Roscoe and DeSoto

## Character information

### Personality

Violent, vicious, villainous, brutal, ruthless, thuggish, merciless, mean, sadistic, smooth-talking, and intelligent

### Description

Slender Dobermans with black-and-brown fur, pointy ears, black nose, and yellow eyes
**Roscoe:** Red studded collar
**DeSoto:** Blue studded collar

### Enemies

Oliver, Dodger, Fagin, Jenny, Winston, Georgette, Tito, Rita, Francis, and Einstein

### Fate

Both fall on the subway's third rail and get electrocuted to death due to the friction caused between the rail and Sykes' ruined car tires.

### Quote

**Roscoe:** "Hey, you got something to say to me, fat boy?"
**DeSoto:** "Hey, hey, Roscoe. Look what I found."
**DeSoto:** "I like cats. I like to eat 'em!"
**Roscoe:** "We ain't finished, Dodger. You guys are gonna pay for this, starting with that cat."

**Roscoe and DeSoto** are the main secondary antagonists in Disney's *Oliver & Company*. They are two Dobermans belonging to Bill Sykes. They were voiced by Taurean Blacque and Carl Weintraub.

## Description

Roscoe and DeSoto are two slender Dobermans with black-and-brown fur, pointy ears, black nose, and yellow eyes. Roscoe wears a red collar while DeSoto wears a blue one respectively.

They appear to come off as smooth-talking, mobster-like goons who don't mind playing with their victims. However, they are shown to be very violent, vicious, villainous, brutal, ruthless, thuggish, merciless, mean, sadistic, and intelligent; embodying the stereotype of Dobermans being savage, brutal, and used often as attack or guard dogs.

In the movie, it is revealed that Roscoe has a crush on Rita as shown when seen flirting with her despite her disgust and true attraction to Dodger: "You know, Rita, I can't figure out why you'd rather hang around a dump like this, when you could be living uptown with a class act like myself." Out of the two, Roscoe appears to be more cool-headed while DeSoto remains more vicious as shown when displaying a desire to eat Oliver, which he failed to accomplish after earning a scratch on his nose by Oliver, while Roscoe thought it would be better to heed their master, Sykes' call.

However, at one point, Roscoe can be shown to display a certain temperament whenever someone agitates him as seen when threatening Francis after he mocks him and threatening Einstein after he stands up to him by telling to pick on somebody his own size.

Both Dobermans are known to show some loyalty to one another like when Roscoe seeks to attack Oliver after having scratched DeSoto's nose despite heeding their master's call at first and when DeSoto tries to avenge Roscoe's death by trying to kill Dodger after having killed him during the chase in the final scene.

## Appearances

### *Oliver & Company*

One night, having arrived at the City Docks in their master, Sykes' Cadillac, Roscoe and DeSoto are sent to fetch a pickpocket thief named Fagin from his barge home in order to meet up with him. For some unknown reason, Sykes has lent an unknown large amount of money to Fagin and now, after an unknown period of time, wants it back. Roscoe and DeSoto brutally force their way into Fagin's barge, snarling and growling. Despite Fagin's best attempt to pet them, Roscoe and DeSoto further shoo him out to chat with their master while they taunt his dogs, unaware that a cat named Oliver is hiding from them.

While Fagin is out talking to Sykes, Roscoe tries in vain to flirt with Rita who is initially repulsed by him, which causes Francis to deliberately insult him. Unamused, Roscoe angrily confronts Francis. Then, Tito, not intimidated by the Dobermans, tries to defend his friend by challenging Roscoe to a fight and trying to attack him, only to be restrained by Einstein to avoid any real trouble; much to Roscoe's amusement. Then, Roscoe angrily confronts Einstein when the latter insults him until Dodger finally intervenes in order to calm him down. When Dodger asks him if he's lost his sense of humor, Roscoe replies otherwise and deliberately smashes the T.V. with a kick to prove his point, sadistically stating that he finds that funny as he lets out a cold, sinister chuckle. Later, when it's time for them to leave after hearing their master call for them with his car horn, DeSoto unfortunately discovers Oliver. However, rather than to heed their master's call like Roscoe, DeSoto tries in vain to eat Oliver, only to get scratched on the nose by the latter, thus, provoking both Roscoe and DeSoto to try attacking Oliver, but not before Dodger and later, the rest of the gang intervene in order to protect their new cat friend from their enemies; making them hesitate when they realize they are outnumbered.

