All Dogs Go to Heaven is an animated film directed and produced by Don Bluth and released by MGM in 1989.
End Credits
A DON BLUTH PRESENTATION
Plot
| Spoiler Warning: The following contains important plot details of the entire film. |
Charlie B. Barkin is a lovable and incessently charming German Shepherd (voiced by Burt Reynolds), working at a casino with his business partner Carface Malone. Carface however has Charlie locked away at the pound in order to avoid having to share their joint earnings. Charlie is broken free from jail by his friend Itchy and proceeds to return to their business with big changes and dreams in mind. Carface decides to get Charlie drunk and kill him with the pretext of taking him out for a celebratory drink. Charlie is taken to a Mardi Gras, and when he is suffciently drunk, he is blind folded and violently run over by a car and forced off a pier into a river.
Charlie goes to Heaven, as all dogs do, because 'unlike people, dogs are naturally good and loyal and kind'. But Charlie is dissatisfied with the predictability of heaven and rewinds the clock of his life, returning himself to earth. Unfortunately this now means that Charlie cannot return to heaven because he has forsaken his place. While he is on Earth, he cannot die as long as his life clock continues ticking. Back on earth Charlie reunites with his friend Itchy and shares with him his plans for revenge against Carface. Rather than get revenge, Charlie decides to set up a rival business 'Charlie's Place' and steal Carface's customers. Charlie discovers a young orphan named Anne-Marie that Carface has been harbouring because of her gift to communicate with animals, and from this know which of the animals will win the races that Carface's customers bet on.
Charlie decides that this girl and her gift could be valuable to him and takes her with him, buying her dresses, promising her a family and telling her that all the money they earn from her gift will go towards helping the poor. When Anne-Marie exposes Charlie's true intentions, she runs away. Carface, disgusted by Charlie's success, storms into Charlie's Place with his thugs and assaults Itchy, leaving him for dead. He then torches the rival casino and abducts Anne-Marie. She becomes very sick and Charlie discovers that Itchy has been beaten up and their place has been destroyed. He then discovers that Anne Marie has been snatched by Carface. Charlie sets off to get his revenge and save Anne Marie.
Charlie confronts Carface in Carface's casino, and the two dogs fight. Carface attempts to drown Anne-Marie as he knocks her into the river. Charlie leaves Carface and rushes to save his friend. Charlie succeeds in saving the girl and gets her to safety, then he goes after Carface. Charlie returns to the platform in which the previous fight took place but Carface is nowhere to be seen. Carface jumps from a higher platform onto Charlie, and attacks him. However as Carface attacks his foe, he slips from the high platform and falls into the water and is eaten by King Gator. Charlie goes to fetch Anne-Marie but she has fallen back into the water. Charlie dives down and saves her, but in doing so he loses his watch. Charlie places Anne-Marie on a block of wood and sets her on her way out of the casino. Anne-Marie is saved and Charlie dives down to find his watch. However the watch stops, ending Charlie's life. Because of his self-sacrifice, Charlie's spirit is allowed to visit Anne-Marie (who is now living with a caring family and Itchy as her dog) to say goodbye and apologise for using her. Charlie's spirit ascends into Heaven because he gave his life to save Anne Marie.
Some see the movie as a retelling of Charles Dickens classic, "Great Expectations".
Sequels
This film has generated one 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.
Trivia
- In the heaven scene after Charlie's original death, the whippet angel shows Charlie his book of deeds. The pages include Charlie's father and mother "Loni & Burt", a refrence to Burt Reynolds and Loni Anderson, who were together at the time.
- This was originally rated PG by the MPAA, so to make it more family friendly, several cuts were made to reduce the rating to a G.
- Judith Barsi's last film. She died a year prior to the release of the film.
- While Charlie is in heaven, where they keep all the clocks, one of them is a Mickey Mouse wristwatch. Don Bluth, the director, was a former Disney animator.
External links
- All Dogs Go to Heaven at the Internet Movie Database
- Official site
- Detailed Info on All Dogs Go To Heaven (contains spoilers)