Oliver & Company (1988)

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

First....I love this Movie Because his name is Oliver is my name too.The voice acting was amazing and showed us what probley goes through a dog and cat mind is and i really love that.Second...Jenny is the Sweetest Girl I have ever seen she would do any thing to find her cat and I mean it.Third....The Poodle Ilove poodles I have poodle and I just love it lol.Sincerely,Oliver Wady

I have nostalgic memory of watching the original trailer for "Oliver and Company" a lot as it was on the British VHS of "Sleeping Beauty", one of the first videocassettes we ever had. This made me interested in the film as a child, even though I only got to see it many years later. As an adult, however, "Oliver and Company" seems a bit of an enigma. Made during a period when the whole Disney company was back on the up after a slump in the early to mid 80s, it's surprisingly one of Disney's weakest animated films from the main animation division, greatly paling in comparison to the likes of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" and "The Little Mermaid". Reimagining the story of "Oliver Twist" with cats and dogs is a bit of a far-fetched idea, and taking a long, rambling Victorian epic and turning it into a fun-filled adventure with cuddly cats and dogs in New York doesn't really work. The characters are cloying, and the desperate urge to be contemporary results in a film that ends up being truly dated. Some of the songs are fine enough, while others are embarrassing (especially Bette Midler's number "Perfect Isn't Easy", penned by Barry Manilow). Equally, the film feels very disjointed in tone. It starts off as a comical urban romp but in the last act suddenly turns into a dark story of kidnapping child characters. There may be a happy ending, but overall, the turn of events just seems inappropriate even for a film studio renowned for specialising in mild peril for children. It might be worth a watch if you're a serious Disney aficionado and want to watch all 50 plus animated features, but for anyone else, I wouldn't recommend it.

What is wrong with you man? NONE of your so-called criticisms make ANY sense whatsoever! It's NOT Fago, it's Fagin! Pronounced FAYGIN! NOT pronounced Fag-o! I mean come on already! Were you THAT DESPERATE for something to criticize? So you made up an utter lie? Or are you seriously that stupid? If you're that hard of hearing than watch the movie with captions or subtitles! And how can anyone NOT love the songs in this? The very first song is my absolute favorite song of all time! And then there's this line: "The frightening scene with the kitten in the box, nearly getting sucked down the storm drain, then waking up on a car tire that's about to squish him. The sausage salesman with the scary face. The big mafia-looking guy chasing the hobo..." Um, really? That's the best you can come up with? If you REALLY want a scary face why don't you watch the part in Pinocchio when The Coachman says that "they (the boys) never come back...AS BOYS!" Now THAT was a scary face. This is nothing. As for the rest, well I mean if the opening events had never happened then how would the plot be set in motion? Yeah he almost drowned, but that's part of the plot? Remember in Finding Nemo, Dory says to Marlin (about him saying he'd never let anything happen to Nemo), "That's a funny thing to promise. I mean, if you never let anything happen to him, then nothing would ever happen to him." It's so true. And the tire was the only safe place at the time to sleep under, I mean, the box already was washed down the drain, and he was chased by three rabid dogs. OK, I do have a MINOR nitpick about that part. In the scene right when Oliver sees the three dogs, if you look closely you'll notice one of the dogs only has one eye. What's up with that? Was he born that way, did he lose his other eye, or did the animators simply screw up? I'm not sure. But it's barely even noticeable. The only reason I noticed was because I WAS paying close attention when I watched the Danish with English translations version of the song. After that, I re-watched my Blu-ray copy and looked to see if they had corrected it for the 25th Anniversary but it's still there. By the way, the lyrics to the song are very deep in the European French version. They contain lyrics like "So Oliver buck up. Go out on the street, don't be afraid. There are people like you, who laugh are who cry. We all have the right, to live and to dream sometimes. There was a time in New City." The original version's lyrics in that part go "So Oliver, don't be scared. Though yesterday, no one cared. They're getting your place prepared, where you wanna be. Keep your dream alive, dreamin' is still how the strong survive. Once Upon a Time in New York City." The second to last line in the original version was also referenced in an episode of Liv and Maddie entitled Moms-a-Rooney. Maddie says at one point in the episode to Karen "You keep this dream alive!"I'm also working on making my own version of Oliver & Company called Gordy & Company. Here's the cast: Gordy as Oliver, Adult Tod (The Fox and the Hound) as Dodger, Fern Arable (Charlotte's Web) as Jenny, Baloo (The Jungle Book) as Fagin, Dinky the Finch (The Fox and the Hound) as Tito, Trina Vega (Victorious) as Georgette, Shere Khan (The Jungle Book) as Sykes, Boomer the Woodpecker (The Fox and the Hound) as Einstein, Benson the Gumball Machine (Regular Show) as Francis, Vixey (The Fox and the Hound) as Rita, Winston as Himself, Brutus and Nero (The Rescuers) as Roscoe and De Soto, and Old Louie as Himself.

I didn't hear about this film until around 1996/1997 when it was heavily publicised in the UK, which made me think it initially came out at around that time. When I found out that this film originally came out in 1988, I was surprised but wasn't disappointed since my sister and I loved this film as children and as young women (I'm 26 and my sister's 22) we still love it to this day.Although the animation is linear and quite flat (which is present in other Disney films such as 'The Jungle Book' and 'The Rescuers'), the lip-sync on the human and animal characters is detailed as well as their facial expressions, despite the absence of tears falling from Jenny's eyes when she confronts Fagin about Oliver being 'kidnapped.' The most positive aspects of this film are its swift pace (particularly during the climax where Sykes and his Dobermans chase Fagin, Jenny and the other animals down the subway track); the talented and relatively well-known voice cast including Billy Joel (Dodger), Bette Midler (Georgette) and Cheech Marin (Tito) of 'Cheech and Chong' fame; the background designs (especially the bird's-eye views of New York City and Central Park); and the songs (the ever-so-catchy 'Why Should I Worry?' and the sweet 'Good Company' are standouts). Jenny and Oliver are sweet while Georgette is beautiful and Tito is comical, although I would like to have seen Jenny reunite with her parents and show them Oliver.As well as the 1968 musical 'Oliver!' this is one of my favourite adaptations of the classic Charles Dickens novel and also one of the most underrated films I've ever seen. 9/10.