If Disney fans were asked to name the studio’s most significant animated films, few would immediately arrive at Oliver & Company. The 1988 animated adaptation of Oliver Twist, in which a cast of streetwise cats and dogs sings songs by Billy Joel, Barry Manilow and Huey Lewis, hasn’t lodged itself in popular culture quite the same way that other Disney musicals have. Admittedly, the film occupies a strange place in the Disney canon, reminiscent of the studio’s older dog-and-cat films (Lady and the Tramp, 101 Dalmations, The Aristocats) but with an ’80s pop score. It’s also the last animated feature released by Disney before the period known as the “Disney Renaissance,” the revival of the studio’s classic hand-drawn fairy-tale musicals that began with 1989’s The Little Mermaid and ended with 1999’s Tarzan. Oliver & Company doesn’t have the detailed fantasy artwork and Broadway-style score that would define Disney’s new era. And yet without it, Disney’s new era might never have happened.
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