Western Animation / All Dogs Go to Heaven 2

All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 is a sequel to All Dogs Go to Heaven, released in 1996. It was co-directed by Larry Leker, a storyboard artist on the original, and served as the Pilot Movie for All Dogs Go To Heaven: The Series, which debuted about six months later.

It starts off with Charlie in Heaven, where he's joined by Itchy soon after. Gabriel's Horn, which is used to open the gates to Heaven and allow the souls of deceased dogs to enter, is stolen by Carface (for the evil Red to use). Charlie volunteers to get it along with Itchy "volunteering" as well. It's up to them to save Heaven before it's too late, but that isn't to say there won't be some surprises along the way.

As was the case with all but one of the sequels to his movies, Don Bluth was not involved. It's also the only other sequel to a Bluth film (after An American Tail: Fievel Goes West) to get a theatrical release rather than be Direct to Video.

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This animated film provides examples of the following tropes:

• Actor Allusion: During his Villain Song, Red puts Carface in a barber's chair and proceeds to shave him, a clear Shout-Out to Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. George Hearn, who voiced Red, was also one of the many actors to have played the titular barber in one production of the musical.
• Actually Pretty Funny: Red makes a dramatic first attempt at blowing Gabriel's horn. When it doesn't quite work out, Carface laughs his ass off.
• All Men Are Perverts: Charlie doesn't even hesitate to jump up on stage during Sasha's number and try to kiss her and only doesn't because he's a ghost at that point. Even when he becomes tangible again, he continues to follow and hit on her and passes on his ability to talk to humans by turning invisible and reappearing in front of her to give her a long, hard kiss on the mouth.
• Almost Kiss: After Charlie and Sasha sing "I Will Always Be With You", they're about to kiss. Unfortunately, the sun sets, and the collar Red gave Charlie wears off (the collar allowed the wearer to be visible only until sunset on the next day), and Charlie becomes a ghost again. Doubles as a Moment Killer.
  • At the climax after returning David home, Charlie and Sasha were about to kiss, until David gets their attention, showing that he's managed to convince his parents to adopt them. Now Charlie and Sasha share The Big Damn Kiss before entering their new home and beginning their new lives together.
• Always with You: Has a nice little song based around this.
• Ambiguous Syntax: In an effort to get rid of Charlie, Sasha tells him she's "got a kid." Charlie assumes this to mean that she's a single mother. She actually means she's taking care of a human kid.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: In the end between Charlie and Sasha once Red is defeated and the Horn of Gabriel retrieved. Their mission over, Itchy tells Charlie they need to return to Heaven, who isn't happy about having to leave Sasha.
  Charlie: Sasha... I love you...
  Sasha: I love you too, Charlie...
• Animation Bump: Due to outsourcing to various studios, detail in animation is very inconsistent compared to the first film. In some shots, it actually comes very close to replicating the original's level of detail. In others, it borders on Saturday morning cartoon standard. The TV series was shrewd enough to use some of the film's better scenes for a Title Montage, which causes an even bigger bump next to the actual show's Limited Animation.
• Art Evolution: The first film was animated with detailed, fluid classical animation. The sequel, meanwhile, has softer, more simplified designs, a pastel color palette and fewer inbetweens.
• Art Shift: The scene where Red reveals his true form to Charlie is drawn, colored, and animated in a much looser fashion.
• Artistic License – Biology:
  • The life expectancy of a dachshund is twelve to sixteen years, the film is set nearly sixty years after the original, and yet Itsy has only just died — not even from old age but from choking on a bone.
  • Well, how else would two dogs have shared The Big Damn Kiss at the end? Lampshaded by Itchy early on when he's trying to tell Sasha that his "lips are sealed" in regards to where Charlie is and takes great effort showing her his nonexistent lips.
• Award-Bait Song: "It's Too Heavenly Here (Reprise)" by Sheena Easton and Jesse Corti and "I Will Always Be With You" by Danny Frazier and Helen Darling.
• Back from the Dead: Charlie, permanently at the end...or at least he's given 20 years, which is very generous for a large dog. Itchy's given the same offer, but declines; he lived a full life and is content to stay in Heaven. That and he prefers angelic flying to running on his short legs.
