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| All Dogs Go to Heaven | |
|---|---|
 DVD Cover | |
| Directed by | Don Bluth |
| Produced by | Don Bluth Gary Goldman John Pomeroy |
| Written by | Mitchel Savage |
| Starring | Burt Reynolds Dom DeLuise Judith Barsi Vic Tayback Charles Nelson Reilly Ken Page Loni Anderson Melba Moore |
| Distributed by | MGM/UA |
| Release date(s) | November 17, 1989 |
| Running time | 89 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | Unknown |
| Followed by | All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 |
| IMDb profile | |
All Dogs Go to Heaven is an animated film directed and produced by Don Bluth and released by United Artists in 1989. The film tells the story of a dog, Charlie B. Barkin (voiced by Burt Reynolds), who is murdered by his gangster business partner Carface Carruthers, but who forsakes his place in Heaven to return and take revenge. On his return he frees a young orphan girl, Anne-Marie, who Carface was holding captive because of her ability to talk to and understand animals (giving Carface insider information about who to bet on in races). At first Charlie means to exploit Anne-Marie\'s gift too, but soon comes to learn he will have to change his ways if he is to earn his place in Heaven again.
The film was produced mostly at Sullivan Bluth Studios in Dublin, Ireland, funded by UK-based investors Goldcrest Films. On its cinema release it competed directly with a Disney animated feature released at the same time (The Little Mermaid). While it did not repeat the box-office success of Sullivan Bluth\'s previous feature films (An American Tail and The Land Before Time) it was very successful on home video, becoming one of the biggest-selling VHS releases ever. The film inspired a theatrical sequel, a television series and a Christmas special TV movie.
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In 1939 New Orleans, Charlie B. Barkin, a rough-and-tumble German Shepherd (voiced by Burt Reynolds) with a con man\'s charm, is working at a casino with his gangster Pit Bull business partner Carface Carruthers. Carface, unwilling to share the earnings, has Charlie locked away at the pound, but with the help of his friend Itchy, a nervous Dachshund, he breaks out. Unaware of Carface\'s malicious intent, Charlie returns full of ideas about changing their business, but Carface wants to sever ties with him. To get Charlie out of the picture for good, Carface arranges his death. He takes Charlie out to Mardi Gras, gets him drunk and runs him down with a car, knocking him into the river.
Having died, Charlie goes to Heaven by default, despite not having done a single nice thing in his life; as the angelic Heavenly Whippet explains, “unlike people, dogs are naturally good and loyal and kind”. Dissatisfied at having died before his time, Charlie takes back his ‘life watch’ (a glowing pocket watch) and winds it up again, forsaking his place in Heaven and returning himself to Earth. While he has been returned to life, and cannot die while his life watch still ticks, when it does stop he will be condemned to Hell for eternity. (As the Heavenly Whippet says through the watch, "You can never come back.")
Back on Earth Charlie reunites with Itchy and plots his revenge against Carface by setting up a rival business, ‘Charlie\'s Place’. Itchy is reluctant to cooperate, fearing retribution not only from Carface but also a ‘monster’ he has heard Carface possesses. Upon investigation, Charlie discovers the ‘monster’ is in fact an orphan named Anne-Marie who Carface has been harbouring because of her ability to communicate with animals, giving Carface the advantage when gambling on races. Seeing the potential to use Anne-Marie\'s gift for his own gain, Charlie decides to take her, promising he will only use her abilities to do good and that he will find her a family. Ever the con-artist though, Charlie has no intention of doing so, and continues with his criminal ways, pickpocketing a married couple while Anne-Marie unwittingly helps divert their attention. When Anne-Marie finds out, she is furious at Charlie. His conscience pricked, Charlie begins to worry about his fate, and that night suffers a nightmare where he is banished to Hell and menaced by demons.
Meanwhile Carface, still out to get Charlie, storms into Charlie\'s Place with his thugs, assaults Itchy and sets fire to the establishment. When Charlie returns, Itchy is angry at him for paying more attention to Anne-Marie instead of being there to help his oldest friend. Charlie, in frustration, replies that he is only using her (despite having obviously grown to care deeply about her). Unfortunately, Anne-Marie overhears and, despite her illness, rushes heartbroken out into the night. Before long, Carface spots her and recaptures her, taking her to his hideout in an old oil tanker. When Charlie and Itchy realize what has happened, Itchy rounds up all the dogs in the neighborhood and heads to the married couple\'s house to alert them to Anne-Marie\'s plight, while Charlie heads for Carface\'s hideout to confront him and rescue the girl.
