- “Allow me to introduce myself: I am Ignacio Alonzo Julio Federico de Tito.”
- ―Tito meeting Georgette
Ignacio Alonzo Julio Frederico de Tito (or simply Tito) is a live-wire Chihuahua and one of the deuteragonists of Disney's 1988 animated feature film Oliver & Company. He is one of Fagin's dogs and the smallest member of Fagin's dog gang.
Characteristics[]
Personality[]
Tito is a wisecracking, proud Chihuahua, who seems to forget how small he is, and his fiery temper goads him into fights with anybody, even to take on dogs much larger than himself, perpetuating the stereotype that many small dogs, especially Chihuahuas, can be much fiercer than big dogs. He also considers himself something of a ladies' dog, flirting with the spoiled poodle Georgette. He speaks with a thick Mexican-American accent, suggesting he is a Mexican dog. He is also temperamental, pushy, tough, hyper, confident, shrewd, flirtatious, and good-hearted.
Physical appearance[]
Tito is a short and slender beige Chihuahua with red hair, a black nose, a notched left ear, both brown muzzle and feet, and wearing a green headband.
Appearances[]
Oliver & Company []
Tito is first seen in a houseboat where he and his dog-gang friends live in, proudly displaying a wallet - even if it's nothing but shredded leather - while listening to his music on the radio and dancing to it, but wakes up Einstein who is sleeping with a broken tennis racket in his mouth. When Francis calls him out on this, he becomes quite agitated, challenging the larger dog after talking, annoying, bothering, and insulting Francis, almost causing him to lose his temper while watching the grainy television and a theatrical production of Macbeth, which he apparently knows by heart. When Tito calls him "Frankie," Francis gives him an uninteresting education about his name, telling him not to call him either "Frank" or "Frankie" ever again, just "Francis." Tito asks him what he brought for the gang as food for the day, "Frahn-cees" and Francis replies: "It's none of your business, you intrusive little pipsqueak."
Then, Einstein shows Francis what he got as "loot." Francis mocks him, telling him that all they need now is the court and the net, but Einstein takes him seriously, as he inquired as to whether the houseboat was big enough for a tennis court. Einstein is then told by Tito about his "loot." Francis mocks Tito, telling him that his "loot" is nothing more than just shredded leather. This upsets Tito, causing him to lose his temper and scold Francis. Rita wakes up and tells Tito and Francis to "cut it out", which Tito only does once Rita barks at him to shut up.
She checks out the "loot" she and her friends brought for their owner, Fagin, saying he's not going to be too happy about it. Then, Rita asks Francis if he got the food today, but as it turns out, he forgot. Tito and the rest of the dog-gang are upset by the fact that he forgot to get the food today since it was his turn. Tito begrudgingly says that they'll have to eat newspaper burritos again thanks to Francis' mistake.
Luckily, when Dodger enters the houseboat, he introduces Tito and his friends to their dinner: hot dogs. When Dodger is asked by his pals about how he got those sausages, he tells them every event that occurred to him today and Tito asks him: "Did you have to fight, man? Did you fight? How many were there?" As soon as Dodger mentions his "monster" (Oliver) in the story, Tito becomes a bit scared and even more spooked like the gang when the "monster" falls in. Tito is later seen running while shouting: "Gang war! Gang war! Watch out! Here comes a gang war!" and hiding in fear in a corner. At first, they don't know what it is. Tito thinks it's an "alien" when a mysterious paw, coming out of the cloth, grabs and scratches him on the nose, but then when the result is out, and it turns out to be Oliver, referred to as a cat by Rita after seeing what it is. Tito calls Oliver by his Spanish origin name, gato, before taking an offensive stance as he and the other dogs advance on Oliver menacingly.
The gang (except Dodger) surround Oliver and ask him questions about how and why he came to their place, mostly Rita as she snarls "Now how'd you find this place, cat?!". Oliver says he followed Dodger, Tito thinks he's lying while repeating "he's lying" countless times before he is kicked by Rita to shut him up, then Francis asks: "Now why would a cat follow a dog?" to which Einstein replies: "Yeah?" and then Tito thinks Oliver's a spy and says they should eat him, telling Oliver "You're dead meat, kitty". Then, Oliver reveals to them the truth about his involvement in Dodger's scheme with the hot dogs' theft. Dodger admits to his friends that Oliver is telling the truth and the gang along with Dodger begin to develop respect for him. Then, the gang starts mocking Dodger about his "monster" story while Dodger is watching, with his sunglasses, the baseball game but, just as he tells them to "keep it down," he is interrupted by Tito, who refuses to stop talking and mocking him while knocking off Dodger's sunglasses and turning off the TV. Dodger tells Tito to "cool it man", but now, Tito insists on "seeing this big bad kitty fight in action", so Dodger tricks him into telling him to look at something he supposedly saw and as Tito's head is in another direction, Dodger jumps on him and a dogpile fight is on. Rita stays out of it until Tito bonks her in the side of the head by accident, causing her to join the fray as well.
