abstract
| - Dr. Jumba Jookiba is put on trial by the Galactic Federation for "illegal genetic experimentation"—the evidence of this is Experiment 626: an aggressive creature that is nearly indestructible and learns quickly. Jumba is imprisoned while Experiment 626 is to be exiled on a desert asteroid. During transport on Captain Gantu's ship, 626 manages to break out of his cell and cut off the ship's power grid. 626 hijacks a police cruiser unit upon his escape, but finds himself outnumbered and outgunned. Surrounded, 626 activates the hyperdrive and breaks through their defense, setting coordinates at random, landing him on the planet Earth. The Grand Councilwoman orders Jumba to work with Agent Pleakley to recover 626 discreetly. 626 survives his escape attempt to Earth, landing on the Hawaiian island of Kauaʻi, but is knocked unconscious by a passing truck, and is taken to an animal shelter because he is believed by the truck drivers to be a breed of dog. After the recent death of their parents in a car accident, 19-year-old Nani Pelekai is looking after her younger, more rambunctious sister, Lilo. They are visited by Cobra Bubbles, a social worker, who is concerned that Nani refuses to take adequate care of Lilo (he tells Nani that she has three days to change his mind, lest he remove Lilo from her care forever). He considers putting Lilo into foster care, but Nani does not approve, as Lilo and she are the only remaining members of her family; Lilo does not help as she does not understand what may happen. After hearing Lilo in her room pray to be given a friend (Lilo has no real friends because every girl in her class makes fun of her), Nani agrees to allow Lilo to adopt a dog. At the shelter, Lilo immediately takes a keen interest in Experiment 626, despite serious misgivings that Nani and the shelter worker have about him being a dog. Lilo names 626 "Stitch" and shows him around Hawaii; Stitch quickly discovers escape is impossible due to the island being surrounded by water (his body is too dense for swimming) and that there are no large cities, which Jumba had previously said he would seek out to cause chaos, and suffers a nervous breakdown. As Nani attempts to find a good job, after being fired because of Lilo and Stitch, she is forced to bring them with her. Lilo uses the time to try to curb Stitch's aggressiveness by encouraging him to behave like Elvis Presley, whom she calls a model citizen as well as reading the book The Ugly Duckling to him. Stitch's antics, although at times foiling Jumba and Pleakley's attempts to capture him, also ruin Nani's chances of getting a job. David, a friend of Nani's, sees her at the beach, where she was trying to get a job as a lifeguard. David suggests they go surfing to improve her mood. While Nani, Lilo, and a panicking Stitch ride on a huge wave, Jumba makes one more effort to capture Stitch from underwater; as a result, it appears as if Stitch attempted to drown Lilo. Although everyone gets safely to shore, Cobra saw the whole thing and tells Nani he will come by in the morning to take Lilo away from her and leaves feeling sorry for her. After Stitch sees how much trouble he has caused, he leaves, taking The Ugly Duckling book with him in hopes of finding his "family". The next morning, as Nani waits for Cobra to arrive, David tells Nani of a job offer that she must respond to. Nani tells Lilo to stay at home while she goes to secure the job. Stitch, hiding in the nearby woods, encounters Jumba, who reveals that Stitch can never have a family or "belong" because he was just built to destroy. Stitch races to Lilo's house, followed by Jumba firing at Stitch with his gun. The two fight, with Lilo immediately phoning Cobra for help. The house is ultimately destroyed by the end of the fight, with Nani and Cobra arriving shortly after. As Nani and Cobra argue over Lilo's well-being, Lilo slips away to hide in the forest and finds Stitch, who reveals his true alien identity form to her. While she says how he ruined everything, they are both captured by Captain Gantu, who had been sent to capture Stitch after Jumba and Pleakley refused to do so, and he makes to leave Earth. Nani is shocked to see Gantu putting Lilo and Stitch in a container pod and taking off in the ship. Stitch escapes from the container before the ship takes off, leaving Lilo behind. Nani then realizes that Stitch is not what she thought he was, and demands he had better