At Carface\'s hideout, Charlie fights his way through a horde of henchmen, but soon gets captured and tied to an anchor, ready to be thrown into the water. As he struggles, Charlie gets bitten and lets out a piercing howl; King Gator hears the voice and rushes to his aid. Just as Charlie is about to drown, King Gator frees him and begins tearing the oil tanker apart. Charlie confronts Carface in a deadly battle while the ship breaks apart around them. With the shaking and shuddering, the cage holding Anne-Marie falls into the river, and some oil barrels get knocked over, starting a fire. Charlie goes to save Anne-Marie, but Carface leaps on him and knocks his precious life watch, the only thing keeping him alive, onto the debris floating on the water. Just as Carface is about to deliver a killing bite to Charlie, King Gator rams the ship again. Carface tumbles into the water where he is devoured by King Gator. Charlie leaps to save both his life watch and Anne-Marie, but is unable to get to both in time; faced with the choice, he saves the girl. His watch sinks to the bottom of the river, its workings fill with water and it stops. On the riverbank, Itchy and the other dogs have led the married couple to the scene. Carface\'s former sidekick, Killer, has carried Anne-Marie away from the burning ship to safety.
Some time later, Anne-Marie sleeps at the married couple\'s house. Charlie\'s spirit returns, escorted by the terrifying demon from his nightmare, to bid her farewell before he is banished to Hell. As the demon beckons Charlie, a bright blue light enters and drives it away, and the voice of the Heavenly Whippet tells Charlie that his act of self-sacrifice has earned him his place in Heaven again. Charlie says his heartfelt goodbyes to Anne-Marie, and returns to Heaven.
In Heaven, Carface is furious at his untimely death and, just as Charlie did, he winds up his life clock to return to life, swearing revenge on King Gator. With a wink at the camera, Charlie remarks, “He\'ll be back”.
The earliest idea for All Dogs Go to Heaven was conceived by Don Bluth after finishing work on The Secret of NIMH. The treatment was originally about a canine private eye, and one of three short stories making up an anthology film. The character of a shaggy German Shepherd Dog was designed specifically with Burt Reynolds in mind for the role. However, Bluth\'s first studio, Don Bluth Productions, was going through a period of financial difficulty, ultimately having to declare bankruptcy, and the idea never made it beyond rough storyboards. The concept was revived and rewritten by Bluth, John Pomeroy and Gary Goldman in November 1987, building around the title All Dogs Go to Heaven, and drawing inspiration from films such as It\'s a Wonderful Life, Little Miss Marker and A Guy Named Joe. The film\'s title came from a book read to Bluth\'s fourth grade class in school, and he resisted suggestions to change it, stating he liked how “provocative” it sounded, and how people reacted to the title alone.Cawley, All Dogs Go to Heaven
During the production of their previous feature film, Sullivan Bluth Studios had moved from Van Nuys, California to a state-of-the-art studio facility in Dublin, Ireland, and All Dogs Go to Heaven was their first to begin production wholly at the Irish studio. It was also their first to be funded from sources outside of Hollywood; the previous two feature films, An American Tail and The Land Before Time, had been backed by Amblin Entertainment and Universal Pictures, and executive producers Steven Spielberg and George Lucas had exercised a degree of control over the content of the films, a situation Bluth found disagreeable.Cawley, An American TailCawley, The Land Before Time The studio found investment from UK-based Goldcrest Films in a US$70m deal to produce three animated feature films (though only two, All Dogs Go to Heaven and Rock-A-Doodle, would be completed under the deal).Cawley, At Home in Ireland The three founding members of the studio, Bluth, Pomeroy and Goldman, had all moved to Ireland to set up the new facility, but during the production of All Dogs Go to Heaven, John Pomeroy returned to the U.S. to head up a satellite studio which provided some of the animation for the film. Pomeroy also used his presence in the U.S. to generate early publicity for the film, including a presentation at the 1987 San Diego Comic-Con.
The film\'s lead voices, Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise, had previously appeared together in a number of films, including The Cannonball Run. For All Dogs Go to Heaven, they requested they be allowed to record their parts in the studio together (in American animation it is more common for each actor to record their part solo). Bluth agreed, and allowed Reynolds and DeLuise to ad-lib extensively; Bluth later commented “their ad-libs were often better than the original script”.Beck, The Animated Movie Guide p.14 Another pair of voices, those of Carface and Killer (Vic Tayback and Charles Nelson Reilly respectively) also recorded together.
