Oliver and Company

After “The Great Mouse Detective” came out in 1986, former Disney CEO, Michael Eisner and future DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg recruited producers to work on the company’s next project. An animated musical “Oliver and Company” inspired by “Oliver Twist,” but with animals. Mr. Katzenberg approved the idea along with “The Little Mermaid.” The latter sucks anyway.

Oliver and Company’s about an orange kitten named, Oliver who befriends streetwise dog, Dodger and his band of canines. Oliver stays with them. He also meets a little girl named, Jenny. Suddenly, Oliver stumbles upon a mob boss who demands money to a homeless dude named, Fagin.

Oliver and Company was officially released in 1988. At the time, it received mixed reviews and was a box office hit. Over time, the movie earned further praise gaining a cult following. Anyway, Disney’s next animated movie, “Hexed” will be released on Thanksgiving, 2026. I have no plans to see it. I already got my eye on “Avengers: Doomsday” coming a week before Christmas.

Today’s review contains no SPOILERS.

Right & Wrong Aspects

Joey Lawrence, (Matthew Lawrence’s brother) Billy Joel, Cheech Marin and Dom DeLuise, Roscoe Lee Brown, (Kimgpin from 90’s Spider-Man cartoon) Bette Midler & Robert Loggia all did a decent job for their respective voiceover performances.

Tim Disney & James Mangold (Logan, 3:10 to Yuma, Walk the Line) co-wrote the script.

Animation looks pretty good for a 1988 movie.

Random Thoughts

Tito’s my favorite character. Cheech Marin stole the movie. Perhaps this is his first family movie. Cheech later appeared in family movies like “Paulie,” “Spy Kids” “Cars” and that god awful “Beverly Hills Chihuahua.”
When I was in 1st-8th grade, my homeroom class watch 30 minutes of a movie during lunch break before our teacher stops by to take us back to class. We watched ‘80s-early 2000s movies including the “Indiana Jones” series, “The Dark Crystal,” “ET,” “The Goonies,” “Ghostbusters,” “Back to the Future Trilogy,” Tim Burton’s Batman, “Aladdin,” “Jurassic Park,” “The Lion King,” “A Goofy Movie,” “Toy Story” 1-2, “Matilda,” “Space Jam,” “Flipper,” Mulan,” “A Bug’s Life,” “Hercules,” “The Rugrats Movie “and sequel Paris, “The Emperor’s News Groove,” “Atlantis: The Lost Empire” & “Recess: School’s Out.” Oliver and Company’s one of them. My schools were awesome.
One reviewer, BloggedByEric gave Oliver and Company a 5/10 calling it okay. He’s oblivious on the rating scale. A 5/10 is the equivalent of a C- in disappointment territory. Same guy (never saw a Marvel movie) who gave crappy Disney Princess animated movies like “Cinderella” & The Little Mermaid a 9/10. Only a dude with the IQ of Paris Hilton would like this crap. I’ve seen better movies (like The Lord of the Rings Trilogy) than BloggedByEric. Sorry, Eric you gotta get used to negative comments like Gene Siskel & Roger Ebert bickering with each other.
BloggedByEric’s humiliated himself not realizing other animated or anime films by Hayao Miyazaki have an ensemble cast of voice actors. He failed to fact check. When I first read his review on the movie, my eyes were rolling. If Eric continues to embarrass himself, he’s gonna lose credibility. Reviewing 101, fact check on what’s been done before.

Funny Moments made me laugh. Especially, Tito providing comic relief.

Although I’m not a big musical fan, the songs are pretty good. Most notably, “Why Should I Worry.” By the way, a Dalmatian who looks like Pongo off of “101 Dalmatians” makes a cameo appearance.

Pacing didn’t felt stable for an 83-minute animated movie.

Oliver’s chemistry with Dodger and his fellow dogs and human companion, Jenny serve as the main highlight.

Unlike poorly written antagonists like The Evil Queen from “Snow White,” Sykes is an intimidating bad guy. He’s on the level of sadistic bad guys like Frollo from “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.”

A climatic chase scene pays off. James Gunn later wrote legit action scenes in “3:10 to Yuma” and one of my all-time favorite films, “Logan.”

One death scene reminded me of a “Mad Max” movie. Before a bad guy gets hit by a car in full speed, the camera rapidly zooms to the bad guy’s face.

I know it was made in 1988, but the C.G.I. looks fake.

The movie’s quite dated. ‘80s written all over it.

Not enough songs. 5 or 6 tunes don’t qualify as a full fledge musical. OutKast’s musical crime drama, “Idlewild” has a grand total of 14 songs. If you haven’t seen Idlewild, I strongly recommend it.

The Final Verdict: B-

Unlike that piece of crap Little Mermaid, Oliver and Company told a better story, good characters, no forced romance and likable characters. Even though the latter is average, I enjoyed it. If you wanna introduce your kids to this cult classic, stream it on Disney Plus.