Oliver & Company

Oliver & Company
File:Oliverposter.jpg
Directed by	George Scribner
Written by	Original book Oliver Twist: Charles Dickens Animation screenplay: Jim Cox Timothy A. Disney James Mangold
Produced by	Kathleen Gavin (production manager)
Starring	Joey Lawrence Billy Joel Natalie Gregory Dom DeLuise Cheech Marin Bette Midler
Music by	J.A.C. Redford and Barry Manilow] (supervised by Carole Childs)
Distributed by	Walt Disney Pictures Buena Vista Distribution
Release dates	November 18, 1988 (original release) March 29, 1996 (re-release)
Running time	73 min.
Country	United States
Language	English

Oliver & Company is a 1988 animated feature film that was produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation. It is the twenty-seventh animated feature released in the Disney animated features canon, distributed by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Distribution. It was re-released in the USA, Canada, and the UK on March 29, 1996.

The movie was inspired by the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist, which has been adapted many other times for the screen. In this version, Oliver is a cat and Fagin's gang is made up of dogs, one of which is Dodger. The film is Disney's fifth animated feature to take place in the present day of its release, using New York City as its setting.

Characters

• Oliver, voiced by Joey Lawrence. Oliver is a cute tabby kitten who joins Fagin's gang of dogs before being taken in by Jenny.
• Dodger, voiced by Billy Joel. Dodger is a carefree, charismatic mongrel with a mix of terrier in him. He claims to have considerable "street savoir-faire". He is the leader of Fagin's gang of dogs, and becomes Oliver's closest friend amongst them.
• Fagin, voiced by Dom DeLuise. Fagin is a poor man who lives on a house-boat with his dogs. He needs money desperately to repay his debt with Sykes. Because of this, he is forced to do horrible deeds, but really, he has a heart of gold.
• Jennifer "Jenny" Foxworth, voiced by Natalie Gregory. Jenny is a kind, rich girl who takes care of Oliver.
• Ignacio Alonzo Julio Federico de Tito, voiced by Cheech Marin. Simply known as Tito, he is a tiny Chihuahua in Fagin's gang. He has a fiery temper for his size, and has a crush on Georgette. He also is a very quick talker, for example, when Francis insults Tito, this is what he says: "Leather, leather! Alright, that's it, you have insulted my pride, that means death!" and when Oliver tells the gang that he followed Dodger, all you can hear is Tito saying "He's lying, He's lying, He's lying, He's lying!"
• Georgette, voiced by Bette Midler. Georgette is the Foxworth family's spoiled and ditsy prize-winning Poodle who is jealous of Oliver getting attention. This is a stereotype that poodles think they are "all-that". When Tito displays his attraction to her, she initially responds with revulsion. At the end, however, she displays considerable attraction to Tito - so much, in fact that she sends him running for his life when she tries to bathe and groom him, also resulting in him running out of there in a fancy outfit.
• Sykes, voiced by Robert Loggia. Sykes is a dangerous, cold-hearted loan shark who lent a considerable sum of money to Fagin and expects it paid back.
• Einstein, voiced by Richard Mulligan. Einstein is a gray Great Dane in Fagin's gang, representing the stereotype that Great Danes are friendly, but dumb. His personality is the opposite of his name.
• Francis, voiced by Roscoe Lee Browne. Francis is a bulldog with a British accent in Fagin's gang. He appreciates art and theatre, and detests anyone abbreviating his name as "Frank" or "Frankie."
• Rita, voiced by Sheryl Lee Ralph (singing voice by Ruth Pointer). Rita, a saluki, is the only female dog in Fagin's gang.
• Winston, voiced by William Glover. Winston is the Foxworth family's bumbling but loyal butler.
• Roscoe and DeSoto, voiced by Taurean Blacque and Carl Weintraub respectively. They are Sykes's trusty, vicious Doberman Pinschers, and seem to have a long rivalry with Dodger and his friends.
• Louie, voiced by Frank Welker. Louie is a bad-tempered hot dog vendor, who appears early in the film where Oliver and Dodger steal his hot dogs. He is meant to be one of the 'enemies of the four-legged world', meaning that he hates both cats and dogs.

