Charlie 2

First and perhaps foremost, I would like to remark that this goody-goody sequel really took away from the original ADGTH movie, with all its dark bittersweet sentimentality, its beautiful insights of the Afterlife,and its heavy undertone of the criminal underworld.Also, why must they characterize the cat as a demon? For certain children that come to mind that believe cats are evil, no-good animals out to serve witches and devils, this does not help. To cast the cat as an average villain is one thing. But to cast it as the Devil himself?! I mean, if the plot were turned around, would they cast the dog as the Devil? That point aside, I didn't care for Charlie Sheen as Charlie B. Barkin and Itchie's one liner role really didn't cut up. Annabelle lacks any spunk, as she had in the original. There are certain scenes and songs that touched me. Such as "I Will Always Be With You". And the end scene was sweet. I did approve of the Guardian Angel theme, while I didn't agree that Earth would be better than Heaven. 3 out 10!

I do like the original, despite one or two flaws. I did feel it was a little too dark for children, but it was beautifully animated and moving. This sequel is definitely inferior in comparison, but there were a few redeeming merits. The animation is not very good, there were a number of colour changes and very flat backgrounds, and I felt that the animation on Red was a bit too frightening for children. The songs were very pleasant, especially I will always be with you, but not memorable. Then again, neither were most of the songs in the original. I did like the singing voice of Charlie, provided by Jesse Conti, not so much Charlie Sheen speaking-it just wasn't Charlie. Also Sheena Easton was lovely as Sasha; if you want to know a little more about her, she sang "A Dream Worth Keeping"(FernGully) and "Now and Forever" with Barry Manilow.(Pebble and the Penguin, which I like more than this to be honest)I loved Mark Watters' incidental music too. I liked the character David, but I found Anne Marie a lot more likable, I cannot watch the end of the first film without getting teary-eyed. Likewise with Carface, Vic Tayback was definitely better, but Ernest Borgnine did a very good job with the voicing I felt, but Carface lacked the calculating manipulation that made him so memorable in the original. Bebe Neuwirth's Annabelle did little for me too, I preferred Melba Moore's angelic interpretation. Now another flaw, and the main flaw, was the story. It was a good idea, with some neat subplots, but it was told way too fast. The studio should have focused on accuracy and detail rather than piling on rushed subplot and another. Now for the main villain Red, a bit too frightening for my liking, but I liked his song, with the Spanish flamenco like rhythms. George Hearn did more than adequately with the voicing,very menacing at times like in his song, but I felt he was out of character. I wouldn't initially associate Hearn with villainous roles. A more inspired choice would have been Tim Curry, as long as they didn't make him do a phony accent that they tend to burden him with. The script wasn't bad, but it did need a lot more work, whereas Borgnine and Dom DeLuise provided the laughs, Sheen and Easton were a little less convincing. In conclusion, a disappointing sequel to one of the more memorable Don Bluth movies, but it is not as bad as the Secret of NIMH sequel, which was so awful I didn't know what to say. 6/10 Bethany Cox

My cousin and I watched the All Dogs Go To Heaven films yesterday and we both liked them. But he's 6 years old and looks at this film as Oscar material, to be honest I wasn't expecting much since I was very satisfied with the way the first one ended. While I agree that this was not any where near up to par as the first one I still thought that this was a cute movie. As far as sequels go, you have to admit that All Dogs Go To Heaven 2 is better than most. The voices were actually closer than usual and the story was still pretty charming. Even though the first one seemed to have an official conclusion, this was just a new introduction for those little one's who might have missed All Dogs Go To Heaven.

Charley has a new friend in Heaven, Itchy is there to join him. But Charley is getting a bit bored with the whole purity and typical days of being there. Carface has won an award for being the most turned around angel and it seems like things are working out for him, only he's really after a horn to give to Satan, or at least the Satan of dogs. But when Carface drops the horn, it goes down to Earth, Charley and Itchy are sent to get it, but Charley is quickly distracted by a beautiful dog, Shasha, who is taking care of a homeless boy, David. Since Charley is an angel, they can't see him, until he finds out that Carface, who is also down on Earth, has a special collar that will make him and Itchy visible, but Charley should watch who gives him that collar, he might be expecting something more in return.

All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 is over all a cute movie. Even though that it was silly and not needed, for the kids it worked very well. The animation is pretty much like the same, but the new characters are very sweet and lovable. It's just a sweet little family film and I feel the rating is a little bit harsh, but I understand for the fans of the original. Like I said, it destroys the point of the first one, but I'm not going to spoil that for you. But I would recommend for you to give this a shot, but it's OK to just stick with the first film, that ended the story just fine.

6/10

MovieAddict2007 wrote:

"Part of the advantage of Don Bluth moving away from Disney is that he didn't need to suffer their endless tirade of straight-to-video, poorly animated cash-in sequels."

How so? When Don Bluth left Disney in 1979 the Disney Co. was not making direct-to-video sequels, so that could hardly have been one of Don Bluth's reasons for leaving. The direct-to-video sequels (Return of Jafar) and the spin-off TV series like TailSpin (which used Disney's Jungle Book characters) didn't start until the Michael Eisner era. I'm not a fan of the direct-to-video sequels from Disney or these things like All Dogs Go To Heaven 2 or the seemingly never-ending Land Before Time sequels but let's keep the history of these things straight. Disney didn't make sequels until long after Don Bluth had departed from Disney.

Movies like these do not need sequels. Part of the advantage of Don Bluth moving away from Disney is that he didn't need to suffer their endless tirade of straight-to-video, poorly animated cash-in sequels. But apparently it was someone's brilliant idea to make a sequel to "All Dogs Go to Heaven," so we get this.

Charlie Sheen replaces Burt and he's not really as good. Most of the film is just a poor excuse for a sequel and it isn't nearly as dark, different or entertaining as the original.

I feel sorry for future generations who are going to have to suffer endless sequels like this without ever knowing what it was like to have a time when Hollywood didn't totally rely on successful films as a crutch to release banal crap.

Please, no more sequels to kids films that don't need 'em.