My Movie Review on All Dogs Go to Heaven 2
Yo, what's up, my friends?
This is your friendly film, TV show, and episode reporter here with another review.
Today, following my analysis on Don Bluth's "All Dogs Go to Heaven", I'm gonna give you guys my take of "All Dogs Go to Heaven 2".
Here's the rundown of this tale:
A long while after the events of the first movie, Charlie B. Barkin has become bored with life on Heaven and longs for the kind of excitement Earth contained. Even the arrival of his old friend, Itchy Itchiford, isn't able to help out of his depressed slump.
However, after the key to opening Heaven's gate, Gabriel's Horn, falls to Earth and lands somewhere in San Francisco, the leader of Heaven's canine citizens, Annabelle, reluctantly gives Charlie the task of going to Earth and retrieving the horn, with Itchy to accompany him.
Along the way, though, Charlie catches sight of a beautiful Irish Setter named Sasha la Fleur. Wanting to actually talk to her, he and Itchy get ahold of some magic collars that can help them be mortal. Charlie and Itchy also discover that Sasha is caring for a human boy named David, who ran away from his home and wishes to be a street performer.
Unknown to any of them, a beast-like demonic cat from Hell named Red is also after Gabriel's Horn, and Carface Caruthers is secretly helping Red in achieving his goal.
What's in store for this group of characters?
Well, the best way to know is to find out.
After watching and analyzing the first movie, doing the same with this one was definitely at the top of my list. It wasn't something that I had become acquainted with since childhood, but I saw it a few times before and it became a film I've grown fond of over the years.
The one Achilles Heel I was able to pinpoint was that the film had quite a lot of animation errors throughout that were pretty noticeable. A prime example is from during the final battle between the heroes and Red, which was that Charlie's nose was pink with visible nostrils instead of brown without visible nostrils.
Other than that, the film as a whole was a surprisingly astounding and worthy sequel.
For instance, the animation may not have been perfect, but in its own way it was still gorgeous to look at. Among the descriptions that came to my mind was that the visuals were like an art museum canvas painting brought to life, and the animators were able to successfully help the film look huge on what was likely quite a small budget.
The direction by Paul Sabella and Larry Leker, the story by Mark Young and Kelly Ward, and the screenplay by Young, Ward, and Arne Olsen, were spectacularly spot-on. When it came to making this sequel something that wasn't just made for the money, the filmmakers definitely didn't mess around. Everything about this movie felt so creatively inspired, thought, and worked, because there was an undeniable passion that helped it be far from soulless. The humor and comedic-timings the movie had were among the elements I enjoyed, and the vast amount of heart and emotion it contained was extremely sincere.
The music by Mark Watters, and the songs by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, were melodiously magnificent. The remarkable thing about the songs of this movie was that they were an incredible improvement over the songs of the first film (aside from "You Can't Keep a Good Dog Down"). The lyrics mixed together and had more bounce, and they were really in tune with the melodies. I'm surprised that Mark Watters wasn't given many musical opportunities after this film, because he literally knocked the ball out of the park in proving himself to be an amazing composer. His music carried a resonance that helped the film feel gigantic.
Finally, the performances of the cast, casting, characters, and character development were marvelous.
Admittedly, I did for a while feel critical of Charlie Shean replacing Burt Reynolds as Charlie and Ernest Borgnine replacing Vic Tayback as Carface, partly because their voices didn't sound anywhere close to their predecessors. Over time, though, I couldn't help but find Shean and Borgnine's portrayals and castings as the two characters to be unexpectedly fitting, and they did a brilliant job at capturing the spirit of their characters while making them their own at the same time.
Dom DeLuise's reprisal as Itchy was something I've felt deeply thankful for, if I may add. He truly owned the role of Itchy, and he not only supplied comedic-chops that were as funny as ever, but his performance was so good it was award-worthy.
The additions of Sheena Easton, George Hearn, and Adam Wylie as Sasha, Red, and David were astonishing as well. I love how the three of them threw themselves into their characters both physically and emotionally with just their voices, and they gave terrific personality too.
To top it all off, the characters themselves were instantly memorable and fun to watch, and the character development in articulation was dynamic enough to help them shine brighter than the animation.
In conclusion, "All Dogs Go to Heave 2" isn't a flawless animated feature, and it may not have been something people were asking for before it hit the big screen. But, the animation is lovely, the voice acting and characters were enjoyable, everything! It's all in all an unexpectedly fabulous successor to the original.
So, I rate "All Dogs Go to Heave 2" 4½ out of 5 stars.
I won't be reviewing the "All Dogs Go to Heaven" TV Show and the franchise's Christmas movie. It's largely because I don't consider them canon, especially after finding out about the number of inconsistencies and contradictions between them and the movie I analyzed today.
