LOS ANGELES >> Call it Stitch’s vindication.

For 23 years, the rowdy blue agent of chaos lived as a second-class citizen at Disney. The animated “Lilo & Stitch,” released in 2002, was made in near secret, partly because the character and art style didn’t fit the Disney mold. One poster for the movie depicted classic Disney characters like Pinocchio, Jasmine, Belle recoiling from Stitch in horror.

Ticket sales were so-so. Stitch got a couple of direct-to-video sequels and a TV cartoon in the 2000s. A modest Disney World ride opened in 2004 and closed in 2018, leaving the snaggletoothed character to scamper along as a consumer products property.

And now? Almost overnight, Stitch has become one of the biggest movie windfalls in years, not just at Disney but in all of Hollywood.

Disney’s l

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