speak, just as Lilo always said he did. While once again trying to capture Stitch, both Jumba and Pleakley are revealed to Nani, and tell her that they do know Lilo, and they can both get her back. Stitch, with help from Jumba's ship and by launching a gas tanker truck out of a volcano, is able to free Lilo and stop Gantu. After they land, they find that the Grand Councilwoman has arrived nearby, in order to capture Stitch personally. When she sees Stitch has developed a sense of respect and compassion, she realizes he has become a civilized creature and no longer an abomination. Using Lilo's certificate of Stitch's ownership, which proves that taking Stitch would mean stealing him from Lilo, the Councilwoman asserts that Stitch, now a part of Nani and Lilo's family, will live his exile on Earth with the humans as his warders. As her guards take Gantu away, she does not let Pleakley or Jumba return on her ship, and orders Cobra, a former CIA agent who previously met the Councilwoman at Roswell, to keep an eye on the new family. Stitch, Jumba, and Pleakley become integrated into Lilo's family, and the house is rebuilt with the help of the three, David, and Cobra. Stitch is having a nightmare about turning bad again and causing destruction to Earth. After Stitch wakes up, Lilo tests his goodness level by having him do a few good deeds. Discovering that they are late for hula class, they use their hovercraft to get there. While at the hula class, Kumu announces that Lilo and her classmates have to prepare to perform at the local May Day festival. Each student is required to create an original dance. After the hula class ends, Mertle insults Lilo, causing them to have a fight, but after taking pictures of the brawl, Stitch forgets to flush the evidence. Kumu thinks that Lilo is not ready for the competition because of the fight with Mertle, but Lilo says that she is ready and "triple promises" to be good. While preparing for the competition, Lilo and Stitch have a hard time coming up with ideas and Nani wants them to enjoy their family fun night. While watching Them! (film clip courtesy of Warner Bros.) on family fun night, Stitch's past comes back to haunt him and he goes berserk in the house. It seems that after Stitch was created, Jumba did not get a chance to fully charge Stitch's molecules as he was arrested by the intergalactic police. At first, this glitch causes Stitch to revert back to his old destructive programming, but it will ultimately destroy him if Jumba cannot create a fusion chamber before Stitch's energy runs out for good. Meanwhile, Stitch's uncontrollable destructive behavior is driving a wedge between him and Lilo and ruining her chances for success at the hula competition. Lilo and Stitch try getting inspiration for their hula, but Stitch keeps malfunctioning because of his molecules. Because Lilo is so concerned about winning the competition, she fails to notice Stitch's glitch and does not understand that the trouble he's causing now is not his fault. She's too busy trying to get him to help her and completely neglects helping him. Eventually, the two devise a hula based on the legend of Hi'iaka. Lilo gets increasingly mad at Stitch as he ruins their practice sessions. To make matters worse, Jumba is having problems creating the fusion chamber due to the fact that he doesn't have the proper alien technology to build it and has to try building it using ordinary household objects. However, just before the competition, Lilo and Stitch make up and Jumba finally completes the fusion chamber. Then, Stitch has another one of his fits and accidentally scratches Lilo's face; this upsets him so much that he decides to leave Earth, believing himself to be "too dangerous". Lilo finally realizes that something is terribly wrong with Stitch, and in the middle of her performance, she runs away to help him. As Stitch attempts to leave Earth, Lilo and the rest of the family desperately try to get him back so that they could re-charge him. But Stitch has another outburst, which causes him to crash the spaceship in the Hawaiian mountains. Lilo rides over to the crash site in a mini space scooter, she finds Stitch close to death and stuggles to get him into Jumba's fusion chamber. Sadly, she's too late by the time she places him in the machine and Stitch dies, and then Lilo tells him she kept saying how she needed him but he needed her more, and then Lilo tells him he's her ohana, and then Lilo