Movie 77: All Dogs Go to Heaven

The first movie I ever saw in theaters was All Dogs Go to Heaven. I don’t remember much of anything about my experience seeing it in theaters as I was 4 years old… but I definitely remember going.

This movie holds up insanely well. In keeping with Don Bluth’s early work it refuses to talk down to children. It has gambling, death and a sad ending. I found myself having a really emotional issue watching this movie this time around. There’s three potential reasons for this.

I’ll start with the simplest reason. If you want to ruin your day read the IMDb page for Judith Barsi (the actress that voiced orphan Anne-Marie in this). A year before the film was release her father shot and killed her before turning the gun on himself. This was the first time I’ve watched this movie since learning that information. It makes it so hard to not get choked up every time she speaks.

I’ve discuss how the idea of losing my parents really bugs me. Immediately before I put this in I watched Wish I Was Here for the first time. I was not aware that the plot was about a son dealing with his father dying of cancer. So I was already in an emotional spot.

Fresh off the whole cancer/parents dying thing I was reminded that my first copy of this movie was a VHS my aunt taped off of television for me. I’ve discussed before in previous blogs my aunt, but I’ll elaborate.

My father had only one sibling. My Aunt Lisa, throughout most of my college career she battled cancer and last September she lost her battle. Ever since then I’ve found little things that trigger these memories of her, specifically those little acts of love (like taping movies off the TV for her nephew) that always get me choked up.

There’s a sequence in this movie where the main characters (Charlie, Itchy and Anne-Marie) bring a bunch of pizzas to a family of puppies and teach them how to share while singing the song “What’s Mine is Yours”. Because of this sequence when I was a kid we’d frequently order pizzas and watch this movie.

My dad for years would sing the song “Let’s Make Music Together” to me, There’s a handful of films/TV shows that I connect with my father. Him and I have never seen eye-to-eye on a lot of entertainment as I got older. However I cling to the movies he and I share memories with.

Critics had mixed feelings on this movie and I can understand why. This is a “family film” but not in the Disney style of family films they were used too. This (as far as my memory serves) was one of the first family films to really focus on some dark and heavy shit.

I don’t know if there will ever be a time in my life where I can watch this movie and not be overwhelmed with the emotions it brings out… but I’m okay with that. It’s a movie that reminds me of the people I hold dearest to my heart and that’s far from a bad thing.