All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989)

  It has been so long since I've seen this movie.  I found it in the $4 bin at Best Buy and couldn't resist.  

After a daring escape from jail with the help of his dachshund friend Itchy (Dom DeLouise), Charlie the German Shephard (Burt Reynolds) is ready to get back to his half of a rat racing casino.  Unfortunately, his partner Carface (Vic Tayback) is the one who set him up in the first place and has Charlie killed rather than split the profits with him.  Upon arriving in Heaven, Charlie meets a helpful Angel (Melba Moore) who explains that his time--helpfully illustrated by a pocket-watch--has stopped.  Charlie immediately grabs the watch and winds it, sending himself back to Earth and ignoring the Angel's exhortation that now he can never come back. 

Back among the living, Charlie discovers that Carface's secret is an orphaned girl named Anne-Marie (Judith Barsi) who can talk to animals.  He rescues/kidnaps her and then picks the pocket of a nice couple to get some start-up money.  Using Anne-Marie's gift to determine the winner of a horse race, Charlie places a bet and wins enough money to set up a rival club.  Carface is furious and tries to kill Charlie again.  After getting put in mortal danger numerous times, Anne-Marie gets really sick.  Charlie takes her to a church, where Itchy finds him and accuses him of abandoning his friends and business just for the girl.  Trying to placate his buddy, Charlie claims he has just been using the girl all along.  Fevered and heart-broken, eavesdropping Anne-Marie runs away, right into Carface's clutches.  Now Charlie and Itchy must go to the rescue.

The animation quality is godawful since this is just a straight-up DVD transfer not a blu-ray upgrade.  Also, Don Bluth never had the same quality songwriters that Disney did.  I mean, this movie was released the same year as The Little Mermaid.  I can still sing "Under the Sea" from memory but I completely forgot this even had music.  Really, the only reason to watch it is the vision of Dog Hell, which is still trippy and disturbing. 

Also disturbing?  The IMDb page for Judith Barsi.  Holy shit.  10-year-old Judith was at the beginning of a promising career of features and TV episodes when she and her mother were murdered by her alcoholic dad who then killed himself.  This movie was actually released nearly two years after her death.  That was an extra level of creepy and depressing that I thought I should pass on.