Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
Putting its own 'twist' on the story of Oliver Twist, the orange runt of a litter of kittens must fight for survival on the rough streets on New York City, finding unlikely friends in the dogs owned by a down-on-his luck man named Fagin. Soon, Oliver and his new band of comrades must fight for survival when Fagin is unable to pay his debts.
Oliver & Company is a serviceable but unremarkable Disney animated feature that translates Oliver Twist to 1980s NYC with modest charm. The plot adaptation is loose and fairly thin, losing much of Dickens' moral weight in favor of lightweight family adventure. The voice cast (Billy Joel, Bette Midler) brings genuine energy and the musical numbers have personality, lifting the acting category. Visually it sits in a transitional period for Disney animation — competent but inconsistent, lacking the lush artistry of the Renaissance films just around the corner. The NYC setting and animal-gang concept give it a degree of novelty, and Billy Joel's 'Why Should I Worry' has become iconic, but the overall execution is fairly conventional. The ending resolves predictably and without much dramatic weight, feeling rushed and formulaic even by family film standards.