Oliver & Company, 1988 The first film to fully come from Eisner's and Kassenberg's tenure and pitch meetings, Oliver and Company transposes the story of Oliver Twist to animals in New York City. While far from the first Disney film to feature a real location, the affection with which the city is depicted in Oliver feels apt for the first production to follow Eisner and Katzenberg leaving NYC and helming the California studio.
Casting and soundtrack decisions also align with their sensibilities. Billy Joel plays Dodger and sings a character song as does Bette Midler. Other notable names include Cheech Martin as Tito and Robert Loggia as Bill Sykes, the imposing villain. Katzenberg also brings in Huey Lewis to sing the opening number that was written by Little Shop of Horrors lyricist Howard Ashman, who becomes potentially the most defining creative force of the Disney Renaissance.
The opening number is a love song to the city set to pastel, sketchy drawings of the skyline. It continues to score a box of kittens getting adopted except for one, Oliver, who gets washed out by heavy rain. The next day, he meets Dodger, a smooth-talking dog that uses the cat to steal some food, but Oliver changes the cat. him down expecting a share as Dodger breaks in a song describing his outlook on life.
The sequence is fun and is one of the two musical highlights of an otherwise rote film, but the song, alongside Rannigan's The World's Greatest Criminal Mind, points toward what Disney will embrace under Eisner and Katzenberg in Through the Renaissance, in both content and tone.
Oliver and Company is not fully realized in the way The Little Mermaid is the following year, in which Howard Ashman writes every song, but the shape of what is to come is in the studio's house style already here, as they create vibrant and energetic visuals to match these musical numbers, and the numbers themselves define- the action or propel the story in relationships.
Oliver follows Dodger home and is accepted into the group of dogs that stay with Fagan, a man who steals to survive with the assistance of this crew of dogs. The film deftly sets up the stakes that he has borrowed too much from a malicious man and has days to pay it back, giving the film easily understandable...
propulsion early on. Sykes, the evil loan shark, is seen in a very fancy car animated with the assistance of CG that makes it appear otherworldly, an effective stylistic choice that works even as the CG ages. Sykes' face is the best looking piece of animation in the film.
and it teeters between being effective because it is used sparingly and not being seen quite enough to hit its peak. The layered textures and expressions that come from the malleability on screen is phenomenal and elevates Lojia's vocal performance. With these scenes the stakes are set, the plot is in motion, and the dogs sing to Oliver about their role on the street.
A job to rob a car goes awry, and Oliver ends up taken home by a young girl, Ginny, who is wealthy and wants to keep him. However, Ginny already has a dog, who is now introduced in the best song and sequence of the film, Perfect Isn't Easy, as the pampered Georgette sings through her morning routine. The marriage between Bette Midler's performance and the animation oozes personality, and is also driven by the energy of the songwriting, embracing a big show to number.
Like Radigan's song, the lyrics revolve around how highly she thinks of herself, and the entire sequence commits to the absurd self-absorbed character in a heightened and comedic way that Disney will continue to play with into the renaissance. If the whole movie were this good, it could be argued that the rena- between a few good numbers and some standout scenes
The studio is getting back into a groove with expressive body language and facial expressions, keeping even the dullest moments of this film from ever being truly bad. That being said, it undoubtedly peaks at Georgette's introduction and is primarily stale as it follows the story to its conclusion.
The crew of dogs wants to rescue Oliver, and soon after, Fagin tries to spin the situation into giving the cat back to Jennifer Ransom to alleviate his financial woes, but he feels bad once he meets her, so he simply returns Oliver. This upsets Sykes, who then tries to kidnap Jennifer Ransom, resulting in
in an action set piece that involves all the dogs in New York City public transit and is unremarkable and forgettable. The sequence ends with Sykes dead, and the dogs get a happy ending as Oliver stays with Ginny. Following the box office success of Oliver and Company, Disney Animation announced it would release a film every year, and with few exceptions, this has continued ever since, including some years where the studio released two films.
While Oliver is mostly mediocre, it has compelling high points and the studio's ability to home in on that winning energy is what turns the next decade into the renaissance. Not every film among the Renaissance is a masterpiece, nor is the decade free from bad movies. But in this time, the studio commits to ideas in big swings that align with what hits in Oliver.
The nine old men tried to train the younger staff in the 70s before they retired, and it is no doubt those technical understandings were valuable to the young animators, but what they connect with and find success with in the 1990s are not those old ideas that made the 50s work. With Broadway musical writers Howard Ashman and Alan Menken on board for the next musical picture, the studio makes its strongest film in 30 years. Next up, The Little Mermaid, 1989.
please go to ghostofjoe.com to see all these essays you can also find a link to this one directly in the show notes of this upload and there you will find in-text citations and works cited and share it with anyone who you think Cares a lot about Disney animation. You can also find myself on Twitter at Ghost of Joe, Ghost of J-O. The music used in this audio version is from The Skeleton Dance, a Disney Silly Symphony short. Thank you for listening and reading. Thank you.