Swirly, also known as Experiment 383, is an illegal genetic experiment created by Jumba Jookiba and a character in the Lilo & Stitch franchise. He is designed to hypnotize individuals into obeying the next order or suggestion they hear; snapping one's fingers will break the victim's trance. His one true place is hypnotizing guests at children's parties.
Background
Personality
Swirly is mute and mostly docile, usually staring off into space when not using his powers. However, he is quite active with his hypnosis, as it is performed at the most inadequate of times to humiliate others.
Physical appearance
Swirly is a small koala-like experiment with desaturated blue fur and a small doglike tail. Most of the time, he appears hunched and expressionless. His head and facial features are very large in proportion to his body, although there is a small antenna on the middle of his head. His eyes are black and pupil-less (but become white swirling lines when using his powers) and has large rabbit-like ears.
Powers and abilities
Swirly possesses the ability to hypnotize anyone who looks into his eyes, forcing them to obey the next order or suggestion they hear, by making his eyes swirl. His victims will snap out of their trances once they hear someone snap their fingers; also, if no order or suggestion is heard within a few minutes, the effect wears off.
Appearances
Lilo & Stitch: The Series
Experiment 383 was the 383rd genetic experiment created by Jumba with Hämsterviel's funding. He was designed to hypnotize his victims into obeying the next order or suggestion they heard. 383 and the other first 624 experiments were deactivated and smuggled to Earth by Jumba during his mission to capture Experiment 626.
All of the experiment pods were released and scattered across the island of Kauai, with 383's pod landing on a beach shore.
When a small wave washed over the shore, 383's pod got wet, activating the experiment. 383 then hypnotized a surfer, who had witnessed his activation, and left the scene.
After hypnotizing a tourist, 383 was discovered by Lilo and Stitch, but just before they could take action, Gantu ambushed them and captured 383 in a containment orb. 383 was soon caught in a fight between Lilo, Stitch, and Gantu, which ended with Lilo and Stitch retrieving 383. Gantu was then forced to flee from a swarm of bees after Stitch upset their hive.
Lilo and Stitch took 383, named Swirly, back to their house and learned about his powers from Jumba. They shortly after tried to hide Swirly from a strict Nani (who prohibited letting any of Jumba's experiments stay here besides Stitch) when she returned from work. However, in the ensuing chaos, Swirly managed to hypnotize both Lilo and Stitch and escaped outside.
Gantu later recaptured Swirly and was briefly hypnotized by the latter back at his ship. This fascinated Experiment 625, who then amused himself by making Gantu do silly stuff. Even Hämsterviel became intrigued after seeing this and toyed with Gantu a bit before snapping him out of his trance.
Later, Gantu traveled to the TV studio, where he used Swirly to hypnotize the manager into putting him on the Look at This! show, which was part of Hämsterviel's clever scheme. Gantu then planned to have Swirly turn the show's viewers into slaves. Lilo and Stitch, who just so happened to be on the show, were still under Swirly's hypnosis from before.
Back home, Jumba, who was watching the show on TV out of curiosity, soon found out what was going on. He then came to the show in person and managed to snap Lilo and Stitch out of their trances so they could rescue Swirly.
Gantu prepared to hypnotize the show's viewers into slaves using Swirly, but Lilo and Stitch pulled the plug on Gantu's charade by recapturing Swirly. He later found his one true place hypnotizing guests at a children's party that Stitch had won from being on the show, with Mertle becoming one of Swirly's victims.
In "The Asteroid", Swirly was one of the six experiments that Stitch convinced to come with him and Lilo to save Earth from an approaching asteroid. Along the journey, Swirly hypnotized the extraterrestrial asteroid squatter to prevent him from distracting Lilo and the others as they safely diverted the asteroid using the ship's hyperdrive engine.
Leroy & Stitch
The first 624 experiments, including Swirly, 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.
Swirly participated in the following battle between the experiments and the Leroy clones by hypnotizing attacking Leroys.
However, the Leroys 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 failsafe.
Stitch!
Swirly made a cameo appearance in the Stitch! anime as one of the experiments in Hämsterviel's prison cell. He made another appearance where Hämsterviel used him to hypnotize Stitch into fighting for the alien scientist. Gantu is also hypnotized by Swirly; this time, making him believe he is a scared chicken. Hämsterviel notes that he should have hypnotized Gantu sooner and decides to keep him in a trance. For the rest of the episode, Gantu is seen in the background acting like a chicken and even tries to lay an egg. This episode also featured Plasmoid and Splodyhead who helped combat Stitch while he was under Swirly's hypnosis.
Swirly later appeared in the special Stitch and the Planet of Sand, where he was captured by Hämsterviel. After breaking free, Swirly finds Gantu and hypnotizes him once again. This time, he makes Gantu destroy several of Hämsterviel's robots. Later, Swirly is seen at a party with the rest of the experiments, playing cards with Gantu who is still hypnotized.
Gallery
Trivia
- In his debut, Swirly's fur color is green, but in promotional artwork and all of his other animated appearances, including Stitch!, his fur color is blue.
- When Swirly hypnotizes the Ice Cream Man, his eyes can be seen.
- Swirly is one of the few known experiments whose powers Stitch is vulnerable to.
- Swirly's pod color is yellow.
- Swirly's head, antenna, and ears appear in the online game Jumba's Lab.
