Plug Your Ears.

All right. Our item of scrutiny this time around was another one of Don Bluth’s works. The question is, is it a treasure…or trash? I set out to discover that myself.

All Dogs Go to Heaven
Original release: November 17, 1989

The prospect of viewing this movie has intrigued me for a while. I had known of the movie for a long time, though only because I had repeatedly glanced its cover and the cover of its sequel when browsing Blockbuster Video and Hollywood Video. Apparently nobody else in my family had ever heard of it. Also, I was on an online forum recently, dedicated to The Lion King and Balto if you must know, and I saw that a user had an avatar and signature depicting characters from All Dogs Go to Heaven. It shouldn’t have surprised me; of course fans of Balto would gravitate towards another animated film about a dog. But seeing these images triggered memories of that long-forgotten VHS cover from the rental dealerships.

If there’s an animated movie for which the critics say pretty much the exact opposite of what the general populus thinks, this is that movie. According to Leonard Maltin, this film was “a major disappointment.” Blockbuster’s guide said it had a “weak story” and a “feeble musical score.” The blokes at Rotton Tomatoes didn’t seem too fond of it. However, the comments and message board threads from its IMDb page tell a different story. There are quite a few people out there that proudly proclaim themselves as obsessed with the movie. And just look at its sales! Even though this film was in direct competition with Disney’s fabulous The Little Mermaid during its stay in theaters, it later became one of the top selling VHS movies ever.

You can imagine how befuddled I was by these mixed messages. So I checked the problematic movie out from the library to find out for myself.

I’ll start out with what I did not like. First and foremost, the storyline is haphazard at best. The creators had a nice idea going when they decided to make a movie about dogs, normally seen as happy, loving creatures, actually living lives of partying and gambling far from human eyes; the main character Charlie would, of course, see the error of his ways through the love of—and for—an innocent girl. But they tried to do too much. I found it hard to concentrate on the storyline, and inconsistencies were scattered everywhere. Look, I’m sorry, but laser guns did not exist in 1939. The morally questionable hero, Charlie, is suddenly center stage of a scene in which he brings food for the puppies of one of his friends and teaches them the virtues of sharing. Charlie B. Barkin, sharing?! Then there’s the scene where the two leads fall through a weak wooden floor into the flooded basement, where they get abducted by tribal rats and almost fed to an alligator. The alligator in question falls in love with Charlie’s singing voice and promptly proclaims the confused dog as his lifelong friend. No wonder I was so confused.

I can connect some of the wandering nature of this film to the weak musical numbers. They’re hard to remember and don’t seem to develop the story much. I already mentioned Charlie’s incongruous lesson on sharing…but did I mention that it’s a musical number to boot? Also, when it comes down to the wire, I think introducing that singing alligator was merely an excuse to make a lavish musical number, give the girl a reason for catching pneumonia, and contribute to a more interesting climactic battle.

But you can’t go on for too long without praising some of the aspects of the movie. Primarily, Don Bluth’s studios house some amazing animators. The dogs looked quite doglike and moved in a very realistic, doggy manner, especially Charlie. The humans were likewise very human-looking. And the effects! My favorite shot in the entire movie was the shot where Charlie’s spirit is whisked away to Heaven. Sadly, I could only find a clip of a larger chunk of the movie, but watch from about 4:02 to 4:21 in this clip and you’ll see what I’m talking about. (I would embed the video as I normally do, but YouTube is refusing to cooperate.)

I’m finding myself in a sort of dilemma. I watched this a couple of nights ago, and I knew I should have done my write-up right then, when it was on my mind! I walked away from the movie still distracted by the random plot and ranting about it being not worth my time. I intended to give it an extremely low score. But here I am now, realizing how many people there are that love this movie to bits, and it makes me wonder: did I miss something? What if I offend people? Should I soften up, or should I refuse to be swayed?

My answer to this dilemma came when I realized a surprising fact. Later that afternoon, after watching the movie, my sister and I walked down to the library to take our things back, including the VHS of All Dogs Go to Heaven (and Pinocchio, for that matter). Only now am I brave enough to acknowledge that despite the movie’s obvious flaws and the dire warnings of Leonard Maltin, I wanted to watch it again. We’d returned it without a second thought, and curse it all, I wanted to watch it again!

Here’s my final verdict. It’s an intriguing idea for a story, and it has a nice message. The quality of the animation will make it worth your time. Just try not to let the zigzag nature of the plot get to you, and plug your ears during the musical numbers, and you’ll probably be fine. You may even end up being a big fan.

Mahewa’s rating: 2.3/5




P.S. There's an angel dog that welcomes Charlie to Heaven and, later, consistently warns him of his peril back on Earth. Well, her dreamy voice and the fact that the hero's name is Charlie...is anybody else forcibly reminded of Charlie the Unicorn?

P.P.S. I want to strangle that gator.