50 Fun Facts About Oliver & Company

Oliver & Company opened on Mickey Mouse's 60th birthday, the anniversary of which cartoon's premiere?

Steamboat Willie premiered on November 18, 1928, the date Disney counts as Mickey's birthday. Sixty years later the studio marked the day by opening its new feature under a commemorative logo.

In Oliver Twist, the Dickens novel behind Oliver & Company, Fagin trains his gang of boys as what?

Pickpockets: Oliver runs off in horror the first time he sees the boys lift a gentleman's handkerchief. Disney kept the gang of thieves and turned them into dogs.

Where do Fagin and his gang of dogs make their home in Oliver & Company?

On a barge by the docks, where the dogs look after their penniless owner as much as he looks after them: one scene has them tuck him into bed with a dog biscuit.

What kind of animal is Oliver, the hero of Oliver & Company?

An orange tabby kitten: the makers tried Oliver as a dog too, switching back and forth before deciding that the odd one out among dogs would seem most alone.

Which singer provides the voice of Dodger in Oliver & Company?

Billy Joel auditioned over the telephone, and said he took his first cartoon role so that his young daughter would have something of his she could watch.

What do Dodger and Oliver steal together from a street vendor early in Oliver & Company?

Hot dogs: Dodger uses his new acquaintance as a decoy, then runs off with the whole string, and Oliver chases him across the city to demand a share.

Which comedian voices Tito the Chihuahua in Oliver & Company?

Cheech Marin was about the fifth actor to read for the part. Once he had it, the animators reworked the little dog around his performance.

Which catchphrase does Tito the Chihuahua keep shouting in Oliver & Company?

Check it out, pipes the smallest and loudest of the gang, who also falls for a pampered show dog several times his size.

What breed is Einstein, the biggest dog in Fagin's gang in Oliver & Company?

Great Dane Einstein is named as a joke: he is the gang's slowest thinker, and stops a limousine by running into it head first.

Francis, the bulldog in Oliver & Company, is devoted to the plays of which writer?

William Shakespeare: Francis watches Macbeth on the gang's battered television, and he puts his acting to use by playing a wounded dog in the street.

A member of which sister act sings Rita's song, Streets of Gold, in Oliver & Company?

The Pointer Sisters' Ruth Pointer sings it, although a different performer speaks Rita's lines: the character has two voices.

Who provides the speaking voice of Rita in Oliver & Company?

Sheryl Lee Ralph came to the role from more than a thousand Broadway performances of Dreamgirls, yet the film hands her character's big song to another singer.

Who voices Fagin, the down-at-heel thief, in Oliver & Company?

Dom DeLuise's Fagin can't go through with his ransom scheme: finding that the rich owner he meant to squeeze is a little girl with a piggy bank, he hands Oliver back for nothing.

What is the villain Sykes's line of work in Oliver & Company?

Loan shark Sykes prowls the city in a menacing limousine with two guard dogs, and gives Fagin just three days to pay back what he owes.

What are the names of Sykes's two Dobermans in Oliver & Company?

Roscoe and DeSoto meet their end in the subway chase, thrown onto the electrified third rail while fighting Oliver and Dodger.

Who voices Georgette, the pampered show dog, in Oliver & Company?

Bette Midler's Georgette is so jealous of the newcomer that she helps the gang carry him off, then finds herself dragged along on his rescue.

What is the name of the girl who adopts Oliver in Oliver & Company?

Jenny Foxworth gave the animators more trouble than any animal: audiences, the studio's chief said, judge a realistic human far more harshly than a cartoon dog.

Which future teen idol voiced Oliver in Oliver & Company?

Joey Lawrence recorded the part over more than two years and was twelve by the premiere. As his voice dropped, Oliver's high lines became harder for him to reach.

In Oliver & Company, what is the name of the butler who looks after Oliver's young owner?

Winston was redrawn after William Glover recorded the part: the animators made him heavier, shrank his head and gave him daintier hands and feet to suit the voice.

Who voices the villain Sykes in Oliver & Company?

Robert Loggia's Sykes was the last character added to the story. The makers gave him two Dobermans so that his menace could play out at the dogs' level.

How does the villain Sykes meet his end in Oliver & Company?

His car collides with a train: Sykes drives after the gang's scooter down into the subway and along the tracks, where a train ends the chase.

Oliver & Company was the first animated feature begun under which new pair of Disney bosses?

Eisner and Katzenberg had wanted to film the same Dickens story as a live-action musical while they were at Paramount. At Disney they made it as a cartoon instead.

What was the nickname of the Disney pitch meeting where Oliver & Company was first proposed?

The Gong Show was a session at which staff pitched ideas for new features to the studio's bosses. Treasure Planet was pitched at the same meeting and waited more than 15 years to reach the screen.

Which later Disney hit was first pitched at the same meeting that produced Oliver & Company?

The Little Mermaid was turned down on the spot as too close to a planned sequel to Splash, then revived, and reached cinemas a year after Oliver.

Which film was Disney's previous animated feature before Oliver & Company?

The Great Mouse Detective, of 1986, was already planned when the studio's new management arrived. Oliver & Company was the first feature they started themselves.

Which future Hollywood director co-wrote the screenplay of Oliver & Company in his early twenties?