• Badass in Distress: Annabelle, the archangel dog who in the first movie and TV series could effortlessly dispose of any demons that played against the rules, is quickly imprisoned by Red due to getting his hands of Gabriel's horn.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Charlie and Sasha, up until the "I Will Always Be with You" number.
• Big Bad: Red, the giant demonic hellcat masquerading as an older dog for most of the film, whose endgame is to use Gabriel's Horn to suck all dogs out of Heaven and into Hell.
• The Big Damn Kiss: Charlie and Sasha get their kiss at the end of the movie, with the reprise of "It's Too Heavenly Here" playing on in the background.
• Black Comedy: The "new arrivals" to Heaven. From Itchy coughing up the chicken bone he choked on to the dog still in the process of being strangled by a mailbag string, it's made abundantly clear how each of them died.
• Blind People Wear Sunglasses: When David pretends to be a blind boy with Charlie, Itchy, and Sasha as his guide dogs, he puts on a pair of sunglasses.
• Call-Back: It's very subtle, as no names are given, but when Charlie finally tells Sasha the truth about himself, he expresses a major regret making promises he can't actually keep. This would infer his last meeting with Anne-Marie was, and always has been, on his mind.
• Canine Confusion: Starting from this movie, Annabelle the Whippet has no visible ears, for unknown reasons.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Red. His Villain Song is even devoted to this.
• Casting Gag: Sasha, the Irish setter, is played by Scottish singer/actress Sheena Easton. Sasha is also shown to be an accomplished singer.
• Cats Are Mean: Red and his minions are all cats. Apparently, cats are not only mean but also The Legions of Hell. Despite appearances, it's implied that Red is not Old Scratch himself, but an Elite Mook — or possibly even a lap cat. Charlie makes mention of "his boss" yanking his leash, which could be a reference to the dragon in the first film being Satan.
• The Chanteuse: Sasha during "Count Me Out", though she was merely doing it for a big prize she hoped for to feed a runaway boy named David.
• Cherubic Choir: Groups of angel dogs singing are seen at a few points during the film.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Deconstructed. After his collar expires, Charlie wants to honor his promise to David and ends up making a deal with Red (unaware of what that'll mean until he's already agreed to it).
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Few ancilary characters from the first film reappear. It is semi-justified due to the Time Skip, though it's worth noting some minor characters like the casino Chihuahua do cameo in Heaven as acknowledgement of this:
  • Flo, Charlie's implied possible dog love interest in the first movie, is never mentioned.
  • Anne-Marie, although she's briefly mentioned in one scene, but not by name.
  • Killer, making this the only entry in the series without him.
• Confusing Multiple Negatives: Averted, yet it leads to a very dissonant situation in the ending. When David and his stepmom reunite, she doesn't say "Just because I'm having this baby doesn't mean I don't love you"- instead, it's "Just because I'm having this baby doesn't mean I love you". And then David hugs her anyways.
• Cultural Translation: This film is set in San Francisco, unlike the New Orleans setting of the original. Justified as that's where Gabriel's Horn had fallen.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  • Charlie's in fine form in this movie, especially after he sends Red back to Hell:
    Charlie: "Hello... double chili CAT burger with onions and pickles!"
  • Also when he tried to retrieve Gabriel's Horn from the police station but couldn't fit it through the bars.
    Charlie: "It couldn't have been Gabriel's Flute, or Gabriel's Kazoo, nooooo..."
• Deal with the Devil:
  • Carface makes a deal with the Big Bad demon cat Red, a collar allowing him to be physical on Earth in exchange for his soul (though in his defense, he thought he meant a "sole", as in the bottom of a shoe). When Red is finally defeated and sucked into Hell, he decides to cash in on the deal and sends his minions to drag Carface into Hell with him.
  • Then Charlie and Itchy strike a bargain with Red for two collars that will only last until sunset. Although the latter is reluctant and displeased, and still wants to retrieve Gabriel's Horn and go straight back to Heaven like Annabelle asked them to do.
