Oliver & Company

Oliver & Company is a 1988 American animated musical adventure film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released on November 18, 1988, by Walt Disney Pictures. It is loosely based on the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist. In the film, Oliver is a homeless kitten who joins a gang of dogs to survive in the streets. Among other changes, the setting of the film was relocated from 19th century London to 1980s New York City, Fagin's gang is made up of dogs (one of which is Dodger), and Sykes is a loan shark.
Following the release of The Black Cauldron (1985), Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg held a pitch meeting with the animation staff, in which story artist Pete Young pitched the idea to adapt Oliver Twist with dogs. The pitch was quickly approved, and the film quickly went into production under the working title Oliver and the Dodger. Released on the same day as The Land Before Time (1988), Oliver & Company was a box office success, but it received mixed reviews from film critics. The film was re-released in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom on March 29, 1996. It was then released on home video later that same year, and again in 2002 and 2009 on DVD. The film was released on Blu-ray Disc in 2013, commemorating its 25th anniversary.
== Plot ==
On Fifth Avenue, several kittens are left in a box outside a shop. All but one, an orange tabby, are adopted. Wandering the streets by himself in search of someone to adopt him, the kitten meets a laid-back Jack Russell Terrier named Dodger, who agrees to help him steal food from a hot dog vendor. Dodger then reneges on the deal and flees with the hot dogs.
The kitten pursues Dodger all over New York City. Dodger eventually arrives at a barge, where the kitten watches him share the hot dogs with a gang of poverty-stricken dogs (Tito the chihuahua, Einstein the Great Dane, Rita the Saluki, and Francis the bulldog). The kitten accidentally falls into the barge, startling the dogs; although they were miffed, none of them harm him after he explains himself. Fagin, the bargeman and petty thief who owns the dogs, is indebted to Sykes, a nefarious loan shark and criminal. Sykes arrives and gives Fagin an ultimatum; repay the money in three days, or suffer violence, possibly even death. Sykes's two Dobermans, Roscoe and DeSoto, harass Fagin's dogs and threaten to eat the kitten, until he scratches DeSoto's nose, earning the respect of the dogs and Fagin. Roscoe warns that they will try to exact revenge.
The next morning, Fagin goes to pawn some of his stolen goods, while the dogs and the kitten try to steal more money for him. Through a theatrical ruse, the animals stop a limousine belonging to the wealthy Foxworth family, but the attempt to rob the limo fails, and the kitten is taken by the child Jenny Foxworth, who is missing her vacationing parents and desires a companion. She names him Oliver, and becomes very attached to him.
Oliver makes himself at home in Jenny's house, much to the disgust of Georgette, the Foxworth family's spoiled, prize-winning poodle. With her help, Dodger and the dogs manage to steal Oliver back from the Foxworth household, returning him to the barge. Fagin recognizes from Oliver's new collar and gold name tag that he had been adopted by a wealthy family, and desperately decides to hold Oliver for ransom. His anonymously written ransom note reaches Jenny, who sets out to get Oliver back at the pier.
Jenny and Georgette meet with Fagin, who is shocked to be dealing with a little girl whose "ransom money" is a piggy bank. Bothered by his conscience and Jenny's tears, Fagin gives Oliver back freely. Sykes, whom Fagin had informed of the deal beforehand, is watching from the shadows and kidnaps Jenny, intending to ransom her while declaring Fagin's debt paid. Dodger rallies Oliver and the other dogs to free Jenny from Sykes, but Sykes and his Dobermans confront them as they attempt to leave. Fagin saves the group with his motor scooter, and a chase ensues throughout the streets and into the subway tunnels. Jenny falls from the scooter onto Sykes's car; Oliver and Dodger go after her and battle Roscoe and DeSoto, who fall off the car and are electrocuted on the third rail of the subway. Fagin leaves Tito to drive and saves Jenny, while Dodger and Oliver are thrown from Sykes's car onto the pavement of the Brooklyn Bridge just before an oncoming train strikes Sykes's car, killing him. Tito drives the scooter to safety, and Jenny and Oliver are reunited.
Later, Jenny celebrates her birthday with the animals, Fagin, and the family butler Winston who learns that Jenny's parents will be back the next day. Oliver opts to stay with Jenny, but he promises to remain in contact with Dodger and the gang.
