The animation is good, but not great, it’s on a similar kind
of level to The Great Mouse Detective but
not quite as detailed; as is often the case, a couple characters are better
animated than the rest of the cast –
Fagin is very exaggerated and extreme with his movements, allowing the
animators to play around a lot with the way he poses and interacts with things,
while Sikes is the opposite, being very slow and methodical with his movements,
yet still leaving a powerful impression; the animators definitely have the most
fun with these two. Some of the animals are very well animated too, Dodger and
Georgette in particular, with Dodger’s loose and slippery animation matching
his relaxed and carefree attitude and Georgette’s sudden and jerking movements
matching her uptight and somewhat unhinged mentality. The film does stumble
when it comes to computer animation, though, which it uses extensively to
animate vehicles in open and brightly lit scenes, making it much harder to hide
than in the dark, claustrophobic clock tower scenes in The Great Mouse Detective; unfortunately, the technology just isn’t
there yet, leaving the computer animation looking awkward and dated, often
resembling the characters from the Money
for Nothing video more than real cars. The character designs are actually really
interesting, they look quite different from most other Disney characters, being
rather more stylised and exaggerated – some characters, such as Fagin and many
of the background characters are actually quite dirty and visually unappealing
in their designs; though there are still generic Disney designs in Oliver and
Jenny, for the most part the cast looks a little different here, which is nice
to see. The backgrounds are very sketchy and unrefined, resembling those from One Hundred and One Dalmatians, but I think this fits
the modern, 80’s New York vibe the film is trying to create; all in all, the
visual style of the film is pretty solid, despite a few hiccups with the
computer animation.
Dave’s not here, man
The plot is very familiar, being based on a classic novel
that we’ve seen adapted many times before, though obviously the film deviates
heavily from the original story, in traditional Disney fashion. That said, I
think Oliver and Company actually
kind of benefits from being such a stripped down version of Oliver Twist, as it means it can cut out a lot of the boring parts of the story while still keeping the general idea, as well
as some of the better parts – while Fagin’s character is very diluted and made
a lot more sympathetic and family friendly, Sikes is still pretty much just as
monstrous and cruel, even though some of his nastier actions (namely, beating a
woman to death and trying to do the same to his dog) are missing, it is a kid’s
movie, after all. This means the film is paced reasonably well, it jumps from
scene to scene, with something new always going on, never getting bogged down
by story or wasting time with pointless scenes, it manages to stay entertaining
all the way through. Still, this fast pace does mean that the film never really
settles on one particular central plot, you’d think the focus would be the same
as the original novel – Oliver’s plight and his rise from rags to riches –and
it kind of is, but he as a character is so out of focus that it’s kind of hard
to view the film as his story. Really, it’s not so much “Oliver” but more the “and company” that is the focus of the film, as it also the dog’s story,
their quest to save Oliver and Fagin, it’s Fagin’s story, his attempts to save
himself from Sikes as well as redeem himself for being a thief and a cheat,
Georgette’s in her attempts to initially get rid of and eventually, accept
Oliver and his friends and Jenny’s and her quest to rescue Oliver and her
dreams of being reunited with her family. There are all sorts of storylines
going on at the same time and the film never really settles on one and while
this does stop things from ever getting too stagnant, it also prevents the film
from really having a sense of purpose, it’s just too scattered and fragmented.
The film has quite a big cast of characters, most of which
get at least a decent degree of focus and screen time, with only a couple (Rita
and Einstein) falling by the wayside. This is good, because Oliver has got to
be one of the most boring and least developed protagonists in any Disney movie,
he has no personality beyond being sweet and innocent, he barely talks or does
anything at all, he just gets passed around from character to character and
situation to situation, he is completely passive and just there to watch the
other characters do their thing. Thankfully, like I said before, the focus is
much more on the “and company” part of the title, meaning that the large cast
of colourful characters take centre stage and dominate the film over Oliver –
Fagin’s gang of dogs are a very generic collection of stereotypes, they’re all
likeable, but also very familiar. Francis is overly posh and sophisticated,
Einstein is dumb but loyal, Rita is... just the girl, she really doesn’t get
much time at all. Tito gets a bit more time and attention, he is scrappy, cocky
and excitable, acting as the primary comic relief; he’s quite fun to watch at
times, but by the end of the film his yippy attitude gets a bit old – there’s
only so much Cheech Marin you can take and that’s all the character really is. Georgette
also gets a decent amount of attention, she is enjoyably mean and snobbish and
her extreme narcissism can be quite funny at times, she kind of reminds me of
Angelica from Rugrats, though she
does get nicer over the course of the film. As the leader of the group, Dodger
appropriately gets the most time and rightly so, as he’s definitely the best
member of the gang; he’s cool, witty, laid-back and just fun. Though a pretty
shameful rehash of the “cool, streetwise drifter” character seen in Tramp, O’
Malley, Baloo and so on, Dodger is cool enough that you can give him a break;
though you can also definitely tell that Billy Joel is voicing Dodger, as he
never really transcends his role as just a singer in a recording booth, his
exaggerated, “wise-guy” New York accent is so goofy you can’t help but enjoy
it.