tells him she will always love him, and then Lilo cries, but with Lilo's (and everyone else's) love for him, Stitch is revived, leading to a happy ending and the family (along with David who was completely neglected by Nani throughout the film) performs Lilo's hula dance together on the empty stage of the competition. Nani then tells her their mother should be proud of her and a star twinkles in the sky to prove it. Captain Gantu on his new spaceship (his original got destroyed in the Beginning), 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 is one-of-a-kind, comparing him to Frankenstein. Naturally, that just makes him feel worse. One night, a crash is heard from below. Running downstairs, the pair encounters Gantu breaking into their home. In the ensuing chaos, Gantu finds and takes a blue ball with the number 625 on it before abducting Jumba for interrogation. Lilo and Stitch manage to 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 find the container Jumba was hiding. Pleakley thinks 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 is surprisingly a small gerbil/poodle/rabbit-like alien. Unable to intimidate Jumba, Hämsterviel activates Experiment 625 to attack him. But fortunately for Jumba, while 625 has all of Stitch's powers, he is incredibly lazy, a terrible coward, and prioritizes sandwiches above all else. 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 will be shot dead. 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 releasing the dehydrated pods to rain down and scatter throughout 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 to avoid being vivisected by a laser for the cloning process, Sparky 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 the Kīlauea Lighthouse, which has not been running in years because powering it was very expensive. 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. Experiments 202, 529, 455, 489, and 390 are activated. With their mission to capture all 625 experiments and repurpose them on Earth completed, Lilo, Stitch, Jumba and Pleakley are honored as heroes by the Galactic Alliance. Jumba is given the confiscated key to his laboratory again, Pleakley is offered a post as chairman of Earth Studies at G.A.C.C. (Galactic Alliance Community College) and Stitch is made a Captain of the Galactic Armada and commander of his new commissioned ship BRB-9000 (BRB stands for "Big Red Battleship"). Lilo is made Galactic Federation Ambassador to Earth and sole guardian of Stitch's "cousins". Before they leave, Lilo gives Jumba her favourite Elvis record, Pleakley a paperweight (which is actually an Earth rock) and Stitch a necklace with a Ku Tiki (the Hawaiian god of strength). Meanwhile at prison, Gantu has decided that since he failed in capturing all of the experiments (except for 6-2- 5), he will break Dr. Hämsterviel out of prison. He takes the two-man Space Shuttle, leaving 6-2-5 alone. Stitch is assigned to recapture Hämsterviel. The ship he is assigned to is the BRB-9000 (Big Red Battleship to Stitch).Pleakley is first overjoyed at his new position at G.A.C.C., until his assistant tells him that he is merely a supervisory professor—he will teach no classes. Jumba is also happy at first returning to many of his "Evil Genius" ways, but discovers that without anyone to show his accomplishments to, he is as unhappy as the others. Jumba's sadness is short-lived when Hämsterviel and Gantu burst in. Hämsterviel forces Jumba to create a new and more evil experiment to defeat the Galactic Alliance. The new creation has all of Stitch's powers and some others. Wishing to imitate Lilo in giving the experiments names, Hämsterviel names the creature Leroy. Stitch arrives, seeking to capture Hämsterviel. After a terrific fight, Stitch is defeated when Pleakley appears at an unfortunate moment, distracting Stitch long enough for Leroy to lock him in a glass capsule. Hämsterviel reveals he plans to clone an army of Leroys to take over the Galactic Alliance. Before leaving for Turo, Hämsterviel locks Jumba, Pleakley and Stitch in Pleakley's space vehicle, and sends the ship into a black hole. Back on Earth, Lilo makes the rounds to ensure that all of the "cousins" are still happy in their "one true place". After a confrontation with Mertle, Lilo decides to contact Stitch. Lilo realizes the only inter-galactic videophone on the planet available, (she attempts to call Cobra Bubbles and fails), is in Gantu's ship. There she