Oliver & Co.
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Oliver & Co. |
| Original title | Oliver & Company |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1988 |
| length | 72 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | George Scribner |
| script |
Jim Cox , Tim Disney , James Mangold |
| production | Kathleen Gavin |
| music | JAC Redford |
| cut |
Mark A. Hester , Jim Melton |
Oliver & Co. (Original title: Oliver & Company ) is the 27th full-length animated film from the Walt Disney Studios and was released in 1988. The plot is based freely on the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens .
action
A few kittens were sold in New York in the 1980s. Everyone finds a new owner, only Oliver remains alone and abandoned in the now rotten box. Oliver has no choice but to come to terms with his fate, and he ventures into town alone, where he searches for food without success. Oliver meets the dog Dodger, who has just captured a serving of hot dogs. Dodger sings to Oliver about how he lives his life and goes into the hiding place of his dog gang, where he proudly shares how he kept the hot dogs safe from a wild cat. Oliver is happily welcomed by the gang. The gang's human leader also arrives: Fagin, a lovable petty crook who owes money to the villain Sykes. He wants to pay off his debts with the stolen property of Dodger, the great Danish mastiff Einstein, Afghan lady Rita, bulldog Francis and Chihuahua Tito, but again they could only steal worthless junk. Fagin explains to his gang that they have to get the money in three days. The mood is depressed, but after Fagin discovers Oliver and reads everyone a bedtime story, the world looks completely different again.
The next day the gang drives into town to both steal and sell the junk for a profit. Fagin takes over the sale, while the dogs and Oliver want to rob a limousine. This is driven by the butler Winston, who was hired by the Foxworth family to take care of their daughter Jenny. Oliver and Jenny meet during the robbery. Oliver thinks this is so cute that she wants to take him home with her. Winston allows this, even if he is sure that her poodle Georgette will be very displeased.
This wakes up at the same time and sings in pompous style how perfect it is. When she then meets Oliver, she becomes jealous and forges various plans how to get rid of him.
A close friendship develops between Oliver and Jenny. This comes to an abrupt end when the dog gang frees Oliver from his “kidnappers”. But Fagin notices that Oliver has found a home. And although his conscience speaks against it, he demands a ransom from the presumably wealthy owner of Oliver. But when taking the ransom, Fagin finds out that Oliver now belongs to a young girl. He cannot carry out his plan because of his soft heart, but this calls for Sykes. This kidnaps Jenny to demand a ransom herself. Fagin, Oliver, Georgette and the dog gang start a rescue operation in which they have to fight, among other things, against Sykes' Doberman males Roscoe and Desoto and pursue the inhuman Sykes on various means of transport.
Roscoe and Desoto die from electric shocks received from the subway line during the chase, and Sykes' fate is sealed when his limo is destroyed by the train. At Jenny's next birthday party, all of the good guys meet again and Jenny's parents finally announce their return.
Success and reception
Oliver and Co. grossed around 53 million US dollars on his first assignment in the USA, more than his predecessors Basil, the great mouse detective and Taran and the magic cauldron combined. In its reissue in 1996, he played another 20.9 million US dollars, and Oliver & Co. has been in the states of the 17-most successful film of the year 1988. Due to this, he solved together with the mixed film Who Framed Roger Rabbit disney internally as well as in the public the first storms of euphoria about the future of animated films. It is particularly noteworthy that Roy E. Disney , Peter Schneider and Jeffrey Katzenberg decided, because of this success, to bring an animated film to the cinemas every year.
Reviews
"[...] Lovingly and elaborately designed cartoon from the Disney workshop that combines lively entertainment with a small optimistic message."
"" Everything is rhythm. " Says Dodger, the street dog, to Oliver, the little kitten. If you want to survive in New York, you just have to adapt to the rhythm of that city. […] Everything is rhythm in Oliver & Co. One has always been able to do that at Disney: to show the world in harmony with oneself and then to bring it out of sync. And vice versa. Someone dances out of line, gets out of step, falls out of the world - and is finally put back in the lane with indulgence. Disney films tell of outsiders and adaptation. "
“The story is familiar, its outcome known. Of course - where a slow march like Dickens still needed 544 book pages to tell the story, the Walt Disney production and director George Scribner today need just under 75 minutes to let the cat out of the bag. "
Production history
Originally intended as an offshoot of Bernard and Bianca , this film would show the life of a girl named Penny in New York, but the producers didn't find the plot convincing enough. From this early idea only a few similarities in the character of Penny / Jenny remained as well as cornerstones in the background design. Even if the setting of the metropolis of New York is completely different from the marshland from Bernard and Bianca , one recognizes certain parallels between the films in the drawing style, the realism and the connections to the time.
The high level of computer animation use is also particularly noteworthy. While in Basil, the great mouse detective received only one scene from the PC, all vehicles and other moving things (such as the piano sits on the dodger while it is being pulled up) as well as some skyscrapers and the background are in the final hunting sequence with the help of the Computers came about, which is why Oliver & Co. was the first Disney cartoon to have a special computer animation department.
The decision to make the film contemporary also had a great influence on the style of the film. The suggestion came from Jeffrey Katzenberg , who already had the idea at Paramount Pictures to shoot a feature film musical with pop songs based on Oliver Twist . At that time, Disney's CEO Michael Eisner refused, but now he saw it as the perfect opportunity to modernize Disney's animated films and make them accessible again to an older audience after films like Cap and Capper had put them off.
