Animation Hall of Fame

I said in an review in the 11th HoF that I often have a problem with watching movies in a reviewer perspective because I get sucked into them. Now it seems I've drifted towoard the other extreme. When the opening scene started playing I immediatley started analyzing and didn't let the movie draw me in. As a result, I don't recognize the things you're speaking of here, but it definitely want to watch that movie. I remember the scenes you bring up fine, but I don't recognize the corresponding emotional impact. Of the two of us, you got the better experience.

Seems like I have to watch this again without trying to analyze it and work more on finding a middle ground between analyzing and enjoying a movie up for review. Great review, MV!

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Why not just kill them? I'll do it! I'll run up to Paris - bam, bam, bam, bam. I'm back before week's end. We spend the treasure. How is this a bad plan?

All dogs go to Heaven (1989)



So...this turned out to be, at the same time, the movie I thought it was, but also not the movie I thought it was. I remembered the story well enough, dog goes out for revenge on the dog that done him wrong and learns that there's more important things to consider. But then there must be another movie wherein a ghost dog teams up with a small kid, because I vivedly remember a scene that isn't in this movie. The kid and the dog tries to earn some money by putting on a magic show, wherein the dog gets a sheat over him, he pulls off his collar (yes, a red, studded dog collar, not a watch) and the kid pulls of the sheat to reveal that the dog's gone. See, he only has a corporeal form while wearing the collar. This isn't the case here, so I must be remembering a different film. But I swear, the dog's Charlie, and if it isn't, it's pretty darn close to him in apperance. Also, the big bad I was waiting for didn't turn up in this movie either. It's suppose to be the evil dog's silent partner who turns out to be a cat in disguise. I don't know if I've dreamt all this up, but I don't think so. Anyway, back to this movie.

I REALLY didn't like the music in this one, I'm sorry to say. It's not just that the songs are uninteresting, they're badly performed. They sing over each other, out of rythm and out of key. I guess it's kinda the point? Like we as humans find their howling irritating and it's suppose to harken back to the fact that dogs don't sing very well? I don't know, but if it's ment as a joke, I think Bluth's on par for the course when it comes to humor.

Otherwise, it's competently made. It has all the earmarks of being a Bluth movie; darker mood and tone compared to other animation of the day, high level animation work and beautifully crafted surroundings. I don't care if much of the story takes place in dumps and junkyards, they are nice dumps and junkyards. They've put in alot of effort to make the surrounding stand out and look different. Despite having two casinos in the same movie, they made sure that you could tell them apart, both in and out. Where Carface's dive looks rundown and built of junk, Charlie's also looks like it's built with junk, but clean, matching junk. He actually takes pride in his building.

Yes, the story's so so, maybe not his best, but I liked it well enough. I know I'll like my nom better, but then again, that's MY favourite Bluth. Overall a good movie, if not terribly original. Good nom, Topsy!

PS
Oooh, almost forgot, I loved how their Hell looked, especially the stone and bone boat that thust up and out of the lava. The Wolf/dog/devil with wings looked a bit cobbled together, but the voice was impressive.

Also, poor Angel dog, nobody listens to her!

Also, also...WHY THE F*** DID THEY HAVE A DAMN LAZER TOMMY GUN IN 1930s NEW ORLEANS?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!
DS

I've never understood some people's need to analyze every little thing, especially when watching a film for the first time. Films are meant to be experienced and you're not going to get the full impact if you're in your head the whole time and not immersed in what you're watching. Getting sucked in is exactly what should happen.

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True, and I do prefer when I'm actually invested in a movie, but it leaves me with a vauge notion of what to write afterward. I know I liked the movie, but have a hard time comunicating why. You don't seem to share this problem, which leads me to believe it's a question of experience. The more you do it etc. I just gotta keep doing it until I get better at suming up my overall emotions of a film and putting them down into words I guess.

