DVD Savoir Faire: A review of Oliver and Company 20th Anniversary Edition DVD

[dlfreak]

It’s hard for me to believe that there’s an “old-school” Disney movie that I am older than. As a child of the 80s, anything Disney released before the Little Mermaid just seems like it’s way before my time and even though Oliver and Company came out just one year before Mermaid in 1988, it took me by surprise to learn that it’s celebrating 20 years since its first theatrical release! To commemorate the anniversary, Disney has released the film from the vault in a new special edition DVD release. Based loosely on the Charles Dicken’s classic novel, “Oliver Twist,” Oliver and Company tells the story of a young orphaned kitten on the mean streets of 1988 New York. It’s amusing to me to watch anything that was released as a contemporary piece because time ensures it will become a period piece and that is precisely what has happened with Oliver. Although some might find old contemporary films to be passé and worthless, I find that it makes me love the film all the more. They become period pieces that are every bit authentic because they were created to reflect the period of time in which it was made! To me that is just fascinating, to see how life and society are portrayed to the mainstream audiences of the time; the way people watch themselves on the screen. One other thing that caught my attention and gave me a good laugh when watching the movie was the product placement in the film. Surely a very early breakthrough in filmmaking at the time, it’s just funny that 1988 New York was overrun with advertisements for Sony, Coke, and a few other brands of the time. Enough of the societal analysis and critique though, jumping into the single disc, we find the film in all its 80s glory featuring the voices of Billy Joel, Bette Midler, Cheech Marin, Joey Lawrence, and Dom DeLouise. Midler and Joel, of course, also utilize their vocal talents to sing original songs in the movie and are accompanied by Ruth Pointer and Huey Louis to roundout the movie's songs. Unlike most Disney features where an overall soundtrack is created by a single person or team, the film’s sound was comprised of various songs by numerous different talents; a unique attribute that I think helps add more contemporary authenticity to the film. The digital transfer of the film is clear and nearly remnant free, this is especially obvious in the untreated trailers which show just how badly a transfer can be. The colors and details are sharp and bright. The usual cast of features accompanies this set. Whenever I get a Disney DVD I always jump to the “Backstage Disney” section and while there’s no new features created for this release, there are a healthy selection of old featurettes that have been included. The first is a brief puff piece created for the original release of the film, The Making of Oliver & Company. It's about 10 minutes long and talks about the history of Disney animated features and how this new film is sure to line up against them all as another classic Disney musical. The biggest draw to this making of feature for me was the segment talking about the computer generated effects utilized for various sequences in the film. Perhaps more relevant now more than ever in a Pixar world, we get an interview with Roy O. Disney who talks to the fact that they are only scratching the surface of the wonders that could come with computer generated imagery. It's funny that, as a 1980s post-recession piece, "The Making Of" featurette emphasizes that robots are not taking the place of human animators and that the time honored Disney tradition of animating by hand is still being utilized completely by humans. This piece alone is a gem, as it took in the brave forefront of CGI and animation, I really wish it had been longer. The next feature is a piece created for the 1996 re-release of Oliver and Company that talks about the long Disney heritage of animals in Disney features and goes on to celebrate the newest cast of animal stars in Oliver and Company. There's not much substance here but for historical value alone I found it a great addition. The Oliver and Company Scrapbook was my favorite feature and I wish it had more than 14 pages! Each set of pages contains a brief description of the four to five images that are presented. Some pages include concept art, back stage photos, publicity material, etc. It's a really well done image gallery. The Publicity Materials section as to be expected features the original theatrical trailers as well as trailers and tv spots for the 1996 re-release. Music and More unlike most DVDs with this feature does not include a sing-along with the movie type option. Instead, it features two Sing-Along music segments from the film, "Why Should I Worry" and "Streets of Gold." My second favorite feature was probably the Fun Film Facts which is another gallery of various facts about the film. The Oliver's Big City Challenge game features a scenario of various games in which we help Oliver prove he has the street savouir faire to join Fagin's pack. The different tasks are fun little games to encourage learning and also to help you get to know the characters a little better too. The game, while very brief, was oddly engaging and progressed well. Sadly, I couldn't finish the game as one of the last challenges requires you to press the enter button on your remote control which I could not do from my computer. Pressing enter did not work, neither did the space bar or any of the other keys. I was sad. The final feature is the Bonus Shorts section which features two different classic animated Disney shorts that both deal with dog/cat relationships. The first is Lend a Paw which features an adorable orange orphaned kitten (that looks like Oliver) who Pluto finds and takes in only to find the new-comer gets preferential treatment from Mickey. The second one, one I oddly remembered as a child, was Puss Café which featured Pluto as a guard dog protecting a backyard full of pet fish and birds from two wily street cats. For a disc that isn't a Platinum Edition, this newest release of Oliver and Company does not disappoint. Sure, there really isn't anything new added her to make you jump for joy and rush to buy, however, the selection of features is pleasantly adequate. It had had been a while since I'd seen the film and I was pleasantly surprised when I watched and actually remembered a lot of the movie and the bonus features are just enough to enjoy in one evening. This is definitely a fun release and it definitely has some DVD savoir faire! Oliver and Company: 20th Anniversary Edition is Available Now!

[Pinocchio85]

Great review. I'm going to pick this one up because I don't have it and I really enjoyed it as a kid. It actually seems like a decent release compared to some of their other recent releases.

[dlfreak]

Yea it was really fun to jump back down memory lane and the special features of the old tv clips and trailers just helped drive home the 80s nostalgia.