== Cast and characters ==
* Joey Lawrence as Oliver: an orange orphaned kitten who is looking for a home. He joins Fagin's gang of dogs before being taken in by Jenny.
* Billy Joel as Dodger, a charismatic, laid-back Jack Russell Terrier. He displays considerable "street savoir-faire." He is the leader of Fagin's gang of dogs, and is Oliver's first acquaintance, as well as his eventual best friend and surrogate big brother.
* Cheech Marin as Tito, a Mexican-accented Chihuahua in Fagin's gang. He is fast-talking and rapidly develops a crush on Georgette (although she is initially repulsed by him). His full name is Ignacio Alonso Julio Federico de Tito.
* Richard Mulligan as Einstein, a gray Great Dane and a member of Fagin's gang. He is named ironically as he is fairly dull-witted.
* Roscoe Lee Browne as Francis, a bulldog with a British accent in Fagin's gang. He appreciates art and theatre, particularly Shakespeare. He also detests anyone abbreviating his name as "Frank" or "Frankie" (which Tito frequently does).
* Sheryl Lee Ralph as Rita, a Saluki and the only female dog in Fagin's gang. She is street-wise and is very protective of Oliver.
** Ruth Pointer provided the singing voice for Rita.
* Dom DeLuise as Fagin, a lowly but well-meaning thief who lives on a barge with his dogs. He desperately needs money to repay his debt to Sykes.
* Taurean Blacque and Carl Weintraub as Roscoe and DeSoto, respectively: Sykes's violent Doberman Pinschers who bully Dodger and his friends. Roscoe is the apparent leader, while DeSoto seems to be the more vicious of the two.
* Robert Loggia as Bill Sykes, a cold-hearted, immoral loan shark and shipyard agent who lent a considerable sum of money to Fagin and expects it paid back.
* Natalie Gregory as Jennifer "Jenny" Foxworth, a friendly, rich girl who adopts Oliver.
** Myhanh Tran provided the singing voice for Jenny.
* William Glover as Winston, the Foxworth family's clumsy but warm-hearted butler.
* Bette Midler as Georgette, the Foxworth family's prize-winning poodle. Vain and spoiled, she becomes jealous of Oliver but eventually accepts him and Fagin's gang.
* Frank Welker (uncredited) as Old Louie, an aggressive, bad-tempered hot dog vendor who appears early in the film when Oliver and Dodger steal his hot dogs. He is described by Dodger as "a well-known enemy of the four-legged world," meaning that he hates both cats and dogs.
== Production ==
Oliver & Company was the twenty-seventh animated film developed by Walt Disney Feature Animation, and the first one to begin production under the supervision of then-CEO Michael Eisner and studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg; the duo, who had previously worked at Paramount Pictures as chairman and head of production, respectively, joined the company in 1984.[2] After the release of The Black Cauldron (1985), Eisner and Katzenberg invited the animators to pitch potential ideas for upcoming animated features, infamously called the "Gong Show." After Ron Clements had pitched The Little Mermaid and Treasure Island in Space, story artist Pete Young suggested, "Oliver Twist with dogs." Katzenberg, who had previously planned on producing a live-action adaptation of the musical Oliver! at Paramount,[2] approved the pitch.[3] Under the working title of Oliver and the Dodger,[4][5] the film was originally much darker and grittier with the film opening with Sykes's two Dobermans murdering Oliver's parents, setting the story to focus on Oliver exacting his revenge as detailed in a draft dated on March 30, 1987.[6]
George Scribner and Richard Rich were announced as the directors of the project, while Pete Young was appointed as story supervisor.[7] However, Rich was fired from Disney about six months into production, leaving Scribner as the sole director.[8] In this adaptation, Scribner turned Oliver into a naïve kitten, Dodger and the gang into dogs, and Fagin into a human, and encouraged the film to be more street smart.[6] Furthermore, Scribner borrowed a technique from Lady and the Tramp (1955) by blocking out the scenes on real streets, and then photographing them with cameras mounted eighteen inches off the ground. In this way, the animators would use the photos as templates to provide a real dog's-eye view of the action.[9] As work continued on Oliver, Roy E. Disney came up with an idea that Fagin would attempt to steal a rare panda from the city zoo. However, the writers would have problems with the idea,[10] and the panda sub-plot was eventually dropped when Scribner suggested to have Fagin hold Oliver for ransom because he was a valuable, rare Asian cat.[11][12]
Eleven minutes of the film used "computer-assisted imagery" such as the skyscrapers, the taxi cabs, trains, Fagin's scooter-cart, and the climactic subway chase.[2] The traditional animation was handled by the next generation of Disney animators, including supervising animators Glen Keane, Ruben A. Aquino, Mike Gabriel, Hendel Butoy, and Mark Henn, as the "Nine Old Men" had retired in the early 1980s.[2] Throughout two and a half years of production, six supervising animators and a team of over 300 artists and technicians worked on the film.[13] Skidmore, Owings & Merrill was the database for the New York City skyline, which was recreated for the film.