James Mangold joined Disney on a writer-director deal at 21, then went back to film school. He later made Walk the Line and Logan.

An early draft of Oliver & Company had Fagin's gang kidnap what from the Central Park Zoo?

A rare panda stayed in the story for about nine months, until the makers saw that it split the audience's sympathy with Oliver and wrote in a little girl instead.

In Georgette's song Perfect Isn't Easy, what computer-drawn piece of scenery does she sweep down?

A spiral staircase: computers took on the film's rigid objects, from taxis to a cement mixer, so that the animators could spend their time on the characters.

What occasion do Fagin and his dogs celebrate with Oliver's new owner at the end of Oliver & Company?

Her birthday, the one she had dreaded spending without her parents. During the party the butler takes a call: they will be home the next day.

Which chart-topping singer co-wrote Georgette's song, Perfect Isn't Easy, for Oliver & Company?

Barry Manilow wrote it for an old colleague: in the early 1970s he had been the pianist and accompanist of the star who sings it in the film.

The final chase of Oliver & Company bursts out of the subway onto which bridge?

The Brooklyn Bridge was the most ambitious thing the film's artists built by computer. The hand-drawn dogs and their pursuer were then animated on top of it.

In Oliver & Company, what tells Fagin that Oliver has been taken in by a wealthy family?

A gold name tag, engraved with a smart address, gives the desperate Fagin his idea: hold the pet for ransom and clear his debt in one go.

The makers of Oliver & Company borrowed their dog's-eye view of the streets from which earlier Disney film?

Lady and the Tramp keeps to its animals' view of the world, the director said. His crew photographed real streets from 18 inches off the ground, drawing stares from passers-by.

Oliver & Company fell to a new generation after which celebrated group of Disney animators retired?

The Nine Old Men taught their successors before leaving: one of the film's lead animators said Ollie Johnston showed him how to build a dog from solid shapes joined by a flexible spine.

What was the first object the makers of Oliver & Company tried building by computer?

Fagin's trike, part scooter and part shopping cart, was built in separate layers for its lights, baskets and wheels. It worked, and the computer was soon in use across the film.

Which lyricist, new to Disney, wrote the words of Oliver & Company's opening song?

Howard Ashman was hired for this one lyric and stayed: the Disney songs he wrote next won him two Academy Awards.

In the Dickens novel behind Oliver & Company, whom does the brutal Bill Sikes murder for helping Oliver?

Nancy has no such fate in Disney's version: her counterpart among the dogs comes through unharmed, and it is the villain who dies.

Which song does Dodger sing in Oliver & Company?

Why Should I Worry? began as plain dialogue, played without music: Dodger met Oliver, said his piece and walked off. It became the first song written for the film.

Who sings the opening number of Oliver & Company, Once Upon a Time in New York City?

Huey Lewis's opener set the pattern: every song in the film went to a different team of writers, because the studio wanted a line-up of pop hitmakers instead of one score.

In the Dickens novel behind Oliver & Company, what does the orphan hero dare to ask for more of?

Gruel, the thin porridge the boys are fed: they draw lots to decide who must ask, Oliver loses, and his request gets him sent away as an undertaker's apprentice.

The makers of Oliver & Company filled its city streets with more than 30 real what?

Brand logos, from Kodak to Sony and USA Today: the director had meant to keep the film free of period detail, then decided the city wouldn't feel real without its billboards.

Which animated film opened on the same day as Oliver & Company and beat it to number one that weekend?

The Land Before Time took $7.5 million that weekend to Oliver's $4 million, from many more screens. Oliver had the last laugh, finishing its run with the bigger total.

Which retailer sold a range of Oliver & Company children's clothes through its Christmas catalogue?

Sears had the clothes in catalogues mailed weeks before the film opened: the retailer was betting on a cartoon that nobody had yet seen.

Which film's record did Oliver & Company, released in 1988, break as the top-grossing animated feature on first US release?

An American Tail came from Don Bluth, who had quit Disney in 1979 and set up as a rival. With Oliver, his old studio took the record from him.

Disney re-released Oliver & Company in March 1996 to compete head-on with which rival sequel?

All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 opened the same weekend and quickly died. An executive at its studio said the episode showed how aggressively Disney could come after a rival.

How does Oliver first win the respect of Fagin's gang in Oliver & Company?

He claws a Doberman's nose: cornered by the villain's two guard dogs, who mean to eat him, the smallest animal in the room strikes first.

Which fast-food chain gave away toys based on the characters of Oliver & Company in 1988?

McDonald's had a rival: Pizza Hut backed the cartoon that opened the same day, offering rubber hand puppets of its characters.

Where does Fagin go to raise cash while his dogs work the streets in Oliver & Company?

A pawn shop is his first stop, to sell what the gang has stolen. Left to themselves, the animals pick a limousine to rob, and Oliver ends the day in a new home.

In House of Mouse, Dodger fronts a dog band with what name?

They perform 'Everybody Wants to Be a Woof', a parody of The Aristocats' big number; Jess Harnell voices Dodger there.

Roughly how many sketches and drawings did Disney's artists make for Oliver & Company?

About 1 million, boiled down to 119,275 finished cels that were still painted by hand, even as computers took over the film's cars and its bridge.