Wednesday is June 26, or “626” Day, which celebrates Stitch from Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Lilo & Stitch, the cute yet bonkers galactic character that is given the experiment number 626.
In the video below, Alex Kupershmidt, the lead animator on Stitch, offers a behind-the-scenes look at how the team crafted the character, how hand-drawn animation informs technical animation, and how animation fundamentals from Disney Animation classics — like Pinocchio and Fantasia — still guide his animation process.