Elijah Wood
Elijah Wood played the Artful Dodger in Disney's made-for-tv (I think) version of Oliver Twist- not the musical, but just a movie of it. Elijah was a Dodger that I wasen't used to- but it wasen't such a painful performance as the late mini series Dodger by Alan Bleasdale (thats the director, at the moment the name of actor is lost to me). Like the miniseries, this Dodger was much older then what we are used to- consequantly seeming 'eviler' for knowingly leading innocent little Oliver off to a life of crime in the slums- but instead of going with this more sinister version of the Artful, this movie still wanted the more playful, sweet version. To get this, the Artful Dodger becomes much more on Oliver's side then ever before.  The small boy seems to touch his heart the same way Nancy's is- and when Nanacy is killed, the Artful himself decides to take Oliver away to the Brownlows. Also, he is in regret for most of the movie for ever taking Oliver to Fagins- although to give him some credit, he's adamant that he himself loves his life. And also, he brings up a great point of how 'jail' (which he goes to at the end) is really a great place of higher learning for pickpockets- and they come out with alot more knowledge gained from the other criminals they've been living with at the end.All in all, he pulled off the older Dodger to the best that I've seen yet- and I enjoyed seeing his little mind toren in half for most of the movie between his greediness and awful deeds (spying on Nancy, etc.) and his own growing guilt towards Oliver. |
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