Stitch! The Movie

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Stitch! The Movie

Cover art for the Stitch! The Movie DVD
Directed by Tony Craig
Robert Gannaway
Produced by Tony Craig
Jess Winfield
Robert Gannaway
Written by Robert Gannaway
Jess Winfield
Starring Daveigh Chase
Chris Sanders
Tia Carrere
David Ogden Stiers
Kevin McDonald
Kevin Michael Richardson
Distributed by Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Home Entertainment
Release date(s) August 26, 2003
Running time 64 min
Country United States
Preceded by Lilo & Stitch (2002)
Followed by Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch (2005)
IMDb profile

Stitch! The Movie is a direct-to-video animated spinoff of Lilo & Stitch, released on August 26, 2003. It is often considered more of a pilot for the spinoff series Lilo & Stitch: The Series rather than a sequel to the original film. The story is an introduction to Dr. Jumba Jookiba's 625 experiments, which he created with the financing of Dr. Jacques von Hämsterviel.

[edit] Story

The film starts out with ex-Captain Gantu on his new spaceship (his original got destroyed in the first film), being hired by Hämsterviel to retrieve the experiments. Meanwhile, on Earth, Stitch is still not fitting in. Lilo tries to encourage him by saying he's one-of-a-kind, comparing him to Frankenstein. Naturally, that just makes him feel worse. Suddenly, a crash is heard from below. Running downstairs, the pair encounters Gantu, breaking into their home. In the ensuing chaoes, Gantu finds and takes a blue ball with the number "625" on it before abducting Jumba for interrogation. Lilo and Stitch manage take Jumba's ship to chase Gantu into space and engage him in battle, before being defeated and falling back towards Earth.

Back at the house, Lilo, Stitch and Pleakley talk and find the container Jumba was hiding. Pleakley decides that these are the other experiments, in dehydrated form. He warns them not to tell anyone or put the experiments in water. Deliberately disobeying Pleakley, Stitch and Lilo retrieve the container and hydrate Experiment 221, who promptly escapes.

Meanwhile, Jumba is being held captive on the ship of Dr. Hämsterviel, who makes his appearance and is surprisingly a small gerbil/poodle/rabbit-like alien. Unable to intimidate Jumba, Hämsterviel activates Experiment 625 to attack him. Fortunately for Jumba, while 625 has all of Stitch's powers, he is incredibly lazy, and a terrible coward.

Meanwhile, Pleakley is able to come into contact with Hämsterviel's ship via telephone. Hämsterviel tells Pleakley that he wants a ransom of the 624 experiments in return for Jumba. When Pleakley informs the other family members what the ransom is, Nani proceeds to call Cobra Bubbles while Lilo and Stitch go out to find 221. When Cobra arrives the next morning, he seems to already know about what happened. Meanwhile, Lilo and Stitch finally catch a troublesome Experiment 221 at a hotel.

The rendezvous time arrives and Pleakley and Cobra show up with the container, not knowing that it contains only 623 experiments. Pleakley hands the container over to Hämsterviel, who is shocked to find that one is missing. Lilo then shows up with Experiment 221 trapped in a glass vase. Announcing that she has named it "Sparky", she says that Sparky is part of Stitch's, and thus her, ohana. Hämsterviel tells her to give him the experiment or Jumba dies.

After several moments of thinking and hearing Cobra, Pleakley, Jumba and Hämsterviel persuading them, Lilo and Stitch set Sparky free and break Jumba from his bonds. On Cobra's signal, the Grand Councilwoman's ship rises out of the nearby ocean and aims several guns at Hämsterviel. Lilo protests, saying that Hämsterviel has the other experiments and Sparky overhears.

Sparky proceeds to use his electrical abilities to blow the power on the Councilwoman's ship, while Hämsterviel and Gantu climb back aboard their own ship with the experiments. In a last attempt to stop Hämsterviel, Lilo and Stitch stow away on it as it leaves, with Sparky following.

Lilo and Stitch manage to swipe the container with the other experiments in it. The struggle for the container between Lilo, Stitch and Gantu results in the releasing the dehydrated pods to rain down on Hawaii. Having captured the heroes, Hämsterviel tells his plans to clone Stitch a thousand times over and orders Gantu to do what he wants with Lilo. While Gantu puts Lilo in a teleportation pod to send to an intergalactic zoo, Stitch is strapped to a weight just heavier than he can lift.

Watching as Stitch tries with all his might to avoid being vivisected by a laser for the cloning process, Sparky thinks and shows that he has reformed by causing the cloning machine to short-circuit. He then breaks Stitch free and the two strap Hämsterviel to the device before rescuing Lilo.

Having locked Hämsterviel in handcuffs, Lilo, Stitch, and Sparky short-circuit Gantu's ship, causing it to crash near a waterfall on Kauai. Landing Hämsterviel's ship back at the rendezvous point, they give Sparky a new home powering an old lighthouse, which hasn't been running in years. They then persuade the Grand Councilwoman to let them rehabilitate the other 623. The Councilwoman places Hämsterviel under arrest and Jumba whispers to Pleakley that he has plans for making Experiment 627.

[edit] Trivia

  • The film's original title was going to be Lilo & Stitch: A New Ohana. At some point, there was a decision to only have Stitch's name in the titles of both the movie and the subsequent series, which was planned to be called Stitch! The Series. Eventually, this was abolished, resulting in both this film and the series having mismatched names.[citation needed]

[edit] External link

Lilo & Stitch
Lilo & Stitch | Disney's Stitch: Experiment 626 | Stitch! The Movie | The Series (episodes) | Stitch's Great Escape! | Stitch Has a Glitch | Leroy & Stitch

Characters: Human: Lilo | Nani | Mertle Edmonds | Cobra Bubbles
Alien: Jumba Jookiba | Pleakley | Gantu | Dr. Hämsterviel | Grand Councilwoman
Experiments: Angel | Reuben | Stitch | List of experiments from Lilo & Stitch

 v  d  e Disney direct-to-video animated features
Sequels, Prequels and Midquels

The Return of Jafar (1994) • Aladdin and the King of Thieves (1996) • Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin (1997) • Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas (1997) • Belle's Magical World (1998) • Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World (1998) • The Lion King II: Simba's Pride (1998) • An Extremely Goofy Movie (2000) • The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea (2000) • Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure (2001) • Cinderella II: Dreams Come True (2002) • The Hunchback of Notre Dame II (2002) • 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure (2003) • The Lion King 1½ (2004) • Mulan II (2005) • Tarzan II (2005) • Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch (2005) • Pooh's Heffalump Halloween Movie (2005) • Kronk's New Groove (2005) • Bambi II (2006) • Brother Bear 2 (2006) • The Fox and the Hound 2 (2006) • Cinderella III: A Twist in Time (2007) • The Little Mermaid III (2007)

Films based on TV series

Winnie the Pooh: Seasons of Giving (1999) • Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse (2001) • Recess Christmas: Miracle on Third Street (2001) • Mickey's House of Villains (2002) • Winnie the Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year (2002) • Tarzan & Jane (2002) • Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade (2003) • Recess: All Growed Down (2003) • Leroy & Stitch (2006)

TV Pilots

Gargoyles the Movie: The Heroes Awaken (1995) • Mighty Ducks the Movie: The First Face-Off (1997) • Hercules: Zero to Hero (1998) • Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins (2000) • Stitch! The Movie (2003) • Atlantis: Milo's Return (2003)

Other

Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas (1999) • Winnie the Pooh: Springtime with Roo (2004) • Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers (2004) • Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas (2004) • Tinker Bell (2007)

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