When Fagin, the dogs' owner, enters and tells them to stop the "fight" he is noticing, the dogs notice the dog biscuits Fagin bought them and they run and jump at him to give him a warm welcome home. Tito chooses to engorge himself on the biscuits as he's seen with several stuffed in his mouth.
When Roscoe and DeSoto enter their home after hearing a honking noise, Fagin goes up to have a meeting with their master and his evil boss, Bill Sykes, whom he owes money to. DeSoto sniffs around the place while Roscoe begins to flirt with a disgruntled Rita but, Francis insults him and Tito high-fives him to congratulate and encourage him but finds himself confronted by the angry Doberman. Tito gets angry and tries to fight Roscoe, not before being held back by Einstein. Then, Einstein insults Roscoe until he is now confronted by the angry Doberman. As Dodger tries to calm Roscoe down, he smashes the television and says he finds it funny and laughs in a sinister way as a reply. When Oliver is discovered by DeSoto and DeSoto, in return for trying to eat Oliver, he has his nose scratched by Oliver, Roscoe, and DeSoto attempt to attack Oliver, not before Dodger jumps into the scene and protects him. Then, the rest of the gang join in to protect their new cat friend from the two evil dogs. Roscoe and DeSoto are forced to forget about Oliver and leave when they hear Sykes honking to summon them back to his car, but swear revenge on Dodger and his gang, making it clear Oliver is first on their list for the damage he caused to DeSoto.
Tito replies after them with: "Oh, yeah?! You guys don't scare me! Come on and say it to my face! Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on!" then high-fived Francis after he says: "Yeah, those creeps will think twice before hassling us, man." Fagin, all wet after falling off a pier and full of sadness since he's been given three days to pay Mr. Sykes back or else there's no telling what will happen to him, his house, and his dogs, comes in and the dogs do everything they can to cheer him up. Fagin has rejoiced and thanks to them. When it's time for bed, Einstein insists Fagin reads them a bedtime story. At first, Fagin is reluctant because he's too tired, but when he hears and sees Einstein whining sadly, Fagin accepts "but just one chapter". Francis helps bring the lamp to Fagin's side while Tito turns it on and in Fagin's direction. While Fagin reads, Tito is seen getting annoyed by Einstein breathing deeply on his hair. Later, Francis is seen sleeping on the floor next to Fagin with Tito sleeping on the left side of his face and using his left cheek as a cover.
The next day, the gang is riding in Fagin's scooter but then, they're told to get out on the street to search for food while Fagin searches for a way to earn or even steal money. Dodger intends to help Fagin with his financial problems and the gang agrees to help too. While Rita sings "Streets of Gold," a vicious alley dog begins to chase Oliver, not before Dodger, Tito, and the rest of the gang growl at the alley dog and shoo him away. Oliver even tries to "bark" like a dog to shoo the alley dog and the gang finds it amusing a bit. When Dodger notices a limousine, he comes up with a plan on how to steal its radio and give it to Fagin to exchange it for some money as partial payment to his debt with his evil boss. As part of the plan, Dodger assigns Oliver as someone to help Tito, who will handle the stealing of the radio, during the operation. In the car, while the driver (Winston) is out tending to Francis, whom he supposedly bumped into when it was actually Einstein who did the bumping, Oliver asks Tito some questions, which begin to annoy him a bit. Tito, despite being annoyed, asks Oliver to be the lookout while he takes out the wires of the radio. Oliver doesn't know what it means so he asks him another question. Tito answers him by telling him to look outside the window and "see if it's still daylight." While looking outside, Oliver hears, turns his head, and sees something in the back when he notices the window separating the front of the limo from the back sliding down to allow for a better view between the two seats. Feeling a bit scared, he informs Tito, but Tito is too busy with the last wire. Before Oliver can continue, he slips on the ignition, causing the car to start up, thus electrocuting and sending Tito "flying" out of the car and making pinball noises while Oliver gets caught by one of the wires as the car drives away. Dodger admonishes Tito for letting Oliver get caught, but Tito points out that it was hard to watch anything while he was being electrocuted, or as he put it, "getting barbecued."
