Western Animation / Lilo & Stitch: The Series

Gotta find the one true place for 'em all!

I laila, ʻO Kauaʻi la
No malihini ʻohana
Welcome cousins, a'cmon by
Aloha, e komo mai

— The chorus to The Series' theme song, "Aloha, E Komo Mai", performed by Jump5

Lilo & Stitch: The Series (September 20, 2003 – July 29, 2006), also titled as Disney's Lilo & Stitch, is the first sequel TV series to the Disney animated film of the same name and its franchise, airing on ABC Kids and Disney Channel throughout its run. After the events of the film, Hawaiian girl Lilo is safe and happy with her sister Nani and their expanded family: alien experimental life-form Stitch, giant four-eyed mad scientist Jumba, and meek cycloptic ex-soldier-bureaucrat Pleakley.

As The Series begins, it is revealed that many other experiments of Stitch's lineage, of which he is number 626, have landed near Hawaii by accident (as shown in the direct-to-video pilot Stitch! The Movie). Stored in pods that activate one by one in freak occurrences (usually by dropping into water), each specialized experiment uses its unique power to wreak havoc on the island until it is captured. Lilo and Stitch's goal is to find a place in which each of Stitch's "cousins" can be useful and happy. Competing with them for each capture is movie bad guy Gantu, the now disgraced former galactic captain guard, who seeks to enslave the experiments for the even-eviler Doctor Hämsterviel, with the ever-reluctant assistance of Stitch's lazy, cowardly, sarcastic, sandwich-loving predecessor Experiment 625 (now known today as Reuben). After 65 episodes over two seasons,^note The first season, consisting of the first 39 episodes, aired in a condensed time frame of less than six months, but the remaining 26 episodes representing the second season took nearly two years to get through for whatever reason. The Series closed out with the fourth^note Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch, which is separate from the show but released in 2005 during the show's run, is the third released film in the franchise and final movie, Leroy & Stitch. It has since been followed by two different spin-off shows each on their own timeline set after the last film; a Japanese anime called Stitch! from 2008 to 2015, and a Chinese animated series titled Stitch & Ai in 2017.

Disney+ has all 65 episodes available for streaming.

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Welcome tropers, a'cmon by/Aloha, e komo mai!:

Tropes # to G

• 13 Is Unlucky: Experiment 113 (Shoe) is designed to cause bad luck to those surrounding him as long as his horns are pointing downwards.
• Abnormal Limb Rotation Range:
  • Shortstuff (297) has a knack for this as he is able to rotate his body more than 360°. This helps him get his one true place post-growth.
  • Kixx (601) is able to rotate all four of his arms very rapidly without getting worn down or falling over to deliver devastating punches.
• Accidental Misnaming: Dr. Hämsterviel. Doesn't help that he actually looks like a hamster (or, at least, a close relative; hamsters don't have tails that big, but gerbils do).
  Hämsterviel: "It's Hämsterviel! Hämsterviel! Not Hamsterwheel, you ingrates!"
• The Ace: Even named Ace (262). He has the appearance of a superhero and doesn't have the slightest bit of evil in him.
• A Dog Named "Dog": Some of the experiment names (Finder, Babyfier, Sinker, etc.) aren't so much names as bland descriptions of what they do.
• Adults Are Useless: Mostly averted, but you'd think Barking Sands Missile Range (a U.S. military airbase on Kaua E;i) might notice all the spaceships flying around.
• Afraid of Clowns: Despite being a Nightmare Fetishist in general, Lilo is revealed to hate clowns in "Spooky". Naturally, Spooky turns into one to frighten her.
• Alien Animals: Mertle's pet Shih Tzu dog Gigi, designed to annoy people with its constant yapping, is revealed to be Jumba's Experiment 007.
• An Alien Named "Bob":
  • In "Fibber", it's revealed that Pleakley's first name is Wendy. Apparently, it means "brave warrior" back on his home planet.
  • Dr. Rupert Jacques von Hämsterviel is an alien (though he resembles a gerbil with rabbit ears).
• Aliens Speaking English: Almost every non-experiment alien ever seen in the show (only the hermit alien in "The Asteroid" couldn't speak English) as well as several experiments themselves; check out the experiments' Character sheet for the list of those experiments who can speak English. In addition, Frenchfry (062) can speak French.
• Alpha Bitch: Mertle, who leads the other girls at her and Lilo's halau (except Victoria and Lilo herself) and enjoys mocking and bullying Lilo.
• Animate Inanimate Object: The ghost-like Phantasmo (375) has the ability to possess any inanimate object from kitchen appliances to Lilo's doll Scrump. He eventually takes up residence in a broken animatronic macaw in a restaurant.
• Animation Bump: Several episodes of the show are much more intricately drawn and more fluidly animated than many of the others — particularly episodes closer to the beginning of their respective seasons, like "Cannonball" (which is an exceptionally good example), though they aren't limited to that and pop up across the board.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Penny Proud. Despite all the weird and supernatural things she's seen in her own series, she isn't willing to believe in aliens until she sees Jumba's equipment.
• Arc Words: As with the movie, "ʻOhana means family..." and adding "the one place [the experiment of the week] truly belongs." Lampshaded in "Heckler."
  Heckler: "Again with the "ʻohana" and the "one true place"! I see you've read the dictionary of two phrases cover to cover!"
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: An invisible Stitch is messing up things on Gantu's ship. In order, he takes out the Stabilizing Gyro Porter, the Subspace Hyper Gaskets, and the Satellite TV.
• Art Shift: The Series has a simpler and thicker-lined style than the original film. Stitch also has a somewhat redesigned look to make him easier to animate for television; among other changes, his body has a more rigid build, his head shape is more elliptical than round (it looks sort of "flatter"), his eyes are more almond-shaped (making him look like he has a slight squint), and his fur color is a lighter, more saturated shade of blue.
• Artistic License – Sports: In "Slugger", Pleakley, while reading from a book on sports rules, incorrectly states that ten strikes in a row in bowling (not baseball, as he thought) is a perfect game. Actually, a perfect bowling game is twelve strikes, not ten, as getting the tenth strike grants two extra rolls. Then again, getting the detail for an unrelated sport wrong fits Pleakley's character.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: This trope was used several times in The Series.
  • When Stitch is too short to ride an amusement park ride, he uses Jumba's growth ray to make him much larger. The freshly caught experiment, Shortstuff (297), who just short circuited the growth ray, then gets zapped to an enormous size (as big as Lilo's house, in fact) and wreaks havoc onto the fair. Stitch decides to increase his size even further to match Shortstuff but to no avail - not until he returns back to regular size is when he's able to pin down the enlarged monster. Lilo and Stitch didn't even bother to change 297 back to normal size; his one true place is being a living fair ride.
  • This also happens with Sprout (509) after he unleashes devastating plants across the Kokaua Town Fair.
  • Tank's (586) primary function is to grow bigger every time he eats a piece of metal, so he eventually becomes the size of Gantu's ship.
  • Ploot (505) grew into a giant sludge monster after consuming enough trash.
  • Phoon (540) was mutated by Jumba's "Phasmatic Englobulatron" invention and became a gigantic monster.
• Audience Surrogate:
  • Keoni Jameson according to Jess Winfield. He's a Nice Guy who accepts Lilo for who she is. Lilo having a crush on him does undermine this trope for him, however.
  • Season 2's Victoria fits the bill better, as she's a Nice Girl who also likes weird things like Lilo does and befriends her as a result.
• Bad Future: Happens twice.
  • "Melty": Lilo attempts to use Jumba's time machine to change an embarrassing incident in front of Keoni, but it just makes things progressively worse for the family, culminating in the house being destroyed and Nani losing her new job. A trip to the future looks like one dreary place; Hawaii has become a desolate wasteland (ruled by Mertle as dictator according to a picture on the now prison-like Birds of Paradise Hotel), the Jumba of this time says the family ultimately broke apart, and he lost two of his eyes. ^note "Don't even ask what happened to Pleakley." Only by redoing the embarrassing incident will everything be set right.
  • "Skip": Lilo uses the titular experiment to become a teenager, but the process causes her and Stitch to be missing for ten years while time proceeds normally for everyone else. This makes it much easier for Gantu to acquire experiments. When the duo jumps ahead another ten years after that, they see the world has been conquered by Hämsterviel and all the experiments (save Stitch and Skip) are under his control, despite some eluding capture long enough to warrant "Wanted!" Poster-like displays (Sparky, Finder, and Shoe). The house got repossessed to pay off a huge pile of parking tickets the X-Buggy has accumulated since Lilo parked it, and when that proved insufficient, Nani started working directly under Hämsterviel as his personal water bottle carrier. Jumba still lives in the house, becoming a hermit in the attic to hide from the authorities and Hämsterviel, living off of canned rutabagas and rainwater. On the upside, Pleakley has become an intergalactic fashion icon, which proved instrumental to Set Right What Once Went Wrong.
• Badass Boast: Gantu gets a surprisingly effective one in "Clip," though his dramatic moment gets a bit deflated near the end.
  Gantu: (to Clip, who is fleeing on a bus) "Hairball! I am Gantu, Captain... former... of the Galactic Alliance! Conqueror of the Postiverous Militia! And Vanguard Commander of Black Hole Ops! (Dramatic Thunder) YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE ME!" (notices a pair of terrified kids watching him) "I mean I... uh... missed my bus..."
• Baseball Episode: "Slugger" revolved around an experiment who could deflect projectiles with his tail, and just so happened to activate while the cast was playing baseball.
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: All of the experiments are capable of doing this, as seen in "The Asteroid", whether they have been specifically designed to survive in a vacuum or just can hold their breath for a long time is debatable.
• Berserk Button: Hämsterviel hates it when people pronounce his name "Hamsterwheel" or they refer to him as being gerbil-like rather than hamster-like.
• Big Eater: Experiment 625, Gantu's sidekick and Stitch's immediate predecessor, is a lazy bum who eats Dagwood sandwiches all day. In fact, most of the experiments (at least the more "beastly" ones), including Stitch himself, are.
• Bittersweet Ending: Any episode that ends with the featured experiment being captured by Gantu, meaning Lilo and Stitch failed to find a one true place for them.
• Black-and-White Morality: Played very straight. "Good" and "bad/evil" are portrayed as extremely simple concepts that can be switched back and forth on a dime, and there's never any middle ground, except for maybe 625, later named Reuben, who lands more in the grey area of the morality chain due to his laziness as an Evil Minion.
• Blatant Lies: After being converted to evil by her siren song, Jumba describes Angel as a "harmless early experiment designed to pop popcorn for Jumba's movie night." While repeatedly referring to her as Experiment 624. Becomes a Metaphorically True Brick Joke in Leroy & Stitch in a brief scene shows that he did indeed make an early experiment that pops popcorn, Kernel (014), with his one true place being at a concession stand for the local movie theater.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs:

