Line #21 YMMV/LiloAndStitchTheSeries


1	[[header:[[center:''Franchise/LiloAndStitch'' [[YMMV/LiloAndStitch franchise YMMV tropes]]\
2	[-Films: [[YMMV/LiloAndStitch2002 Original film]] \| ''YMMV/LiloAndStitch2StitchHasAGlitch'' \| ''YMMV/StitchTheMovie'' \| ''YMMV/LeroyAndStitch''\
3	TV series: '''''Lilo & Stitch: The Series''''' \| ''YMMV/{{Stitch}}'' [[YMMV/{{Stitch}} anime]] \| ''YMMV/StitchAndAi''\
4	Video games: [[YMMV/LiloAndStitchGameBoyAdvance First GBA game]] \| ''YMMV/LiloAndStitchTroubleInParadise'' \| ''YMMV/StitchExperiment626'' \| ''YMMV/StitchJam'' [[YMMV/StitchJam games]]\
5	Other media: YMMV/StitchsGreatEscape \| ''YMMV/StitchAndTheSamurai''-]]]]]
6	----
7	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
8	** Is Gantu's VillainDecay due to subpar writing, or did being fired from the Council in the original movie (and being reduced as the servant of a hysterical rodent) make him fall into a depression so deep it directly affected his performances?
9	** When Mr. Kaponi and Moses punish Mertle for Lilo and PJ's prank, do they sincerely think she did it or are they punishing her for her earlier pranks in the episode and letting Lilo off the hook due to being {{Misblamed}} for Mertle's pranks throughout the episode?
10	* AluminumChristmasTrees:
11	** Experiment 627's weakness is that [[spoiler:laughing too hard makes him suffocate. This is a real condition, cataplexy]].
12	** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightmarchers Nightmarchers]] (''huakaʻi pō'' or "Spirit Ranks", ''ʻoiʻo'') [[https://www.to-hawaii.com/legends/night-marchers.php are actually based on]] [[Myth/PacificMythology Hawaiian mythology]]; they are not something that was made up by the mainland-based writing staff when they were working on "Belle".
13	* {{Anvilicious}}:
14	** The strong emphasis on ''ʻohana'' (family) is usually sweet, but is absolutely everywhere.
15	** "Frenchfry" delivers [[AWeightyAesop its message about eating healthy]] with about as much subtlety as a volcanic eruption.
16	* AssPull:
17	** In "Angel", Lilo only finds out Angel is working for Hämsterviel because of a tag she saw around her neck on the video Pleakley took. Angel never wore the tag any other time.
18	** The ''T. rex'' at the end of "Retro". We never see Retro creating any non-avian dinosaurs in the whole episode. Though it could be assumed that he used his powers on a chicken (the ''T. rex''[='=]s closest relative out of all things) or some other type of bird.
19	** In "Snafu", Angel releases everyone from their capsules by [[spoiler:knocking her head against the glass. Apparently, super-strong experiments can't break those capsules without ThePowerOfLove. That, and Angel never showed signs of having super strength in her debut (which is not entirely the writers' fault considering [[PutOnABus what happened]] [[ExecutiveMeddling behind-the-scenes]], but still)]].
20	* BaseBreakingCharacter:
21	** Lilo Pelekai herself, as her behavioral changes between the original film and this series have caused some fans to find her becoming too annoying, headstrong, and too weird for weirdness's sake. Other fans believe that, while she does get annoying in a few egregious cases, she's still the ''ʻohana''-loving Hawaiian girl that we know and love, backed by the voice talents of Creator/DaveighChase.
22	** Nani herself got hit with some of this as well; in the main movies, it's established that her volatile temper is due to the stress of being unable to find a stable job to support herself and her sister, and sure enough she does mellow in the sequels. In the series, this trait of hers got so Flanderized that she can come across as unlikable sometimes, up to the point she will ground Lilo and Stitch for pretty minor deeds. That being said, her overly harsh behavior towards Lilo and Stitch did become a plot point in a few episodes, such as "Phantasmo" and "Bonnie & Clyde".
23	* CommonKnowledge: That Angel was a fan-submitted design by a kid dying of cancer. This is a false claim from users on Website/{{Reddit}} in response to a memetic Website/{{Tumblr}} post criticizing Angel's character design.[[note]]It ''may'' have snowballed out of a fifth-hand account of the ''[[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1992 Little Mermaid]]'' cartoon a decade earlier, which did create a mermaid in tribute to a terminally-ill kid.[[/note]] What proves that this isn't true is that the show never accepted fan submissions for anything--executive producer and screenwriter Creator/JessWinfield even stated on his TV Tome thread that company policy forbade him from taking any outside suggestions--and that Angel was designed by Jose Zelaya, a character designer and animator at Disney Television Animation.
