Sprout, also known as Experiment 509, is an illegal genetic experiment created by Jumba Jookiba and a character in the Lilo & Stitch franchise. He is designed to sprout into an uncontrollable forest of destruction by burrowing into the ground and producing tendrils that grow replicas of his head. His one true place is atop the pineapple water tower.
Background
Personality
Sprout is wild and tends to be aggressive, often trying to bite individuals when he was still confined in a flower pot. After he rooted into the ground and grew to enormous proportions, he became very dangerous, spreading his vines like weeds to attack victims. However, he apparently calmed down after being uprooted and contained. He also seems to like Lilo.
Physical appearance
Sprout is a plant-like experiment with a purple Venus flytrap-shaped head, giving him a lizard-like face and sharp teeth. He has dark blue pupil-less eyes, three leaves surrounding his head like a frill, and a single antenna on his head. His body is leaf-like, with a thick green stem extending to his head and containing eight tentacle-like vines.
Powers and abilities
Sprout can grow from a small experiment to an immense monstrosity at a rapid rate. Using his burrowing capabilities, Sprout can initiate his growth once he roots into the ground, allowing him to sprout a destructive forest of vicious duplicates, and sends out tendrils that can grow new heads and act like weeds, all with replicas of Sprout's head.
Weaknesses
If the original Sprout's roots are separated from the forest and contained, all of his duplicates will die off. Sprout is also vulnerable to plant-trimming or weed-cutting machines, such as a tractor or lawn mower.
Appearances
Lilo & Stitch: The Series
Experiment 509 was the 509th genetic experiment created by Jumba with Hämsterviel's funding. He was designed to spawn into an uncontrollable killer forest. 509 and the other first 624 experiments were deactivated and smuggled to Earth by Jumba during his mission to capture Experiment 626.
509's pod eventually made its way into a post office, where Lilo found it on the floor while mailing a letter to her pen pal Henry. She then took the pod home to Jumba who described 509's powers, but Jumba, unwilling to risk activating 509 due to the destruction the latter would cause, locked the pod away.
Since Lilo wanted to enter something in one of the competitions, she and Stitch stealthily stole 509's pod from Jumba's desk drawer the following night. Lilo then activated the experiment, named him Sprout, transplanted him, and fed him super-fertilizer.
The next day, Lilo took a rapidly-growing Sprout to an orchid competition at the Kokaua Town fair. When Mertle approached Sprout and noticed he was not an orchid, Sprout lashed out at her, causing Mertle to accidentally break his pot open.
Sprout then rooted into the ground and grew into a massive forest of killer plants which took over the fair, causing widespread panic and Stitch to lose the rodeo to a five-time champion cowboy. Nani and Jumba soon learned of the disaster that was broadcast on TV and became angry with Lilo for activating Sprout against Jumba's wishes.
Eventually, Stitch managed to lasso the original Sprout, uproot him, and drag him into a pineapple-shaped water tower slated for demolition, thus trapping the latter and causing the forest to die off without the original Sprout. Lilo was unsure if this was truly Sprout's one true place, but it was apparently the best she and Stitch could do on such short notice.
Sprout was seen on a computer screen in "Ace", posing as an evil creation of Jumba's as part of a hoax to fool Mortlegax, the head of E.G.O. industries.
Leroy & Stitch
The first 624 experiments, including Sprout, were rounded up by Leroy and taken to a stadium to be destroyed. However, Lilo, Stitch, Jumba, Pleakley, Reuben, and Gantu arrived before the experiments could be destroyed.
Sprout participated in the following battle between the experiments and the Leroy clones.
The Leroy clones soon gained the upper hand in the battle, but were defeated when Lilo, Stitch, Reuben, and several other experiments performed the song "Aloha ʻOe", which caused the Leroy army to shut down due to the original Leroy's fail-safe. Sprout joins them for the song by playing the drums.
Stitch!
Sprout in the anime episode "Son of Sprout"; in the English dub, he is actually a Sproutling instead.
Sprout was mentioned twice in the Stitch! anime. Although Sprout reappeared twice in the Japanese version of the anime, he makes no appearances in the English dub, where he was mentioned by Jumba to still live on Kauai. Instead, in both appearances, they are a seedling spawned from Sprout called a Sproutling, codenamed Experiment 509-A. It is revealed that Sprout can produce seed pods and launch them into space, where they cling to asteroids.
A seedling first appeared in "Son of Sprout". It had attached to a meteor that later crashed onto Izayoi Island. Once it got its roots into the ground, it quickly began to grow, carrying out his father's original programming, before eventually being neutralized.
In "Sprout 2.0", Hämsterviel reveals that he has enhanced another one of Sprout's seedlings with the DNA of Experiment 627, disguised it as a plant, and hid it on a deserted island in an attempt to capture Stitch. Gantu and Reuben disguise themselves and convince Stitch and the gang to go find a flower that grants wishes, but is truly the seedling. Shortly after arriving on the island, the gang finds and almost instantly captures the seedling. However, when the seedling escapes, 627's DNA causes him to grow and become unstoppable. Luckily, this also gave the seedling 627's only weakness: laughter. Eventually, Stitch and the others defeat the seedling by tickling him to submission, causing him to shrink back to his original size.
In "Shogun", it is shown that Sprout was dehydrated back into an experiment pod and locked in Jumba's vault.
Gallery
Trivia
- Sprout was first revealed in a DVD bonus feature of Stitch! The Movie in the experiment gallery.
- Sprout is an obvious parody of Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors.
- Sprout bears a great resemblance to most real-life Venus flytraps.
- Sprout's pod color is blue.
- Sprout's holographic silhouette appeared in both "Amnesio" and "Fibber".
- Sprout is shown to have two different graphic designs on Jumba's computer.
- During the battle between the Leroy army and the experiments in Leroy & Stitch, Sprout did not grow into an uncontrollable forest of destruction like he did in his debut.
- In the English dub of Stitch!, Sprout is said to produce seeds called Sproutlings (a.k.a. Experiment 509-A) that carry out the same primary function as their father.
- Since the Japanese version of Stitch! was confirmed non-canon when it aired, this experiment is still just Sprout. However, the international version attempted to fit the anime into the canon of Lilo & Stitch: The Series, and so Sprout stays in Hawaii, whereas instead, both of his appearances are considered to be seedlings that he has spawned.
- As a reference to many experiments being mislabeled with the excuse that Jumba's database is untidy, Hämsterviel and Reuben ask if the experiment used to enhance the Sproutling was 672 or 726, and not 627. However, it is rather obvious that it's 627, since Experiment 672 or 726 was never made; the last made experiment was 629 (Leroy), which means 627 is the only choice left. The fact the Sproutling is weak to laughter is further proof that the Sproutling was, indeed, infused with 627's DNA.
- According to Jess Winfield, Sprout was originally going to be named "Weedy" at one point.[1]
References
- ↑ L&S Says Mahalo. TV Tome (December 14, 2004). Archived from the original on March 19, 2016. Retrieved on May 27, 2018.
