The Gang of Five

The Land Before Time => General Land Before Time => Character Discussion => Topic started by: Sovereign on January 13, 2017, 12:12:01 PM

Title: Guido's name
Post by: Sovereign on January 13, 2017, 12:12:01 PM

Guido apparently is a derogatory term for American-Italians. I was just wondering why Universal would give him such a name. :unsure: Of course, it suits his species name pretty well but I see nothing Italian about his character. Is this just a detail Universal overlooked or could there be another explanation for giving the character a mocking slang term for a name?  

Title: Guido's name
Post by: Kor on January 13, 2017, 09:47:48 PM

I assumed his name came from his species name, as it does with many LBT characters.

Title: Guido's name
Post by: ADFan185 on January 14, 2017, 03:55:05 AM

Yeah but still it's a horrible name to give a character in a kids movie

Title: Guido's name
Post by: Hammy on January 14, 2017, 06:24:10 PM

"Guido" can be a derogatory term for Italian-Americans, but it's also a well-documented Italian/German name. It's been a name since the 11th century, long before any negative connotation arose and it's still used as a name to this day. I mean, wouldn't it be kinda worse if Guido both had his name and acted out an Italian character type? That could be seen as an actual stereotype, but as it is, it's just the play on a well-established human name. That's all the purpose it needs.

In any case, I don't see the problem. It's an actual name, children aren't likely to notice nor care, and it's not like no other characters have ever been named Guido. Pixar's Cars, Marvel comics, frickin' Samurai Pizza Cats, all of these use the same name for a character. I wouldn't read too much into it.

Title: Guido's name
Post by: Sovereign on January 14, 2017, 06:50:17 PM

All right, thanks for the answer. I was just confused when the first thing that came from Google was the article about the name's offensive meaning. Additionally, putting a name that seems to be a stereotypical Italian name to a character with no Italian characteristics puzzled me slightly. I'm happy that he's not a stereotype and I guess his species name does justify the name choice. I haven't watched or read the things you mentioned so I didn't know about the name's popularity. But thanks for clarifying the issue.  :)

Title: Guido's name
Post by: Ducky123 on January 14, 2017, 07:31:22 PM

I agree, I'm 99% sure they looked at his species and then came up with Guido :lol

Title: Guido's name
Post by: ADFan185 on January 14, 2017, 07:59:27 PM

Ah okay yeah let's go with that I'm sure they knew what they were doing