  Nani: I think I'm overdue for a raise, or a promotion, or maybe a raise and a promotion.

  • 30 seconds later:
    Nani: My blow dryer! My hair! My blow dryer and my hair!
• Broken Aesop:
  • ʻOhana may mean family, and family may mean that nobody's left behind, et cetera, et cetera, but Lilo can be astonishingly cold towards some of the experiments. The episode "Snafu" hinged on this fact.
  • The episode "Heckler" falls under this. The problem is that the aesop is all over the place. It says laughing at others' looks is wrong, yet it does this throughout. It says you shouldn't laugh at others' expense, yet does this and, for the most part, plays it for laughs. It also seems to imply that comedians should only make fun of themselves and not others, yet ends with Heckler getting a job doing this, anyway.
• The Bully: Mertle is to Lilo, consistently mocking and insulting her for her weird interests throughout the show. Her friends could also count but the main reason they avoid Lilo is because of Mertle's influence.
• Butterfly of Doom:
  • "Melty" explores what happens when Lilo uses time travel to avoid falling into the mud in front of Keoni. It turns out that there are much worse consequences than Lilo simply being covered in mud.
  • "Skip" shows that anyone who uses his abilities is removed from the timeline for ten years. This means that for Lilo and Stitch, their two ten-year absences meant that Nani had to live without her sister for two decades, the ʻohana becomes financially devastated, Gantu was able to capture almost all the experiments unopposed, and Hämsterviel, who was paroled during the first Time Skip, is able to succeed in taking over the Earth.
• Call-Back: Much of "Remmy"'s plot revolves around the anniversary of the death of Lilo and Nani's parents, and the sisters' attempts to cope with it.
• Canines Gambling in a Card Game: Stitch (who was adopted by Lilo as a "dog") plays poker with Cannonball, Richter, Yin, and Yang (who all honestly don't look canine at all) in "Finder" with cookies in place of poker chips. The round that we see is won by Yang.
• Capture Balls: Played With. All the series alien experiments by default are contained in small dehydrated marbles, that activate after getting wet. While usually Lilo tries to find the experiment a job they can do while activated, for a select few she resorts to dehydration to seal them back into their pod form (such as 627 who was designed to be irredeemable).
• Card-Carrying Villain:
  • Experiment 627 can only say, "Evil."
  • Gantu himself flip-flopped on the issue, depending on the episode.
• Cheaters Never Prosper:
  • Subverted in "Yapper" where Mertle actually won a dog contest through cheating but relinquished the trophy after the duo helped save her pet (which was an experiment) from Gantu.
  • Also subverted in "Sprout" where Lilo uses the titular experiment to win an orchid contest that she was ill-prepared for at the Kokaua Town Fair, especially since she made a bet with Mertle over exclusive access to a secret beach for a week. Despite winning the blue ribbon, Lilo realizes that she didn't win fair and square and that she caused so much trouble for letting Sprout grow out of control (which also sabotaged Stitch's and Pleakley's chances of winning their competitions). Thus, she relinquishes the ribbon and the bet to Mertle and also accepts being grounded by Nani for a week.
  • Played straight in "Spike", when Lilo finds out that Mertle was cheating during their trivia contest by having the answers fed to her via earpiece, with Teresa using an internet-connected laptop backstage to search for the answers. Lilo has the episode's title experiment "hug" Teresa, spiking her with his intelligence-reducing spikes in the process, thus making her too stupid to give Mertle proper answers. Due to her stubbornness and pride, Mertle never gets the idea to stop accepting Teresa's bad answers nor to let her mother and aunt finally start answering questions, and Lilo, Jumba, and Pleakley win the contest. (Ironically, Lilo was considering cheating herself when she was losing and before finding out about Mertle's deception by having Spike hug Mertle instead, but Pleakley admonished Lilo for suggesting that idea and forbade her from going forward with it.)
  • "Morpholomew" has Lilo transforming into other people (first Keoni and later Jake) to enter a skateboarding contest for kids and teens ten and older. She ended up crashing and burning both times due to her lack of skateboarding experience.
• Christmas Episode: "Topper", where the eponymous experiment was activated towards the end as a Christmas gift.
• Circus Episode: The episode "Elastico" has Stitch finding one of his cousins being part of a circus. After chasing after the said cousin, the circus notices how indestructible Stitch is and offers Stitch to join them under the name "Indestructirado". For a moment, Stitch agrees to join and signs a contract due to Lilo ignoring him for the majority of the episode. Once he and Lilo make amends though, he has regrets over signing only to be pointed out by the ringleader that because Stitch used the name Lilo gave him instead of the name they gave him, the contract is null and void, allowing Stitch to return to Lilo.
• City of Adventure: Kokaua Town, Hawaii. Not a real town on Kaua'i,^note It is based on the actual census-designated place of Hanapepe located on the island. but Lilo's hometown is still where she and Stitch find most of the experiments.
• Clip Show: "Ace" is about Jumba showing footage of his experiments doing evil things to the head of the Evil Genius Organization. This is to convince the head of E.G.O. that Jumba is still evil and his membership should not be revoked. The segment even shows most of Slushy (523) and Splodyhead (619)'s epic fight from the former experiment's episode, and in that episode, Jumba stated that he forgot to bring his camera. That being said, "Ace" was originally supposed to have a much more substantial plot and not be a clip show, but it was changed following the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami.
• Cloning Splits Attributes: This is the power of Experiment 344, a.k.a. Dupe, from the episode of the same name. Everything he duplicates loses half of something when he does so, as discovered when Lilo remarks a duplicated ice cream is only half as tasty as the original. Stitch gets hit with the same effect and at first, the duo are ecstatic as four Stitches are able to have four times as much fun. Unfortunately, with his powers reduced to a quarter strength, he's unable to fight against Gantu's new squad of fighting experiments and winds up captured. Lilo manages to trick Gantu into using Dupe to make a hundred copies of each of his experiments, reducing THEIR powers and giving Stitch the advantage again. Ultimately Dupe finds a home making low-cal treats for health-conscious vacationers.
• Comedic Underwear Exposure:
