I have nostalgic memory of watching the original trailer for "Oliver and Company" a lot as it was on the British VHS of "Sleeping Beauty", one of the first videocassettes we ever had. This made me interested in the film as a child, even though I only got to see it many years later. As an adult, however, "Oliver and Company" seems a bit of an enigma. Made during a period when the whole Disney company was back on the up after a slump in the early to mid 80s, it's surprisingly one of Disney's weakest animated films from the main animation division, greatly paling in comparison to the likes of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" and "The Little Mermaid". Reimagining the story of "Oliver Twist" with cats and dogs is a bit of a far-fetched idea, and taking a long, rambling Victorian epic and turning it into a fun-filled adventure with cuddly cats and dogs in New York doesn't really work. The characters are cloying, and the desperate urge to be contemporary results in a film that ends up being truly dated. Some of the songs are fine enough, while others are embarrassing (especially Bette Midler's number "Perfect Isn't Easy", penned by Barry Manilow). Equally, the film feels very disjointed in tone. It starts off as a comical urban romp but in the last act suddenly turns into a dark story of kidnapping child characters. There may be a happy ending, but overall, the turn of events just seems inappropriate even for a film studio renowned for specialising in mild peril for children. It might be worth a watch if you're a serious Disney aficionado and want to watch all 50 plus animated features, but for anyone else, I wouldn't recommend it.
Review of Oliver & Company
