24. All Dogs Go to Heaven

In attempts to cleanse my eyes from earlier, I thought I would end the night with a nice little family movie.  After breaking out of the pound, Charlie (Burt Reynolds) goes back to his old business which has grown quite a bit since he has been gone.  However, his old business partner, Carface (Vic Tayback), doesn't want to split the profits anymore.  So, he hires a pack of dogs to take care of Charlie.  They get Charlie drunk and blindfold him as they put him at the end of a dock.  Carface then pulls a parking break, sending a car straight for Charlie.  It does the job and Charlie ends up going to heaven because all dogs go to heaven since they are good and loyal.  Unfortunately Charlie is not one of those dogs.  He distracts the dog angel while he winds his watch backwards, sending him back down to Earth to continue living.  There is only one problem.  He can never go back to Heaven.  Therefore he keeps his watch on him at all times in order to make sure it doesn't stop. 

When he finds out that Carface is making all his money off of a little girl named Anne-Marie (Judith Barsi) who can speak to animals, Charlie decides to kidnap her and make money off of her special talent.  He pretends to be her friend in order to sneak her out.  He tells her that they need to make money so that they can give it to the poor and find her a family since she happens to be an orphan.  They start making money but Charlie has yet to follow through on any of his promises, so time and time again Anne-Marie tries to leave.  But he keeps on reeling her back.  He soon grows quite fond of her.  Eventually (from hanging out with dirty dogs in junkyards and sewers) she gets sick and Charlie becomes very worried.

For some reason I thought I remember people talking about how good this movie was.  But it was kind of a let down.  The story moved pretty fast and the main character wasn't that likeable, so it was hard to see his redeemable qualities.  The songs were not catchy at all, and when I watch an animated musical those songs better be awesome!  It didn't get interesting until the end, but by that time I was just ready for it to be over.  It might have set me off too, when I heard Dom DeLuise's voice and it wasn't Tiger from American Tale.  Then I just wanted to see more adventures with Fievel and Tiger.  What a bummer.  But on the bright side I'm pretty sure there was a drag queen crocodile.  So that was pretty cool. 

Rating:  *

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUQ-jmJcWN8