  • In "Yaarp", Pleakley freaks out and accidentally sucks the clothes off a pair of newlyweds (heart boxers for the guy, an identical slip for the woman).
  • In "627", Gantu loses the initial fight when the newly-reformed Deforestator shreds his clothes, and he runs away out of embarrassment.
• Comically Inept Healing: In the episode "Poxy", Pleakley gets a bizarre illness. When he tells Lilo and Stitch about it, their response is to attempt to "operate" on Pleakley — in Stitch's case, by way of a chainsaw.
• Comically Oversized Butt: Cannonball has a large, robust behind that is so heavy that he can cause tidal waves just by jumping into the sea, and the size of his rear end is commented on various times. Lilo even notes that it's bigger than Nani's Hartman Hips.
• Continuity Nod:
  • In "Yapper", Stitch travels to Honolulu to participate in the dog show. Although he mostly keeps his destructive impulses with regards to large cities under control — the question of whether he can be one of the driving elements of the plot — he does eat someone's left shoe. He also ate Keoni's left tennis shoe in another episode.
  • In the episode "Remmy", Nani makes a sandwich for Lilo. When she rejects it, Stitch then proceeds to eat it — and when Nani scolds him, he retrieves it — just like the cake scene in the original movie.
  • In "Angel", while Stitch is sitting with 624^note who Lilo would name Angel in just a couple minutes on the hammock, he picks his nose with his tongue, which he previously did when he was adopted in the original film. His nose-picking intrigues 624 enough that she picks her own nose with her tongue.
• Comic-Book Time: Several later episodes mention that it has been approximately three years or so since the experiment hunt began with Sparky, which would make the time since Stitch first landed in Hawaii only slightly longer, but it seems more for setting than anything. Despite this, apart from Lilo's voice deepening a bit, nothing of consequence changes in the characters' lives. This can likely be attributed to the fact that the show's run was nearly three years.
• Contrived Coincidence:
  • The experiment that is a sentient virus just happened to end up in the very cereal box that Pleakley was eating from.
  • Stitch (and in some cases the other experiments) seem to be immune to the powers of other experiments only when it's convenient for the plot. For example, Stitch and the other experiments were immune to Checkers's brainwashing ability and as such were able to defeat Gantu, and Stitch (along with 625) just so happened to be immune to Angel's siren song because they were made after her. It just so happens that Stitch can be affected by Swirly's Hypnotic Eyes or Spike's stupidity-inducing spikes, because watching him make a fool of himself is hilarious.
• Crossover: A series of episodes in which the characters from other Disney Channel shows come to visit the islands. Also counts as Canon Welding, as there was little indication that The Series occurred in the same universe beforehand. The Series also holds the honor of having the most crossovers in a Disney series, which include:
  • Kim Possible: Drakken teams up with Hämsterviel and kidnaps Stitch. Lilo calls Kim and Ron and they work together to save him. There's also speculation that Rufus may or may not be an experiment.^note He isn't.
  • American Dragon: Jake Long: Jake ends up in Hawaii for a skating competition and inadvertently ends up in the middle of an experiment hunt when Lilo uses an experiment to disguise herself as him for the competition.
  • Recess:^note The only show it crossed over with that had already ended before Lilo & Stitch: The Series began, and the only One Saturday Morning series to appear. The Recess kids visit Hawaii for a program Gretchen is in. Stitch and most of the Recess gang end up the victims of that episode's experiment, forcing Lilo to team up with them to stop him and keep him away from Gantu.
  • The Proud Family: The Proud Family vacations in Hawaii, staying at Jumba and Pleakley's Bed-and-Not-Breakfast along with a Caustic Critic, but likewise end up affected by that episode's experiment which causes anger between individuals. Penny has to figure out how to fix things when she and Lilo get affected as well.
  • The series is the nexus of the Disney Channel Animated Universe, which was largely abandoned after it ended. Thus, the universe is the extended ʻohana.
• Dangerous Device Disposal Debacle: The series runs on this trope. In this case, the "devices" are all of Stitch's cousins stored in dehydrated little balls that were accidentally dropped all over the island and get activated to wreak havoc.
• Defeating the Cheating Opponent: In "Spike", Lilo and Mertle's families face off in a family quiz game where Mertle's family have been winning the first half. Thanks to Stitch, Lilo finds out that Mertle's been cheating by having Teresa, one of her friends, look up answers online and feed them through an earpiece. So Lilo stops this by having Spike "hug" Teresa since Spike's quills make his victim lose their intelligence. Come the second round, Teresa's acting too loopy to give proper answers and leaves Mertle without any advantages, allowing Lilo's family to catch up and win in a fair contest.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Stitch generally has to fight his cousins before they'll accept being "ʻohana".
• Department of Redundancy Department: In one episode, Mertle and her friends have a Future Hawaiian Girls of Hawaii tea party.
• Depending on the Writer: Depending on the episode, Lilo is either going along with keeping the aliens a secret or openly blabbing about the secret with no one believing her. Though her blabbing could be interpreted as her expecting people not to believe her.
• The Dog Bites Back: Nosy mentions to Hämsterviel that both Gantu and Reuben like insulting him much like Hämsterviel frequently insults Gantu.
• Downer Ending: Any episode where the featured experiment gets captured by Gantu by the episode's end, meaning Lilo and Stitch failed to find their one true place. All of this is resolved in "Snafu".
• Dream Stealer: Experiment 276 (Remmy) is somewhat of a combination of this trope and Dream Weaver; he can destroy dreams and create nightmares in their place.
• Dream Sue: While Lilo herself is no different, one of her dreams Remmy creates for her (as a setup to ruin it later on) features Mertle and her friends accepting her for who she really is. Lilo is understandably weirded out.
  Dream!Mertle: (while hugging Lilo) And you're not weird, not even a little bit! You just have a quirky personality, on account of the hard life you've had!
  Lilo: Really?
  Dream!Mertle: Yes! You're just misunderstood. And I'm here for you, Lilo, whenever you need me.
