Olive

Oliver & Company is a 1988 American animated musical adventure comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and inspired by the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist. It was directed by George Scribner and written by Jim Cox, Tim Disney, and James Mangold. In the film, Oliver is a homeless kitten who joins a gang of dogs to survive in the streets. Among other changes, the setting of the film was relocated from 19th-century London to 1980s New York City, Fagin's gang is made up of dogs (one of which is Dodger), and Sykes is a loan shark. In late 1984 or 1985, Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg held a pitch meeting with the animation staff. After story artist Pete Young pitched the idea to adapt Oliver Twist with dogs, the pitch was quickly approved, and the film quickly went into production under the working title Oliver and the Dodger. Pre-production started with the crew reading Oliver Twist and watching the musical Oliver!, developing the film for six to nine months. After production began in 1986, 300 artists and technicians worked on the film within two and a half years of production. Along with The Land Before Time, Oliver & Company was released theatrically on November 18, 1988. Oliver & Company received mixed reviews from critics. The music and vocal performances of celebrities were praised, while the animation, designs, its use of computer-generated imagery, and plot received divided reviews. The film however performed very well at the box office, grossing $121 million worldwide against the budget of $31 million. The film was re-released in theaters in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom on March 29, 1996. It was released on home video in North America on September 24, 1996, on VHS and LaserDisc. A DVD edition followed on May 14, 2002, as a special edition. Oliver & Company was later released on Blu-ray Disc on August 6, 2013, to commemorate its 25th anniversary.