Dodger and Tito go after Oliver and track him to the house of his wealthy new owner, Jenny Foxworth, while the rest of the gang get back to Fagin. Tito tries to go in and bring back Oliver without thought until Dodger stops him.
A few moments later, Dodger and Tito return to Fagin and the gang to inform them about everything, thinking their friend, Oliver, is in "danger" and that he's being "tortured." The gang decides to "rescue" Oliver, but Einstein asks: "But what about Fagin?" When they are stuck between the decision of whether to help Fagin or Oliver, it results in Francis speaking Old English, which Tito finds annoying, resulting into Francis losing his temper while repeating his real name three times after having been insulted and called "Frankie" again, before Dodger intervenes and breaks up their argument, though Tito gets one last raspberry at Francis in before Dodger turns to glare at him, forcing Tito to quickly turn his head away and play innocent to avoid a reprimand from Dodger. Dodger then discusses the "rescue mission" with the gang. Tito considers Oliver like "family" and "blood (family)" and then Dodger forms a plan to "rescue" him.
Dodger leads the "rescue" mission to recover Oliver the next day while Jenny's at school. The gang notice Winston, the driver and Jenny's family butler, banging on something with a rolling pan, thinking he's "torturing" Oliver. After Francis distracts Winston, they enter the house where Tito, along with Rita, points out that the place doesn't look too bad, and while Francis admires Chagall and Matisse's masterpieces (dog paintings), thus, admiring the place more than focusing on their friend, Tito goes into the living room to settle down with a cigar, saying, "hey, man, if this is torture, chain me to the wall". Luckily, Dodger helps them snap out of it right away.
After checking out the house, Dodger enters Georgette's (the Foxworth family's spoiled pedigree poodle dog show queen) room. Georgette panics and calls for Winston countless times, thinking that he's after her. When Dodger assures her that he isn't, Georgette feels insulted and gives him an uninteresting education about herself. Then, the rest of the gang enters her room. However, Tito is distracted by the spoiled pedigree poodle and instantly begins to flirt with her. Although she is clearly repulsed by him, the gang cause a mess in her room, and this causes Georgette to call Winston again. When Dodger mentions that they'll leave as soon as they get their cat back, Georgette's cooperative. Before cooperating with the "rescue," Winston manages to get back inside and checks to see if Georgette is alright. Einstein along with Francis is seen hiding under Georgette's bed cover with half of Georgette's body sticking out, Dodger and Rita posing as dog statue replicas and Tito hanging on a coat hanger of the door. Winston finds it a bit weird nevertheless, he leaves. When Georgette takes the gang to Jenny's room, they notice Oliver sleeping happily and calmly on his pillow. Rita's the first one convinced he's okay and proposes they "forget the whole thing" but Georgette, eager to get rid of him, convinces them that "he's so traumatized" and when Winston's voice is heard again, she hands him to them in a pillow sack held by Einstein and Francis and allows them to escape through the fire escape. Before Tito escapes, he is seen trying to hit on Georgette "again" and as a reply, he gets slapped and falls down the fire escape, thinking she "loves" him, singing as he staggers away after the rest of the gang as they retreat back to their houseboat.
After Oliver's "rescue", it turns out that he wanted to stay with Jenny. After having a talk with Dodger, Tito tries to calm Dodger down, but Dodger remains upset. Tito and the rest of the gang are sad to see their friend go and Oliver leaves but is also sad at leaving his friends behind. Then Fagin comes in and takes Oliver back. When Fagin notices Oliver's new golden collar tag and its address, he has an idea for ransoming him.
At night, after Fagin, Oliver, and Dodger's rendezvous with Sykes and his Dobermans, Tito and the dogs are seen waiting with Fagin and Oliver, in his pocket, for their rendezvous with Oliver's unknown wealthy cat owner (Jenny). Tito is seen trying to flirt with Georgette "again" while Fagin and Jenny have a talk, but Georgette is still disgusted by his advances. After Fagin and Jenny have a small conversation with Sykes and his dogs unnoticeably watching them in his car, Jenny turns out to be Oliver's owner with only a piggy bank as payment to get Oliver back and starts crying. Fagin, at first, has a hard decision about whether to follow his good heart or not, then he gives up and pretends to find Oliver in a box and hands him to Jenny. Unfortunately, Sykes bursts into the scene, kidnaps Jenny, throws Oliver out of the window, and tells Fagin to keep his mouth shut and to consider their account closed.
