cousin", adopting a Hawaiian slang usage of the word that he learned from Lilo. In order to rescue Jumba, a trade between
Jacques von Hämsterviel and Jumba for the experiments are organized, but due to Lilo and Stitch's deciding not to hand over Sparky, it instead results in the experiments' pods being scattered across Hawaii and the duo being captured and held aboard Hämsterviel's spacecraft. Hämsterviel then tries to clone Stitch, but Sparky rescues him. Stitch then rescues Lilo and lands Hämsterviel's spacecraft back on Kauai, where the Grand Councilwoman arrests him. After the Grand Councilwoman suggests evacuating Earth due to the danger Jumba's freed experiments pose, Lilo and Stitch convince her to instead have them hunt down the experiments and give them a place where they can belong, thus beginning the events of
Lilo & Stitch: The Series.
Lilo & Stitch: The Series (2003–2006) After the events of
Stitch! The Movie, Stitch and Lilo have to capture Jumba's other experiments and find them a home. Along the way, he meets his match: Experiment 627 who is tougher than him, but he eventually defeats with his greater intelligence. He also meets
Angel who is introduced as a love interest for Stitch, who becomes good out of love for Stitch.
Leroy & Stitch (2006) After successfully capturing all the remaining experiments in the preceding series, the Grand Councilwoman offers Stitch the chance to become the captain of the Galactic Armada and their 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, but Lilo tells him he should go. Before he leaves with Jumba and Pleakley, Lilo gives him a necklace with the god Ku Tiki on it to give him strength. 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
Leroy, 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, and Leroy heads off towards Earth to capture all of the other experiments for Hämsterviel. 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, and fly Pleakley's carpool van back to Earth to assist the other experiments in the defeat of an army of Leroys. With Leroy defeated, Stitch, Jumba, and Pleakley return to Earth with Lilo.
Stitch! (2008–2011, 2012, 2015) In the anime series
Stitch!, Stitch seems to have reverted to his destructive nature and is first seen in the first episode being chased in a spaceship by Jumba and the authorities, ending up on Izayoi Island, a fictitious island in Japan's
Ryukyu Islands. On the island, Stitch gains a new human friend named
Yuna Kamihara. In the first two seasons, produced by
Madhouse, Stitch learns from Yuna and her grandmother about the Chitama Spiritual Stone, a large magical stone in the island's Chitama Forest that can grant the wish of anyone who performs 43 good deeds. Stitch desires to become "ruler of the universe" and sets out to have his wish granted. After they are joined by Jumba and Pleakley, the former creates a bracelet-like device called a "good deed counter" for Stitch to keep track of his good deeds as determined by the Spiritual Stone, with good deeds adding points on the counter and bad deeds subtracting points. Stitch and Yuna also meet and befriend various
yōkai living on the island, including a red-haired yōkai named
Kijimunaa. Stitch also reunites with many of his fellow experiments, especially his girlfriend Angel, and fights off against Hämsterviel, Gantu, and his "cousin" Reuben again. At the end of the anime's second season, ''~The Mischievous Alien's Great Adventure~'', he acquires the necessary 43 deeds when he saves the galaxy from a rogue experiment's doomsday device, but he chooses to live with Yuna forever instead of being the ruler of the universe. In the
Shin-Ei Animation-produced third season,
~Best Friends Forever~, Stitch moves with Yuna, her cousin Tigerlily Sakai (who joined during the second season), Jumba, and Pleakley to an
Okinawan city called New Town. As they go through life in the city, Stitch still finds himself fighting off Hämsterviel, who is now serving an alien woman named Delia who desires a power cell within Stitch called (in the original Japanese version) the "Neo-PowerChip" to make her own genetic experiment with, along with Gantu, Reuben, and several of Stitch's "cousins" who have now been "transmutated" by Hämsterviel. At the end of the season, Stitch and his allies fight against Delia's new experiment, Dark End. Stitch almost gets killed by Dark End until his Neo-PowerChip activates from the love he's given by his friends and family, supercharging him and allowing him to defeat Dark End.
Stitch & Ai (2017) In the Chinese animated series
Stitch & Ai, which takes place on a timeline set after
Leroy & Stitch, Stitch was kidnapped from Lilo by an alien faction called the Jaboodies, who hold him captive in their battle cruiser spaceship as they desire to forcibly use him to win a space war against a rival faction called the Woolagongs, who also want to use Stitch to win the space war. When the Woolagongs attack the Jaboodies' battle cruiser wanting Stitch for themselves, he uses the opportunity to escape back to Earth, jumping from the spacecraft and re-entering Earth's atmosphere. He is protected during re-entry by—as explained in the
cold open of the sixth episode "The Lock"—"special
qi energy" that also caused him to lose much of his memories, including his memory of Lilo (who only appears in recreated flashbacks in this series). He ends up in the
Huangshan mountains and meets a young Chinese girl who lives there named Wang Ai Ling, who (similarly to Lilo) takes him into her family as her new pet "dog". He helps Ai in preventing her aunt Daiyu from forcibly moving her from the mountains to the city, while she (and later Jumba and Pleakley) help protect him from being taken by either the Jaboodies or the Woolagongs, as well as look for a shrine that he saw in a vision he had. It is later explained that Stitch has a secret "
metamorphosis program" embedded in him that turns him into a giant monstrosity, and the Jaboodies and the Woolagongs both separately desire Stitch to use this ability to take control of him. This ability eventually triggers in the middle of the two-part finale, "Brothers" and "Monstrosity", when Stitch is manipulated by an alien creature, nicknamed "Scratch" by Ai, who was sent by the Jaboodies and disguised himself as a new "brother" for Stitch to manipulate him into triggering the ability. Stitch causes destruction to a city under construction and almost joins the Jaboodies' army. However, Ai gets through to the real Stitch, who then attacks the army, rescues Ai from the Jaboodies, and returns to his normal size and appearance. The two are then joined in fighting the Jaboodies by Jumba, Pleakley, and various
Chinese mythological creatures that Jumba created as experiments throughout the series, leading the warring aliens to retreat. ==In other media==