143 Georgette

## Georgette

**Georgette** is a major antagonist-turned-supporting character in Disney's 1988 movie *Oliver & Company*. She is the prize-winning pedigree poodle of the Foxworth family, and while initially antagonistic to Jenny's pet cat Oliver, his presence causes her to change for the better.

## Personality

Due to living a life of luxury, Georgette is a vain, spoiled, and rather self-centered poodle. She is not really a house-pet (explaining why Jenny would take in a stray kitten as a pet) but a pampered, prize-winning pedigree poodle with a whole room to herself in the Foxworth residence. She is incredibly jealous that Oliver is getting any attention, even though she never shows any real emotional attachment to Jenny, and helps the dog gang rescue him just to get him out of the house.

She embodies the stereotypes of a poodle, including the stereotypical poodle cut, their snappish tempers, and their use as show-dogs. She also embodies the tendency of show-dogs, in general, to be spoiled and domineering, and as a result, no good as a family pet.

After Jenny is kidnapped, then rescued, she becomes less selfish. At the end of the film, she has become sympathetic towards Oliver and the other dogs.

She is also quite sassy and tends to complain about even the slightest mistake or problem, as shown when she whines about her cracked nail during a stealth mission to infiltrate Sykes' warehouse, or while the dogs are exploring the room and messing up all her makeup, portraits, chocolates, and other precious items.

## Physical appearance

She has mostly white fur, with blue eyelids and grayish baby-blue fur atop her head and the tip of her tail.

While there seems to also be gray fur on her chest, this actually appears to be part of her wardrobe, as it is missing briefly as she changes behind a screen when she sings the line "I'm beauty unleashed, yeah!" during "Perfect Isn't Easy." It is also clear that her golden collar is worn underneath this vest, as it does not rest overtop it.

She wears a pink ribbon atop her head, though she has swapped that out for a long pink scarf during her song. At that point, she also wore a cheetah-print vest instead of her usual gray fur one and swapped out the gray-fur wrist warmers on her forepaws with cheetah-print wrist-warmers.

## Appearances

### *Oliver & Company*

Georgette is introduced when Winston, the butler, wakes her up shortly after returning to the mansion with Jenny after taking her around town in the family limousine. She makes herself up while singing "Perfect Isn't Easy," a song that emphasizes her vanity, selfishness, and the closest thing to a villain song the movie has. Before entering the kitchen, Winston, who is speaking on the phone with Jenny's parents, who are currently overseas on a business trip in Europe, warns Georgette not to go inside. Nevertheless, Georgette ignores Winston's warning and proceeds to the kitchen as Jenny comes out to speak to her parents. When Georgette enters, she's shocked and disgusted to see a cat in the house, and eating out of her bowl nonetheless. Calling for Winston fails, so now Georgette does everything she can herself to handle Oliver with sarcastic questions and finally a scold, telling him that despite the fact Jenny's family owns the mansion, she is the person with the most power in the household. Luckily, Jenny comes in after having had a talk with her parents on the phone and tells Georgette that they have approved about her decision of keeping Oliver and that they're going to be "the best of friends." Georgette's only reply, which Jenny does not notice, is a sly smile and sneaky chuckle, as she intends not to have Oliver around for very long so she'll get all the attention again as the sole pet.

Over the course of the day, Georgette sees Oliver getting more attention during Jenny's piano lessons while she's singing "Good Company," and decides that she will have to get rid of him somehow herself so she won't have to deal with him any further.

