Movies geared towards children often attempt to teach a lesson.  Often, this lesson revolves around the idea of making the right choices.  However, some children movies teach about different aspects of life.  For example, Disney’s Oliver & Company expresses the differences in New York City class systems through both the animals and people.

No matter where you travel there are different levels of social classes.  Usually, these differences are much less apparent because the classes don’t typically cross paths.  In a city like New York City, however, it is a common affair to cross paths with many different ranks of people.  This is shown quite clearly through the way the different characters, both human and animal, are dressed or fashioned.  Also, their rank is made even more clearly when you compare and contrast their living arrangements.

For example, New York City’s lower class is shown through Dodger, Tito, Einstein, Francis, Rita, and Fagin.  As you can see, from the pictures, both the dogs and their owner Fagin are quite scruffy.  Through their less than clean appearance one can easily tell that they live on the streets or are at the very least struggling to make ends meet.  This clearly represents the bottom of the social class totem pole.  Fagin and his gang of dogs live in a bad part of town and have no money.  Their home, a worn down boat, does not have many things in it because Fagin does not have the means to make purchases.  At the beginning of the movie, Dodger stole sausages so that the dogs would be able to eat.  Later in the movie, Fagin actually munched on a dog biscuit to curb his hunger pains.  Poverty was clearly portrayed through these characters.

Above, there is a picture of  Fagin and a clip.  In the clip above Dodger shows Oliver how to be street smart and steal food to survive.  He represents the lower class who is struggling to survive.

At first, I sat and wondered where the representation of the middle, every day class, fit into the picture.  About midway into the film there is a short scene where a prissy poodle named Georgette sings a song and the normal every day dogs come barking up her tree.  She literally looks down on them from her glamorous balcony and tells them they were barking up the wrong tree.  She basically pegs them as every day dogs.  These dogs were dragging dog houses that were more than likely located in a middle class family’s yard.

The scene above shows both the upper and middle class.

Georgette, the poodle, being the upper class and the other dogs representing the middle class.

Lastly, the upper class is represented by Jenny, her butler Winston, and her snooty five-time champion poodle Georgette.  Jenny is a pristine little girl.  Through the entire movie she is dressed quite nicely.  Though many different classes walk the streets of New York City, Jenny met up with Fagin’s dogs because they tried to hotwire her family’s car.  It’s obvious she has money because she has a driver who doubles as her family’s butler/nanny.  People without money do not have drivers.  Like Jenny, her poodle Georgette fits the role of the rich.  Georgette is a nicely put together dog who easily gives off the stereotypical rich girl snootiness with ease.  And, of course, Jenny’s home is located in the ritzy part of New York City where everything surrounding her home is in immaculate condition.

Here is another representation of the upper class.

Jenny is in her ritzy Upper East Side home working on her piano lessons.

To round things out it is also important to note the difference between the scenes that take place in Jenny’s neighbor versus the scenes that take place in Fagin’s.  The scenes that take place in Jenny’s home, which is on the Upper East Side, have a sense of shimmer to them.  The sun always seems to be shining brighter and the scenes are usually cheerful.  Also, the buildings in her neighborhood are in pristine condition.  The scenes that take place in Fagin’s neighborhood, however, seem much darker.  The color usage in Fagin’s scenes helpfully adds to the sense of despair and hopelessness that Fagin feels because of his situation.  His home, if you could really call it that, is falling apart.  There is very little light in his scenes unless they collide with Jenny’s.

Personally, I think this was a good lesson to teach children.  Not because the world should be divided up into class systems but because of how Jenny treats Fagin and his dogs.  Even though she is a sweet little rich girl she still welcomes them into her home with open arms at the end of the movie.  They all joined her for a birthday party and gave her trash they found around the city.  This movie not only teaches children that there are class systems; it teaches children that class rank should not matter.  Oliver & Company teaches children that kindness has no bounds.

I commented on Christopher DeMarco and Kristina Wade’s blog posts.