Oliver & Company

Oliver & Company is a 1988 American animated musical film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released on November 18, 1988, by Walt Disney Pictures. The 27th Disney animated feature film, the film is based on the classic Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist, which has been adapted many other times for the screen. The film stars Joey Lawrence in the titular role and Billy Joel as Dodger.

Why It's Got Street Savoir-Faire

 * 1) A very unique all-American modernized version of Oliver Twist, and a Charles Dickens story in general. It's not every day you see Victorian characters as dogs singing on the streets of the modern era. Speaking of which, it sets in the 1980s, as well as the very huge comeback of Disney's infamous Laugh-O-Grams cartoons of the 1920s.
 * 2) This film stays extremely faithful to the 1980s culture.
 * 3) The animation has great quality and effort put into it, with beautiful backgrounds and colors.
 * 4) For the most part, a cast of likable characters.
 * 5) Great chemistry between Oliver and Dodger.
 * 6) Memorable and upbeat songs, with legends such as Billy Joel, Ruth Pointer and Huey Lewis being part of the soundtrack.
 * 7) Tito (the Chihuahua) is really funny; he was voiced by Cheech Marin who would later be Banzai in The Lion King.
 * 8) Bill Sykes's death is incredible.
 * 9) Fluffy Oliver. Enough said.
 * 10) The real-life brands, such as Coca-Cola, are thankfully only in the background and not in-your-face like other films.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Some scenes, particularly the subway chase, while a great suspenseful scene, can be intense for younger viewers.
 * 2) It isn't as faithful to the original novel as other Oliver Twist adaptations.
 * 3) Georgette can be a very unlikable character, thankfully she is redeemed by the end.
 * 4) Troubled production from the start: Firstly having its budget drastically reduced as a result of the spectacular failure of the aforementioned The Black Cauldron, and then having one of its co-directors, Peter Young, die with the production barely a month old. Richard Rich was put on the project to replace Young, but busied himself feuding with the new Disney management rather than actually getting anything useful done, resulting in him being fired from the company altogether. Things smoothed out once the remaining co-director, George Scribner was allowed to take over as sole director, but a combination of a middling-at-best critical response, poor overseas performance, and it being released on the same day as The Land Before Time, meant it only barely broke even, and has since received little attention among the wider Disney canon. If nothing else, however, many future Disney and Pixar veterans managed to break into the industry by working on this movie, meaning that it did at least help lead to longer-term success for the company.

Trivia

 * Oliver & Company was released on VHS in September 1996, released on DVD in May 2002 and again in February 2009, and then Blu-ray in August 2013.
 * This was the third Disney animated movie, following The Black Cauldron and The Great Mouse Detective, to use computer animation, and the first to use it extensively. A total of 11 minutes of the movie used computer animation.
 * This film did well at the box office in the U.S., but in France it was very popular. To promote the film's French release in 1989, Anne Meson made an album called "Oliver", which was a hit in France. Oliver, Dodger, Tito, and Francis were featured in a series of music videos starring her between 1989 and 1990. Anne Meson even performed the song "Oliver" at Disneyland Paris (then "Euro Disney") with Oliver and Dodger during the park's inaugural year.