• Drunk with Power: One episode features "Checkers", a crown-shaped experiment that sits upon its user's head and makes others cater to them like royalty. Naturally, an under-appreciated feeling Lilo puts it on, takes over the town, and goes power mad immediately, passing insane laws and condoning her friends getting locked in a dungeon when they don't follow. She ultimately realizes how far she's been going and how poorly she's been acting, but right after she realizes this Gantu gets his hands on Checkers and everything gets ten times worse. Luckily, the other experiments are unaffected by Checkers's mind control and can do something about it.
• Earthquake Machine:
  • Richter (513) slaps his tail on the ground to cause them.
  • Cannonball (520), to an extent. He jumps into bodies of water to cause tsunamis.
• Elemental Powers: Several of the experiments, like Yin (501) and Yang (502). In fact, the 5-series of experiments have been stated to have some form of elemental abilities.
• Every Episode Ending: The featured experiment is in their one true place, except if Gantu captures them or if their one true place isn't shown at all.
• Evil Chef: Frenchfry (062). He cooks some good food, but his favorite food...
• Evil Redhead: Mertle, who's a bully to Lilo.
• Evil vs. Evil: Many of the episodes, as most experiments are usually still evil when they're first activated. Usually, Lilo and Stitch both have to save the experiment of the week from being captured by Gantu and save themselves and the people around them from whatever havoc the experiment is trying to wreak upon them.
• Fan Convention: "Sample" involves an alien convention where alien enthusiasts gather around, complete with two Loony Fans who go out of their way to catch a real alien. Jumba and Pleakley mistake it for a convention with actual aliens.
• Fantastic Aesop: "Melty" teaches us that we shouldn't go back in time to fix mistakes because we might make things far worse.
• "Fantastic Voyage" Plot: In "Poxy", Lilo and Stitch go inside Pleakley to catch the experiment that was making him sick.
• Fastball Special: Stitch and Gantu in a rare Enemy Mine moment.
• Flanderization:
  • Lilo's weirdness and naïveté were played up more, which caused her to behave more immaturely to the point that she even occasionally shows some callousness towards others (note Broken Aesop above).
  • Mertle was originally just a rude girl who doesn't like Lilo, but the show portrays her as a straight-up bully who enjoys mocking Lilo nearly every opportunity she gets. This is even reflected by her change in voice actress between the original film and this series.
  • Jumba's broken English.
  • Stitch's destructive tendencies and omnivorous eating habits, as well as his own broken English (including his Third-Person Person) and increased preference for his native Tantalog language. (In the third act of the original film and in Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch, he does show signs that he is capable of speaking English quite well.)
    • The other experiments follow his lead; with a few exceptions such as Reuben (625), the experiments are very animal-like in their behavior, and usually cannot talk at all. This is similar to Stitch's behavior in the middle act of the original film, but Stitch was only pretending to be a dumb animal there; he otherwise displays complex intelligence, to the point the Grand Councilwoman thought he deserved a fair trial instead of being put down like an animal.
  • Pleakley's cross-dressing was also greatly exaggerated.
  • Depending on the Writer, Nani's sternness and attitude towards Stitch.
• Flawed Prototype: Some of Stitch's "cousins" are regarded as failures by Jumba. The two most notable ones are Reuben (625) and Woops (600), both of which were prototypes for Stitch but had negative traits (laziness and clumsiness, respectively). Ace (262) is considered by Jumba to be his greatest failure for not having any evil traits at all, instead being a hero by default.
• Flushing Toilet, Screaming Shower: When Stitch hides in the shower and turns it on in the episode "Sample" to avoid getting his shots, Lilo pulls off this trope to force him to come out.
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: "Swapper", where Lilo and Stitch get their bodies swapped by the two-headed experiment (355), then are swapped again along with Jumba and Pleakley later in the episode.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: In the episode where Lilo was traveling through time, there is a quick shot of when they are in the future where you can see a poster of Mertle older in a military outfit, suggesting she took over the world.
• Frickin' Laser Beams: The only type of firearms that appear in The Series, being a kids' show and all. Technically, they're Plasma Cannons. At least two of the experiments have this power as well.
• Funny Background Event: Once or twice an episode, Stitch can be found ignoring the main action of the scene and doing his own thing in the background, usually either by doing something silly or suffering Amusing Injuries.
• Fun with Acronyms:
  • "Spike" has Pleakley's E.A.R.W.A.X. sessions (Evil Attitude Re-modification and Wayward Anger Extraction).
  • In the "Ace" episode, Ace belongs to the Association of Alien Rejects, Reformed Geniuses, and Girls from Hawaii, a.k.a. A.A.R.R.G.G.H.
  • In that same episode, it is revealed that Mortlegax, Jumba's old boss, is the head of the Evil Genius Organization, or E.G.O.
• Gender-Blender Name: Pleakley's first name is Wendy. It's not an Embarrassing First Name for him, since it means "powerful warrior" on his planet, but on Earth...
• Genre Shift: The original movie was more of a sci-fi action dramedy film about aliens, including a convicted Mad Scientist, searching for an escaped convict in Hawaii, with plenty of humor to go around. The show was intended to be far more along these lines (particularly in the action department) than it turned out to be, but Executive Meddling put it closer to Slice of Life-style comedy (complete with the humor being ramped up and certain character traits being Flanderized) instead.
• God Guise: An unwanted example in "Retro". Though it's a bit hard to tell since they can't talk, Nani's de-evolved friends seem to be worshiping her like a goddess for a short time.
• Good Angel, Bad Angel: Mr. Stenchy (254)'s intro shows that Stitch has two bad angels.
• Gotta Catch Them All: Lilo won't rest until all the experiments have found their "one true place".
• Grand Finale: "Snafu" for the normal run of The Series (though "Link" was the last broadcast), with Lilo and Stitch freeing all the experiments Gantu and H@auml;msterviel had captured. Leroy & Stitch was this for The Series proper as well as the whole franchise until the anime came along.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Mr. Stenchy (254)'s adorable appearance affects everyone except other experiments, who start to get jealous of the constant attention Mr. Stenchy is getting (as seen with Stitch and 625 in the episode).