The opportunity comes the next day when Fagin's dog gang breaks into the house while Jenny's at school and after having distracted Winston. At first, Georgette is frightened, starts panicking and calling for Winston, thinking that Dodger has come for her, but is offended when she learns it's not her he and his dog gang have come for. As a result, she gives Dodger an uninteresting education about herself. Then the rest of the gang enter her room. She is utterly repulsed by Tito's advances towards her, calling him a "bug-eyed creep," and shouts for Winston countless times, even when the gang cause a mess in her room, like when Rita notices a picture of a dog named Rex on Georgette's picture stand and asks who he is, to which she replies: "None of your business!", Francis eating her chocolates while lying on her bed, and Einstein sniffing her powder and then sneezing. However, when she learns that they've come for their cat, she is suddenly more helpful. Before cooperating with the "rescue", Winston manages to get back inside and checks to see if Georgette is alright. Einstein, along with Francis, are seen hiding under Georgette's bed cover with half of her body sticking out, Dodger and Rita posing as dog statue replicas, and Tito hanging on a coat hanger of the door. Although Winston finds it a bit weird, he leaves. Then, Georgette takes the gang to Jenny's room where Oliver can be seen sleeping happily on Jenny's bed pillow. When Rita suggests that they leave him where he is, as he looks so peaceful and he could well be better off there, Georgette hurries them along to get rid of him while convincing them that he's "so traumatized," and when Winston's voice is heard again, she hands Oliver to them in a pillowcase held by Einstein and Francis and then helps them leave down the fire escape. Before Tito leaves, he tries to hit on Georgette, only to get slapped and fall down through the fire escape, but he takes it that she "likes" him.

When Jenny returns home from school, Oliver is nowhere to be found. Jenny asks Georgette to help her find him. Georgette turns off the TV and pretends to look for him and that she doesn't know where he is while calmly dumping his new bowl in the trash. When Jenny realizes Oliver has been kidnapped after reading a ransom note she found in the mail slot, Georgette snickers (which is misinterpreted as crying by Jenny) but gasps in horror when Jenny decides she's going to get him back.

Georgette is taken with Jenny to find the secret location Fagin (unknown to Jenny) marked, which came with the ransom note, but is just as lost as she is, not knowing that they finally, actually, reached their destination. When Fagin approaches Jenny, Georgette protects her by growling warningly and baring her teeth at Fagin, proving she would still defend Jenny, despite her status as the Foxworths' show dog, though she still shows disgust and annoyance when she sees Tito and his attempts to hit on her again. After Fagin and Jenny have a small conversation, Jenny turns out to be Oliver's owner with only a piggy bank as payment to get him back and starts crying. Seeing how much Jenny loves Oliver and how miserable she is without him makes Georgette begin to regret her selfish mistake over trying to get rid of him so she would be the Foxworths' sole pet again. 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, who along with his Dobermans, Roscoe and DeSoto, was unnoticeably watching the whole thing in his car, and bursts into the scene, kidnaps Jenny, throws Oliver out the window, and tells Fagin to keep his mouth shut and consider their account closed, intending to use Jenny to get the money Fagin owes him as ransom for her safe return.

Then, Dodger and the gang come to Oliver's aid. Dodger assures him that they'll "absitively" get Jenny back. The dogs, along with Georgette, run to Sykes' warehouse without riding in Fagin's scooter this time. At Sykes' warehouse, after Oliver opens a hatch from the inside, Tito suggests "Ladies first," which Georgette finds admirable about him since he has "manners", impressing her compared to his earlier attraction to her that she hated, to which Francis says: "Good grief." The gang does everything they can to avoid their enemies and security cameras (taken care of by Tito). When Georgette screams because of breaking her nail, alerting Roscoe and DeSoto again (who were first alerted by the noise Oliver made when entering the place), Francis says in disgust, "Oh, balderdash," which upsets Tito as he retorts back, "What did you call my woman?!", before Dodger has them freeze to avoid being seen by one of Sykes' security cameras that he assigns Tito to take out by doing a little rewiring of it, which gets Tito electrocuted again.

