Houdini, A.K.A. Experiment 604, is an illegal genetic experiment created by Jumba Jookiba and a character in the Lilo & Stitch franchise. He is designed to turn entire armies and weapons invisible with a blink of his eyes, but had a flaw in his program that made him a coward on the battlefield. His one true place is as a Hollywood star magician, but his actions have promoted him to a shark tank attraction, where he makes sharks disappear to amaze crowds.
Bio
Experiment 604 was the 604th genetic experiment created by Jumba with Hämsterviel's funding. He was designed to render entire armies and weapons invisible, but due to being cowardly, he instead kept turning himself invisible and fleeing the battlefield. 604 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.
Lilo & Stitch: The Series
Houdini after being activated
604's pod was one of the twelve experiment pods recovered by Lilo and Stitch in "Drowsy".
On a small outdoor stage, Stitch and Pleakley rehearsed a magic act in front of Lilo, Nani, Jumba and a few experiments for Mertle's upcoming half birthday, but Stitch kept bungling the act with his failed tricks.
When Lilo realized that Stitch was having trouble, she asked Jumba if he had any experiments that could help with Stitch's magic act. Jumba then took out 604's pod, but warned that 604 had cowardly habits.
Using a leash as a restraint, Lilo activated 604 and named him Houdini. However, Houdini panicked and made himself invisible until Lilo pacified him, then trained him to turn things invisible upon hearing "Alakablooe" and vice versa upon hearing "Alakazoo" with a blink of his eyes.
Houdini photographed
During Mertle's party, Houdini secretly helped Stitch out with his magic act. However, the former was eventually caught in the act by Mertle, who photographed Houdini. The camera flash spooked Houdini, causing him to turn Stitch and numerous other things invisible, including himself.
Before Houdini became invisible, Gantu, who was looking for the experiment, spied on Stitch's magic act and spotted Houdini. However, Houdini escaped in fear when Gantu crashed the party. Later on, Mertle visited Lilo's house and condemned her for being a fraud before revealing the photo taken of Houdini.
To make matters worse, Mrs. Edmonds booked Mertle's aunt and her staff to witness Stitch's magic act. Lilo knew that Stitch couldn't possibly do magic without Houdini's help. While Stitch was invisible, Lilo adorned him in different ways so that she could still see him before they searched for Houdini.
Invisible Houdini
Later, Gantu pursued an invisible Houdini through a jungle, while wearing special infrared goggles. However, the latter was able to slow Gantu down by turning palm trees and other obstacles invisible.
Before long, Houdini bumped into an invisible Stitch. The collision caused Lilo to touch what she thought was Stitch (but was actually an invisible Houdini) and drag him into a bush with her. Thus, Gantu captured what he thought was Houdini (but was actually an invisible Stitch), which he took back to his ship.
Later, when Lilo grew suspicious of whom she thought was Stitch, she uttered the magic word for making things reappear, causing Houdini to make himself visible again. Lilo then realized that Gantu must have grabbed Stitch by mistake. When Pleakley scolded Houdini, the latter turned invisible out of fright and fled.
Meanwhile, an invisible Stitch began trashing stuff in Gantu's ship, making Gantu and Experiment 625 suspicious. Gantu eventually fired his plasma gun repeatedly in an attempt to subdue the invisible experiment. After a brief struggle, Stitch managed to escape the ship and reunite with Lilo. Additionally, she and Stitch recaptured Houdini after a long chase.
Houdini doing magic
While Pleakley was being booed by the staff for stalling them with his promised magic act, Lilo, Stitch and Houdini arrived just in time. Houdini then made the old lighthouse disappear, much to Pleakley's relief. The crowd cheered, although when Lilo revealed Houdini, the people became intrigued and began taking flash photos of the experiment, causing him to make everything on Kauai disappear.
Shorty after, Houdini was found a one true place in Hollywood as a star magician.
In "Remmy", Houdini was one of the experiments in Lilo's dream, but he is barely seen behind Thresher and in front of 627.
Houdini reappeared in "Snafu", performing a magic act to a crowd by levitating a playing card using telekinesis.
Leroy & Stitch
The first 624 experiments, including Houdini, 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.
In the following battle between the experiments and the Leroy clones, Houdini evaded attacking Leroys by turning himself invisible.
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 fail-safe.
Stitch! anime
Houdini made an appearance in the Stitch! anime along with Frenchfry, Squeak, Pix, and Tickle-Tummy after Hämsterviel kicked them out for being considered useless.
Personality
Unlike the initial behavior of most experiments, Houdini has no destructive intent; on the contrary, he is a very timid and easily frightened experiment. He is shown to be scared by almost everything, suggesting he has panphobia. He's also easily intimidated and startled by loud noises. It took a tremendous effort for him to leave show biz to go help out his cousin Stitch, and even then he typically stays invisible 95% of the time.
Biology
Appearance
Houdini is a slender, creamy whitish-tan rabbit-like experiment with four brown spots on each elbow and knee, light pink mark around his eyes and on his chest and stomach, dark pink stripes on his arms and legs, purple markings on his back and ear tips, a small mouth with a buck tooth sticking out, dark pink nose, huge beady black eyes and even larger ears.
Special Abilities
Houdini can instantly render anything, including himself, invisible with a blink of his massive eyes, though he can also make them reappear by doing this. He has also been shown to have some telekinesis in "Snafu" while performing to a crowd.
Weaknesses
Houdini is easily scared by almost everything, implying he may have panphobia. Also, due to the size of Houdini's eyes, they are highly sensitive to camera flashes. One flash temporarily blinds him, forcing him to blink repeatedly to try to get his vision back, and thus ends up making random things invisible, as he cannot see what he is doing.
Trivia
- Houdini is named after the famous Hollywood magician, Harry Houdini.
- Houdini's picture in Lilo's experiment scrapbook is the same photo that Mertle took of him in his debut.
- Houdini's pod color is yellow.
- Houdini is described by the experiment computer screen as, "Experiment 604. Primary function: Invisibility generator".
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