Tropes H to P

• Halloween Episode: "Spooky", which is also a "What Do They Fear?" Episode.
• Hartman Hips: Nani, Mertle's mom, Mertle's aunt Stacy, and most of the women have huge hips.
• Hate Sink:
  • Mertle, as usual, though she's more sympathetic than she is in the original film.
  • After Stitch gets fed up with Nosy exposing everyone's secrets (and he doesn't want Nosy to interfere with Nani getting a job, much like he did in the first movie), he decides to deliver him to Gantu. However, Gantu and Hämsterviel get fed up with Nosy's antics and decide to send him back to Stitch.
  • Similarly, Heckler ends up annoying Lilo, Stitch, and Nani so much that they let Gantu take him away. Hämsterviel gets so enraged by the stream of insults, though, that he orders Gantu to set Heckler free.
• Height Insult: The premise of the "Short Stuff" episode involves several people poking fun at Stitch for his short stature and denying him entry on rides. It gets to the point where Stitch gets Lilo and Pleakley (due to Jumba being away) to make him bigger with a growth ray under the impression that bigger is better. When Jumba returns, he lets Stitch know that being bigger is not good for Stitch and that he is fine in his normal size which Lilo agrees with. The episode ends with Stitch brushing off the comments.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: Elena, Teresa and Yuki. They only act like a Girl Posse whenever Mertle is around, and once she's gone, they show Lilo and Stitch their soft side. They secretly despise Mertle.
• Hypno Fool: Gantu, Lilo, Stitch, and some other random islanders in one episode; caused by Swirly (383).
• Hypnotic Eyes: Swirly (383)'s power, which he uses his big eyes to hypnotize others into following the first command they hear.
• Hypocrite: When Lilo takes offense to his insults, Heckler points out that she thought it was funny until she was on the receiving end.
• I Am Not Weasel: Dr. Hämsterviel is frequently mistaken for a gerbil or other small rodent, insisting that he is, in fact, "hamster-like". Though he really does look considerably more like a gerbil/rabbit hybrid than a hamster.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Every episode title is/are the name(s) of the subject of the episode, almost all of which are the episodes' featured experiment(s) except for "The Asteroid",^note The subject is about an asteroid headed towards Earth. "Bad Stitch",^note Technically not a true example of an exception since Stitch is an experiment and is the focus of this episode, but he's in every episode anyway. It's about him getting into trouble due to his destructiveness and frequent misbehavior. "Rufus",^note Named after one of the guest characters that appear in this crossover episode. and "Mrs. Hasagawa's Cats".^note There are too many experiments to have their individual names put in the episode's title; it's about the local elderly fruit seller having a lot of experiments living with her as her "cats".
• Idiot Ball: Nearly every character gets a hold of it within the pilot movie.
  • Justified with Spike as it's his function to make people 99% goofier than they already are.
• The Imp: Reuben (625) is usually there to make wisecracks (mainly towards his partner Gantu) and sandwiches.
• I'm Okay!: Stitch has a minor catchphrase in this series after he gets hurt, "I'm OK! I'm fluffy!" Sometimes it crosses over with his famous illeism, replacing "I'm" with his name.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: You can't help but feel bad for Gantu considering all the times he's failed to capture the other experiments.
• Inflating Body Gag: In "Mr. Stenchy", Stitch inflates himself like a balloon when he sucks air from one of the X-Buggy's tires, causing him to float until he belches.
• Informed Ability: Reuben (625) is said to be as strong as Stitch, but is too lazy to use this strength effectively. Lampshaded repeatedly, mostly by himself. Finally gets to show off his strength in the Grand Finale, if only for a little bit, after Lilo names him.
• Ink-Suit Actor: "Weird Al" Yankovic as a minstrel at a medieval festival in "Tank", and Glenn Shadix in another episode.
• Intentional Mess Making: In "Phantasmo", the titular Phantasmo breaks dishes, Jumba's experiment analyzer device, Lilo's record player, tapes, and Hound Dog single, which Stitch gets blamed for.
• Ironic Echo: A ridiculously funny example in "Shoe". Gantu is immediately rebuked for his idea of how useful an experiment would be. When 625 discovers something that could vindicate him, he's too angry to listen.
  Gantu: Quiet! I do not want to hear anything more about 113.
  625: But—
  Gantu: But nothing. Go make a sandwich!
  625: Well gee, you don't have to be a jerk about it!
  Gantu: Yeah? What are you gonna do about it, trog?
  625: Look, I'm trying to tell you that—
  Gantu: (covers his ears) I'm not listening! Na na-na na-na-na.
  • Then later, when 625 tells him what he found out, we get one of the best instances of this trope ever thought up:
  Gantu: Why didn't you say so before?!
  625: (chuckles, then holds up a tape recorder) Caught it all on tape.
  Gantu (recording): Quiet! I do not want to hear anything more about 113.
  Gantu: But—
  Gantu (recording): But nothing. Go make a sandwich!
  Gantu: You can't talk to me like that!
  Gantu (recording): Yeah? What are you gonna do about it, trog?
  Gantu: (pulls out plasma gun and holds it against the recorder) Insolent device! SILENCE!
  Gantu (recording): I'm not listening! Na na-na na-na-na.
  • Blasting the recorder didn't do much to mollify him, either.
• Ironic Nickname: Subverted with Shortstuff (297), who was once a tiny experiment but after his growth ray incident, grew into probably the largest out of all the experiments.
• I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine: Pleakley is voiced by Kevin McDonald from The Kids in the Hall; when his family came to visit in "Fibber", his former castmates provided their voices. Scott Thompson was his mom, Bruce McCulloch was his sister, and Mark McKinney was his brother; Dave Foley was the priest.
• Journey to the Center of the Mind: The episode "Remmy", where a nightmare-causing experiment invades Lilo's mind and Jumba, Pleakley, and Stitch follow after it.
• Karma Houdini: True that Mertle does get Hoist by Her Own Petard on some occasions, but she truly gets away with a lot in bullying Lilo.
• Kissing Cousins: The experiments refer to each other as "cousins", but some are romantically linked to each other. Since they're all created by the same person, they're technically more like siblings.
• The Klutz: Woops (600). If he can't wreck something directly, he'll set off a chain reaction that ends with the target being wrecked.
• Lethal Chef: Pleakley, who thinks dog food is incredibly convenient because "it makes its own gravy", and to a lesser extent, Nani.
  • Cordon Bleugh Chef: Pleakley's actually a pretty good cook, as Lilo implied that he makes a good Thanksgiving dinner (especially pumpkin pie); it's just that he has a tendency to make some pretty exotic meals at times.
• Lighter and Softer: This show compared to the original comedy-drama film it follows up on. None of the conflicts in this series get anywhere near as dramatic as the original film. It even had reruns on Disney Junior years later and Disney+ has listed it as both a Disney Junior series and a Disney Channel one.
• Limited Wardrobe:
  • Lampshaded in "Glitch".
    Lilo (writing a letter): "Dear Uncle Joe. Aloha and mahalo for the red dress. I've worn it every day for the last three years! Love, Lilo!"
  • That being said, Lilo has worn several different casual outfits throughout the show, and in a few episodes, she never wears a muʻumuʻu, red or otherwise.
• Line-of-Sight Alias: In the episode "Holio". While telling a story about a terrible monster that eats people (and birthday cakes), Lilo sees a gecko on the post of the hula building, which then licks its eye. Which gives her the name "Geckolicki".
• Love Potion: In the form of a hummingbird-like experiment pecking people, Hunkahunka (323).
• Lyrical Cold Open: "Aloha, E Komo Mai" (the show's theme song) starts with Stitch shouting, "Tookie bah wah bah!", a phrase in his native Tantalog language meaning, "Let's get started!"
• Make a Wish: Wishy-Washy (267).
• Meaningful Name: Many of the experiments—all of them, in fact, except for Leroy and Stitch. However, if looked at the right way, Stitch's name could refer to the fact that he indirectly patched up Lilo's family.