When their master calls for them again, Rita sarcastically drives mainly Roscoe out. So, Roscoe and DeSoto leave but not before swearing revenge on their enemies, starting with Oliver.

Having been given three more days to pay Sykes back while threatening him, his dogs, and his home, on the night of the second day, at Sykes' warehouse, when Fagin accompanied by Dodger enters Sykes' office but, slightly intimidated by him, discusses his plan about ransoming Oliver recently adopted and owned by a new wealthy owner rather awkwardly at first, which causes Sykes to quickly lose his patience, Roscoe and DeSoto surround Fagin and Dodger. Then, when Sykes snaps his fingers, Roscoe and DeSoto attack Fagin, only for Dodger to intervene and fight them off in order to protect Fagin. However, when Sykes is convinced after Fagin discusses his plan properly and loudly this time as he shows him Oliver as proof, Roscoe and DeSoto are ordered to cease the attack by another snap of their master's fingers. Then, Roscoe and DeSoto are fed dog biscuits by their satisfied master as he states how proud of Fagin he is for starting to think big, assuming that he is actually planning a ruse to kidnap and ransom the cat owner rather than Oliver, and offers him 12 more hours as his last chance as both Fagin and Oliver come to Dodger's aid due to lying injured and unconscious with severe (but invisible) injuries from the attack.

Later, on the same night, Roscoe, DeSoto, and their master unknowingly watch Fagin meeting and talking to Oliver's owner who turns out to be in fact, a little girl named Jenny Foxworth but with very little money in a piggy bank she brought as payment to get Oliver back in his car from a distance. Growling, Roscoe and DeSoto are told to calm down by their master. When Sykes sees Fagin giving up the ransom by freely returning Oliver to Jenny without asking for ransom money, he drives straight towards Jenny to make his move, kidnaps her, and throws Oliver out the window while ignoring Fagin's pleas to do otherwise. Before driving away, Sykes tells Fagin to keep his mouth shut and to consider their account closed.

Back at the warehouse, Roscoe and DeSoto growl at a frightened and crying Jenny as they surround her while their master ties her up to a chair in his office as he maliciously jokes about the fact that Roscoe and DeSoto only eat when he tells them to. Then, alerted by some noise (actually Oliver breaking through a window in a football helmet after being launched by Francis with a seesaw), Roscoe and DeSoto are sent by Sykes to investigate the source while the latter calls Jenny's family's butler and driver, Winston, asking him to get in touch with Jenny's parents about ransoming their daughter since they are away on a business trip around Europe as he keeps a close eye on her.

In the storeroom, DeSoto is the first to catch Oliver's scent. Luckily, Roscoe tells him to come along, thus, enabling Oliver to sneak the rest of his dog friends inside. But then, Roscoe and DeSoto are further alerted when one of the dogs, Georgette foolishly screams in pain all because of a broken nail. Later, DeSoto becomes the first of the two to catch the gang's scent before informing Roscoe and continuing with their search.

Then, Roscoe and DeSoto confront and corner Tito, Francis, and Einstein as they were distracting and luring Sykes away with a pizza delivery guy disguise while the rest snuck into his office to save Jenny. Luckily, just when they are about to attack, Roscoe and DeSoto find themselves distracted and trapped under a tarpaulin net by Georgette, which allows the others to escape and return to the rest of the gang in Sykes' office. Roscoe and DeSoto are then discovered and freed by Sykes as he scolds at them for their incompetence on their way back to his office, only to find the door locked. Thinking that Jenny had something to do with it, Sykes warns her to open the door and begins to break it down. Luckily, when Rita's efforts to chew the ropes off of Jenny proves futile, Jenny, Oliver, and the dogs are carried up to safety once Tito manages to operate the crane to send it down then back up again just in time before Sykes and his dogs break through the locked door. All goes well as they are being carried away in another direction by the crane until Sykes takes out a fire axe and destroys the crane’s controls, which causes everyone to fall and land on a long slide, only to find themselves cornered by their enemies at the end of the slide unfortunately.