Although, there's worse things to keep practicing at

Anyway, starting to feel hungry, so better go fix somthing. Back in a while.

You have no idea how much time I spend staring at a blinking cursor, even when trying to review a long time favorite that I've seen countless times.

Ok, so there's some rather large amount of banging head to wall, but what you produce in the end is well written and entertaining, so that's a plus. I try to be somewhat fun to read, but again, it takes practice.

There was a sequel to this film so it's possible that you're remembering some scenes from All Dogs Go to Heaven 2. I never saw it though, so I can't confirm if something similar happens there.

They made a sequel?

*Checking IMDB*

Yeah, must be. I've got way too perfect a picture in my head to have dreamt this up, and from what I read on IMDB this is it. I must've seen it somewhere when I was a kid and thought that it was the first one. Thanks.

No problem! At least you know you didn't imagine it haha.

All Dogs Go to Heaven (Don Bluth, Gary Goldman and Don Kuenster, 1989)
Imdb

Date Watched: 11/8/16
Cinema or Home: Home
Reason For Watching: Topsy's Nomination for the MoFo Animation Hall of Fame
Rewatch: Yes.

I've seen this movie many times, including in the theater when I was a child. I liked it a lot back then, but my experiences with it as an adult have been less positive. That's not to say that I dislike All Dogs Go to Heaven, but there are definitely things about it that I very much dislike.

But let's start with the positives. As with the other Don Bluth film in this Hall of Fame, I appreciate the darker themes this presents (though it falls into some of the same old cliches as a lot of other animated children's fodder, including featuring yet another orphan). I do enjoy me a good bad-guy-redeems-himself tale. I also really like the look of the film, with its appealing character designs and rich colors (though I don't know what the hell was up with some of the color choices, like those damn puppies looking like they'd just leapt out of a Crayola box). The vocal performances were all really solid too - except for the singing.



The singing. Why must they ruin this otherwise perfectly good film with all that horrid singing? But it's not just the actual singing. I hate the songs themselves. The lyrics are uninspired and the scenes just don't work for me. I know a lot of this film's fans really like the scenes with King Gator, but to me it just felt like it was thrown in there randomly. Alligator ex-machina.

Still it's an easy and entertaining enough watch and a much needed diversion from certain events of the night.

+

I feel pretty much the same about All Dogs.

Damn, just two left and you even watched Guaps nom.

Yep. Just Castle of Cagliostro and a rewatch of Tokyo Godfathers left, you know the anime films that those two racist, anti-Japanese people nominated.

I wonder if Guap knows that I'm half Japanese?

hahaha. I've never even thought about that, awesome. Your white man avatar makes me think of you as a white man even though i know your full name. White man!

Should I think of you as a black man then?

A Scottish black man. With a kilt. And bagpipes.

I went to a catholic school; not nuns and stuff like you see in american movies just a normal school which was catholic. And the most hardcore catholic there was a guy from Sri Lanka. I met him today which is why i thought of this now. Sri Lankan-Scottish-Catholic dude, haha.

He is also the only person i know who played the bagpipes and i'm not even joking

I think that might beat my kilt wearing, bagpipe playing Jew from New Jersey. Though actually he gave up the bagpipes and plays the banjo now instead. He still sometimes wears the kilt though.

I thought I had remembered All Dogs Go to Heaven pretty well, but I don't think that's the case. The songs have been mentioned a few times now, and I didn't even remember it being a musical. Maybe I just blocked it out of my mind if they are really that bad?

Thanks to Nostalgia Critic, that sort of became a meme. Only between other online reviewers and their fans though.

I really hope Miss Vicky likes Cagliostro. I doubt it, but I can hope.

I just took a quick dart down to the mall, and while I was in HMV I happened to notice an All Dogs Christmas movie. I didn't even know that existed. None of the people I know who liked All Dogs as kids even saw All Dogs 2, so I didn't realize the sequel was popular enough to warrant a third movie.