• Me's a Crowd: Dupe (344), with the classic "divide your abilities amongst the clones" side effect.
• Meet Cute: Jumba warns that the Earth could be destroyed if Yin and Yang ever meet. They do, and this happens.
• The Men in Black: Cobra Bubbles is still working for the CIA, or some government agency.
• Might as Well Not Be in Prison at All: Although the authorities think that Hämsterviel is perpetually trapped in the ceiling of his holding cell unable to do anything destructive, he's actually somehow managed to trick out the prison cell with various gadgets, contacts Gantu frequently, and has objects teleported between his cell and Gantu's ship... all while the prison guards aren't looking.
• Mind-Control Eyes: Victims of Swirly (383)'s hypnotic powers will have the spiral variant (at least until they're given an order/suggestion).
• Misplaced Wildlife: Squirrels appear in "Clip", "Spats", and "Retro". Squirrels don't live in Hawaii.
• Mistaken for Toilet: The presence of Experiment 113, which causes misfortune in a local area, causes a hapless tourist to open a closet on Jumba and Pleakley's spaceship that he thinks is a bathroom, which irradiates him. As he runs off, screaming in pain, Pleakley says the glow should wear off in a few million years.
• Moment Killer: In "Angel", when Angel is about to go to bed she gives Stitch a look that says "come to bed with me" and Stitch is all too eager to, but then Lilo makes them sleep in separate beds.
• Mondegreen Gag: In "Rufus", Lilo gets furious at Kim's "What's the sitch?" because she mishears it as "the Stitch".
• Monster of the Week: With the Disney twist; the monster is tamed and becomes your "cousin".
  • Monster of the Aesop: An episode about healthy eating has a chef experiment that cooks unhealthy food and an episode about cooperation has two radically different experiments that work together, etc.
• Monster Roommate: Stitch and his cousins, although it's been stated that Nani says the latter are not allowed in the house.
• Mons: The experiments can be thought of like this.
• My Life Flashed Before My Eyes: Pleakley in "Remmy" after facing a collapsing rope bridge made out of floss. Apparently, he regrets not being more outgoing in high school.
• Name and Name: The Series.
• Never My Fault: After Mertle activates Holio despite Lilo's warnings she blames Lilo for the whole thing.
• Never Say "Die": In "Remmy". Instead of directly stating that today was the day their parents died, Nani takes a unique approach by saying that it was the day they became a broken family.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Thanks to Hämsterviel sending all of the captured experiments to Gantu in "Woops", Lilo and Stitch get the chance to free them in the next episode, "Snafu".
• The Nicknamer:
  • Jumba: "little girl" (Lilo), "larger girl" (Nani), "one-eyed one" (Pleakley), etc.
  • Lilo herself names the experiments, though some experiments were named by others. (e.g. Mertle named 007, Gigi, without realizing that she adopted an experiment, and Pleakley named 613, Yaarp, after a word from his planet.)
• Nightmare Fuel: In-universe, Spooky (300) has the ability to turn into anyone's worst fear. He turns into Cobra Bubbles and tries to take Lilo away from Nani, a torrent of water that nearly succeeds at drowning Stitch, and a Monster Clown to scare Lilo.
• Nobody Here but Us Statues: In the episode "Sample", Lilo, Stitch, and the titular experiment of the week attempt to hide from the self-proclaimed alien hunters Merwin and Dean as tiki statues. Which works... until Sample blows their cover.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: There's a montage of Stitch getting his ass kicked by Experiment 627, including being electrocuted, used as a trampoline, and used as a literal punching bag.
• No Matter How Much I Beg: In the episode "Sample", Gantu, who has been listening to confidence self-help tapes, commands 625 to not let him in the ship:
  Gantu: 625, today I will be successful. I'm ordering you to not let me back in the ship unless I have captured that experiment. Remember, no matter what I say, no matter how much I implore you, do not let me back in unless I've captured the experiment. (leaves out the door)
  625: Oh, yeah! Ha! That'll work.
  Gantu: I heard that!
  • Which causes trouble later on when Gantu is trying to escape from alien hunters.
  Gantu: (banging on ship wall) 625! Open the door!
  625: (pops out from an opening in the ship hull) Eh, where's the experiment?
  Gantu: But—
  625: Sorry, squiggly. Can't let you in without the experiment. Hey, your orders.
  Gantu: By the fires of the planet Kremlot, I'LL BREAK EVERY BONE IN YOUR—!
  Merwin: (in distance) I think he went over that way.
  (Gantu flees.)
• No Name Given:
  • Experiment 625, until the Grand Finale, where he is christened "Reuben" after the sandwich.
  • Experiment 627.
  • Inverted in Leroy from the Grand Finale; he is given a name but no number.^note He would eventually be officially numbered as Experiment 629 in 2020 by a Disney Tsum Tsum-based side story of Stitch & the Samurai.
• Non-Standard Character Design:
  • Mr. Stenchy (254) is one of the few experiments to have sclerae, irises, and pupils instead of the single-colored or solid black eyes his "cousins" (including Stitch) actually all have.
  • Skip (089) and Snafu (120) also has sclerae and pupils as well, only smaller and more realistic-looking than Mr. Stenchy's.
  • The Crossover episodes can be unsettling with the realistically proportioned, potato-nosed inhabitants interact with Penny and her family's overly expressive faces, Kim's exaggerated, thin waist and Hartman Hips, the lankier limbs of the Third Street Elementary students, and Jake's Skintone Sclerae.
• Noodle Incident: In one episode, Pleakley remembers "the incident with the giant chicken".
• No-Sell:
  • Angel can turn any experiment back from good to evil with her siren song. However, experiments created after her, such as Stitch, are immune.
  • Checkers' abilities have no effect on other experiments, which allowed Stitch, Reuben, and several other experiments to overthrow Gantu.
• Now Do It Again, Backwards: Angel can undo the good-to-evil effects of her siren song by singing it in reverse.
• The One Thing I Don't Hate About You: In "Clip", Gantu admits he finds Lilo's habit of naming the experiments to be "pretty cute." Unfortunately, he says this while Hämsterviel happens to be listening.
• Out-of-Context Eavesdropping: The episode "Shush" is centered around this.
• Outlaw Couple: 149 and 150, respectively named Bonnie and Clyde. It helps that they were designed for theft and evasion.
• Personal Raincloud: Shoe (113) produces one over himself as one of his "bad luck" events after running away from Lilo when she made an Innocently Insensitive comment about his powers.
• Plot Tailored to the Party: "The Asteroid"; it would be justified as all of the experiments were supposed to come but only a handful showed up. Yet all of them were useful.
• Poke the Poodle: Some of Jumba's experiments are like this such as an experiment that steals people's desserts, another that annoys people by talking too much, etc. It makes sense since all of those are between 1-200, meaning his first attempts at making evil experiments.
• Present Peeking: In "Topper", it's shown Lilo has peeked at the gifts so often she knows how to open her presents carefully so Nani can't tell she did.
• Princess Phase: The stereotype of girls wanting to be princesses is lampshaded in "Spooky" when Lilo comes to a costume party as a dead hula girl and her teacher suggests she wear something more like what some other girls are wearing. She looks at the girls he indicates and lists the choices she has:
  Lilo (dully): Princess, princess, princess... or princess.
• Promotion to Parent: Nani.
• Pronouncing My Name for You: Dr. Hämsterviel hates when his name is mispronounced as "hamster wheel".
  Dr. Hämsterviel: It's Hom-ster-veel! Veal, like the delicious meat speck!
• Protagonist Title: Although, as explained on the page for Stitch! The Movie, it was only going to have Stitch's name.
• Punch-Clock Villain: In one episode, Yuki, Teresa, and Elena are revealed to only insult Lilo whenever they're around Mertle, and do whatever they want when she's absent. In reality, they secretly despise Mertle.