Then, Dodger and the gang come to Oliver's aid. Dodger assures and promises Oliver that they'll "absitively" get Jenny back. The dogs run to Sykes' warehouse without riding in Fagin's scooter this time. After an inspection of the warehouse has been made by Francis and Tito, it turns out everything is locked up so now, Dodger comes up with a plan on how to get inside. As the plan is set with Francis as the first "cannonball," Oliver as the second "cannonball," and Tito as the "maestro," Tito and the gang call for Francis to see if he's ready and he is, jumping on the seesaw and launching Oliver up and through a window and inside. After Oliver opens a hatch from the inside, everyone enters in as well, first Georgette ("Ladies, first") as suggested by Tito, which Georgette finds admirable about him since he has "manners", finally convincing her to not be repulsed by him like before, to which Francis says: "Good grief." The gang does everything they can to avoid their enemies (Roscoe and DeSoto, who were alerted by noise when Oliver entered the place) and security cameras (taken care of by Tito). When Georgette screams because of her breaking a nail, alerting the two evil dogs again, Francis says, "Oh, balderdash!", which upsets Tito as he retorts with, "What did you call my woman?!" before being assigned by Dodger to take out a camera that turns to look in their direction, resulting in Tito being electrocuted again as he disables it.
From the top of Sykes' office, Oliver and the dogs observe Sykes talking on the phone to Winston for ransom and Jenny's okay, but tied up. Dodger comes up with a plan on how to distract Sykes and help Jenny. The Dobermans are later alerted by their enemies' smell. Tito, Francis, and Einstein distract Sykes by posing as a pizza delivery guy and luring him away while Oliver and the rest of the dogs enter and try to rescue Jenny. Oliver and Jenny are happily reunited. The rest of the gang run as fast they can to avoid Sykes until they end up in front of Roscoe and DeSoto. When all seems lost, Georgette traps the evil dogs in a heavy tarpaulin and the gang return to their friends.
Chewing the ropes off Jenny fails and their enemies return before Dodger has another idea to get them out of here with a crane and Tito, who is at first reluctant due to how many times he's been electrocuted already, then cooperative with Georgette's persuasion, as the mechanic. They manage to escape with Jenny before Sykes and his dogs break down the door, which the gang locked up earlier. Things go well until Sykes cuts off the controls of the crane with a fire ax, sending Tito reeling with another shock, and causing Oliver and the rest to fall and land on a long slide. They slide until they reach the end where, unfortunately, their enemies have them cornered.
When all seems lost, and before Sykes can snap his fingers to order his dogs to attack, they hear a honking noise and breaking in through the window, it turns out to be Fagin with his scooter. Oliver and everyone else jumps in and drive away as fast as they can. They seem to be able to outrun the two evil dogs while Tito insults and taunts them-- only to gasp in horror as he sees Sykes manage to catch up with them in his Cadillac. Fagin, having no choice, drives his friends into a subway station, but Sykes, driving like a madman, is able to drive in as well. Fagin then drives them through a tunnel with Sykes still in pursuit. When Sykes' car collides with Fagin's scooter, Jenny falls and ends up on Sykes' hood. Tito and the rest of the dogs are seen barking and growling at their enemies, while Oliver helps Jenny, and later Dodger, killing Roscoe and DeSoto. On the Brooklyn Bridge, when Jenny is calling for Fagin's help, Fagin comes to help her while Tito takes command of his scooter, despite Georgette gripping onto him in fear for a while. Sykes manages to grab Jenny's leg and pull her back in, before Oliver and Dodger jump on him and fight him off, allowing Jenny to jump to Fagin on his scooter.
In front of them, a train is coming their way. Tito is capable of saving everyone by jumping on one of the cables of the bridge and driving them to the top, but Oliver and Dodger are still in the car, fighting Sykes. Sykes throws Oliver and Dodger out of his car before he notices the train heading his way and the train kills him, thus sending him and his car into the East River. When the rest of the company drive back down, Jenny runs to search for Oliver, only to find a sad Dodger approaching, holding a "thought to be dead" Oliver. At first, everyone thinks he's dead, but when Jenny hears a soft meow from Oliver, she quickly realizes that Oliver is alive and everyone is relieved, except Georgette, who is still in great shock from the chase, as Tito looks around, wondering where she is, before discovering her still in the scooter as a frazzled mess. Then, Dodger and the rest of the gang are accepted as Jenny's new best friends.