Plot

The story takes place in New York City in the year 1988. Oliver, an orange kitten, is lost in the streets. He is hungry and tries to steal some hot dogs from a hot dog vendor, but without success. A street-smart, wise-talking mongrel - judging from appearances, some sort of Terrier crossbreed - named Dodger offers his help. Together they are successful but Dodger runs off, leaving the orphaned feline behind.

Dodger eventually arrives at the barge of his owner, a pickpocket by the name of Fagin, along with his meal, to give to his friends: Tito the fiery Chihuahua, Einstein the ironically-named Great Dane, Rita the saluki and the ever-serious Francis (Frankie), the Bulldog. No sooner does Oliver sneak into their home, located below the city's docks, than the dogs get into a fit of fighting and confusion over their visitor. Breaking it up is Fagin himself although he also has to deal with Einstein licking his face with a huge slobbery tongue and the rest of the dogs jumping on him because he came in with a box of doggie treats. Fagin came in to see what goods the dogs have stolen during the day for them to live on. He's terrified to discover that the dogs have returned with some worthless trinkets. He informs them that he is running out of time to repay the money he borrowed from Sykes, a ruthless shipyard agent and loan shark. When Sykes arrives, he sends in his two savage Doberman Pinschers, Roscoe and Desoto to fetch Fagin. Going out on a long quay, he sees Sykes waiting in his car, a Lincoln Continental Mark IV with a license plate reading "DOBRMAN". Sykes outlines his conditions: the money must be paid in three days, or else. Fagin knows that he can't find the money, and that he is in a lot of trouble. During this scene, Roscoe flirts with Rita as Desoto finds and attacks Oliver, who scratches his nose. Dodger and his gang defend Oliver and the two Dobermans leave when Fagin arrives. Admiring Oliver's courage with DeSoto, Fagin welcomes the kitten into the gang.

Next day, Fagin sets out into the city with his canine menagerie, Oliver included, and tries to sell his wares at a pawn shop, with no success. The animals, meanwhile, come face-to-face with a limousine driven by a butler named Winston. Winston is employed by the Foxworth family and is taking care of their daughter Jennifer while the couple is out of the country, taking a business trip in Europe. The dogs stage an elaborate ruse in order to get Winston out of the car. Tito and Oliver slip in and attempt to steal its radio to give to Fagin so that he'll have something to pawn to pay back Sykes. In doing so, Tito gets comedically shocked by the electrical system, and Jennifer finds Oliver all tangled up in the wires near it. Oliver finds a good home and a caring owner in Jenny, to the chagrin of Winston and the Foxworth's pampered, pedigreed poodle, Georgette.

Back on the street, Fagin's dogs are discussing on a plan to retrieve the cat back to their home barge. The plan is activated the following day, not knowing that Oliver is now happy where he is. During the operation, Tito falls in love with Georgette, much to her disgust.

Back at the barge, Oliver feels that he does not want to go back to his dog friends because Jenny is his owner now. Little does he know that he himself is Fagin's best hope for paying Sykes, for when the poor man comes back from business, and sees the gold tag on the cat's collar, he has an idea: with only pencils and paper, he writes to the "Very Rich Cat Owner Person" at Oliver's address, along with a map to guide the addressee to his home.

When Jenny returns home from school, she finds the letter. Reading it, she realises that she has to pay a large ransom in order to get her cat back. That night, she sets off for the city docks along with Georgette to do so, along with the enclosed map.

Fagin now has to convince Sykes that his plan is air-tight enough to pay him his money. Entering Sykes' building, the loan shark is not pleased to see Fagin does not have the cash, and orders his dobermans to attack. Dodger defends Fagin, and Fagin pleads once more with Sykes. When Sykes sees Oliver's gold tag, he believes that Fagin is finally "starting to think big", and calls off the dogs, giving Fagin twelve hours and warning Fagin, "This is your last chance."

