Oliver & Company (1988)

This is my favourite Disney film of all time. It still holds up to my childhood enthusiasm. The characters are extra lovable, courageous and funny. The soundtrack is incredible - score and songs. You just can't help singing along. There are famous singers/actors in the voice cast, including Billy Joel and Bette Midler. They bring great energy to their roles. Oliver is the cutest, but is also feisty and is well able to fit in with his new pack. Georgette is a scene stealer with her vanity and jealousy. The gang are devoted to Fagin, Oliver and each other. They are all enjoyable to watch as they demonstrate their "street savoir faire." Sykes and the dobermans appear infrequently, but deliver pure menace. The 2D, hand-drawn animation is marvellous and also features some early computer work. Their decision to shut down this department in favour of full CGI is a real shame. The poster still has pride of place on my wall (and I have toys, books, the CD and an intact mug.) I regret that this film has been over-shadowed by the 90's super successes. The opening is breathtaking and heartbreaking. The whole is a delightful journey that never fails to cheer me up. Just purrfect.

Oliver and Company is another obscure Disney movie, that, like The Great Mouse Detective before it, can be considered a musical. As the second film in my personal timeline's Disney Renaissance (and officially the final film in Disney's Dark Age), there is actually a lot to see here. I appreciated the characters and songs, and the story was executed well despite seeming very familiar. There are some thrilling and tragic moments (especially at the end), which is my style, but other than that, it was just good. The acting could have been a bit better (Cheech Marin could have sounded a little less stereotypical), but I took the most points off for the animation. While passable for Disney (it beats any of their direct-to-video films), it seems more like a very-well polished TV movie than something for a feature film. I don't know if Disney was trying a new style on their budget, but only a select few moments were ones where the animation effects were, in my opinion, cool. Despite its major flaws, I still enjoyed it and I can recommend it to anyone reading this.

You know those women, and to a lesser degree men, who, even when they're in their forties or fifties, still try to dress, look and sound like they're still in their twenties. Like they're still relevant and cool and hip. Of course you do. Well, not to be mean, but Oliver & Company is a lot like that. Made in the late 80s, and probably one of the Disney films that show its age the most, it's very heavily tied to the era it was made in. And not just the era, but the city of that era. In this case New York. Now, sometimes that wouldn't be that big of a deal. It'd be like a time capsule. But Disney films are supposed to be timeless, and this is anything but. I still get it, I was born in the 80s, even if barely, but I'm not sure that kids born today will get this when they grow up. It's just so disgustingly 80s.But yeah, that's more of a pet peeve of mine than an outright flaw of the movie, but it has some other problems as well. Like the villain, who has a cool visual design, but has next to no characteristics beyond the fact that he's a loan shark and trains dogs to do his bidding. Or the fact that the main character, Oliver, contributes nothing to the plot, aside from being the MacGuffin. Or even the animation style, which is once again so disgustingly 80s. I hate the way 80s are always made to look.Nevertheless, there's a lot of good stuff as well. The dog characters are all a lot of fun, with the possible exception of Georgette, who I can't make up my mind about. All of them have fun personalities and work well off each other. The film also contains some nice song sequences and is really the first true Disney musical in a while. The Great Mouse Detective had some songs, but not to this degree. Of the songs Why Should I Worry is especially worthy of notice.And yet I can't say that Oliver & Company is a particularly good film. It's certainly not awful and I have some fond memories of it from my childhood. But unlike so many other Disney films, it doesn't hold up when seen as an adult.

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.