Luckily, when all hope seems lost as Sykes is about to snap his fingers so as to order his dogs to attack again, Fagin arrives in his scooter breaking through a window just in time to save and drive everyone out to safety as Roscoe and DeSoto try in vain to chase them on the street until Sykes tries to catch up to them in his car. Thinking Sykes won’t bother following them any further, Fagin drives everyone down into a subway station but Sykes, driving like a madman, pursues them nonetheless. Once they drive into a tunnel, Sykes still pursues them and then, deliberately collides his car with Fagin's scooter, causing Jenny to fall and land on the hood of his car. After Sykes throws Oliver in the backseat due to the latter biting his hand when trying to save Jenny from him, Roscoe and DeSoto corner Oliver. Then, Roscoe finds himself fighting Dodger, having jumped in to Oliver's rescue, and then, pushed out the back window. As Roscoe tries to make it back to the car while slipping, he grabs hold of Dodger's scarf but instead, Dodger lets go of his scarf, thus, allowing Roscoe to fall to his death on the electric railway caused by the friction between Sykes' ruined car tires and the railway itself. Angered by Roscoe's death, DeSoto tries in vain to avenge him by killing Dodger until Oliver suddenly comes to Dodger's rescue, jumps on DeSoto, and scratches his nose again, which causes him to yelp in pain and fall to his death. Then, Dodger saves Oliver again just in time before meeting the same fate as well. Nevertheless, oblivious to the event, Sykes continues chasing his enemies on the Brooklyn Bridge until he meets his own fate when a train collides with him still in his car, thus, killing him and sending both him and his car down the Hudson River.

### *Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers*

DeSoto (or a possible lookalike) appears in the episode, "To the Rescue" as a guard dog at the pound, as a dog named Killer in "A Lean on the Property", and as a guard dog at a military base in "A Fly in the Ointment".

### *Goof Troop*

Roscoe (or a possible lookalike) appears in the episode, "All the Goof That's Fit to Print" as a pet dog who first gets hit on the head by a tossed newspaper and then proceeds to angrily chase Goofy through neighborhood yards as the latter gathers up all of the papers in each yard.

### *House of Mouse*

In the episode, "Pluto Saves the Day", DeSoto appears with the Pet Shop Dogs band singing, "Everybody Wants to Be a Woof": composed of Jock, Napoleon, Lafayette, Tito, Francis, and some Dalmatian puppies with Dodger as their leader. While singing in the choir with Tito growling at him, DeSoto replies with a growl in return, thus scaring Tito off, which contradicts their encounter in the film. Later, he and the band fight off Pete (who's disguised as Snow White) and then chase him out along with Pluto.

## Trivia

* Roscoe Blvd. and DeSoto Ave. are major streets in the San Fernando Valley, several miles from Walt Disney Studios.
* Roscoe and DeSoto were likely based on Bull's-eye, Bill Sikes' bull terrier whom he would beat until it needed stitching from *Oliver Twist*, the Dickens novel that inspired the animated film.
* The name of the actor who gave the voice of Francis in *Oliver and Company* is Roscoe Lee Browne.
* Roscoe appears more as Dodger's archenemy while DeSoto appears more as Oliver's archenemy.
* Although both Dobermans look identical, it is unknown for a fact if they're actually related.
* Along with their master (hit by an incoming train), both Roscoe and DeSoto appear to have one of the most graphic deaths in Disney history (more so with Roscoe than DeSoto since the latter's death was only heard from off-screen).
* Roscoe and DeSoto appear as the main antagonists to Oliver and the gang while Sykes is more of the secondary antagonist to them.
* Roscoe and DeSoto are the first two Disney villains to be killed via electrocution (due to them being tossed out of Sykes' car and onto the subway's third rail), followed by Ursula and Jafar.
* The mark left on DeSoto's nose after Oliver scratches it disappears shortly afterwards when the two Dobermans corner Oliver. The mark then reappears after Dodger gets in their way to protect Oliver.
* The characters Cane 1 and Cane 2 (Dog 1 and Dog 2) in the Italian series *Slash://* look exactly like Roscoe and DeSoto, even bearing the same colored collars.