All Dogs Go to Heaven
All actors and roles (10)
All team (33)
Short description
All Dogs Go to Heaven is an animated film about Charlie B. Barkin, a German shepherd involved in gambling and other shady dealings, who is killed by his former partner, the pitbull Carface. Charlie ends up in Heaven, since all dogs are said to go there, but he is determined to settle the score with the one who murdered him. He arranges a return to the living world, warned that doing so puts his soul at risk, and rejoins his old friend Itchy to work out his revenge. Charlie discovers that Carface has grown rich by using an orphan girl named Anne-Marie, who can talk with animals and predict the outcome of races, and he takes her for his own schemes. Their growing bond leaves Charlie facing the question of whether he can still earn his place in Heaven.
Don Bluth directed the film, which came after The Land Before Time in his run of features and before Rock-A-Doodle. David N. Weiss wrote the screenplay, and Gary Goldman, John Pomeroy and Don Bluth produced. The voice cast includes Burt Reynolds as Charlie, Dom DeLuise as Itchy, Judith Barsi as Anne-Marie, Vic Tayback as Carface, Melba Moore as the Whippet Angel and Ken Page as King Gator. It runs 84 minutes and had a budget of 14 million US dollars.
Released in November 1989, the film is set in New Orleans and was made in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the United States. It took about 27 million US dollars worldwide. Audiences rate it 6.8 out of 10 on IMDb and 6.8 out of 10 on TMDB, while its critics' rating stands at 5.9 out of 10.
What's left behind the scenes
- In the book containing Charlie's biography, one can notice his date of birth – September 13, 1937. This is the same day the director Don Bluth was born.
- For Judith Barsi, the actress who voiced Ann-Marie, the cartoon became her last work: a year before its premiere on July 25, 1988, 10-year-old Judith and her mother were shot by her father. The song “Love Survives,” whose melody is a leitmotif throughout the cartoon, was dedicated to her.
- MGM cut one scene with the main character to avoid the film receiving a 'PG' rating. The full version of the film is only held by Don Bluth and has never been released on so-called home media (which is used for recording, copying, delivering and playing various types of entertainment and information at home).
- Burt Reynolds (who voiced the main character) and Dom DeLuise (who voiced his best friend, the dachshund) were already friends, meaning this was far from their first joint project. The actors asked Don Bluth not to come to the recording booth when they were recording their lines, stating that it would be easier for them to improvise. Bluth did not object and gave the actors complete freedom. He later said that these improvisations often turned out to be better and more interesting than the lines written in the script.
- Don Bluth was deeply shaken by the untimely death of Judith Barsi (who voiced Ann-Marie), and in memory of the young actress, he instructed that her features be reflected in the image of Ann-Marie. Burt Reynolds, her co-star (who re-recorded some of his lines when asked), was no less shocked, holding a photograph of Barsi while doing so. The re-recorded take, in which the actor's voice trembles on the words “I’ll miss you too,” was included in the final version of the film.
- When Charlie, Chesun, and Ann-Marie first arrive at Charlie’s house, he pretends to be reading a fairy tale about Robin Hood. However, the book actually reads “'War and Peace' Tolstoy”.
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