The Geek Girl's Guide to Disney's 'Oliver and Company'

My cousin, my sister, and I had a girls day at the mall. Still being kids at heart at 16, 19, and 27-years-old, we found ourselves perusing the Disney store. We wander through a section of plush toys when I recognized Oliver and Dodger among them, both sporting 30th anniversary tags on their paws."Oliver and Company celebrates 30 years this year?" were my first thoughts, “How did I not know this?” One reason might have to do with the 25th anniversaries of the season staples, Nightmare Before Christmas and Hocus Pocus. Another reason is that Oliver and Company is an underrated classic for several reasons.

In Disney’s context, Oliver and Company was the hopeful light at the tunnel’s end of the company’s “dark ages,” which was a near two-decade period following the deaths of Walt Disney and his brother/successor, Roy Disney. The time was also characterized by fewer commercially or critically successful films as the changing of hands and training new employees led to lengthier productions. Oliver and Company is said to be the last film produced in this era, being the highest-grossing production in the period.

For the receiving masses, the film has been more of a fan-favorite than a critic favorite. It’s a new spin on an old classic that additionally incorporates a contemporary vibe in its soundtrack, artwork, and casting, though has been panned for been panned for “lackluster songs, stiff animation, and predictable plot”. One critic claims that it didn’t measure up to the company’s legacy of classics at that point, but has since paved the way for the “Disney Renaissance” and its new generation of classics throughout the nineties.

Being a mix of many of my favorite things: the 80s, pop culture, music, movies, and Disney, I had to geek out as soon as I got home. And in honor of this film’s thirtieth birthday, Here are 30 facts about Oliver and Company:

1. The Disney adaptation was pitched as Oliver Twist with Dogs. The main characters are a gang of stray dogs living in New York City who take in an orphaned cat.
2. The film was released on November 18th, 1988.
3. The Universal Pictures film, The Land Before Time, was released on the same day as Oliver and Company.
4. The Land Before Time is the only Don Bluth film Dom De Luise didn’t do because he was in Oliver and Company instead. He voiced Fagin, a destitute thief who cares for the gang of dogs.
5. The film was released 60 years after Steamboat Willie.
6. This was Disney’s 27th animated feature, and was followed by The Little Mermaid.
7. It was a success at the box office, earning at least $53.2 million in its debut, and had a budget of $31 million.
8. Oliver and Company was one of Disney’s first to heavily incorporate computer animation. CGI effects helped generate the skyline, vehicle traffic, and the climactic subway chase.
9. Additionally, Disney invested in the Computer Animation Production System (or CAPS) for the film. It was a digital ink-and-paint system that replaced the tedious process of transferring animated drawings to cels or xerographic technology. This same system would go on to be utilized in many other films until 2004.
10. Oliver and Company is the first Disney film to include real world advertised products. Company names like Coca-cola, USA Today, Sony, and Ryder Truck rental are seen in the film to add a sense of realism.
11. The film was not immediately released to home video, but came eight years later after a theatrical re-release in 1996.
12. It was one of the most requested films according to trade publications prior to its second promotion.
13. The cast is star-studded, featuring Billy Joel, Bette Midler, and Cheech Marin, among others.
14. Additionally, this film was the career starting point for Joey Lawrence, who voiced Oliver.
15. Several of the main cast are actually New York natives.
16. Billy Joel and Bette Midler both voiced characters and sang their own numbers in the film. Ruth Pointer of The Pointer Sisters has singing credits for a character, and Huey Lewis provides a soulful introduction track to the film.
17. Cheech Marin voiced Tito, the feisty chihuahua. He was encouraged to improvise lines for his character’s personality, although Marin says he read at least seventy-five percent of the lines as they were written.
18. Billy Joel says he took the role of the “Artful Dodger--as a dog”, for his first daughter, Alexa, who was about three years old at the time of the film.
19. In Billy Joel’s biography by Fred Shruers, he speaks of how young Alexa was initially upset with him because she thought he was mean to the kitten. When he stopped being mean, she said, “Daddy, you’re a nice dog.” He says he was a hero for a while just for playing a Disney character.
20. Billy Joel auditioned for the role by telephone, and is his only acting role.
21. Billy Joel’s performance of “Why Should I Worry?” was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song in 1988.
22. “Why Should I Worry?” was written by pop music contemporaries, Dan Hartman and Charlie Midnight. So it is unfortunately not anything original to Billy Joel, as much as it sounds like it could be. However the track is on Billy Joel’s “My Lives” collection.
23. The reprise of “Why Should I Worry?” was never released on C.D.
24. Barry Manilow has writing credits on Bette Midler’s song, “Perfect isn’t Easy.”
25. The film would win in the Golden Reel Awards for Best Sound Editing.
26. Sound effects were made exclusively for the movie.
27. The film’s soundtrack is the last to be released on vinyl until 2013’s Frozen.
28. McDonald’s sold Christmas musical ornaments with Oliver and Dodger during the film’s release.
29. 101 Dalmatians characters Pongo, Jock, Trusty, Peg, and Roger cameo in the film.
30. Promoting the film in Europe helped inspire The Lion King.

Sources

http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Oliver_%26_Company

http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Disney_Dark_Age

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_%26_Company

Schruers, Fred. Billy Joel: the Definite Biography. Crown, 2014 p.191