All Dogs Go to Heaven

All Dogs Go to Heaven
Directed by	Don Bluth
Written by	Mitchel Savage
Produced by	Don Bluth Gary Goldman John Pomeroy
Starring	Burt Reynolds Dom DeLuise Judith Barsi Vic Tayback Charles Nelson Reilly Ken Page Loni Anderson Melba Moore
Distributed by	MGM Sullivan Bluth Studios
Release dates	November 17, 1989
Running time	89 min.
Language	English
Budget	$13.8 million (Final Budget)
Box office	$27,100,027

All Dogs Go to Heaven is a 1989 animated film directed and produced by Don Bluth and released by United Artists. 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 at Sullivan Bluth Studios in Dublin, Ireland, funded by UK-based investors Goldcrest Films. On its cinema release it competed directly with an animated feature released at the same time, The Little Mermaid produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation. While it did not repeat the box-office success of Sullivan Bluth's previous feature films (The Secret of NIMH, 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 telefilm.

Plot

In 1939 New Orleans, Charlie B. Barkin, a rough-and-tumble German Shepherd mix (voiced by Burt Reynolds) with a con man's charm, is working at a casino with his gangster Bulldog business partner Carface Carruthers. Carface, unwilling to share the earnings, has Charlie locked away at the pound and runs the casino with an iron fist, but with the help of his best friend Itchy (voiced by Dom DeLuise), 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 harboring 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. His conscience pricked, Charlie begins to worry about his fate, and that night suffers a nightmare where he is banished to Hell and is encountered by a monstrous, doglike version of the Devil and its minions. The nightmare ends with the Devil saying to Charlie, "You can never go back!"

File:All Dogs Go to Heaven screen.jpg

Charlie and Anne-Marie

The next morning, Charlie wakes to find Anne-Marie has left to return the wallet he stole, and goes after her. He finds her eating breakfast with the couple in their home, and the couple planning to take Anne-Marie in. Realising he is about to lose his trump card in his revenge against Carface, Charlie tricks Anne-Marie into leaving by pretending to be unwell. As they leave, they are ambushed by Carface and his sidekick Killer. Hiding in a dilapidated warehouse, they fall through the crumbling floor and into a flooded underground cavern. There they are captured by a tribe of mice who plan to sacrifice them to King Gator. Moments from being devoured, Charlie lets out a melodic howl of anguish. King Gator, a camp character with a penchant for musical theatre-style songs, instantly develops a liking for Charlie's voice and sets him and Anne-Marie free. Unfortunately, their adventure in the flooded underground caverns has left Anne-Marie sick with pneumonia.

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 chased away 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. At this point Charlie drowns trying to save his watch. 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 Devil from his nightmare, to bid her farewell before he is banished to Hell. As the Devil 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 (he had been killed and eaten by King Gator) 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".

Cast

• Burt Reynolds as Charlie B. Barkin, a roguish German Shepherd mix. The character was designed specifically with Reynolds in mind for the role, and the animators mimicked some of his mannerisms in the character.
• Dom DeLuise as Itchy Itchiford, a twitchy Dachshund who has long been friends with Charlie. DeLuise reprised his role in the sequels and spin-off television series.
• Judith Barsi as Anne-Marie the orphan girl with the ability to talk to and understand any animal. This was Judith Barsi's second role in a Sullivan Bluth film, having previously played the character of Ducky in The Land Before Time. It was also her last role; her father Jozsef Barsi murdered both her and her mother Maria Barsi on July 25, 1988, before the film was completed.
• Vic Tayback as Carface Carruthers, a shifty Pitbull/Bulldog mix gangster who runs a casino with Charlie, who he later kills when he become displeased with his plans.
• Charles Nelson Reilly as Killer, a misnamed mixed-breed dog who is Carface's sidekick until the boat is destroyed. Reilly reprised his role for the spin off television series.
• Loni Anderson as Flo, a female Rough Collie and friend of Charlie. Charlie and Anne-Marie bring her and the puppies a pizza, and they sing a song about sharing, "What's Mine is Yours".
• Melba Moore as the Whippet Angel, a whippet who welcomes deceased dogs to Heaven. Later given the name "Annabelle" in All Dogs Go to Heaven 2.
• Ken Page as King Gator, a huge and flamboyant alligator living below the streets of New Orleans. King Gator's musical number, Let's Make Music Together, is a parody of the elaborate water ballets seen in Esther Williams films.

Production

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.

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. 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). 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”. 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. Don Bluth previously owned a private film print of the uncut version, which he had planned to duplicate onto video to convince Goldcrest to release in its original form, but it was stolen from a locked storage room. The original drawings and cels of all scenes, including the cut scenes, were destroyed by Goldcrest Films so that they would avoid paying storage fees. [1] Also, in the soundtrack version of the song Let Me Be Surprised, Charlie says "Damn it, Carface. I'll kill him!", but in the film version, he says "That Carface. I'll kill him!".

Release and reaction

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 $15 million 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.

All Dogs Go to Heaven opened in the U.S. on November 17 1989, the same day as The Little Mermaid produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation; 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. Some found the darker subject material objectionable in a family film, featuring as it does depictions of death, violence, drinking, smoking, gambling, demons and Hell. However, there were positive reviews, with critics praising the film's emotional qualities, humor and vibrant color palette. 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.

On its theatrical release, while still making it's budget of $13.8 million back, 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. 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, selling over 3 million copies in its first month. As of today, 38% of the critics give positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, but this is only based on 8 reviews. The more numerous website users, on the other hand, gave it a score of 71%.

Sequels

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.

References

• Beck, Jerry (2005). The Animated Movie Guide. Chicago Review Press. pp. 13–14. ISBN 1-556-52591-5. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Cawley, John (1991). The Animated Films of Don Bluth. Image Pub of New York. ISBN 0-685-50334-8. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Lenburg, Jeff (2006). Who's Who in Animated Cartoons: An International Guide to Film and Television's Award-Winning and Legendary Animators. Applause Books. p. 32. ISBN 1-557-83671-X. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

External links

• Official site
• All Dogs Go to Heaven at IMDb
• All Dogs Go to Heaven at Rotten Tomatoes
• All Dogs Go to Heaven at Box Office Mojo
• Template:Bcdb title
• Watch All Dogs Go to Heaven at Hulu