Later, Jenny and Georgette have become lost, unaware that they have arrived at her destination. Frightened and upset, Jenny meets Fagin and explains that she's trying to find the awful person who stole her kitten. Fagin is distraught that his "wealthy cat-owner" is just a little girl who has brought her piggy bank to try and save her pet. Feeling guilty, he returns Oliver to her. No sooner does she get Oliver back than Sykes kidnaps her in order to ransom her to her wealthy parents, telling Fagin to keep his mouth shut, and that their debt is settled. He then throws out Oliver, and drives away with Jenny. Oliver, Dodger and the gang go after the villain, tracking him to his shipyard. Sykes obviously drives a long black limo, like a Rolls-Royce.

Once they arrive there, Fagin's dogs and Georgette concoct another series of plans to save Jenny. But while they try to do so, Sykes and his Dobermans get in their way before Fagin crashes in on his scooter/shopping cart/road block-combo to pick them all up. A chase down the city streets and into the subway ensues, Fagin and the gang racing away with Sykes raging behind them. Jenny is thrown onto the hood of Sykes's car, and Oliver jumps and bites his hand, in order to save Jenny. Unfortunately, he's sent to the back seat, where Roscoe and DeSoto are waiting for him. Dodger saves Oliver by forcing the two Dobermans out of the car, and causes them to fall onto the electric tracks, killing them both. A train approaches all of them, and Fagin and the gang swerve over on the left side of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to avoid it. But for Sykes, however, it is too late: he is killed when the train crashes into him and his black limousine, sending what's left of both falling into the river.

Descending from the railings, everyone wonders what has happened to Oliver and Dodger; but, as Dodger brings him out before the rest, the cat weakly mews, a joyful sign that he is alive.

File:Fagin and gang at Jenny's party.JPG

Fagin and his dogs, along with Oliver and Winston, celebrate Jenny's birthday at her Fifth Avenue home.

Next morning, Fagin and the entire group celebrate Jenny's birthday party at her home. That same day, Winston receives a phone call from Jenny's parents in Rome that they will be back tomorrow.

After the party, Dodger promises Oliver that he will return from time to time to visit him. Soon, Fagin and his companions bid farewell to the Foxworths and Oliver as they head home through the crowded streets of New York City.

Differences to the Novel

Apart from the obvious alteration that the majority of the cast are now animals and the story itself is set in 20th Century New York, there are other differences.

Fagin is no longer a villain in the Disney adaptation. He is instead an unfortunate victim of circumstances with a heart of gold. His Jewish villain connotations from the book are totally ignored here. He has no intention of harming either Oliver or Jenny and without his aid it is unlikely that Jenny could have been rescued.

In the original book, Bill Sykes is nothing more than a murdering thug. Though undoubtedly a brutish villain, it is essentially Fagin who made him the person he became. In the Disney adaptation, Sykes is the major villain of the film, a brutish yet intelligent and smooth-talking loan shark with strongly implied Mafia connections. He is heard discussing the (most likely) symbolic murder of an unknown party, ("Don't kill him yet"..."You start with the knuckles.") and seen loading a semi-automatic pistol before going to investigate a noise.

The Artful Dodger is not truly Oliver's friend in the original book; indeed he is as eager to see Oliver fall to a life of crime as the other villains are. In the Disney film he is called simply Dodger, and takes on a larger, more heroic role in the story as Oliver's best friend.

In the Disney movie, Oliver is not shown to be particularly shocked by the acts of petty theft which Fagin's gang pulls off, most likely because this would imply that they are villains. He joins the gang willingly in the belief that this will be his family. Also, he is never returned to his family; he is simply adopted by Jenny, the little rich girl.

