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Dr. Jumba Jookiba is a Kweltikwan from the planet Quelte Quan and the creator of the 630 illegal genetic experiments, including Stitch, that appear in the franchise, along with countless technological inventions and new experiments based on Chinese mythology. He is a heavy-set, mostly purple-skinned alien with dark pink skin on his face, chest, stomach, and under his arms. He has a huge, mostly bald, ovular head with three black hairs, a wide mouth, a round nose, and four beady eyes. He speaks with a vague Russian accent, but also uses very poor grammar and refers to himself in the third person. He has been frequently called a mad/idiot scientist, but he prefers to be known as an evil genius, and is, in fact, surprisingly sociable and friendly outside of his work.

Personality

Jumba wishes to see his experiments' success and be recognized by others as the evil genius he believes himself to be. He is otherwise angered when called a failure, and would rather tinker with objects around him than become physically active, hence the large exterior. Even though he claims to be evil, Jumba's actions during Lilo & Stitch contradict this. Jumba is, in fact, very sociable and friendly to nearly everyone on the island. He isn't truly evil at all, but appears to be a good guy who enjoys evil.

Jumba appears as being fairly good-humored, intelligent, and slightly insane. Originally, he appeared to be a little rough and crazy, but he is later revealed to be caring as evidenced by his actions towards Stitch and his decision to stay with Lilo and her family. Even after his supposed reformation, he still has a bit of a penchant for evil, creating new evil experiments and referring to himself as such, often bragging about it. He enjoys eating, to the extent of creating an experiment solely for making him meals, and he once won an eating contest on Earth.

Background

Jumba Pleakley 626

Jumba observing Stitch

Jumba Jookiba attended and graduated from Evil Genius University with Dr. Jacques von Hämsterviel, his lab partner. Shortly after, it is said that the two opened up a joke shop together and began working on Jumba's many experiments, starting with 001 which became known as Shrink (the news headline reads: "Idiot Scientist Actually Creates Something!"). Their 25 years of partnership mainly consisted of Hämsterviel funding Jumba's experiments with his shady business deals.

At some point, Jumba, one of the leading experts on metamorphosis in the galaxy, became the Lead Scientist of Galaxy Defense Industries while continuing to create his experiments with Hämsterviel's funding. However, Hämsterviel did nothing but (as put by Jumba) "cheat Jumba, embarrass Jumba, steal from Jumba, and finally, fink on Jumba to Galactic Federation" for his illegal genetic experimentation. Thus, he was arrested and brought before the Galactic Federation, accused of creating illegal genetic experiments. He was incarcerated because of his forbidden genetic experiments, but later released and sent off to Earth with Agent Pleakley in order to recapture one of his creations, Experiment 626. He was later quietly left on Earth (likely to avoid becoming a nuisance elsewhere in the galaxy) and has become a part of Lilo's extended family.

Jumba's sense of technology is also a hobby; he has made modifications to the house, such as a vacuum-tube elevator in the hallway leading to Lilo and Stitch's room, added when the house was rebuilt at the end of Lilo & Stitch. In one episode, he completely updated the house, only to have his technology turn against him, thanks to Experiment 223 (Glitch), who was captured in Lilo's handheld game. He has also made many modifications to Lilo and Stitch's dune buggy to perfect it for catching his other experiments which landed on Earth not long after Jumba's arrival. He has also had a mean ex-wife, whom he is terrified of. In one episode, he mentions that a particular fish, which resembles a lamprey eel, reminds him of her "before face-lift".

In what could be either a coincidence or a subtle intention, Jumba made 626 experiments, and was stopped from finishing his final experiment (Stitch) before being completed (hence the recharging dilemma).

Three years after Jumba's experiments were scattered across Kauai, Hawaii, Lilo and Stitch had rounded up and reformed 624 experiments. Jumba was given the opportunity to return to his old laboratory by the Grand Councilwoman. At first, he didn't want to hurt Lilo's feelings by leaving, but she agreed to let him go, giving him an Elvis record to remember her by. However, Hämsterviel escaped prison with the help of the former Captain Gantu, who had been retired from his position forcibly by the Grand Councilwoman three years prior to these events, and held Jumba hostage in his own lab, forcing him to create a new experiment, which ends up being named Leroy. However, Jumba used the record Lilo gave him to program a shut-off switch for Leroy: if he hears the song "Aloha ʻOe", he will glitch and switch off (but won't die like Stitch would have as shown at the end of Stitch Has a Glitch). When asked what he'd like as a reward, he decides to give up his laboratory and return to Earth to become part of Lilo's family once again.

Biology

Physical appearance

Jumba is a large, obese hippo-like alien with dull purple skin on his back side and pale pink skin on his front side, tan undertones, dark pink skin on his chest, stomach and under his arms. His head is huge, mostly bald, rather bulbous and oval and he has a large, purple koala-like nose and wide mouth. His relatively small, floppy ears with pink insides seem to be on the sides of his neck. He has four eyes, two large inner eyes and two small outer eyes, all four of which have pale yellow sclerae.

He seems to have three short hairs on the top of his head, and he has large, hippo-like teeth, a round stomach, thick limbs and four-fingered hands. His feet apparently lack toes. Jumba wears a yellow (sometimes light blue) Hawaiian shirt, blue shorts with white linings, and gray boots with light gray soles.

When in his lab, Dr. Jumba wears a lab coat (which barely fits his fat body) beneath it.

Because Dr. Jumba was imprisoned in Lilo & Stitch, he wears a prison jumpsuit covered in horizontal dark and light blue stripes.