From the top of Sykes' office, Oliver and the dogs observe him talking on the phone to Winston for the ransom money from Jenny's parents, and Jenny being 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 runs as fast they can to avoid Sykes until they end up in front of Roscoe and DeSoto. When all seems lost, Georgette traps them under a heavy tarp, impressing Tito, 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 there with a crane and Tito, who is at first reluctant, then cooperative with Georgette's persuasion, as the mechanic. They 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 crane's controls with a fire axe, 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 jump in and drive away as fast as they can. They seem to outrun the Dobermans, but not before Sykes manages to catch up with them in his car. Fagin, having no choice, drives his friends into a subway station, but Sykes, driving like a madman, is able to drive in as well. During the climactic chase, Georgette completely panics and is no real help at all. 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. Georgette still panics while the rest of the dogs are seen barking and growling at their enemies while Oliver helps Jenny. Shortly later, Dodger helps Oliver, killing Roscoe and DeSoto. On the Brooklyn Bridge, when Jenny calls for Fagin's help, he 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 saves everyone by jumping on one of the bridge's cables and driving them to the top, but Oliver and Dodger are still in Sykes' car fighting him. Sykes throws them out before he notices the train heading his way too late, which kills him, thus sending him and his car into the East River. When the rest of the company drives 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 is dead too, but when Jenny hears a soft meow from Oliver, she quickly realizes that he is alive, and everyone is rejoiced, except Georgette, who is still in great shock from the chase. Then, Dodger and the rest of the gang are accepted as Jenny's new best friends.

The next day, the company is celebrating Jenny's 8th birthday and giving her birthday gifts while Tito teaches Georgette some of his dance moves, much to Francis' annoyance. When it's time to go, the gang (except Tito) say their goodbyes to Oliver and vice versa. Georgette has become attracted to Tito's rough nature and invites him to stay. Unfortunately, her ideas of grooming, bathing, and dressing him up frighten him away, and she is last seen yelling for him to return, which he is unlikely to do. As for Oliver, Dodger makes sure he can handle living with Georgette from now on before taking off with the gang to head back home with Fagin.

### *House of Mouse*

Georgette appears briefly in the episode "Ladies' Night", sitting next to Peg from *Lady and the Tramp*.

## Disney Parks

Georgette made numerous appearances at the parks in the years following the movie's release.

## Trivia

* When Georgette dumps Oliver's bowl in the trash, she is humming a few bars of "Perfect Isn't Easy".
* Strangely enough, one of Georgette's photos during "Perfect Isn't Easy" shows Ratigan, the villain of *The Great Mouse Detective*, which was done two years earlier, while another, strangely enough for Disney, shows a picture of the Hanna-Barbera character Scooby-Doo.
* Georgette is melodramatic since her voice actress, Bette Midler, is known for playing melodramatic characters.
* Despite not being affiliated with Sykes, she can be considered a villain, or at least an antagonist, due to her mistreatment of Oliver.
* Georgette's hair is loose when she gets out of bed, but is in curlers when she looks in the mirror.
* During "Perfect Isn't Easy," the birds are opening the curtains on the balcony doors. Moments later, just before Georgette bursts open the doors, the curtains are seen still closed.
* When Georgette dips her paw into some mascara and applies it to her left eye, her right eye is already mascared despite the fact that her left eye is the first one she applies it to.
* When Georgette lays down on the pillow in front of her collection of portraits, a smaller pillow next to her is bare. When the camera pans overhead to show the large oil painting of Georgette, the pillow now has a portrait on it.
* In her autobiography, *Bette Midler: Still Divine*, Bette Midler stated that this was one of her personal favorite roles that she had played in a movie.
* Georgette has also been shown to have an exceptional strength, seen in the final scenes in the movie in which she flawlessly bends a metal bar on Fagin's bike.
* According to Georgette, she has won 56 blue ribbons, 14 regional trophies, and is a six time national champion.
* Georgette has a box of bonbons that Francis was seen eating. It should be noted bonbons are small candies coated in chocolate which is poisonous to dogs.
* Among her countless pieces of memorabilia and items of interest is a copy of Time Magazine with her on the front cover. This indicates that she's quite famous, not just among dogs but humans as well.