Jennifer "Jenny" Foxworth (born on April 23, 1980) is the tritagonist from Walt Disney Pictures' 1988 film, Oliver & Company. She was voiced by child star Natalie Gregory. Myhanh Tran provided her singing voice.
Appearance
Jenny is a cute and very pretty 8-year-old girl with blue eyes and short red hair that she mostly wears in a half updo. She appears in four different outfits throughout the film. Jenny is first seen wearing a tartan blue and white school uniform. Then she wears her casual outfit consisting of a sleeved sky-blue turtleneck. She also wears a matching skirt, white panties, periwinkle tights and sneakers. Jenny wears a yellow raincoat over her casual clothes when she tries to find Oliver by the docks. At the end, she wore a beautiful red and white birthday dress with a red headband complete with a bow on the side, white ankle-length socks and black Mary Jane shoes. She wears pink ruffled footy pajamas at bedtime.
Role in the Film
She first appears a quarter of the way in the movie with her butler, Winston, after her parents have left for business. In a limousine, she reads a letter written by her mother, saying that they had left Paris for a conference in Rome. After reading the letter, Jenny becomes upset that her parents will not make it home in time for her birthday.
Then in one of the mishaps performed by the kitten, Oliver, he ends up in her mansion, preferring it to his former life on the streets. Winston is against the idea of Jenny adopting Oliver for the reason that they have a dog; a poodle named Georgette, Winston was left responsible for Jenny by her parents, and they have to wait for her parents' approval. In the kitchen, Oliver has a special meal prepared by Jenny, who made a mess in the kitchen while preparing the meal, which annoys Winston a bit. Then, Jenny talks to her parents on the phone, after Winston answered 1st; assuring everything is fine, about their decision about whether to keep Oliver or not. Jenny comes in after having had a talk with her parents on the phone and tells Georgette, who unfortunately met Oliver, that they have approved about her decision of keeping Oliver and that they're going to be "the best of friends".
Over time, Jenny bonds with Oliver while practicing piano. As Jenny begins to practice, after being reminded by Winston, Oliver somewhat helps her by playing a discordant note. Then, Jenny sings "Good Company" while playing the piano with Oliver. Later, Oliver and Jenny spend the rest of most of their fun of the day at Central Park; riding in a small boat in the lake, playing with fences, greeting people they pass by, eating strawberry ice cream, riding in a horse carriage, and finally, buying Oliver's things with his name on them in a shop, including his bowl and finally of course, Oliver's new golden blue collar name tag with his name and the address on it. Oliver is so happy and excited that he jumps on Jenny and licks her to show that he's grateful, happy, and that he loves her very much. At night, as Jenny is getting ready for bed while singing a few words from "Good Company", Oliver jumps in as well to sleep with her, snuzzles his nose with Jenny's as she picks him up, is tucked in, and is told "Good night, Oliver".
The next day, while Jenny is at school, Oliver is "rescued" by his dog friends who take him back to Fagin's barge. Fagin, seeing Oliver's gold collar, notices that the address is 5th Avenue. He plots to ransom Oliver to get the money he needs to pay back his evil boss, Mr. Sykes, unaware that Jenny herself is the "wealthy cat owner".
When Jenny returns home from school and calls for Oliver, she can't find him anywhere, even with Georgette's "help". She finds Fagin's (unknown to her) ransom note along with his drawn map for their rendez-vous in the mail slot. Jenny gets worried about Oliver and resolves to get him back, much to Georgette's dismay.
At night, with Georgette, Jenny follows the confusing directions on Fagin's map and believes that they are lost, when in reality, they have reached their destination. After meeting Fagin, Jenny tells him about how Oliver was ransomed not knowing that Fagin himself is the kidnapper, and shows him the piggy bank she brought in order to get him back. After their small conversation, Fagin feeling guilty and seeing Jenny and Oliver crying and sad, follows his good heart, gives up the ransom, and returns Oliver, whom he pretended to find in a box, back to Jenny, but then Sykes, along with his 2 Dobermans, Roscoe and DeSoto, who were watching unknowingly the whole thing in his car, shows up, tosses Oliver out of the window, kidnaps Jenny to ransom her to her wealthy parents, and tells a shocked Fagin to keep his mouth shut and to consider their account closed.
With the help of Oliver and his friends, at Sykes' warehouse, Jenny is rescued, while their enemies are distracted, along with the help of a crane operated by 1 of the dogs', Tito's electric specialities. When their enemies return and Sykes destroys the crane's controls, Jenny and her friends are seen falling and landing on a long slide.
