Was a little high watching this with Kaiti and had to take another look just to be sure it was as good as I thought it was. Totally was.
How is this little Disney gem overlooked? So maybe it is just this side of goofy – plus fuck Bette Midler…pretty much…I think.
But besides that, the movie is seriously full of cool ideas. All kinds of imagination and little tricks. Dodger, the tough “streetwise” NYC dog who befriends Oliver, is played by Billy Joel. There’s this one scene where he’s watching TV at the rest and the static is reflected in his black obviously ray-ban sunglasses. It is top-shelf material. And anybody who thinks that Billy Joel playing a hard dogg from the streets is corny or fake is simply wrong. He was born in the Bronx and was SUCCESSFUL as a boxer on Long Island. Plus he wrote “And So it Goes.” If you don’t feel those changes, I can’t help you. Better than the Nick Lowe song? Fuck, I don’t know. But he also plays the piano upside down and backwards, which, unlike the more famous guitar behind the head or back, is actually difficult. Like, amazing difficult.
Cheech as the chihuahua and Robert Loggia, an underutilized gangster type from Lost Highway as the villain, pretty much guarantee classic status. The dull uninspired “little girl” character who plays a minor part in the story can’t even dim the flame. She sings a whole song to Oliver the kitten about how they’re going to be friends forever right after finding him too, which is adorable.
And for the climax, the villain chases Oliver, the gang of dogs and a hobo (on his moped) through a subway and onto the Brooklyn Bridge. Dude peels off on the subway tracks, rips off the tires and goes after them riding on rims and throwing sparks everywhere. I won’t spoil the very end, but through all that the little girl pretty much keeps her mouth shut.
For the ending, rather than the dog friends moving in with Oliver and the girl in the rich family’s house like I thought they would, Dodger and the gang decide to keep hustling instead and Cheech gets the girl. I guess I don’t really know how I feel about Bette Midler and her giant fucking tits, but that ending is perfect.