Tropes Q to Z

• Real After All: In "Belle", Mertle constantly chastises Lilo for believing in the Nightmarchers, though as the episode ends, she does see the Nightmarchers, and quickly gets into the car and demands that her mom drive away.
• Recurring Extra: The sunburned tourist from the movie returns, and still never gets to eat his ice cream. A few new extras become recurring as well, such as a newlywed couple who first show up in "Yaarp" and periodically run afoul of rampaging experiments ever since.
• Redemption Demotion: Generally averted with the experiments after Lilo tames them, though there have been a few episodes in which Lilo's tamed experiments go up against another experiment and lose. Babyfier, in particular, lost to Ploot, even though his ability to turn him into a baby would weaken him immensely.
• Red Ones Go Faster: "The Red One", the space police cruiser Stitch stole and crashed in the original film, was rebuilt by Jumba as shown in "Bonnie & Clyde", although it doesn't look the same as before. Still, Stitch was happy to see and fly it again.
• Reunion Show: "Fibber", which, as mentioned above, features The Kids in the Hall cast as Pleakley's family (with Dave Foley playing the priest).
• Revolting Rescue: In "Link", the eponymous Link causes arguing people to get stuck together. Stitch and Nani get glued to each other and find that mud dissolves Link's sticky goop, so Nani has Stitch dump it onto Pleakley, Jumba, Lilo, and Mertle. Pleakley in particular is not happy about this.
• The Rival: Mertle is this to Lilo whenever the latter is not trying to befriend her. Several episodes have them trying to compete against one another including "Yapper", "Slugger", and "Slick".
• Saturday-Morning Cartoon: Aired on ABC Kids first before its Disney Channel premiere, and new episodes continued to air between both the block and the channel throughout its run.
• Series Continuity Error: Since Disney Channel and ABC aired the episodes out of production order, there were several continuity errors throughout the show. Even then, the production order itself is not seamless either.
  • In his debut episode, Fibber gets kidnapped by Gantu, but appears unharmed in "Spike". Likewise, Nosy also appears in "Spike" despite his capture by Gantu.
  • Also Hammerface (Experiment 033). He appeared in "The Asteroid", despite that episode being produced and airing before Hammerface's actual debut in "Dupe". And it can be said that the events of "Dupe" happened before "The Asteroid", but it was obvious that Gantu captured him immediately after the episode (with Heat, Plasmoid, and Thresher) because he was among the experiments that needed to be rescued in "Snafu".
• "Sesame Street" Cred: Regis Philbin appears as himself in "Drowsy".
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: David started talking like this after a wish-granting experiment had made him "the smartest person in the world". He was incapable of speaking regularly.
• Sham Wedding: Pleakley convinces his family that he has a fiancée, only for them to come over expecting him to marry said girl. Pleakley needs the help of his ʻohana^note chosen family of friends to fake a wedding to get his family off his back. Nani initially going to play the role of his bride until she finds that Pleakley's mother hired a real minister to officiate, so Jumba takes her place at the last minute. However, Pleakley's lie is revealed after Gantu brings up the Fibber who had been buzzing the entire episode because of Pleakley's lie.
• Shout-Out:
  • Hämsterviel is not a space gerbil, he's clearly an alien version of the Frenchman from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
  • One episode has Nani ending up in Jessica Rabbit's red dress.
  • Phantasmo (375) is an homage to Chucky from Child's Play.
  • Squeak (110), a small mouse-like experiment with distinctive ears "designed to annoy enemies with non-stop talking", is a shout-out to the Looney Tunes character, Little Blabbermouse.
  • In "Dupe", we get this line (from Pleakley of all people):
  "We came, we saw... we kicked their sissy butts!"
  • In "Spooky", they do a shout-out to one of cinema's most famous lines.
  Jumba: Frankly, my dear, I am not giving darn.
  • The compulsive cleaning experiment Felix, who's later reversed into a destructive slob, at which point, Lilo refers to him as "an Oscar".
  • In "Slugger", when Gantu thinks he found the experiment.
  Gantu: I love the smell of trog in the morning.
  • Jumba admits his jumping to catch a basketball would be ineffective because, "evil geniuses can't jump."
  • In "Houdini", the disguise Stitch wears to make him appear visible are bandages, a fedora, sunglasses, and a trenchcoat.
  • In a What Could Have Been example, the focus of an episode based on Precious (400) was this to The Lord of the Rings but was scrapped due to copyright.
• Sickeningly Sweet: Mr. Stenchy (254) was designed this way, much to Stitch's disgust, in order to get people to let their guard down before he releases his foul odor.
• Spanner in the Works:
  • Snafu (120) has this as his function. Woops (600) was designed to have all the powers of Stitch but instead is a complete klutz. In fact, the events of Woops's episode lead to Snafu's episode. Woops nearly blows Hämsterviel's cover, forcing Hämsterviel to send all the experiments he had in prison back to Gantu on Earth. This immediately leads to Woops breaking open Nosy's container, allowing him to escape. Nosy goes directly to Lilo and Stitch in the next episode to tell them that all of the experiments Gantu and Hämsterviel have are now on Earth, thus leading the duo to form a rescue party and free the experiments.
  • On the flip side, this can happen when an experiment doesn't affect people. In "Checkers", Stitch and his cousins are immune to Checkers' brainwashing so they know how to fight back. In "Lax", the titular experiment's power (turning people into Lazy Bums who prefer to relax over doing hard work) doesn't work on Gretchen because she considers hard work relaxing.
• Suck E. Cheese's: Macki Macaw's is an example of this trope. The experiment of the episode (Phantasmo, 375) was convinced to take over the broken animatronics so it could indulge its attention-seeking nature and use its ability to control inanimate objects to help others instead of hurt them.
• Stealth Pun: In "Ace", when Mortlegax, head of the Evil Genius Organization, hears rumors of Jumba's experiments being good, he takes a voyage to Earth to investigate, which could be considered an E.G.O. trip.
• Stock Audio Clip: Stitch's rather drawn-out "Hi!" from when he first meets Lilo in the original film is used as his regular greeting in the intro and various episodes, such as when he first meets Angel.