Abilities

Jumba's greatest asset is his abnormally high IQ, hindered only by a few small and occasional lapses in memory. His penchant for creating numerous destructive, complex genetic experiments and machinery is nearly unrivaled, and his creation 626 is proof of his genius, being nearly unbeatable, as well as one of the most formidable fighters in the galaxy. He has also completely memorized the number and technical info on every one of his creations.

Jumba also has above average strength and durability, as seen in his confrontation with Stitch towards the end of Lilo & Stitch, where he is able to fight Stitch one-on-one reasonably well (a feat even the 20-foot-tall Captain Gantu is unable to do). Jumba's above average lifting capacity is demonstrated when he uses a comb device as a penetrating projectile. His astounding durability is demonstrated when he is repeatedly hit with various heavy objects thrown by 626 (including a Volkswagen Beetle), and at one point hurled through a wall, and only comes up a little shaken. Also, he, along with 626, survives being at the center of a plasma explosion powerful enough to destroy Lilo's house.

His grammar is rather poor, but it would seem that Jumba's species naturally has poor grammar with regards to English, according to Experiment 300's (Spooky's) impression of Jumba's ex-wife.

Trivia

  • Since Jumba is the creator of Stitch and the other experiments, he is often cited as their father.
  • He appeared in a limited amount of Disney Villains related material prior to the original film's release.
  • Jumba appears, along with several other Lilo & Stitch characters, in a parody of the Disney Channel Original Movie High School Musical, which was broadcast as part of the High School Musical: Around the World one-year anniversary special.
  • Jumba enjoys hearing Elvis Presley's song "Hound Dog" when the phonograph record starts playing in the original movie.
  • Prior to creating Experiment 177 (Clip), Jumba had long, flowing locks of curly black hair. Since then, he has been bald with the exception of three long hairs which grow from the top of his head. He managed to get a full Afro of hair but later decided to go back to being bald, finding it more suitable for himself.
  • Jumba likes to dance, and he is not afraid to bust a move every now and then.
  • Jumba has a habit of referring to himself in the third person. This habit was probably passed down to Stitch, since he has a tendency to refer to himself in third person as well.
  • During early development of the film, Stitch was conceived as an intergalactic gangster with a gang of three rather than a recently-created genetic monster. In that early version, Jumba was a former fourth member of Stitch's gang who was left behind during a bank heist and had been stewing in prison for years. Upon Stitch's escape, the Grand Councilwoman would then make the deal to release Jumba if he would go to Earth to capture his former boss.
  • In a deleted scene, Jumba is shown to have an insane side when he attacks Stitch at Lilo's house.
    • To be specific, the scene where Jumba attacks Stitch which results in the Pelekai residence accidentally being burned down was actually going to have more violent scenes like Stitch using a chainsaw to attack Jumba, as well as Stitch setting the house on fire by biting apart a gas pipe and tricking Jumba into shooting it with his blaster. The final version of the same scene has everything violent edited out and replaced in favor of making the scene more slapstick-oriented (Jumba knocking the ceiling down with dishes instead of laser blasts, Jumba's "shuriken" being made of hairbrushes and a tube of toothpaste instead of knives and a pizza cutter, and the entire chainsaw scene shortened), having more comedic scenes added in (exploding Scrump, Stitch catching Jumba's laser, Stitch yelling, "Blue Punch Buggy! No punch back!" when hitting Jumba with Nani's VW, the Elvis Presley song "Hound Dog" playing in the background), and the house being destroyed by having Stitch stop up Jumba's blaster with a carrot and then having them both play "hot potato" with it until the blaster overloads and explodes.
    • A similar treatment was done to the climax, where Jumba, Pleakley, Stitch, and Nani fly through the sky to pursue Gantu after he accidentally captures Lilo as a result of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Final version of the scene, the 747 is replaced by Jumba's Spaceship and flies through the mountains of the Big Island of Hawaii rather than the city of Honolulu to save Lilo.
  • The alien species and even the spaceships in Lilo & Stitch were inspired by Hawaiian wildlife and marine creatures as well. In Jumba's case, he seems to be inspired by sea lions and their relatives.
  • In Lilo & Stitch, Jumba mentioned that Stitch was "irresistibly drawn to large cities, where he will flood sewers, reverse street signs, and steal everyone's left shoe." In storyboards/concepts during Jumba's trial, there were video feeds of Stitch attacking a peaceful alien planet called "Lytwoc", in which he flooded sewers, reversed street signs, and stole left shoes from several citizens of the planet.
    • Also in Lilo & Stitch, when Jumba attacks Stitch on the ceiling using plates like shurikens in that film's climax, he claims that he wants to reprogram Stitch to be "taller" and "not so fluffy", hence foreshadowing the creations of both Experiment 627 and 629/Leroy in Lilo & Stitch: The Series and Leroy & Stitch, respectively; coincidentally, both of them are improved versions of Stitch that are more evil and destructive and less fluffy than Stitch himself.
  • In Stitch! The Movie and certain episodes of Lilo & Stitch: The Series, it is revealed that Jumba's bare feet exactly resemble Gantu's.
  • In "Spooky", Jumba's worst fear is his ex-wife.
  • Jumba states in "The Asteroid" that he finds chewing food rather annoying because on his home planet, nutrients are absorbed through the skin. However, at the end of the same episode, he admits that he enjoys pizza, and in "Holio", he mentions that he likes eating pastrami.
  • We learn in "The Asteroid" that Jumba had been banished from his home planet for evil genius research, but in "Sinker", he mentions about having given presents to his evil genius family back home (hinting that he may come from a family of evil geniuses), implying while he cannot go back to his home planet, he is allowed to send gifts there.
  • Jumba was David Ogden Stiers' last character in the Disney Animated Canon, 16 years before his death in 2018.

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