| Oliver & Company [VHS] | ![Oliver & Company [VHS]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/513Z6AVQNCL._SL160_.jpg) | Director: George Scribner
Actors: Joseph Lawrence, Billy Joel, Cheech Marin, Natalie Gregory, Dom DeLuise
Studio: Walt Disney Home Video
List Price: $22.99
Buy Used: $0.01
as of 7/29/2010 14:49 EDT details
You Save: $22.98 (100%)
New (42) Used (236) Collectible (20) from $0.01
Seller: oncesoldtales
Rating:  83 reviews
Sales Rank: 1,298
Format: Animated, Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
Language: English (Unknown)
Rating: G (General Audience)
Media: VHS Tape
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 74 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.5 x 5.5 x 1.2
ISBN: 6304100507
UPC: 786936009101
EAN: 9786304100509
ASIN: 6304100507
Theatrical Release Date: November 18, 1988
Release Date: September 25, 1996
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Oliver & Company [VHS] (1988)
Joseph Lawrence (Actor), Billy Joel (Actor), George Scribner
Amazon.com
Disney does Dickens in this animated version of Oliver Twist, in which a homeless New York City cat falls in with a bunch of mischievous dogs under the leadership of the appealing scoundrel Fagin. The roots of Disney's success with animation in the '90s begins with this clever, energetic, atmospheric movie, which succeeds in capturing the grim world Dickens conjured. Lyricist Howard Ashman (The Little Mermaid) worked on the songs, the best of which is sung by Billy Joel, who provides the voice of (the Artful) Dodger. --Tom Keogh
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 83
 Love Disney May 26, 2010
Dina L. Anduha (RWC, Ca USA)
We love Disney movies and have most of them on DVD. Some of them can be pricey. This was a good buy.
Great movie and music February 25, 2010
Patricia A. Foster
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Bought for a niece who wanted to own it, but couldn't find a copy at any local store.
What a great movie ... hard to believe it was released 20 years ago.
 Oliver and Company February 8, 2010
Charlene Odonnell (Columbus, OH)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Product received in a timely manner. The DVD was in excellent shape and serves our purposes.
A little kitten with a big heart January 30, 2010
Chrijeff (Scranton, PA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Oliver (Joey Lawrence) is an orange kitten, one of a litter of eight, whose siblings have all been adopted out of a big box on a Manhattan street, leaving him alone. When a sudden thunderstorm destroys the box and sets Oliver adrift alone on the streets, he's bewildered and frightened--and, very soon, hungry. A carefree terrier named Dodger (Billy Joel) offers to share some sausages with him if he'll help to steal them, then takes off with the booty, and a furious Oliver trails him, not without difficulty, to his hideout, a moldering barge anchored under a decrept pier which he shares with a human named Fagin (Dom DeLuise) and four other dogs--hyper Chichuahua Tito (Cheech Marin), aging and easygoing Great Dane Einstein (Richard Mulligan), cultured bulldog Francis (Roscoe Lee Browne), and leggy poodle-mix Rita (Sheryl Lee Ralph). Fagin has borrowed money from Bill Sykes (Robert Loggia), who is pressuring him to pay it back, and when Sykes visits the barge to demand his dough and Oliver rakes one of his Dobermans (Torean Blacque, Carl Weintraub) across the nose, Fagin ("That took guts!") and the dogs are impressed and "adopt" him into the gang. Next day, trying to help Fagin and the dogs find a way to pay back his debt, Oliver is accidentally trapped in a limousine, where he meets Jenny (Natalie Gregory), a little uptown rich girl who falls in love with him immediately, takes him home with her, gets him a collar and tag and a silver dish engraved with his name, plays with him in Central Park and lets him sleep in her bed. When the dogs, fearing he's in trouble, innocently "rescue" him, he's devastated--all he ever wanted was a home and someone to love him. But when Fagin tries to extort a ransom for him from Jenny, and she then falls into Sykes's hands, it's up to Oliver, Fagin, and the dogs--including Jenny's parents' spoiled diva of a champion poodle, Georgette (Bette Midler)--to save the day.
Based loosely on Dickens's Oliver Twist, this movie will have viewers who are familiar with the book (like me) making interested connections between the original and the adaptation (Fagin, for example, is not Dickens's sinister Jew but a rather buffoonish street person). It's rather short on music, but Joel's strutting "Why Should I Worry?" and Gregory's gentle "Good Company" are high points. Each animal is a distinct individual with a personality of his own. And when "Oliver and Company" set out to rescue Jenny, it becomes a wild thrill ride through the loan-shark's hideout and across a railroad bridge. It also has things to say about friendship, honesty, love, and finding your proper place in life. A sweet and charming film for cat- and dog-lovers alike.
 End of a Dark Era? January 24, 2010
Joseph_ (Cincinnati, OH USA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Loosely based upon the novel "Oliver Twist" by Charles Dickens, this Disney movie scampers after the adventures of a stray kitten- Oliver- as he meets a pack of friendly mutts and weaves through the wild New York city, going through danger and heart-wrenching situations to find the girl he came to love as his owner.
I re-watched "Oliver and Company" just for an old kick, as I hadn't watched it in some time, and I was surprised by how much of the old greatness had worn off from this movie. The animation is still fresh and well-done, and I can't say the acting is bad, because it's fine. Sure, maybe the plot is lacking, and the characters aren't as enjoyable as previous ones, but just about all the aspects of this movie are fine. Yet this movie just feels different.
After a few movie failures dotting the time-line of the 1970s and 80s for Disney, I feel that they simply lost a bit of heart. They were no longer the warm, fuzzy animators who presented us with movies like Lady and the Tramp, Snow White, and other earlier Disney movies. They were disappointed people, and I think this took a toll on some of their movies- including this one. This movie is a whole lot darker; not quite as bad as The Black Cauldron, yet it's featured in New York, and has got violence, smoking, a strange, almost frightening ending, and an array of poor, dirty animals brought up by a homeless bum.
Yeah... not the best plot for a Disney movie.
And yet... this movie is not really a failure. It's got some better scenes that desperately aim to make up for the less-impressing ones, and a couple foot-tapping songs, following along in the classic Disney format of a musical animated movie, and I suppose some parts can be called touching. If you call cliche happy parts and singing birds touching, that is.
So really, this is not the kind of Disney movie that deserves to be up on the shelf along with "Lion King" or "The Little Mermaid"; more like a movie you rent for free, then wait a few years, and buy it at a yard sale for ten bucks. I just don't feel like it's completely worth twenty dollars, though it is certainly worth a watch.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 83
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