Review of Oliver & Company (1988) by Edith N — 14 Nov 2009

From Disney's Mediocre Years.

Oddly enough, I have seen this movie in the theatre twice. You see, in the Olde Days, as they remind you repeatedly on the special features of [i]Snow White[/i]--which, no, I haven't watched yet, though I went through all the special features last night--Disney used to do theatrical rerelease of its classics every few years. I think the rule was seven years. Oh, this was before the Rise of Video and all that, but only mostly. The second time I saw this in the theatre, it was only a little over a year until DVD players would hit commercial markets in the US. We're talking '96, here--friends of mine saw [i]Leaving Las Vegas[/i] instead. It's kind of disappointing to me that no one does the rerelease thing anymore. Yeah, Disney releases shiny new editions onto the home market every few years, much more irregularly, but it's not the same. And it's not just the animated, either. The overrated [i]Wizard of Oz[/i] is getting a theatrical rerelease of a whopping two showings this year (well, it's already had one), and okay, two weeks of [i]Toy Story[/i]. But my mom, who was born five years after it came out, had a chance to see [i]Gone With the Wind[/i] in the theatre.

An extremely pathetic kitten (Joey Lawrence!) is the last of his litter after all the others have been given away. Searching for food, he eventually finds Dodger (Billy Joel), a street-smart dog who uses Oliver to get hot dogs, which he takes home and shares with the other dogs he lives with. They work for Fagin (Dom DeLuise), who's in the hole pretty deep to Sykes (Robert Loggia). The dogs help Fagin by a combination of scavenging, theft, and con artistry, and while they are doing so, Oliver, said pathetic kitten, is found by Jenny (Natalie Gregory), the requisite Poor Little Rich Girl. She bring Oliver into the lap of luxury, where all he has to worry about is spoiled poodle Georgette (Bette Midler). His friends stage a "rescue," only to discover that, you know, he quite liked it with Jenny. From there, though, things do not reliably go well, because Sykes takes Fagin's "ransom the kitty" scheme and decides he's going to ransom the kid instead.

As I hate Dickens, I have never actually read [i]Oliver Twist[/i]. I saw [i]Oliver![/i] years ago, but I wasn't terribly fond of it. There are a few things which I know to be different--there is no Hooker With a Heart of Gold in this one, which is great for Disney, because it means she doesn't get brutally murdered. Or, indeed, does Disney have to deal with a Hooker With a Heart of Gold in an animated feature. Indeed, Sykes in this has essentially no personality other than a deeply threatening nature. There is no mystery of Oliver's past, because he's a kitten. He was being given away with his litter as kittens are wont to be. He isn't going to turn out to be anyone's secret heir or any other Dickensian twist. He's just going to live happily ever after, as are the others. Never mind that Fagin doesn't have any better income at the end of the film than he does at the beginning. At least he doesn't have to deal with the murderous Sykes anymore.

I believe, in fact, that Fagin himself is a bit less evil than he is in the original book. I know that the book Fagin is considered yet another example of antisemitism in literature. No less than the great Will Eisner did a version of the story from Fagin's perspective, trying to rehabilitate the character. Hells, no less than Charles Dickens ended up doing the same thing after acquiring a Jewish Friend or two who said, "No, really, he's offensive." (His original excuse had been "they really all were Jewish!" It seems unlikely to have been the case.) This Fagin is just kind of cute and bumbling. He loves his dogs because he loves dogs, not just because they provide him with a source of income. I mean, for one thing, they're so bad at it! But no figure voiced by Dom DeLuise could have been truly evil. No, this Fagin is whimsical and cheeky, a criminal but not a bad guy. Best not to think of the actual victims of his crimes, but at least they're better off than the victims in the book doubtless were.

The next animated film Disney released would be [i]The Little Mermaid[/i], which I think ushered in a renaissance of good Disney animation, though of course it's been uneven over the twenty years since. This film is cute, and it's entertaining, but it isn't and never will be top-tier Disney. For one thing, it features That Cheech Marin Character. You know the one. He has, in the past, played different characters--I point you toward Ignacio Messina, Maxine's boyfriend on the later seasons of [i]Judging Amy[/i], for example. However, in this, he is, yes, a chihuahua with all the mannerisms we expect of a chihuahua. In short, a stereotype. Oliver is high on the list of Disney's most passive heroes. Things happen around and to him, and there is Oliver. I believe that's a pretty decent summary of the book, too, but since when has accuracy to source material been a driving concern for the fine people at Walt Disney Studios?