Joey Lawrence Explains How Disney’s ‘Oliver & Company’ Changed Animation by Casting Billy Joel

Disney was struggling in the 1980s. Though it wouldn’t fully recover until The Little Mermaid in 1989, Oliver & Company the year before helped the company get back on course. And casting Billy Joel in his only major acting role helped bolster the film’s success. Oliver & Company, Billy Joel, and Celebrity Casting Joey Lawrence, who voiced the titular Oliver, told SYFY Wire about how the casting of Billy Joel as Dodger plus Bette Midler as Georgette was one of the earliest examples of celebrity casting in animation....