User Reviews

I know about my note rating 8/10 stars,but this movie is VERY beautiful but very underrated than Disney movies and others animations (oav,cartoons movies) from today. Thanks to Richard Slapczynski for this masterpiece and the best among Burbank Films Australia all cartoons! The characters are very well done,the music is very hauntingly and sadly beautiful. I prefer largely this Oliver Twist animation plus the David Lean live-movie from 1948 than original story by Charles Dickens ; and my favourite character is....Monks a.k.a. Edward Leeford (his real name is not mentionned in this cartoon) : he's the older brother of Oliver Twist... and the son of Agnes! [Here's my Deviantart account with my arts on Monks and characters from this movie Monks is a very handsome young man aged 18-19 in this film version, he is much less naughty,really calm and mysterious and he is considered a mentally tortured secondary character (probably by the death of his mother and sinking, just like Oliver, in misery and hanging out with bad people) In my fictionalized theory, Monks is mainly against Oliver for the death of their mother when she gave birth to his little brother. And Monks's desire to inherit family money is more out of revenge than for the sake of gain. I feeling bad for him also for Oliver. They lost their mom and find themselves alone without really meeting at the end. I would have liked the two brothers to be reconciled in this adaptation, Monks apologizes to Oliver, under the eyes of their mother who is on the portrait and they could live together as loving brothers, unlike the book where Monks goes to America and dies there. This is why I did not add an additional star. Monks really deserves a redemption, whose end of the film is free as to his fate. (I'm starting a comic book suite called "Oliver & Monks" a.k.a. Oliver Twist 2. More goods things : Monks does not have a red patch on his face, is not epileptic, and in the end, he does not die unlike the novel! :D Also for Bill Sikes' cute dog Bull's-eye. A second reason that I did not put 10/10 to this masterpiece and why there is no second star for this film, and I hope that I will not be booed by others lol. It is quite simply the character of Mr. Brownlow. Yes, yes, I don't like this character at all like in the book! (except Mr. Brownlow in the David Lean film where he is the adorable grandfather of Oliver Twist and the father of Agnes) At first I thought he was nice when he picked up Oliver in court after the boy was falsely accused of stealing his handkerchief and saved by the bookseller's testimony. In addition I consider Mr. Brownlow as a cold character, who hardly ever smiles and who wants to play the Good Samaritan, like any hypocritical bourgeois of his rank. Then when Oliver was kidnapped by Nancy and Bill, Mr. Brownlow changed his mind and rejected Oliver after being convinced by his hateful old friend Mr. Grimwig, and by a man he barely knows, the obnoxious Mr. Bumble! Only his housekeeper Ms. Bedwin is adorable and is convinced of the kindness of Oliver Twist. Likewise for the pure Rose who is Agnes' little sister and Oliver's aunt, as well as her mother and that of Agnes in this adaptation, Ms. Maylie. At the end of the film Mr Brownlow tells Oliver Twist that his mother was the friend of Mr Brownlow (in the book he was the close friend of Ewin Leeford the father of Oliver and Monks, of which Agnes Fleming was the lover and Oliver the fruit of adultery and the young Edward Leeford's half-brother) but that she was married, probably with the father of Monks and Oliver, although her name is not mentioned, and that she was also the mother of the two boys. But during a tragic event, Agnes had fled and died giving birth to Oliver at the pension held by Mr Bumble in the cartoon.But Mr. Brownlow was not tender towards Monks and threatened to report him to the police if he did not sign his statement about the proof on Agnes' locket. And he didn't even encourage Oliver to reconcile with his own brother and he leaves. That's so SAD!! Since then, I have always struggled with this character who claims to be protector and new parent for Oliver and I do not like him, sorry. I've a second fictionalized theory about Mr Brownlow,Agnes and the "tragic" event which for me remains a mystery at the end of this version of history. Imagine: Mr. Brownlow considered Agnes , born Fleming, more than a friend when they were young: he was madly in love with this woman, but this one does not feel this love and leaves him for another rich and single young man, Edwin Leeford. Agnes and Edwin fell in love with each other and got married Agnes Leeford gave birth to their first child named Edward Leeford, who was originally a nice little boy living happily with his parents. One day Mr Brownlow visited this family to find Agnes. Or it was the Leeford family who came to see him at his home. He became jealous of Edwin, of whom he was his rival, and both argued. Seeing poor little Edward, Mr. Brownlow became disgusted and if the boy caused an accident like breaking a vase, he poured out his cruelty, scolding him fiercely until Agnes and Edwin rescued their son. Only Mrs. Bedwin had become fond of little Leeford.Agnes was one day pregnant with Oliver, her second son, much to the joy of her family. But the tragic day arrived! One could imagine the death of the father killed in an "accident" as Mr. Brownlow said. (I think it was a murder he had planned to kill his rival in love.) Annihilated, Agnes Leeford, who was about to give birth, and her 9-year-old son Edward took refuge in an orphanage run by the cruel Mr Bumble. He separated little Edward from his mother to put him among the orphans of his age,while his mother gave birth to Oliver,born Leeford, and died. The gold locket was picked up by the poor old nurse Sally Thingummy who gave it 10 years later to the wife of the director of the orphanage. As for Edward Leeford, he was abandoned and unhappy, without friends. He was crying for his mother because he was told that she had died giving birth to his younger brother. A year later, he was forcibly sent by Mr Bumble to work for the cruel undertaker Mr Sowerberry, like Oliver at his age. But one day, he fled from this place and he lived for 3 years with a good old lady. But his happiness did not last: the poor widow died and Edward Leeford went to London. And there Fagin collects him so that he becomes a thief. This is how young Edward Leeford called himself "Monks" for not being recognized. For years as an oprhelin, he harbored hatred towards his little brother, considering him to be coupled with the death of his mother Agnes by bringing him into the world. Monks also felt this hatred towards Mr. Brownlow who for him is an assassin and broke up his family and his childhood. At 16 he left Fagin's refuge and gave himself up to his dark affairs, alone.

Because of Mr. Brownlow, I think that's how the family of Oliver and Monks, in this animated adaptation, was ruined. Mr Brownlow is undoubtedly a hidden antagonist! Furthermore, when Nancy denounced a certain Monks, the man had a fierce hatred towards the elder son of his rival Edwin Leeford. And I don't think he sincerely loves the very young and naive Oliver Twist; he adopted it for the money, and especially chose it because it looks like 2 drops of water to the woman with whom he was in love, Agnes. Finite theory.

To finish my review on this masterpiece: in this animated film, the REAL villains are Mr. Sowerberry and his apprentice Noah Claypole, Mr. Bumble and the bully Bill Sikes! Two great antagonists coming from a different social class each. Personally Fagin was not a potential villain but a sympathetic old man and a little overexcited. But for me,a dark side from the mive is here : an another villain can be Mr. Brownlow.