Oliver & Company ** (1988, voices of Joey Lawrence, Billy Joel, Cheech Marin) – Classic Movie Review 8185

Director George Scribner’s 1988 animated feature Oliver & Company is colourful children’s entertainment as Oliver Twist is transplanted to America and ‘doggyfied’ in this animated Walt Disney tale of cute canines making mischief in New York City.  Produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released on 18 November 1988 by Walt Disney Pictures, it is the 27th Disney animated feature film,

Billy Joel and Bette Midler are not the most obvious suspects for places in the world of Charles Dickens, but provide the song vocals and the voices of Dodger and Georgette. Joel sings the hit number ‘Why Should I Worry?’ and Midler performs ‘Perfect Isn’t Easy’. Huey Lewis performs ‘Once Upon a Time in New York City’. The result is a raucous, brightly hued romp that somehow misses out on the subtler charms of vintage Disney.

Joey Lawrence takes the lead vocal as the homeless stray kitten named Oliver, who roams the streets of New York and is taken in by a gang of dogs who survive by stealing.

Oliver & Company is amiable and entertaining enough, with nice songs like the Golden Globe nominated ‘Why Should I Worry?’ (by Dan Hartman and Charlie Midnight). But the movie is not quite from Disney’s top drawer – it is hardly Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Bambi or Dumbo.

Other voices are by Cheech Martin as Tito, Richard Mulligan, Roscoe Lee Brown, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Dom DeLuise as Fagin, Robert Loggia as Sykes, Carl Weintraub, Natalie Gregory as a wealthy young girl named Jenny Foxworth, William Glover, Frank Welker, Deborah Gates and Taurean Blacque.

Oliver & Company is written by Jim Cox, Timothy J Disney, and James Mangold, with 13 writers credited for the story, inspired by the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. The 13 writers credited for the story are Vance Gerry, Mike Gabriel, Joe Ranft, Jim Mitchell, Chris Bailey, Kirk Wise, Dave Michener, Roger Allers, Gary Trousdale, Kevin Lima, Michael Cedeno, Pete Young and Leon Joosen.

Oliver & Company runs 74 minutes, is made by Walt Disney Feature Animation, Silver Screen Partners III and Walt Disney Pictures, and is released by Buena Vista Pictures (US) and Warner Bros (UK).

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8185

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