=== Casting ===
The filmmakers sought voices that could believably represent a wide range of New Yorkers.[2] They cast New York natives Bette Midler for Georgette, Sheryl Lee Ralph for Rita, and Roscoe Lee Browne for Francis.[2] Comedian Cheech Marin was cast as the chihuahua Tito. Because energy proved to be the key to Tito's personality, Marin claimed "I was encouraged to ad-lib, but I'd say I just gave about 75% of the lines as they were written. The natural energy of a Chihuahua played right into that feeling. George [Scribner] was very encouraging as a director: He kept the energy level high at the recording sessions."[14]
Pop singer Billy Joel was recommended for the voice of Dodger by Scribner because of his "New York street-smart, savoir-faire attitude". Joel then auditioned for the role by telephone after being given dialogue. When Joel was hired for the part, he confirmed he did it because it was a Disney movie, saying: "I had just had a little girl. It's a great way to do something that my little girl could see that she could relate to right away,"[15] referring to daughter Alexa, born in 1985.
== Music ==
Oliver & Company	Oliver & Company
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/27/Oliver%26companycd.jpg/220px-Oliver%26companycd.jpg
CD cover for the 1996 re-release of the Oliver & Company soundtrack. An alternative cover was used in the United Kingdom.	https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/27/Oliver%26companycd.jpg/220px-Oliver%26companycd.jpg
CD cover for the 1996 re-release of the Oliver & Company soundtrack. An alternative cover was used in the United Kingdom.
Soundtrack album by 
Various artists	Soundtrack album by 
Various artists
Released 	1988
Genre 	Pop rock, blues rock, film score
Label 	Walt Disney
The soundtrack of Oliver & Company contains an instrumental score by J. A. C. Redford under the supervision of Carole Childs. Redford was hired to compose the score because of his previous collaboration with Disney music executive Chris Montan on the television series St. Elsewhere.[16] Meanwhile, Jeffrey Katzenberg had the idea to bring in popular singer/songwriters, each of whom would contribute a song into the film which included Billy Joel, Barry Manilow, and Huey Lewis. At his suggestion of his friend David Geffen, Katzenberg brought in lyricist Howard Ashman, who composed the song "Once Upon a Time in New York City."[17] Ashman, along with Alan Menken, would go on to write the songs for the next three Disney films. Billy Joel, in addition to voicing Dodger, performed the character's song ("Why Should I Worry?") in the film.[18]
The song "Why Should I Worry?" received critical acclaim and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.[19]
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, and 11. The reprise of "Why Should I Worry?", performed by the entire cast, remains unreleased on CD.
=== Songs ===
Original songs performed in the film include:
No.	Title 	Writer(s) 	Performer(s)	Length
1. 	"Once Upon a Time in New York City"	Howard Ashman & Barry Mann 	Huey Lewis 	
2. 	"Why Should I Worry?" 	Dan Hartman & Charlie Midnight 	Billy Joel 	
3. 	"Streets of Gold" 	Dean Pitchford & Tom Snow 	Ruth Pointer	
4. 	"Perfect Isn't Easy" 	Jack Feldman, Bruce Sussman & Barry Manilow	Bette Midler	
5. 	"Good Company" 	Ron Rocha & Robert Minkoff 	Myhanh Tran 	
== Release ==
Oliver & Company premiered theatrically in North America on November 18, 1988―the same day on which Disney celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Mickey Mouse short, Steamboat Willie (1928).[20] It was also the first to be released as a part of a brand new schedule requested by Katzenberg, which called for a new animated Disney film to be released every single year, similar to Walt Disney's intentions for his animated features during the 1940s.[2]
Category:1988 Cartoons
Category:Walt Disney Productions Cartoons