Oliver & Company

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 on November 18, 1988.

The plot was loosely based on the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist, which has been adapted many other times for the screen. In this version, Oliver is a cat, Fagin's gang is made up of dogs, and the story is set in modern-day New York City.

Tagline: The first Disney movie with attitude.

Plot
Oliver, an orange kitten lost in the streets of 1980's New York City, gets found one spring day by a street-smart wise-talking mongrel named Dodger. He recruits Oliver to steal some sausages from a hot dog vendor, but the orphan feline later receives no share in the deal.

Dodger runs to the barge of his owner&mdash;a pickpocket by the name of Fagin&mdash;along with his meal, to give to his other friends: Tito the high-strung Chihuahua, Einstein the ironically-named Great Dane, Rita the clever Afghan Hound 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, coming 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. Going out on a long quay, he finds out his conditions from the agent: that money, Sykes warns, must be paid in three days. Being a poor person, Fagin is in a lot of trouble. During this scene, Roscoe flirts with Rita as Desoto finds a cat, the dogs defend Oliver and the two Dobermans leave when Fagin arrives.

Next day, he 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 limosine 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. 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 shocked by the electrical system, and Jennifer finds the poor cat all tangled up in the wires near it. Taking him home at Fifth Avenue, she has found a friend, making Oliver lucky to have been adopted twice in two days.

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, to the chagrin of Winston and the Foxworth's pampered, pedigreed poodle, Georgette. During the operation, Tito falls in love with Georgette, much to her disgust.

Back at the barge, Oliver feels that he does not nicely fit in with his dog friends, mainly because Jenny is his owner. 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" 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 on her door. Reading it, she dreadfully realises that she has to pay a 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 is now devising an "air-tight plan" in order to pay Sykes the ransom. Entering the evil man's building, he learns he has not paid it, and Sykes orders his Dobermanns, Roscoe and DeSoto, to attack Dodger immediately. But when Sykes sees Oliver's gold tag, he gives Fagin one last chance to get it in twelve hours.

Jenny and the poodle become lost, but finally arrive at their destination with some difficulty. Frightened and upset, Jenny meets Fagin and explains that she's trying to find the awful person who stole her little cat. 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 the girl to her wealthy parents, and Fagin and the rest go after the villain at his place.

Once they arrive there, Fagin's dogs and Georgette concoct another series of funny plans to save Oliver and his owner. But while they try to do so, Sykes and his dobermans get in their way before Fagin crashes in on his minicycle to pick them all up. A chase on the city streets and the subway ensues, Fagin and the gang racing away with Sykes raging behind them. Oliver and Jenny are saved while Roscoe and Desoto get killed off on the electric tracks. As a train approaches all of them, everyone else swerves over on the left side of the Brooklyn Bridge. But for Sykes, it is too late: he meets his fate when the train crashes on him and his black limousine.

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

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 soon come back.

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



Soundtrack
The instrumental score was composed by J. A. C. Redford. The music supervisor was Carole Childs.

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 Throught The Subway (instrumental)
 * 10) Buscando Guayaba - Ruben Blades
 * 11) End Title (instrumental)

Trivia

 * Lady and the Tramp's Jock, Trusty and Peg, as well as Pongo from 101 Dalmatians, make cameo appearances during Dodger's "Why Should I Worry?" musical number at the start of the film.
 * 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 climatic Subway chase.
 * This was a test run before The Walt Disney Company decided to return a musical format; no Disney films had been musicals since. The music and lyrics were written by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, and it was a test run before The Little Mermaid was released.
 * One of the first animated Disney film to introduce new sound effects for regular use. to replace some of their original classic sounds, which would be used occasionally in later Disney movies. However, it wasn't until The Little Mermaid that the new SFX would be heard more. 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 the audience was familiar with for years, including Pinto Colvig's original Goofy yell. However, the Disney television animation studio continued extensively using the classic Disney sound effects for several years.
 * The film was released in 1988 on the same day as The Land Before Time.
 * The first animated Disney film to include real world advertised food products (i.e. in the panoramic view of the city at the beginning, you can easily see a Coca-Cola sign on the top of a building).
 * Cheech Marin repeats one of his famous lines from his Cheech & Chong fame: "Hey man, if this is torture, chain me to the wall!"
 * The subway train seen in the end is going in the wrong direction,
 * Oliver & Company is the fifth Disney animated feature to take place in present day (1988), following The Rescuers.
 * Penny, the little orphan girl who originally starred in The Rescuers was also meant to be the main character in Oliver & Company, now living in New York City with Rufus and her new adoptive parents.

Crew members

 * Directed by George Scribner
 * Produced by Kathleen Gavin (production manager)
 * Animation screenplay by Jim Cox, Timothy A. Disney and James Mangold
 * Art director Dan Hansen
 * Production stylist Guy Deel
 * Production consultant Walt Stanchfield
 * Character design by David Gabriel, Andreas Deja and Glen Keane
 * Computer animation by Tina Price and Michael Cedeno
 * Computer graphics engineer Tad Gielow
 * Effects graphics by Bernie Gagliano
 * Original score by J. A. C. Redford and Barry Manilow
 * Music supervisor Carole Childs
 * Assistant director Tim O'Donnell
 * Casting by Mary V. Buck and Susan Edelman
 * Edited by Jim Melton and Mark Heston (film) and Segue Music (music)

Cast

 * Joey Lawrence as Oliver
 * Billy Joel as Dodger
 * Natalie Gregory as Jennifer "Jenny" Foxworth
 * Dom DeLuise as Fagan
 * Cheech Marin as Ignacio Alonzo Julio Federico de Tito ("Tito" for short)
 * Bette Midler as Georgette
 * Robert Loggia as Sykes
 * Richard Mulligan as Einstein
 * Roscoe Lee Browne as Francis
 * Sheryl Lee Ralph as Rita
 * William Glover as Winston
 * Taurean Blacque as Roscoe
 * Carl Weintraub as DeSoto
 * Frank Welker - Additional Voices

Supervising Animators

 * Ruben A. Aquino
 * Hendel Butoy
 * Mike Gabriel
 * Mark Henn
 * Glen Keane
 * Doug Krohn