  • And lastly, Charlie, who wants to keep his promise to David, makes another bargain with Red. He will give Gabriel's Horn to him if he gives him another collar (although he has to wear the collar first in order to do that). Red was actually counting on that; what he didn’t tell Charlie that the collars give him control over his subjects, so Charlie wouldn’t go back on his word once he’s given the collar.
• Defeat Equals Friendship: After they both met their end in the first film, Charlie seems to relate to Carface better than anyone else in Heaven at the start of the film, even feeling a bit betrayed when the latter (seemingly) starts to become a more upstanding angel.
• Demoted to Dragon: Carface spends all his time subservient to the demonic Red. He doesn't seem to mind so long as Red is happy.
• Disneyfication: Unlike the original, this film has a much lighter tone (the demonic villain Red notwithstanding), and a brighter, softer color palette.
• Donut Mess with a Cop: When David and Charlie need to distract the cops in the police station, David announces a truck with fresh donuts has arrived. All cops immediately run outside to get some.
• Double Entendre: Implied when Charlie asks Sasha what she'd look for in a "Mr. Sasha," and one of the qualities she lists is "breeding," which Charlie remarks that he'd be good at. While "breeding" can be used to describe someone who has refinement or classiness, it is also a synonym for mating. Judging by Sasha's smile when she said this, she was probably well aware of the double meaning.
• Dragged Off to Hell: Red's endgame plan is to drag every dog in Heaven down to Hell. He manages to get Carface in the end because his Deal with the Devil.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Itchy makes his first appearance in this movie having died from choking on a chicken bone.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Played straight in the end of the movie when Charlie is granted life (at least until he dies again), where he gets together with Sasha and both live with David and his family.
• Easily Forgiven: Charlie and Carface have struck up a friendship in Heaven, despite the fact that Carface murdered him twice. Worse, Carface is still allowed to reside in Heaven in spite of this fact. For a while.
• Eat the Camera: Red does this when he says to Carface, “Oh, it will, and all thanks to Charlie Barkin” and laughs afterwards.
• Elvis Impersonator: Seen during the scene where David tries to impress everyone with his magic tricks.
• Eviler than Thou: During Red's Villain Song, Carface brags that after they get Gabriel's Horn, they'll be able to open every safe and bank vault in the world; Red promptly shuts him up, revealing himself to have far bigger plans for the horn:
  Red: "I didn't recruit you for such entry-level wickedness. You have so much to learn!"
• Evil Feels Good: "It feels so good to be bad! So delicious to be a despicable cad..."
• The Faceless: Gabriel (THE Gabriel who owns the horn) only has his hands briefly seen as he puts his horn in its case. With this in mind, he is the only human seen in Heaven.
• Fair Cop: Officer Reyes is fairly easy on the eyes, especially when compared to the other cops seen that are more cartoonishly designed.
• Fake Ultimate Hero: Charlie presented himself as David's guardian angel in order to make himself look good to Sasha.
• Fantastic Racism: Being a cat, Red has little more than contempt for dogs.
• Fantasy Helmet Enforcement: During the police chase scene, David receives a black helmet when he and the dogs escape on a red motor bike.
• Flanderization: Though it's not quite as bad as in the TV series, some of the characters start their decay here. Carface starts to play his usual bumbling dragon role, while Annabelle has become more grouchy and regal.
• Fluffy Cloud Heaven: Compared to the first, completely driven into the ground, complete with (all pink!) Cherubic Choir.
• Forceful Kiss: In order to pass his ability to talk to humans onto Sasha (and because All Men Are Perverts), Charlie removes his collar to turn invisible, then appears before Sasha and surprises her with a long, hard kiss on the mouth. She's understandably pissed by it. Then again, It was the only way he could think of to prove to David he’s an angel.
• For the Evulz: Red's song is about this trope. "So good to be bad" is repeated more than once, after all.
• Frothy Mugs of Water: Unlike the original movie, where alcohol was a fairly important plot point, the sequel plays this straight. The bar only serves "root beer" (which is purple for some reason).
• "Gaining Confidence" Song: Inverted. The song "Easy Street" has David performing as a street magician in front of an audience, as David tries to keep their attention. The song starts cheery and upbeat, but after David falls into the water fountain and it begins raining, running everyone else off, the song ends on a slower, somber note.
