History YMMV / OliverAndCompany

** Tito. Latino audiences, particularly those living in the U.S.A, aren't particularly fond of his character and see him as a painfully obvious, racist caricature without any genuinely redeeming traits whatsoever. However, others find him to be an funny character with lots of good comical lines.

* CrossoverShip: It is very common for Oliver to be shipped with [[WesternAnimation/TheAristocats Marie]].

* CompleteMonster: [[TheDreaded Bill Sykes]] is a [[VileVillainSaccharineShow strikingly dark villain]] in an otherwise lighthearted story. Running a dock shipping company as a front, Sykes is in truth a vicious gangster and {{loan shark}} who indebts downtrodden people to him and then forces them to pay him back, with interest, under threat of torture and murder. Sykes casually orders a man's death be dragged out and then to have him killed with CementShoes in one scene to intimidate his current debtee Fagin, whose life and those of [[BadPeopleAbuseAnimals his beloved dogs]] Sykes regularly threatens. When Fagin comes up with the idea of selling the kitten Oliver back to his owner, young Jenny, to pay back his debt, Sykes uses the opportunity to instead [[WouldHurtAChild kidnap Jenny]] and hold her hostage to extort her parents, threatening to have the girl eaten alive by his ravenous Dobermans. When Fagin and his dogs try to save the girl, Sykes attempts to kill Jenny's would-be rescuers and retrieve her to either finish ransoming, or kill as well.

* CompleteMonster: Bill Sykes is a [[VileVillainSaccharineShow strikingly dark villain]] in an otherwise lighthearted story. Running a dock shipping company as a front, Sykes is in truth a vicious gangster and {{loan shark}} who indebts downtrodden people to him and then forces them to pay him back, with interest, under threat of torture and murder. Sykes casually orders a man's death be dragged out and then to have him killed with CementShoes in one scene to intimidate his current debtee Fagin, whose life and those of [[BadPeopleAbuseAnimals his beloved dogs]] Sykes regularly threatens. When Fagin comes up with the idea of selling the kitten Oliver back to his owner, young Jenny, to pay back his debt, Sykes uses the opportunity to instead [[WouldHurtAChild kidnap Jenny]] and hold her hostage to extort her parents, threatening to have the girl eaten alive by his ravenous Dobermans. When Fagin and his dogs try to save the girl, Sykes attempts to kill Jenny's would-be rescuers and retrieve her to either finish ransoming, or kill as well.

* CompleteMonster: Bill Sykes is a [[VileVillainSaccharineShow strikingly dark villain]] in an otherwise lighthearted story. Running a dock shipping company as a front, Sykes is in truth a vicious gangster and {{loan shark}} who indebts downtrodden people to him and then forces them to pay him back, with interest, under threat of torture and murder. Sykes casually orders a man's death be dragged out and then to have him killed with "cement shoes" in one scene to intimidate his current debtee Fagin, whose life and those of [[BadPeopleAbuseAnimals his beloved dogs]] Sykes regularly threatens. When Fagin comes up with the idea of selling the kitten Oliver back to his owner, young Jenny, to pay back his debt, Sykes uses the opportunity to instead [[WouldHurtAChild kidnap Jenny]] and hold her hostage to extort her parents, threatening to have the girl eaten alive by his ravenous Dobermans. When Fagin and his dogs try to save the girl, Sykes attempts to kill Jenny's would-be rescuers and retrieve her to either finish ransoming, or kill as well.

* CompleteMonster: Bill Sykes is a [[VileVillainSaccharineShow strikingly dark villain]] in an otherwise lighthearted story. Running a dock shipping company as a front, Sykes is in truth a vicious gangster and {{loan shark}} who indebts downtrodden people to him and then forces them to pay him back, with interest, under threat of torture and murder. Sykes casually orders a man's death be dragged out and then he be killed with "cement shoes" in one scene to intimidate his current debtee Fagin, whose life and those of [[BadPeopleAbuseAnimals his beloved dogs]] Sykes regularly threatens. When Fagin comes up with the idea of selling the kitten Oliver back to his owner, young Jenny, to pay back his debt, Sykes uses the opportunity to instead [[WouldHurtAChild kidnap Jenny]] and hold her hostage to extort her parents, threatening to have the girl eaten alive by his ravenous Dobermans. When Fagin and his dogs try to save the girl, Sykes attempts to kill Jenny's would-be rescuers and retrieve her to either finish ransoming, or kill as well.

* OlderThanTheyThink: It went through the theaters release cycle again in the 90's without any/much indication that it wasn't new, but newer audiences reacted more or less the same way than at its day: tepidly at first, more appreciatingly after a long time.

** Many fans (and even non-fans) of [[WesternAnimation/TheRescuers The Rescuers]] believe that Penny should've been kept in the movie as the girl who takes Oliver in (which was a scrapped idea isnce the movie was originally going to be a spin-off of the aforementioned film), as she was already an AnimalLover and they would both share similarities as [[HeartwarmingOrphan Heartwarming Orphans]]. Her replacement Jenny, while not outright disliked, is seen by many as a SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute.

* RootingForTheEmpire: While Oliver & Company aren't outright disliked, many casual viewers found themselves siding with the [[EvilIsCool Sykes]] during the climax of the film. Retroactively, it helps that he's become somewhat of an EnsembleDarkhorse within the Disney villains, so more than a few viewers [[JustHereForGodzilla would just be tuning in just for him]].

