The Salina Journal
Oliver & Company
by Vincent Canby
Saturday, November 19,1988
Even when disguised as a vain Park Avenue poodle, whose territorial instincts are overwhelmed by her sexual needs, Bette Midler and her bigger-than-life performing personality cannot be hidden. There’s no mistaking who is behind the screen, says New York Times film critic Vincent Canby, as Midler provides the speaking voice for the tempestuous Georgette, a female dog with a heart of brass. Georgette is just one of the animals with which, Walt Disney Pictures has cast its newest animated feature, an extremely loose updated variation on the Charles Dickens classic.
Oliver is a small kitten abandoned in mid-Manhattan and forced to fend for himself. He’s adopted by a band of raffish disenfranchised urban dogs led by Dodger (voice by Billy Joel).
The gang’s human master is Fagin (voice by Dom DeLuise). Then Oliver is readopted by a lonely little rich girl named Jenny.
There are good songs and voices, says Canby, but a film that is being touted as the first in a new series of state-of-the-art computer techniques actually looks cheesy and second-rate. It’s only a little better than the usual stuff seen
on Saturday morning TV.