So, in addition to the sometimes uncomfortable cityscape, the relaxed youthful language and some sometimes quite tough scenes, it came mainly to the cast of voices and singers: Billy Joel as Dodger (and interpreter of the song What should I annoy me? ), Touchstone comedy star Bette Midler as Georgette and the then popular Huey Lewis as the interpreter of the title song Once Upon a Time in New York City . Katzenberg's plan worked. Oliver & Co. was a success, not just with the youngest moviegoers.
useful information
- Oliver & Co. is the last Disney film to use the line overlay technique , also known as cel overlay .
- In reality, the Brooklyn Bridge does not have a subway line as shown in the film.
- The song What should I be angry with? was later used as the theme song for a TV series starring Joey Lawrence . This series was also produced by Disney.
- In the song What should I get angry? Other Disney four-legged friends also appear. For example: Jock, Pluto and Peggy from Lady and the Tramp. Likewise Pongo from 101 Dalmatians.
- In New York, the animators took photos with a camera that was only 50 cm above the ground. They used this as a reference for what New York looks like from a dog's point of view.
- The man Fagin wants to turn on a defective watch is a caricature by Peter Schneider, the then vice-president of Disney's animation department.
- The elderly couple Jenny and Oliver meet in Central Park are a caricature by Walt Disney and his wife Lilian.
- With Heigh-Ho by Frank Churchill and Larry Morey , a song from Disney's first full-length cartoon Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is used again.
- For Dom DeLuise , a regular spokesperson for Don Bluth's films , it was the only feature-length Disney film in which he originally spoke a main character.
- It is the last German dubbed version of a full-length Disney film in which the long-time regular speakers Arnold Marquis , Klaus Havenstein and Gerd Duwner lend their voices to the main and secondary characters, as well as the only Disney film in which Helmut Ahner and Eric Vaessen dubbed a character during their lifetime.
synchronization
The synchronization was commissioned by Berliner Synchron GmbH in Berlin . Klaus-Peter Bauer wrote the dialogue book and directed the dialogue. Andreas Hommelsheim took over the musical direction.
| role | Original speaker | German speaker |
| Oliver | Joey Lawrence | Fabian Heinrich |
| Dodger | Billy Joel | Uwe Paulsen |
| Dodger (vocals) | Billy Joel | Jürgen Drews |
| Tito | Cheech Marin | Wolfgang number |
| Einstein | Richard Mulligan | Tom Deininger |
| Francis | Roscoe Lee Browne | Helmut Ahner |
| Rita | Sheryl Lee Ralph | Monica Bielenstein |
| Rita (vocals) | Ruth Pointer | Isabel Varell |
| Fagin | Dom DeLuise | Klaus Havenstein |
| Roscoe | Taurean Blacque | Lutz Riedel |
| Desoto | Carl Weintraub | Karl Schulz |
| Sykes | Robert Loggia | Arnold Marquis |
| Jenny | Natalie Gregory | Maxi German |
| Jenny (vocals) | Myhanh Tran | Sylvia Mieres |
| Winston | William Glover | Eric Vaessen |
| Georgette | Bette Midler | Joseline Gassen |
| Georgette (vocals) | Bette Midler | Katja Ebstein |
| Louie | Frank Welker | Gerd Duwner |
| MacBeth | Harvey Jason | Wolfgang Völz |
Publications
- Special Collection: Oliver & Co. Buena Vista Home Entertainment. First edition. January 23, 2003.
- Special Collection: Oliver & Co. for the 20th anniversary. Buena Vista Home Entertainment. New edition. March 19, 2009.
- Disney Classics 26: Oliver & Co. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. April 12, 2018.
- Oliver & Co. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. 23rd January 2014.
- Disney Classics 26: Oliver & Co. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. April 12, 2018.
Soundtrack
- J.A. C. Redford , Tom Snow , Barry Mann , Howard Ashman , Dan Hartman , Charlie Midnight , Barry Manilow , Robert Minkoff , Rubén Blades : Oliver & Company. On Original Walt Disney Records Soundtrack . Walt Disney Records , Etobicoke 1995, sound carrier no. 60890-7 or ISBN 1-55723-967-3 .
literature
- Charles Dickens : Oliver Twist. Novel. (OT: Oliver Twist. ) German by Carl Kolb and Anton Ritthaler. With illustrations by George Cruikshank and an afterword by Uwe Böker . Artemis and Winkler, Düsseldorf and Zurich 2001, ISBN 3-538-06930-1 .
- Elmar Biebl, Dirk Manthey, Jörg Altendorf: The films of Walt Disney. The magical world of animation. 2nd Edition. Milchstraße, Hamburg 1993, ISBN 3-89324-117-5 .
Web links
- Oliver & Co. in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Official Disney Page
Individual evidence
- ↑ Oliver & Co. In: Lexicon of international film . Film service , accessed December 7, 2017 .
- ↑ a b quoted from Rolf Giesen : Lexikon des Trick- und Animationsfilms. From Aladdin, Akira and Sindbad to Shrek, Spider-Man and South Park. Films and characters, series and artists, studios and technology - the great world of animated films. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-89602-523-6 , p. 313.
- ↑ German synchronous index: German synchronous index | Movies | Oliver & Co. Retrieved November 9, 2018 .
- ↑ Special Collection: Oliver & Co. First DVD edition
- ↑ Special Collection: Oliver & Co. for the 20th anniversary.
- ↑ Oliver & Co. Blu-ray.
