Trivia / Oliver & Company

• Actor-Shared Background:
  • Like Dodger, Billy Joel is a native of New York City.
  • It's very subtle, and may not have even been intentional, but while Roscoe and DeSoto are on Fagin's boat, a day-to-day calendar appears in a "blink-and-you'll-miss-it shot", which shows that the current date is April 21st, 1988. The previous day is the audience's introduction to Oliver, and Joey Lawrence's birthday is on April 20th.
• All-Star Cast: Featuring...
  • Billy Joel as Dodger.
  • Dom DeLuise as Fagin.
  • Bette Midler as Georgette.
  • Joey Lawrence as Oliver.
  • Cheech Marin as Tito (fittingly).
  • Robert Loggia as Sykes.
  • Sheryl Lee Ralph, the original Broadway Deena Jones in Dreamgirls, as Rita's speaking voice, with Ruth Pointer of the Pointer Sisters, as Rita's singing voice.
  • Richard Mulligan, mostly remembered from Soap and Empty Nest, as Einstein.
• Blooper:
  • The scratch marks on DeSoto's nose after Oliver scratches him vanish and reappear in some following shots.
  • The first shot of Jenny, Oliver, and the dogs falling after Sykes cuts the hook's power shows Jenny still tied to the chair; however, the chair is suddenly gone in the next shot when they slide down the chute.
  • Despite being full in the previous shot, Fagin's scooter is empty going up the Brooklyn Bridge support cable during the shot of Skyes throwing off Dodger and Oliver.
• Channel Hop: In North America, this film has always been with Disney; however, in most international territories, it was initially released in theatres by Warner Bros..
• Divorced Installment: Originally, this movie would be a pseudo-sequel/spin-off of The Rescuers that followed Penny after she was adopted. You can still see some traces of it, namely the main character's name being changed to "Jenny" and both films being set in New York City. The idea of a sequel to The Rescuers eventually came to fruition with The Rescuers Down Under, though it focuses on Bernard and Miss Bianca's continuing adventures instead of Penny's new life.
• Dueling Movies: The 1980s were a very tumultuous time in animation. Don Bluth had very publicly split with Disney and started his own studio, which naturally competed with Disney. Oliver had two rivals from Bluth: The Land Before Time, which came out on the same day; and All Dogs Go to Heaven, released the following year but also featuring a roguish talking dog and a heartwarming little girl. Oliver did better than either in theaters (though "Time" had the higher opening weekend and worldwide gross), though it's now a somewhat forgotten member of the Disney canon. At the same time, The Land Before Time and All Dogs Go To Heaven eventually spawned long-running video franchises.
• Follow the Leader: Dom De Luise was cast in the film because Disney executives assumed he was key figure in the success of Don Bluth's movies.
• Kids' Meal Toy:
  • In 1988, McDonald's had two promotions based on the film. The first featured finger puppets of Oliver, Dodger, Francis, and Georgette. The second featured musical plush ornaments of Oliver and Dodger for the holiday season.
  • The movie had two Burger King promotions in 1996. One to promote the re-release of the movie, and another to promote the VHS release.
• Non-Singing Voice: Jenny Foxworthy and Rita (voiced respectively by Natalie Gregory and Sheryl Lee Ralph) had a singing double (respectively Myhanh Tran and Ruth Pointer).
• Plot Hole:
  • Jenny learns Fagin's name when Sykes yells it as Fagin and his gang save her from Sykes's warehouse, but how does Fagin know her name before telling her to jump off Sykes's car?
• Referenced by...: Mad Dog's defeat in the Courage the Cowardly Dog episode "The Mask" is similar to Sykes's. Being too caught up in his fight with The Hero to realize his car is heading right into an oncoming train until it's too late, the crash itself happening offscreen. Mad Dog is even the same breed as Sykes' dogs, Roscoe an DeSoto.
• So My Kids Can Watch: Billy Joel took the role of Dodger because he had just had a daughter and wanted to be involved in something she could connect with immediately.
• Throw It In!: Dom DeLuise loved the role of Fagin immensely to the point that he improvised several lines, which were kept in the film.
• Troubled Production: Oliver & Company got off to a bumpy start, first by reducing its budget drastically due to the spectacular box-office failure of The Black Cauldron, and then having one of its co-directors, Peter Young, die barely a month into production. Richard Rich, one of the co-directors of The Black Cauldron and The Fox and the Hound, was put on the project to replace Young. Instead, he busied himself feuding with the new Disney management rather than getting anything useful done, resulting in him being fired from the company altogether. Things smoothed out once the remaining co-director, George Scribner, was allowed to take over as sole director. The film ultimately was a box-office success despite opening in fourth place against The Land Before Time, as it was the first-ever animated film to make over 100 million dollars. Its success prompted Disney's Senior Vice President of Animation, Peter Schneider, to announce the company's plans to release animated features annually. Despite this, it has since received little attention among the broader Disney canon. It was also an entry point for many future Disney and Pixar (and, by extension, DreamWorks) veterans who managed to break into the industry by working on this movie, meaning that it did at least help lead longer-term success for the company.
• What Could Have Been:
  • At one point, Jenny was to be a boy named Jimmy. Later, the writers considered making the film a Stealth Sequel to The Rescuers by making the little girl Penny, post-getting adopted by wealthy parents. The near-identical names and the fact that the finished film's character design of Jenny is just Penny with a different hair color, a new haircut, and no Childish Tooth Gap attest to this idea's influence on the final picture.
  • The film was initially meant to be much darker, with the opening scene featuring Roscoe and DeSoto killing Oliver's parents and him wanting to get revenge.
  • Oliver was initially conceived as a rare and valuable Asian cat, which would’ve been why Fagin kept him in the gang to pay off his debts.
  • Early concept art shows that Dodger was a puppy (basically the same age as Oliver), but he was aged up to match the appearance of the more grown-up actors like Billy Joel.
  • Concept art also shows that some cats were in the gang of dogs, but they were scrapped or changed into dogs themselves not to drive attention away from Oliver.
  • One of the early subplots considered was Fagin planning a heist to steal a rare, valuable baby panda from the Central Park Zoo, but this was scrapped to keep it accurate to the original story.
  • Sykes was originally going to be The Faceless, à la Dr. Claw, but the producers were forced to abandon that idea when the story development for the climax called for more physical action and involvement on Sykes's part.
  • Marlon Brando was offered the role of Sykes by Michael Eisner himself. Brando, however, turned it down, fearing the movie would bomb.
  • Steve Martin and Burt Reynolds were considered for Dodger.
  • Patrick Stewart was considered for the role of Francis, but he was busy with Star Trek: The Next Generation.
  • Whitney Houston was considered to voice Rita.
• Working Title: Oliver & the Dodger.

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