Oliver and Company

Reviewer: Alyice Edrich

The Cartoon

Oliver And Company, 1988

The Plot

A kitten is left on the sidewalk after the owner was unable to find it a home where it must learn to survive the streets—alone.

Starring

Billy Joel, Cheech Marin, Dom DeLuise, Bette Midler, Joey Lawrence, Robert Loggia, and more.

The Review

I still cannot believe it’s been twenty years since Oliver and Company first made its appearance on the big screen. To be honest, I couldn’t even remember what it was about when I first agreed to review it but I’m glad I did. It was a fun little film—nothing at all like the earlier cartoons. It offers a hip—for the eighties—soundtrack and edgy script. And because I refused to read the credits, I was pleasantly surprised to decipher the voices of Bette Midler and Dom DeLuise!

Oliver and Company is about a stray kitten—an orphan—who finds himself starving after being abandoned on a street corner in New York City. He meets up with a straggly dog, by the name of Dodger, who agrees to help him something to eat, only Dodger makes off with the food and leaves Oliver to starve. Unwilling to cave, Oliver follows Dodger back to his “hide out” and makes a point of demanding his share of the food.

Back at Dodger’s hide out, Oliver meets up with a group of happy, singing, dancing street dogs who love their homeless human companion and will do anything to make sure he’s well-taken care of—even if it means locating lost objects to pawn for food or stealing food from street vendors.

Due to a mishap, Oliver ends up in the care of a rich, young girl by the name of Jenny. When Jenny becomes kidnapped it’s up to Oliver and Company to save the day.

There’s one character in the cartoon, named Tito, that my, now teenage, daughter and friends really hooked onto. He was funny, witty, and totally lightened up the film.

The 20th anniversary edition comes with Oliver’s Big City Challenge, a feature on the making of the film, sing-along songs, and two shorts starring Pluto: Lend a Paw and Puss Café.

Your Task

Take your children down to the local animal shelter and volunteer for the day. Most shelters will allow children to pet the animals—and give them a little tender loving care—as long as there is a parent with them. If your shelter doesn’t allow small children in the facility, think about having your children sell lemonade or cookies to raise funds for one bag of animal food, then take it down to the shelter. It’s a great way to give back and keep an abandoned animal fed.