• Stupidity-Inducing Attack: The effect of Spike's, well, spikes. His purpose is to take a person's ordinary thought processes and increase their goofiness factor by 99%, leaving only 1% clever. According to Jumba, only super-geniuses of his caliber are immune (with even Stitch being susceptible).
  Jumba: Even one percent Jumba brains is plenty super-genius, haha!
• Superstition Episode: The episode featuring Shoe (113), who causes bad luck. In the end, the characters discover that he can be set to cause good luck instead.
• Super-Strength: Stitch can lift over 3000 times his own weight but not an ounce more. This weakness has been exploited by both of the main villains.
• Team Rocket Wins: A handful of episodes ended with Gantu in possession of the new experiment(s) of the day, though they were generally ones with useless/embarrassing powers. This is Deconstructed in the Series Finale "Snafu", where Nosy, after managing to escape in "Woops", calls out Lilo for essentially abandoning him and a dozen others to Gantu.
• Title, Please!: The only place where you can see the episode titles is in cable descriptions and on Disney+.
• Theme Music Power-Up: "Aloha, E Komo Mai" would play without vocals in an upbeat form whenever Stitch or someone else was doing a lot of fighting.
• Theme Park Version: Hula dancing, as opposed to the film, which, as the filmmakers frequently boasted, had the most accurate presentation of in any Hollywood film. Obviously, it was switched to the stereotypical "synchronized arm waving" for economic purposes.
• Training the Pet: In "Bad Stitch", Nani is displeased because of Stitch's tendency to destroy things out of frustration. Lilo tries to Tame His Anger through various tactics from a book about dog training, but none of them are successful. When Lilo says they can't afford to keep Stitch if he doesn't curb his destructive tendencies, he goes to see Professor Gunther Freem (actually a disguised Hämsterviel), who reverts him back to his old feral personality. However, Lilo snaps him out of this state by telling him that she loves him. Though by the ending, Stitch hasn't completely overcome his tendency to break things when it's shown that he tore through the living room to find glue.
• Transatlantic Equivalent: There is a Japanese version where Stitch lives on an equally tropical island in Okinawa. They keep the animation style, for the most part.
• True Companions: ʻOhana means family; family means nobody gets left behind... or forgotten.
• Two Shorts: "Mrs. Hasagawa's Cats/Ace" and "Glitch/Woops". All the other episodes are full 22-minute episodes.
• The Unintelligible: Stitch's Tantalog speech is very hard to understand, and most other experiments make animal or robotic noises.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight:
  • Many Hawaiians mistake Stitch and other experiments for normal Earth animals. They also mistake Gantu for a human foreigner even when he's not wearing a Paper-Thin Disguise. Only two mainland American tourists noticed Gantu and the experiments were aliens and when they complained to the mayor, even giving photographic evidence, he just shrugs it off as a hoax.
  • In "Frenchfry", Moses doesn't seem to find it odd that the now-fat Lilo is shaped so unrealistically or how she gained so much weight in so little time.
  • The American Dragon: Jake Long crossover stated they were in Hawaii to investigate reports of undisguised magical creatures, so apparently a few people noticed.
• Vacation Crossover: Among the many crossovers with other shows, the crossover episodes with Recess and The Proud Family featured the former series' main characters vacationing in Hawaii.
• Valentine's Day Episode: "Hunkahunka", featuring an experiment that makes people fall in love with the next person they see.
• Verbal Tic: Mertle has a habit of putting emphasis on words like "me" and "my", showing how conceited she is. It's pretty subtle, but it's made more apparent when Lilo does it when she's hypnotized into acting like Mertle.
• Vile Villain, Laughable Lackey: Experiment 625, Reuben, works for the series' main villain Gantu. While Reuben has all of Stitch's abilities, he has zero motivation and isn't serious at all.
• Villain Decay: Gantu has it rough in this series, to the point that absolutely no one, including his boss and sidekick, takes him seriously. He also seems to have shrunk.
• Villain Opening Scene: Some episodes begin with Gantu at his ship.
• Villain Team-Up: In "Rufus", Hämsterviel teams up with Dr. Drakken and Shego. Sadly, fans were denied the opportunity to see Shego and Gantu work together, as the latter didn't appear in that episode.
• Vocal Evolution: Lilo's voice is noticeably deeper in much of season two as Daveigh Chase got older.
• Walk, Don't Swim: Stitch does this after falling into a swimming pool while trying to capture Spooky (300).
• Water Wake-up: The only way to wake up someone who was put to sleep by Drowsy (360).
• Weaksauce Weakness: Stitch has two. He cannot float or even swim in water, and he can lift only up to exactly 3000 times his own weight. To the point where if so much as a feather lands on his load, he drops the whole thing.
• Weaponized Stench:
  • Mr. Stenchy (254) can release a powerful odor upon unsuspecting victims who are caught off guard by his cuteness.
  • In "Babyfier", baby Jumba and baby Pleakley go to a coffee shop and find there are too many people in it. Pleakley soils himself and the resulting stench causes everyone to flee.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: There are several occasions in which the experiment of the episode is not shown their one true place (Wishy-Washy, Swapper, Skip, Checkers).
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • In "627", both Pleakley and Lilo tear into Jumba for creating the eponymous experiment.
  • Nosy (199) calls Lilo out in "Snafu" for willingly letting several experiments go to Gantu, himself included. Considering she plucked him from the harmless life he was leading and gave him to Gantu after she decided he annoyed her, he actually goes incredibly easy on her.^note Then again, he has no fighting capabilities whatsoever, so he wouldn't be able to do much to her anyway.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Pleakley enjoys his disguise as Lilo's aunt.
• Winds of Destiny, Change!: Shoe (113) was designed specifically to cause bad luck or good luck depending on where his horseshoe-like horns point.
• You Must Be This Tall to Ride: Stitch tried to use Jumba's growth ray on himself to get past this limitation, only to learn there's a maximum height requirement as well.
• Your Size May Vary: Gantu, constantly. Executive producer Jess Winfield stated that he was made shorter to fit in the frame, but this does not explain how he can be taller than the Pelekais' home in one scene and just small enough to fit inside in another.

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Jump5: Aloha, e komo mai!

Stitch: (chomps on the surfboard) "Bye!"