** Many fans (and even non-fans) of [[WesternAnimation/TheRescuers The Rescuers]] believe that Penny should've been kept in the movie as the girl who takes Oliver in (which was a scrapped idea isnce the movie was originally going to be a spin-off of the aforementioned film), as she was already an AnimalLover and they would both share similarities as [[Heartwarming Orphan Heartwarming Orphans]]. Her replacement Jenny, while not outright disliked, is seen by many as a SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute.

** Georgette. People either love her diva personality or hate her for being self-absorbed and whiny.

* EsotericHappyEnding: The evil Bill Sykes is dead, but Fagin is still an unemployed man with a gambling problem who lives in a dilapidated boat and who can't afford to feed his dogs. The movie ends with a happy song, but the future of Fagin and his dogs is hardly promising.
* EthnicScrappy: Tito is this to Mexican Americans, due to his blatantly stereotypical portrayal. Others don't really mind him though, and actually enjoy him, which needless to say, has become quite a [[BaseBreakingCharacter debate]].

** The [[spoiler:deaths of Sykes and his dogs, due to them being [[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath surpringly realistic]] and [[NightmareFuel terrifying]] for a Disney film at the time]].

* SoOkayItsAverage: The film is seen as having a rather shallow and weak plot that is kept alive by decent music and excellent performances by the likes of Billy Joel and Bette Midler.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: As antagonists to the gang, Roscoe and [=DeSoto=] don't get much to do after their opening scene. Their later scenes are quite short, and the only members of the gang the two of them even come in conflict with are Oliver and Dodger.

* CriticalDissonance: When it was originally released, the reception it received from critics was ''very'' mixed, with them usually calling it SoOkayItsAverage. It didn't help that ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'' was released around the same time and that ''[[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 The Little Mermaid]]'' (the film that kicked off the Disney Renaissance) came directly after it. Nowadays, fans consider it to be very underrated and over time, [[VindicatedByHistory its reception got better with fans]].

* QuestionableCasting: Sheryl Lee Ralph, who voices Rita, is a singer as well as an actor, with several singles, an album, and several leading roles in Broadway musicals (most notably Deena Jones in the original run of ''Theatre/{{Dreamgirls}}'') to her name, so it's really rather odd that they gave Rita's big solo, "Streets of Gold," to Ruth Pointer. Don't get us wrong, Ruth's performance [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic is fabulous]], but she and Sheryl don't sound ''anything'' alike.
** The answer probably lies in the fact that it is much easier to attract "bums on seats" to your movie if the main song{s} are sung by people whom the average person might have heard of.... like say, a Pointer Sister?

** Writers Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise would later direct ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'' and ''[[WesternAnimation/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]''.

** Dodger's past is also pretty ambiguous; a lot of fanfiction based around the movie often depicts him as being [[ParentalAbandonment abandoned by his mother]] as a puppy before he joined Fagin's gang.

* {{Fanon}}: While it's [[MaybeEverAfter left up in the air]] as two whether Dodger and Rita have feelings for each other, plenty of fan-art and fanfic LOVES to show them as a couple, and in a few cases, with pups of their own.
** Dodger's past is also pretty ambiguous; a lot of fanfiction based around the movie often depicts him as being [[ParentalAbandonment abandoned by his mother]] as a puppy and joining Fagin's gang.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Far more than most of Disney's animated films (which are either timeless or set in the far past). This film is undeniably set in TheEighties—a calendar in the background sets the date of April 20th, 1988 on the day Oliver meets Dodger and the others, and obviously ''made'' in the '80s. The clothing, hairstyles, and general environment drive home the era the film is from. As mentioned on the main page, this could be a reason why Disney didn't release it on home video until the late '90s. Also, since municipal animal control cracked down on them in the '90s, street dogs are much rarer in New York now than they were when this film was released in 1988. Cats, however, are still everywhere.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Far more than most of Disney's animated films (which are either timeless or set in the far past). This film is undeniably set in TheEighties—a calendar in the background sets the date of April 20th, 1988 on the day Oliver meets Dodger and the others, and obviously ''made'' in the '80s. The clothing, hairstyles, and general environment drive home the era the film is from. As mentioned on the main page, this could be a reason why Disney didn't release it on video until the late '90s. Also, since municipal animal control cracked down on them in the '90s, street dogs are much rarer in New York now than they were when this film was released in 1988. Cats, however, are still everywhere.

** Tito. Latino audiences, particularly those living in the U.S.A, aren't particularly fond of his character and see him as a painfully obvious, racist caricature without any genuinely redeeming traits whatsoever. However, others find him to be an funny character with lots of good, comical lines.

** Tito. Latino audiences, particularly those living in the U.S.A, aren't particularly fond of his character and see him as a painfully obvious, racist caricature without any genuinely redeeming traits whatsoever. However, others find him to be an funny character with lots of good lines that are quite comical.

* CatharsisFactor: After spending the whole movie being a ruthless and threatening villain, it's very satisfying to see Sykes' scared, [[WideEyesAndShrunkenIrises extreme close-up of shrinking pupils]] and all, right before [[spoiler:the subway train plows through him and his car]].

* CatharsisFactor: After spending the whole movie being a ruthless and threatening villain, it's very satisfying to see Sykes scared, extreme close-up of shrinking pupils and all, right before [[spoiler:the subway train plows through him and his car]].