finds 6-2-5, who is grouchy about being left behind by Gantu and asks to use the videophone. However, 6-2-5 says it is broken. It occurs to Lilo that 6-2-5 doesn't have a name and, after several sandwich puns, settles on "Reuben". Reuben consents to help Lilo. Once the videophone is fixed, Lilo contacts the BRB-9000. Leroy makes a convincing impersonation of Stitch,using shape-shifting to disguise himself, but Lilo knows that Leroy is not Stitch because he does not have the tiki necklace. Hämsterviel decides on a new task for Leroy: go to Earth and capture all of the other experiments so he may destroy them. Lilo, sensing Stitch is in trouble, asks Reuben for help fixing Gantu's ship. After some reluctance, he agrees. As they leave, Leroy crashes on Earth in Mertle's backyard. As Jumba, Pleakley, and Stitch head towards the black hole, Stitch escapes and frees the others. However, the navigational computer is locked on course for the black hole. Jumba says that the black hole will teleport them to a volcanic planet where they will be instantly vaporized, but if they can disrupt the event horizon by throwing a small object into the black hole, it will send them somewhere else. Pleakley pulls out the rock that Lilo gave him and Stitch throws it at the black hole. There is a flash and the vehicle is sucked in. On Earth, Leroy obtains Lilo's scrapbook of "cousins" and quickly captures all of them (along with Mertle). Lilo and Reuben arrive at Turo, but they are too late. Hämsterviel has taken over using Leroy and orders Gantu to lock them up, then turn in his I.D. card and cape. Gantu captures Lilo and Reuben, but decides to release them because Hämsterviel fired him. After a close call with several Leroy clones, they are trapped. All looks lost until the G.A.C.C. van suddenly appears. With no time to explain, Lilo, Reuben and Gantu all climb in and head for Earth.Gantu manages to squeeze into the trunk compartment. On Earth, the original Leroy has herded all the experiments into a large stadium, where "Alohapalooza," is scheduled to take place.There is a large group scene of the entire group of experiments. The BRB-9000 appears and Hämsterviel prepares to obliterate all of the experiments, until a timely appearance by Lilo, Stitch and the others destroys the BRB's primary cannon. Hämsterviel reveals that he brought along his Leroy army as backup. Stitch rallies his "cousins" and the experiments begin to battle. Despite some initial victories by the Experiments,it soon becomes apparent that the Leroys are more than a match for the good guys. Jumba remembers that he programmed a secret shut-down command into Leroy. When the original Leroy was created, Jumba was playing a recording of Elvis Presley singing "Aloha 'Oe". If Leroy hears that song again, it will cause him to deactivate. Lilo, seeing the equipment set up for the concert, devises a plan. With Jumba controlling the sound, Pleakley on lights, and Gantu providing fireworks, Stitch appears on-stage in full Elvis attire. He begins to play "Aloha 'Oe" with Lilo and Reuben singing along and some of the other experiments on instruments and, sure enough, the Leroys have violent seizures and shut down. His plan foiled, Hämsterviel is recaptured. Back at Galactic Alliance HQ, the Grand Councilwoman calls Lilo and the others "heroes of the Alliance." Stitch, Jumba and Pleakley ask to be allowed to return to Earth with Lilo. The Grand Councilwoman accepts this, then asks Captain Gantu if he would like to be reinstated as a Captain of the Armada. Gantu agrees on the condition that Reuben be assigned as his Galley Officer. Back on Earth, Lilo sets up for one last picture. Mertle arrives with Gigi (during the battle, Mertle learned that Gigi could talk and was one of Jumba's experiments). Though Mertle don't think Lilo is weird anymore, she says that Gigi wants to be part of the "ohana." Lilo's last picture in the cousins album is of all of the experiments still on Earth, plus herself, Mertle, Jumba, Pleakley, Nani, and David. Meanwhile, Dr. Hamsterviel, Leroy and his clones are thrown in jail. Before the ending credits, the clones of Leroy happily dance to the Elvis Presley song Jailhouse Rock, with an angry Dr. Hämsterviel tapping his foot. As the credits roll, a full list of Jumba's experiments 0-0-1 through 6-2-6, and the names they were given by Lilo, scrolls along the left side of the screen.
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