Sing us a song, you’re the piano dog
The human characters aren’t quite as good – Fagin is mostly just
comic relief, he’s goofy and clumsy and pathetic, but I don’t really find him
very funny or entertaining, personally, he’s just a little too sad. Jenny is a
generic Disney kid, she’s nice and cute and she has a sympathetic backstory,
but as usual, she is also boring; still, she’s not the focus of the movie and
is not overly cutesy like Penny from The
Rescuers or Michael from Peter Pan,
so she’s not so bad. Winston isn’t in much of the film, but he’s generally
likeable, he’s a little bumbling, but not nearly as much as Edgar from The Aristocats and he has some
interesting quirks, like being really into wrestling, that set him apart from
other goofy butler character types that have come before him. The best of the
human characters is the villain, Sikes, who is dripping with villainous
charisma; I really like this guy, he’s so slimy, but in a legitimately
frightening way – Sikes is much more of a realistic Disney villain than we’re
used to, he’s a ruthless loan shark with a sadistic streak, somebody you could
very easily run into in real life, certainly in 1980’s New York. Sikes is
definitely exaggerated and extreme, but he’s not really cartoonish and
unrealistic and it’s this sense of realism that makes Sikes so threatening and
dangerous, he’s not the most memorable or colourful Disney villain, no, but
again, it makes sense for the kind of villain he is, I think he’s quite an
underrated member of Disney’s rogues gallery; plus, he has an insanely violent
death, driving straight into a speeding train and EXPLODING it’s crazy.
Perhaps the most notable aspect of Oliver and Company is the fact that, for the first time in years,
it’s actually a legitimate musical, rather than just having a bunch of
ill-fitting songs played over the action, it has the characters actually sing
and get involved in musical numbers and honestly, most of them are quite good.
The opening song, “Once Upon a Time in New York City” is a bit goofy, it sounds
more like the opening to Cheers or
something than the intro to a musical, it’s definitely very 80’s and very
cheesy, but that kind of adds to its charm, it’s a nice song. “Streets of Gold”
is a good, soul-infused kind of song, but is unfortunately cut very short, we
really don’t get to hear much of it. “Good Company” is a sweet, but very basic
little song, both in terms of the music and the lyrics; it’s nice but really
doesn’t have much going on. “Perfect isn’t Easy” is the most traditional
musical number of the bunch and appropriately so, as it seems to act as kind of
a parody of classic Disney musical numbers such as “Whistle While You Work” or
“The Work Song”, with images such as little blue birds helping Georgette get dressed,
while she brushes them aside and barely seems to notice they exist. The music
is also pretty catchy and though the lyrics kind of emanate this feeling of
thinking they’re wittier than they are, they are still rather well written; it’s
a good song and probably the closest to a real musical number Disney had done
in years, by this point. But the best of the songs as well as the best part of
the entire movie is “Why Should I Worry”, which Billy Joel belts out in his
classic style, it’s fun, super high energy and catchy as all hell; it’s not
really a musical number so much as just a Billy Joel song sung by a dog version
of Billy Joel but whatever it’s great, the whole thing is great, including the
animation, it’s just a really, really good sequence. While some of the songs
are a bit basic and Disney haven’t quite gotten back on track in terms of
creating classic-style musicals, Oliver
and Company was the closest they’d gotten in years and it’s got enough good
songs to work.
Damn it feels good to be a gangster
I find it kind of difficult to sum up how I feel about Oliver and Company, while I don’t think
it’s nearly as bad as a lot of people seem too, I do recognise that it’s not
really that great either and while I do enjoy it quite a lot, it is so lacking
in so many areas that I hesitate to really call it all that good. I think Oliver and Company is a film with a lot
of personality, but not much heart, if that makes any sense; it has a unique
style and attitude and some interesting character designs and ideas that no
other Disney film so really has, but once you look beneath that fresh and
intriguing surface, you’ll find there’s not much lying underneath – the story
is too fragmented and the characters too shallow, despite a few stand outs. Oliver and Company is not much more than
a kid’s movie, lacking in any real creativity, depth or thought, but I still
think it’s a good kids movie, with some enjoyable characters, good animation
and fun songs, even if it’s not much else.
6.5/10
Next Week: The Little Mermaid!
Email: joetalksaboutstuff@gmail.com
Twitter: @JSChilds
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