Oliver Twist

I must confess that this is the only Burbank Australia film that I've seen and this is actually a fairly good first impression. First the good, the music is generally very nice and haunting. Also, I like the animation. It's solid and flows very nicely with a great deal of greens and blues. The voice acting is solid. In addition to the solid and honestly rather lovely backgrounds, the character animation is also pretty good. Oliver looks so innocent and pure, the Artful Dodger looks a bit like Lampwick from Pinocchio, Mr Brownlow is suitably benevolent, and Sikes is certainly imposing. With regards to Fagin, his design doesn't make him appear particularly vile at first but I think that the idea was for him to initially appear benign to both Oliver and to the audience, so I have to disagree with the other review regarding that. Don't worry, he shows his true colours later on. My main criticism is that the story is that the story feels kind of rushed. On the whole, not a favourite but enjoyable.

As far as the Dickens Burbank Films Australia animations go, this Oliver Twist is not as good as David Copperfield but miles ahead of The Old Curiosity Shop. It does have its problems, the animation does often look very stiff especially in the character designs for Oliver and Bill Sykes. Some of the storytelling, which is generally faithful in spirit to the book, also feels rushed and has a rather sprawling quality particularly towards the end. Nancy's death doesn't have any impact as a consequence. However, the music is very hauntingly beautiful, the dialogue is on the most part thoughtful and flowing and there is evidence of a meticulous atmosphere. The characters are generally well done, Bill Sykes is brutally menacing, Oliver is a character you do identify with, Mr Brownlow is appropriately benevolent and Nancy has the vulnerability you'd expect. Fagin is sadly a disappointment though as I don't think his oily and manipulative side came through enough, and to me he looked too much like a wise wizard rather than the rather predatory-looking man described and depicted before. I do understand that this is an animated adaptation for a different target audience than most adaptations but I still think there could have been more to Fagin than there was. The voice acting is solid. All in all, a decent animated adaptation but was lacking as well. 7/10 Bethany Cox