Watch This Movie If You Loved The Good Place
All movies go to heaven
Did you like The Good Place?
I loved The Good Place. It was must-see TV for me.
Recently, I’ve been revisiting animated movies from my childhood. They help me remember all the things I made myself forget. Some of those things are good.
One of them is the movie All Dogs Go to Heaven from director Don Bluth.
“[All Dogs Go to Heaven] tells the story of Charlie B. Barkin (voiced by Burt Reynolds), a German Shepherd that is murdered by his former friend, Carface Carruthers (voiced by Vic Tayback, in his penultimate film role), but withdraws from his place in Heaven to return to Earth, where his best friend, Itchy Itchiford (voiced by Dom DeLuise), still lives, in order to take revenge on Carface, but ends up befriending a young orphan girl named Anne-Marie (voiced by Judith Barsi in her final film role; posthumously). In the process, Charlie learns an important lesson about kindness, friendship and love.” — Wikipedia Summary
The film became a monster of a hit once it was released on VHS, but before then? I was too young to appreciate it at the time, but United Artists released this in direct competition with The Little Mermaid.
I mean…Disney wasn’t the juggernaut back then that it is now. It was mostly due to The Little Mermaid that the company survived and thrived and entered the Disney Renaissance that history will ultimately record as the moment that could have saved us. If only one of us had intervened.
But did anyone really think this was a good idea? The movie lost that war handily and tanked until it found an enduring fanbase on VHS (especially with six-year-old me).
It’s kind of surreal to watch this movie again. The main character is a dog named Charlie. My brother hasn’t used that name in a long, long, long time, but when we were kids? It was one of my names for him. In some ways, it always will be. I relate to the other main character Anne-Marie most. I watched this movie thinking I’d get a happy ending with my own Charlie.
(don’t look up anything about the actress who played Anne-Marie unless you’re ready to pray there really is a heaven for such a sweet child)
The movie spawned several sequels and even a TV series, though it must be noted that Burt Reynolds declined to reprise the role of Charlie in future films. Instead, they brought in the big guns.
When Robin Williams declined to reprise his role from Aladdin for The Return of Jafar and the tv series, they brought in the voice of Homer from the Simpsons. It would take a miracle to one up that kind of recasting.
All Dogs Go to Heaven made it look easy. To replace Burt Reynolds, they brought in no less than Charlie Sheen.