The next day, at Jenny's home, Oliver and his friends are celebrating Jenny's 8th birthday and giving her birthday gifts while Tito is teaching Georgette some of his dance moves. When it's time to go, the gang (except Tito) say their good-byes to Oliver and vice versa. Tito is invited to stay with Georgette, who has become attracted to him, though Tito becomes uneasy when Georgette mentions fixing him up with some grooming and starting with a bath. He rushes out of Jenny's house wearing something classy (much to Dodger's amusement) and starts to take it off when he hears Georgette call to him again. Getting the clothes off, he rapidly changes his mind and returns to the gang while saying his good-bye to Oliver, causing some cars to blare their horns when they have to stop to avoid hitting him while Georgette shouts after him to get back to her house at once.
Tito is last seen singing to the reprise of "Why Should I Worry" with his friends, riding on the roof of an on-duty police car responding to an emergency call with its lights blazing and siren blaring. He leaps off afterward to join Dodger and the others, before landing in Fagin's scooter with his pals as Fagin takes them back home through the streets of NYC.
House of Mouse[]
Tito is seen in the episode "Pluto Saves the Day" with the Pet Shop Dogs band singing "Everybody Wants to Be a Woof". Notably in this episode, he is seen with some silly modifications (e.g. he has both ears bitten instead of one, earring, yellow eyes, and a squeaky bark). Also, while singing in the band with a growl at DeSoto, Tito gets scared off like a fraidy cat as soon as DeSoto replies to him with a growl in return, instead of being brave and not afraid of the Dobermans. Later, he is seen with the other Pet Shop Dogs fighting off Pete (who's disguised as Snow White) and then chasing him out along with the rest of the dogs and Pluto.
He can also be briefly seen along with some of the dog gang members in the show's opening theme. He also appears briefly in "Goofy's Menu Magic" as one of the customers ordering Goofy's stew in line.
Mickey Mouse[]
In "You, Me and Fifi", Tito is seen playing poker with Goofy and many other Disney dogs.
Disney Parks[]
Tito made numerous appearances at the parks in the years following the movie's release. Because the years have passed, it is now impossible to find Tito in Disney Parks.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- In Sykes' warehouse, when Georgette persuades Tito to work the crane that saves Jenny and the gang, he sings, "Heigh ho, heigh ho, it's off to work we go...", a clear reference to the song in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
- In a House of Mouse episode, Tito has both ears bitten instead of one, small earring, yellow eyes, and a squeaky bark. Also, while singing in the band with a snarl at DeSoto, Tito gets scared like a fraidy cat after DeSoto replies to him with a growl in return, instead of being brave and unafraid of the Dobermans like in the original movie.
- When Tito and the gang first notice what is revealed moments later to be Oliver stuck under a cloth, Oliver tears through it with one of his claws, to which Tito immediately freaks out and calls it an "alien." This may be a reference to the 1979 sci-fi horror classic, Alien, in which the alien, upon its birth, bursts out of the chest of its host (played by John Hurt).
- Tito's voice actor, Cheech Marin, has also done the voice of Banzai from The Lion King and Ramone from Cars.
- Tito's name is also the name of the founder of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito.
- Out of all the dogs, Tito has the most speaking lines.
- There has been some controversy over the character as being viewed as a racist portrayal or stereotype of New York Puerto Ricans or Latinos, as Tito speaks with a Spanish accent, makes Spanish references, and has a long Spanish name. Additionally, he portrays stereotypical behavior, such as chasing after women, being able to hot-wire a car, speaking Spanglish, fast-talking, being ready to fight, and his overall attitude and temperament. Despite the controversy, Tito isn't without popularity; he even won an Honorable Mention on MsMojo's "Top 10 Underrated Male Disney Characters."
- Tito's line: "Whatcha talkin' 'bout, man?" in response to Francis denouncing the wallet that the former found as "shredded leather" could likely be a reference to the classic catchphrase: "Whatcha talkin' bout, Willis?" popularized by Gary Coleman as Arnold Jackson on Diff'rent Strokes.
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