24	* ContestedSequel: This show has plenty of fans who enjoyed watching the antics of Lilo and Stitch as well as his "cousins" and find it to have nearly as much charm as [[WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch the original film]] with a plausible (if quite silly) natural progression of the ''ʻohana'', who remain just as charming as ever, seeing it as a worthwhile addition to the franchise's canon. It also has plenty of detractors who find the show to be too formulaic and derivative of ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'', the characters too [[{{Flanderization}} Flanderized]] to stay likable, the loss of more dramatic and emotional moments to be disappointing, and the increased focus on aliens and comedy to be lackluster and at times grating. Either way, this show did start [[Franchise/LiloAndStitch the franchise's]] BrokenBase, years before the ''Anime/{{Stitch}}'' anime and ''Animation/StitchAndAi'' fractured it. There have been [[FlameWar many arguments on the Internet]] over whether ''The Series'' is any good, making this show a rather divisive one among Disney's animated television series.
25	* {{Designated Hero}}es:
26	** Lilo and Stitch come across as this in some episodes, particularly in the ones where they practically ''give'' the experiments over to Gantu and Hämsterviel usually because the experiments annoyed them, such as Nosy, Felix, and Heckler. This can be more justified with experiments whose abilities have little to no positive effect, such as [[LovePotion Hunkahunka]] and [[SyntheticPlague Poxy]], but can still come across as surprisingly harsh and callous. Worse is that these abandonments are often PlayedForLaughs as said experiments start messing with Gantu afterward (Felix starts making a mess in Gantu's ship, Poxy makes Gantu ill, and so on). "Snafu" does help alleviate this with Lilo and Stitch agreeing to go on a rescue mission to save ''all'' experiments from Gantu, plus Nosy [[WhatTheHellHero calling Lilo out on this]].
27	** Stitch can be unnecessarily rough towards his cousins, with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua2twuO_RZY a couple]] of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFpkrgy-YWo old YouTube videos]] titled "Stitch the Bully" showing clips of him mistreating his cousins (though the person who made those videos--a self-proclaimed Stitch fan--intended for them to be humorous and not actual criticism).
28	* EnsembleDarkHorse: Several of them among the experiments, which are covered [[EnsembleDarkHorse/LiloAndStitch in a separate Ensemble Dark Horse page for the whole franchise]]. Angel is probably the biggest one, considering she's one of the few experiments most fans can recall right off the bat and Disney is continuously releasing merchandise featuring her worldwide to this day, despite that she was in only ''two'' episodes throughout the entire three-year run of this show, and [[Anime/{{Stitch}} the anime]] where she is more prominent [[AmericansHateTingle is disliked by most Westerners (especially Americans)]].
29	* EvilIsCool: Experiment 627 for being a [[TheJuggernaut juggernaut]] Stitch-like experiment [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter who is more powerful than him]] and [[SuperpowerLottery has more powers overall]]. Fans remain baffled to this day as to why he was only used as a OneShotCharacter.
30	* FanonDiscontinuity: This is far from a universal opinion, as this show is popular enough in its own right to be looked back upon fondly. Nevertheless, there are several puristic fans who were so unhappy with the LighterAndSofter direction this show took that, to this very day, they try to invoke this trope however they can. The fact that, unlike most other Creator/DisneyTelevisionAnimation sequels and prequels to [[Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon Disney Animation's films]], ''this'' show has actually been impactful enough to still be acknowledged by Disney years later through merchandise and crossover video game appearances has made it all the more frustrating for purists, who go as so far to complain about slots being "wasted" in Disney's crossover games when characters from this series--usually Angel--are chosen over characters from the first film.
31	* FanficFuel:
32	** Since Stitch has over 600 different cousins, it's not hard to write a fanfic featuring at least one of them.
33	** The various implications and possible future interactions the crossover episodes bring. Like [[WesternAnimation/KimPossible the Lorwardian invasion]].
34	* FanNickname: 627 is given the name "Evile" by fans (and, previously, even wikis) due to "evil" being [[PokemonSpeak the only word he said]], [[Anime/{{Stitch}} at least initially]]. He was never named by anyone in the franchise proper. Interestingly, some fans have stopped using this nickname in recent years, finding the name to be rather trite, but inertia and the lack of a consistent alternate nickname among fans have kept it intact.