Production

• The working title of this film during production was Oliver and the Dodger.
• This was the first Disney movie to make heavy use of computer animation, since previous films The Black Cauldron and The Great Mouse Detective used it only for special sequences. The CGI effects were used for making the skyscrapers, the cars, trains, Fagin's scooter-cart and the climactic Subway chase.
• This was the first Disney film to have a department created specifically for computer animation.
• At a certain point, this film was to be set after The Rescuers. If this had happened, it would have given the character of Penny more development, showing her living her new life in New York City with Rufus the cat (also from The Rescuers), and as well as her new adoptive parents. This idea was eventually scrapped because the producers had then felt that the story would not have been convincing. This is why Penny and Jenny are similar.
• This was a test run movie before The Walt Disney Company would fully commit to returning to a musical format for their animated films; Oliver & Company was the first such film to be a musical since 1981's The Fox and the Hound. For most of the next decade, all of WDFA's (Walt Disney Feature animated) films, first starting with The Little Mermaid, were also musicals.
• One of the first animated Disney films to introduce new sound effects for regular use, to replace many of their original classic sounds, which would be used occasionally in later Disney movies. However, The Little Mermaid introduced even more new SFX. The new sound effects were first introduced with The Black Cauldron, while The Great Mouse Detective released a year after the previous film used the classic Disney SFX. This included some sounds such as the then fifty-year-old Castle thunder and the classic Goofy holler. However, the Disney television animation studio continued extensively using the classic Disney sound effects for several years, while the feature animation studio retired the original sound effects.
• It was the first animated Disney film to include real world advertised products. Many placements of real product names Coca-Cola, USA Today, Sony, and Ryder Truck Rental were some of the most used examples. It was said on ABC's Disney's Wonderful World that this was for realism, was not paid product placement, and that it would not be New York City without advertising.

Release

• The film was released in 1988 on the same day as The Land Before Time, a production of Disney expatriate Don Bluth.
• As of today, Oliver has made over $74 million at the U.S. box office, $53.2 million of which came from its original run. Its success prompted Disney's senior vice-president of animation, Peter Schneider, to announce the company's plans to release animated features annually.
• During its release, McDonald's sold Christmas musical ornaments containing the movie's two main characters, Oliver and Dodger, the start of a multi-year agreement of joint promotions with licensed products.
• This was the only Disney film to not be distributed in the UK on theatrical release by Buena Vista International, it was distributed by Warner Bros. but was then distributed by Buena Vista International upon video release.
• Gene Siskel gave the film a thumbs down, but Roger Ebert gave the film a thumbs up.
• Despite its financial success at the box office, however, the film was not released on video until after its re-release in 1996. It was later released on DVD in 2002.
• The film was re-released in 1996 on the same day as All Dogs Go to Heaven 2, a sequel to a production of Disney expatriate Don Bluth.

Video games

below represents the 1996 re-release of the Oliver & Company Video games for Playstation and gameboy and also gameboy advanced and they it for CD-ROM and also in 1967 for Super nintendoand Colorswam.

Soundtrack

CD cover for the 1996 re-release of the Oliver & Company soundtrack (an alternate cover was used in the United Kingdom).

The instrumental score for Oliver & Company was composed by J. A. C. Redford, and the film's music was supervised by Carole Childs. The first song heard in the movie, "Once Upon a Time in New York City", was written by lyricist Howard Ashman.

The track list below represents the 1996 re-release of the Oliver & Company soundtrack. The original 1988 release featured the same songs, but with the instrumental cues placed in between the songs in the order in which they appeared in the film. Using the numbering system in the list below, the order the tracks on the 1988 release would be: 1, 2, 6, 7, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11.

1996 soundtrack listing

1. Once Upon a Time in New York City - Huey Lewis
2. Why Should I Worry? - Billy Joel
3. Streets of Gold - Ruth Pointer
4. Perfect Isn't Easy - Bette Midler
5. Good Company - Myhanh Tran
6. Sykes (instrumental)
7. Bedtime Story (instrumental)
8. The Rescue (instrumental)
9. Pursuit Through The Subway (instrumental)
10. Buscando Guayaba - Ruben Blades
11. End Title (instrumental)

Sources

• Beck, Jerry (2005). The Animated Movie Guide. ISBN 1-55652-591-5. Chicago Reader Press. Accessed May 23, 2007.

External links

• Official Disney page
• Oliver & Company at IMDb
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