Directed by: George Scribner
Written by: Roger Allers
Music by: Barry Manilow, Howard Ashman & J.A.C. Redford
Released on: November 18, 1988
Running Time: 73 minutes
Budget: $18 million
Box-Office: $74 million in the U.S.
Oliver...
Joey
Lawrence
Dodger... Billy Joel
Georgette... Bette Midler
Fagin... Dom DeLuise
Tito... Cheech Marin
Jenny... Natalie Gregory
Jonathan Brandis... Additional Voices
The movie is inspired
by -rather than based on- Dickens' "Oliver Twist". The setting is now New
York, Oliver is a kitten, and Fagin is the human master of a pack of pickpocket
dogs.
Six supervising
animators and a team of more than 300 artists and technicians worked for
more than two and a half years to create this hand-drawn feature film.
More than a million story sketches and drawings were required to produce
the 119,275 hand-painted cels that comprise the finished film.
Designers went
to New York and photographed street scenes from a dog's perspective Ì-
18 inches off the ground -Ì getting stares from passersby but providing
excellent reference material for the layout artists.
To give the backgrounds
a contemporary and hard-edged look, animators used Xerox overlays for the
first time since 101 Dalmatians.
Many of the inanimate
objects in the film were created and animated on the computer - cars, cabs,
buses, Sykes' limousine, Fagin's trike (part scooter and part shopping
cart), a cement mixer, a sewer pipe, a spiral staircase, a piano, subway
tunnels and trains, cityscapes, and even the Brooklyn Bridge. This was
the first film to have its own department set up expressly for the purpose
of generating computer animation.
A transition film,
this was the last Disney cartoon released before the studio's animation
renaissance began with The Little Mermaid
in 1989.
It took an unusual 7 years before Disney released this movie on video.
The studio created for the occasion several hundred 35mm prints, spiffed
up with a new Dolby Digital soundtrack.
This feature was
the first to be set entirely in New York City.
Oliver &
Company stands out for its innovative use of CGI (Computer Generated
Imagery) and represented the
first animated film to make such extensive use of this new technology.
The Brooklyn Bridge and the Sykes' car are two examples of its use.
It marked the directorial debut of George Scribner, a 12-year Disney animator/storyman
who
originally developed the project with the late Pete Young. Under Scribner's
guidance, six supervising animators and a
team of over 300 artists and technicians worked for over 2 1/2 years
to create this hand-drawn film in the time-honored
Disney tradition. More than a million story sketches and drawings were
required to produce the 119,275 hand painted
cels which comprise the finished film.
When Dodger is
singing "Why Should I Worry," and standing on top of a Volkswagon, Pongo,
from 101 Dalmatians, is seen pulling
his owner, Roger, towards Dodger. Peg, the bulldog and other characters
from Lady and the Tramp also
make an appearance.
Rita's song,
"Streets of Gold", was sung by Ruth Pointer of the Pointer Sisters.
Billy Joel got
his first acting job as the voice of Dodger! He sings the catchy "Why should
I worry?" but surprisingly didn't write any of the songs.
Barry Manilow,
on the other hand, co-wrote the score.
Bette Midler
not only lended her voice to the character of Georgette: she also co-wrote
the songs, and co-produced the movie!
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