35	* FanPreferredCutContent: Fans prefer the original script and storyboards of "Ace" over the final ClipShow version that was produced and aired, as the original version had a much more substantial plot that gave Jumba an opportunity to show [[CharacterDevelopment how much he's changed as a person]], have the titular experiment play a more significant role in the plot, gave some other experiments more screentime (most notably Spike, whose only appearance in this show was his otherwise well-liked debut episode), and didn't have Jumba anti-climatically lose his E.G.O. membership.[[note]]For what it's worth, the episode's writer agrees with this, claiming the original script to be [[CreatorsFavoriteEpisode his best work]], but also believes that Disney cutting it [[DistancedFromCurrentEvents due to the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami]] was the right decision. (The original version involved the heroes deliberately making a tidal wave.)[[/note]]
36	* FirstInstallmentWins: Of the three ''Franchise/LiloAndStitch'' TV shows, usually because it's the only one that actually follows up on the original film and maintains Lilo as a lead.
37	* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: Sparky and Angel were popular enough to appear in ''Franchise/KingdomHearts''[[note]]Sparky was in ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep Birth by Sleep]]'', Angel currently has only appeared as TheCameo in ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsX X]]''[[/note]] and ''Anime/{{Stitch}}'', as well as numerous Japanese merchandise based on ''Lilo & Stitch'', despite respectively debuting in ''WesternAnimation/StitchTheMovie'' and the American animated series.
38	* HarsherInHindsight: When Skip skips Lilo to ten years in the future in his namesake episode, Nani hugs Lilo after missing her and not knowing where she went. In "Spooky", it was revealed Nani's worst fear was losing Lilo.
39	* HilariousInHindsight:
40	** [[WesternAnimation/AmericanDad Pleakley isn't the only flamboyant alien hiding out amongst a family who loves dressing up.]]
41	** Also, [[WesternAnimation/SuperNoobs Jumba and Pleakley aren't the only two intergalactic alien agents who live on Earth in a single house as roommates and help out a child with an important mission that decides the fate of the universe.]]
42	** In "Short Stuff", 625 declines to help Gantu because he has "half a Reuben" left to eat.
43	** Four trailers for the first movie featured Stitch gatecrashing several [[Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon animated Disney movies]]. In season two, four episodes have characters from other Disney shows [[{{Crossover}} crossing over]]. Revenge is had, kinda...
44	** In "Fibber", the MonsterOfTheWeek is a LivingLieDetector designed to cause chaos by exposing people's little white lies. Several years later the ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' episode "Let's Bounce" had Dr. Doofenshmirtz's "Tell-The-Truth-Inator", a machine designed to cause chaos by exposing people's little white lies.
45	** The idea of a GottaCatchEmAll premise set in Hawaii becomes this after the release of ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'', set in the Hawaii-like region of Alola.
46	*** Even more so when you factor in Type: Null, a destructive genetically engineered Pokémon designed to be a living weapon that is befriended by a human kid and given a name, eventually becoming their closest friend and using their powers for good.
47	* HoYay:
48	** Pleakley. True, it can be given in the beginning that his "aptitude" with Earth customs is lacking, but early on... he openly tries girl's clothing. He also seems to crush on Jumba. Ironically, this seems to be a '''Disney''' subversion of HideYourLesbians.
49	** Jumba and Pleakley continue to live together in a single house, continue to play husband and wife a lot in private and in public, and share a bed (to be fairer, they share a bunk bed so they technically sleep in separate beds).
50	** The episode where Pleakley's family tries to make him get married--he's very reluctant until the "bride" is Jumba in a dress, and in the end, his family accepts that Pleakley's happier without a wife. He also promised to wear men's clothes, which set off [[LivingLieDetector Fibber]]. Meaning he intends to keep wearing women's clothes and never has any intention of ever wearing men's clothes.
51	** There was also a scene between Jumba and Pleakley where they rip off the airport scene from ''Film/{{Casablanca}}''.
52	** And the [[HotSkittyOnWailordAction relationship between him and Jumba]] seems to go both ways: Jumba occasionally addresses him as "my little one-eyed one." Awwww.
53	** ActorAllusion, ActorAllusion, ActorAllusion! Pleakley is voiced by Creator/KevinMcDonald, of ''Series/TheKidsInTheHall'' fame. The man is used to playing characters in dresses. Also, his family members in that said episode were voiced by old castmates Creator/BruceMcCulloch, Creator/MarkMcKinney, and Creator/ScottThompson, with Creator/DaveFoley playing the priest. Oh, and Jumba's voice actor Creator/DavidOgdenStiers was openly gay.
54	** "Jumba and I have found the secret of love!" Oh, Pleakley.