As production neared completion, the studio held test screenings and decided that some of the scenes were too intense for younger viewers. When first submitted to the MPAA, All Dogs Go to Heaven received a PG rating. Writer and producer John Pomeroy found this unacceptable, and decided to shorten or remove several shots in order to attain a G rating, most notably a clear shot of Charlie being knocked down by a car, and his nightmare about Hell. Co-director Gary Goldman also agreed to the cuts, recognising that some concessions needed to be made in the name of commercial appeal.
Dissatisfied with the terms imposed by Universal Pictures, which had distributed their previous two films, the studio found an alternative distributor in United Artists. Somewhat unusually, production investors Goldcrest Films covered the cost of the release prints and the promotional campaign, in return for a greatly reduced distribution fee from UA. This was similar to the arrangement with United Artists when they distributed Bluth\'s first feature film, The Secret of NIMH. Goldcrest Films invested US$15m in printing and promoting the film. Due to contractual issues, very little tie-in merchandise accompanied the film\'s theatrical release; several computer games and software packages were released, and restaurant chain Wendy\'s offered toys with their Kids\' Meals or regular fries.RetroJunk - Wendy\'s All Dogs Go to Heaven Toys.
All Dogs Go to Heaven opened in the U.S. on November 17 1989, the same day as Disney\'s The Little Mermaid; once again, Sullivan Bluth Studios\' latest feature would be vying for box office receipts with Disney\'s, just as their previous one (The Land Before Time) had. Many critics were hard on the movie, drawing unfavorable comparisons to Disney\'s offering, criticizing the disjointed narrative, the quality of the animation, and the songs by Charlie Strouse and T.J. Kuenster.Rainer, Peter. "All Dogs Go to Heaven (review)", L.A. Times, 17-11-1989. Some found the darker subject material objectionable in a family film,Kempley, Rita. "All Dogs Go to Heaven (review)", New York Times, 17-11-1989. Carr, Jay. "All Dogs Go to Heaven (review)", Boston Globe, 17-11-1989. featuring as it does depictions of death, violence, drinking, smoking, gambling, demons and Hell. However, there were some positive reviews, with some critics praising the film\'s emotional qualities, humor and vibrant color palette.Ebert, Roger. "All Dogs Go to Heaven (review)", Chicago Sun-Times, 17-11-1989. Kehr, Dave. "All Dogs Go to Heaven (review)", Chicago Tribune, 17-11-1989. Famed film critic Roger Ebert gave it three out of four stars. More recent reviews of the film have generally been less harsh, with Box Office Mojo awarding it a B- rating.Box Office Mojo
On its theatrical release, All Dogs Go to Heaven\'s performance fell short of Sullivan Bluth Studios\' previous box office successes, grossing US$26m, just over half of what An American Tail and The Land Before Time each took.Don Bluth - Box Office Data. However, the film became a sleeper hit on its home video release; a strong promotional campaign helped it become one of the top-selling VHS releases of all time,Lenburg, p.32 selling over 3 million copies in its first month.
The success of the film, particularly its performance on home video, prompted several follow-up productions. A theatrical sequel, All Dogs Go to Heaven 2, a television series, All Dogs Go to Heaven: The Series, and a Christmas special, An All Dogs Christmas Carol, based on Charles Dickens\' A Christmas Carol were made. Don Bluth and his studio had no involvement with any of them, though several of the original voice cast members reprised their roles.
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
| Don Bluth Entertainment | |
|---|---|
| Video-Games | Dragon\'s Lair (1983) • Space Ace (1984) • Dragon\'s Lair II: Time Warp (1991) |
| Short Films | Banjo the Woodpile Cat (1979) |
| Animated Films by Walt Disney Animation Studios | Pete\'s Dragon (1977) • The Small One (1978) |
| Animated Films by Sullivan Bluth Studios | The Secret of NIMH (1982) • An American Tail (1986) • The Land Before Time (1988) • All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989) • Rock-a-Doodle (1991) • Thumbelina (1994) • A Troll in Central Park (1994) • The Pebble and the Penguin (1995) |
| Animated Films by Fox Animation Studios | Anastasia (1997) • Bartok the Magnificent (1999) • Titan A.E. (2000) |
| Other Works | Xanadu (1980) • The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera (1990) • Dragon\'s Lair: The Movie (TBA) |
| Related articles | Studios: Sullivan Bluth Studios • Fox Animation Studios • Walt Disney Animation Studios
People: Gary Goldman • John Pomeroy • Morris Sullivan |
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