At the end of the slide, their enemies have them cornered but before Sykes can snap his fingers to order his dogs to attack, they hear a honking noise and bursting in through the windows, it is revealed to be Fagin, coming to the rescue. Jenny and the gang hop in and flee. They're able to outrun the 2 evil dogs until Sykes catches up with them in his car. Fagin, having no choice, drives his friends in a substation but Sykes, driving like a madman, is still able to follow them. In a tunnel, with Sykes still pursuit, Sykes' car collides with Fagin's scooter, causing Jenny to fall and end up on Sykes' hood. When Sykes tries to grab her, Oliver saves her by biting Sykes' hand but then, is tossed at the back seat where his 2 evil dogs are. Then, Dodger saves Oliver by fighting off Roscoe and Oliver saves Dodger by fighting off DeSoto; killing them both in the process with the help of an electric railway caused by the friction between Sykes' ruined car tires and the tracks. On the Brooklyn Bridge, Jenny calls for help from Fagin and Fagin comes to her aid; leaving Tito in charge of his scooter. Unfortunately, Sykes grabs Jenny by the leg and tries to pull her back in, not before Oliver and Dodger jump on him and fight him off; giving Jenny the chance to jump into Fagin's scooter.
In front of them, a train is coming their way. Tito is capable of saving everyone by jumping on 1 of the cables of the bridge and driving them to the top but Oliver and Dodger are still in the car; fighting Sykes. Sykes throws Oliver and Dodger out of his car until he notices the train heading his way and the train kills him, thus sending him and his car into the Hudson River. When the rest of the company drive back down, Jenny runs to search for Oliver, only to find a sad Dodger approaching; holding a "thought to be dead" Oliver. At 1st, everyone thinks he's dead but when Jenny hears a soft meow from Oliver, she quickly realizes that Oliver is alive and everyone is rejoiced, except Georgette, who is still in great shock from the chase. Then, Dodger and the rest of the gang are accepted as Jenny's new best friends.
The next day, Oliver and the gang are celebrating Jenny's birthday (8 candles on her cake suggests that she is 7 prior to this scene), giving Jenny birthday gifts; mostly Einstein, while she thanks them and for the gifts in the process as reminded by Winston when it's time for her friends to go and she gets to keep Oliver, as her parents already said that she could.
Jenny is last seen saying good-bye to Fagin, later his dogs. As Fagin and the gang are driving back home, Jenny is seen along with Oliver and Winston saying good-bye to them and watching them as they head back to their place, while singing "Why Should I Worry" reprise.
Trivia
- Jenny is similar to Penny from The Rescuers. In fact, an early idea was for Penny to be in Jenny's role. Also, Jenny rhymes with Penny.
- According to 1 of Roscoe and DeSoto's pictures, the calendar next to Roscoe reads April 21, 1988, thus, Thursday, the day Oliver met Dodger. The next day, Friday, would be the day Jenny adopted Oliver, but the next day, Saturday, would be the day Oliver was "rescued" by the dog-gang while Jenny was at school and the day after, Sunday, would be the day of Jenny's birthday so therefore, we can conclude that the day Oliver met Dodger was actually Wednesday April 20, 1988 / Thursday, the day Jenny adopted Oliver / Friday, the day Oliver was "rescued" by the dog-gang / Saturday, the day of Jenny's birthday. Thus, Jenny was actually born in April 23, 1982 (Wednesday April 23, 1982).
- Jenny is also similar to Anne Marie from All Dogs Go to Heaven as they are both kidnapped by the villain (Jenny, Sykes and Anne Marie, Carface) but both saved by animals (Jenny, Dodger and his gang and Anne Marie, Charlie Barkin). Unlike Jenny who was kidnapped about three quarters of the way through, Anne Marie's kidnapping wasn't seen and the first time she was seen with Carface. Also Sykes was not seen to take care of Jenny, held her for ransom, and did not fall in love with her unlike Carface who fell in love with her and took care of her as he told a reluctant Killer to feed her. Jenny also did not know Sykes' name whilst Anne Marie knew Carface as she called him "Mr. Carface". She was also shown to be held over a number of days whilst Jenny was only captured for one night and she was rescued the same night. Also, unlike Anne Marie, Jenny wasn't an orphan and she couldn't communicate with animals.