55	** Hunkahunka's peck, which causes the target to fall in love with the first person they meet, is decidedly gender-blind, leading to at least three instances in the episode where a male character falls in love with another. Gantu was a constant victim of this as the experiment's pecks caused him to fall in love with Pleakley (who he mistook for a woman because Pleakley was wearing a dress at the time) and Stitch. Pleakley also flirts with five surfer dudes while cross-dressing in the same episode, only to get rejected by all of them.
56	** The relationship between Gantu and Reuben has some HoYay in it as they live together in Gantu's crashed spaceship and Reuben often makes some snarky but somewhat silly comments towards Gantu about his looks. They even bicker LikeAnOldMarriedCouple due to being VitriolicBestBuds in ''The Series''.
57	* JerkassWoobie: Gantu occasionally gets his moments in episodes like "Dupe" and "Phoon", where he questions his own life and failures. In "Amnesio", when he loses memory, in a CallBack to [[WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch the original film]], he says, "I'm lost."
58	* JustHereForGodzilla: There are some people who only watch this series because of the {{Crossover}} episodes with ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'', ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDragonJakeLong'', ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'', and ''WesternAnimation/TheProudFamily'' that links all five shows in the [[SharedUniverse same universe.]]
59	* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound: Angel's singing, courtesy of Creator/TaraStrong.
60	-->'''Stitch''' ''(to Angel)'': ''Eegalagoo!''[[labelnote:*]]Wow![[/labelnote]] Ooh, nice pipes!
61	* ParanoiaFuel: 623 experiment pods are scattered ''all over Kauaʻi'', and they’re so small you wouldn’t notice. They could be in your backyard, your pantry, your backpack, and even the ''food you eat''. An experiment can activate anytime, anywhere and then cause havoc, and all it takes is just one drop of liquid. Next thing you know, you wake up with a strange creature in your house, or run into one on the streets. If you’re ''really'' unlucky, you might accidentally end up eating one of them—at best, you’ll get an amoeboid experiment, and at worst well, the result will not be pleasant.
62	* RetroactiveRecognition: Mertle's voice actress Creator/LilianaMumy went on to grow up to voice [[WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse Leni Loud]], who is [[KindheartedSimpleton a much more likable character, to say the least]].
63	* TheScrappy: Keoni Jameson. He's a bland AudienceSurrogate who adds nothing to the plot, and Lilo's crush on him tends to bring out the worst in her.[[note]]Contrast with Angel and Stitch, since the former's presence tends to bring out the best in him.[[/note]]
64	* SeasonalRot: The second of the show's two seasons is often seen to be weaker than the first, with the show's formula becoming all too familiar by then, both Nani and Gantu being further {{Flanderized}}, the animation dipping in some episodes (such as in "Ace"), some reused plot points,[[labelnote:e.g.]]Phoon being mutated by one of Jumba's machines, like with Shortstuff growing into a giant thanks to Jumba's ShrinkRay.[[/labelnote]] and some episodes' plots becoming too ridiculous, even by ''Lilo & Stitch'' standards. To its credit, the season is still seen as good and contains some of the show's funniest episodes like "Swapper", "Heckler", and "Spike".
65	* SoOkayItsAverage: ''The Series'' has plenty of entertaining moments involving the main characters, is loaded with all those unique experiments, and maintains a good amount of the feel-good charm of the [[WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch original film]]. As such most fans regard the show fondly, however, there is also a substantial number who find it to be this. The [[SixtyFiveEpisodeCartoon 65-episode limit]] of the time, the LighterAndSofter shift in tone, Disney's ExecutiveMeddling, a somewhat rushed production, and the company overmilking the franchise for what it's worth during [[TurnOfTheMillennium the 2000s decade]] had some significant negative effects on it in the long run. The show's writing is [[ItsTheSameNowItSucks formulaic]] and stuffed with generic children's [[AnAesop aesops]] (a few of which were [[BrokenAesop mishandled]]), [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter much of the experiments' characterization potential was squandered]] since the production staff had to stick to the MonsterOfTheWeek trope throughout its run, viewers didn't even get to see ''all'' the experiments,[[note]]not that they were ever going to; in fact, there were only about a hundred unique experiments designed for the show, and a number of those didn't even get to be used much, if at all[[/note]] and the core cast was {{Flanderiz\|ation}}ed to the point that some viewers may find them UnintentionallyUnsympathetic.
66	* TearJerker: The show is mostly LighterAndSofter compared to the original movie, but does manage to create some heart-tugging moments of its own.
67	** In the Halloween special, we get Spooky who can shapeshift into people's worst fears. For Lilo, he turns into a MonsterClown. For Stitch, he turns into water. For Jumba, he turns into his ex-wife. For Pleakley, he turns into his mother. What does he turn into for Nani?
68	-->'''Nani''': Cobra Bubbles?\
69	'''Spooky''' ''(as Cobra)'': I'm here to take Lilo away.\
70	(''Nani looks appropriately terrified.'')
71	** Then there's the episode "Remmy", where both Lilo and Nani are depressed throughout the majority of the episode, due to it being the anniversary of their parents' death. It is the episode that comes closest to having the same melancholic feel as the original movie.
72	** After encountering [[LaserGuidedAmnesia Amnesio]], Gantu thinks he's a heroic and friendly cop and acts exactly like it. Jumba tells him he's actually a villain, and he can't believe it until he sees Lilo's "Big Dummy" drawing of him. Poor guy would rather let Amnesio go rather than have the memory wipe reversed and go back to being his old self.
73	* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Although par for the course for any Creator/DisneyTelevisionAnimation SpinOff[=/=]SequelSeries to a DAC film in TheNineties and [[TurnOfTheMillennium the 2000s]], the ArtShift to a thicker-lined art style compared to the original film was met with disgust from some fans. The altercations to Stitch's design, especially his more saturated blue fur and slightly more humanoid posture, get this the most.
74	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter:
75	** Victoria, the red-headed girl Lilo befriends. It's obvious the writing team struggled with her and then just gave up altogether. A pity, she had a cute design and good chemistry with Lilo.
76	** Experiment 627 being just MonsterOfTheWeek made a lot of fans upset. Many feel he would have been perfect as a recurring villain or as the FinalBoss of the franchise, instead of a [[WesternAnimation/LeroyAndStitch red doppelganger of Stitch]].
77	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot:
78	** "Dupe": Gantu finds four experiment pods, activates the experiments, and turns them into a Four Man Strike team against Lilo and Stitch. After they are defeated in the climax of the episode, the experiments never show up again, save for the finale, "Snafu", where they are Gantu's prisoners.
79	** "Spats": [[CausticCritic Mr. Cooper]]'s subplot is superfluous, being a one-shot original character in the middle of a crossover between two series' established casts. Not exactly "perfectly good", maybe, but nonetheless it could have been a totally separate episode.
80	* UnintentionalPeriodPiece:
81	** The episode "Drowsy" has the titular duo prevent Gantu and Reuben from kidnapping Creator/RegisPhilbin, who had already left the American primetime version of ''Series/WhoWantsToBeAMillionaire'' (which got a ShoutOut in the episode) [[ProductionLeadTime by the time this episode debuted in February 2004]].[[note]]However, Philbin did host a ''Millionaire'' spin-off earlier that month called ''Who Wants to Be a Super Millionaire''.[[/note]]
82	** The fashions of the rich girls in "Phoon" ''scream'' TurnOfTheMillennium street clothes, and [[ProductionLeadTime their clothes were already getting pretty dated by then]].
83	* ViewerGenderConfusion:
84	** Quite a few people mistook Pleakley for a woman, which is fairly easy to assume, since he usually wears dresses, and disguises himself as a lady in public.
85	** Yin (X-501) gets a lot of this as well. Despite being a fairly feminine-looking experiment, Lilo referred to her as a male repeatedly in the experiment's debut. It wouldn't be until a ''VideoGame/DisneyTsumTsum'' event in September 2018/January 2019[[note]]in the game's Japanese version for the former month and the game's Global version for the latter month[[/note]] finally (re-)confirmed her gender.
86	** Same goes for Shush (X-234), who's much less feminine than Yin and was also referred to as male in their episode, yet fan wikis labeled the experiment as female for a long time. And unlike Yin, Shush has not been lucky enough to get a re-confirmation of their gender through other media.
87	* VillainDecay: Gantu turned from the imposing but somewhat [[AntiHero anti-heroic]] twenty-something-foot-tall military captain from the original movie into a shorter bumbling idiot who even proclaims that he "likes to be evil". Subverted at the end of ''The Series'' when it doesn't work out for him and [[HeelFaceTurn gets his old job back.]]
88	* WriterCopOut: [[TheBadGuyWins Gantu managing to capture some experiments]] (or even be ''given them'' by Lilo and Stitch) can be seen as this, as the experiments he gets at the end of an episode tend to be ones we never find out about their "one true places" at any point in ''The Series''. This is most likely because the writers couldn't figure out a good "one true place" without missing their production deadlines (which considering how the first season aired 39 episodes in a time span of ''less than six months'', must have been very tight back then).

Context YMMV / LiloAndStitchTheSeries