• Gonk: Oh, boy, look at most of the humans in this installment. Some of them have huge noses, angular heads, awfully skinny bodies and stuff like that. It's no surprise that Cow and Chicken creator David Feiss was a designer on this film.
• Gratuitous Spanish: After Officer Reyes's pursuit of Charlie, Itchy, and David ends with her crashing her police car, she speaks several words in this language. Also, prior to this, she speaks this foreign language after she happened to find David at the police station by bumping into him accidentally.
• Handshake of Doom: Charlie makes a deal with Red to get him Gabriel's Horn in exchange for another collar that will make him corporeal. Charlie and Red seal the deal with a handshake... and then Red reveals his true colors.
• Hakuna Matata: "On Easy Street" with Charlie and David while performing for a crowd. Unlike some other examples of this trope, this one actually ends with a subversion, as the characters are ignored while standing in the rain.
• Hell: Oh, it exists, all right. Though it's never shown, it's heavily implied.
• Hell of a Heaven: One of the only elements carried over from the first movie is Charlie's complete dissatisfaction with how predictable and boring Heaven is. Here, his frustrations are validated by depicting the place, originally serene and predictable, but not exactly unpleasant, as a sordid cross between a snooty country club, a church retreat, and a cheap, touristy resort. Angels are awarded medals for "being extra squeaky clean", and when they're not doing that, they're lying around in swimsuits and belching.
• Honor Before Reason: After Red's first collar wears off, Charlie is so desperate to fulfill his promise to David that he bargains Gabriel's Horn to Red in exchange for another corporealization collar... only to realize he has been duped when Red reveals himself.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Carface of all dogs is rewarded for having, in Annabelle's eyes, turned over a completely new leaf that has made him worthy of his angel status. Unbeknownst to them, he's already plotting with Red to seal Heaven's demise. Lampshaded by Itchy at the end; indeed perhaps not all dogs go to Heaven.
• Hostage For Macguffin: Red and Carface kidnap David in order to force Charlie to hand over Gabriel's horn, though unlike most other examples, Red willingly lets David go with no strings attached after the trade is complete.
• I Take Offense to That Last One: "You contemptible canine!" "Don't call me canine!"
• Idiot Ball:
  • Carface is now in direct cahoots with a devil-like cat creature and shown later to be completely oblivious to the fact that he sold his soul to have his mortality restored. This comes back to bite him in the ass when Red snatches him away to answer for his incompetence.
  • Charlie, who trusts Carface implicitly despite being murdered twice by him previously.
• Ironic Echo: "I like your spirit!" First said by Red (disguised as a dog) to Charlie, and later Charlie to Giant Red.
• "I Want" Song: Charlie's "It's Too Heavenly Here". Everything is just too perfect in Heaven for him, and he sings about missing the excitement of challenges and risks.
• MacGuffin: Gabriel's Horn. Without it, The Pearly Gates can't open, dogs can't be accepted into heaven and, if fallen into the wrong hands, can be used to pull souls into a Hell-like vortex.
• Magic Kiss: Charlie does this to Sasha to give her the ability to talk with David.
• Marilyn Maneuver: A canine version occurs during Sasha's song "Count Me Out" when she walks over an air vent and her ears and tail blow upward.
• Meaningful Echo: "It's Too Heavenly Here" in the final lyrics.
  • Charlie complains about how perfect Heaven is, as it is too heavenly.
    Charlie: I'll give you 8 to 3, it's too heavenly.... too heavenly here!
  • Charlie and Sasha are together again, which is the perfect ending of their story, and life together is just so heavenly.
    Charlie and Sasha: Now that you're loving me, it's so heavenly... so heavenly here!
• Missing Mom: David's mom. He asks Charlie at one point if his mom can see him from Heaven.
• The Musical: All throughout the movie, much like the first.
• Mood Whiplash: The "Easy Street" number starts out bright and hopeful, then ends in a Grey Rain of Depression.
• My God, What Have I Done?: When Red gets hold of Gabriel's Horn due to Charlie's bartering, he kidnaps all the dogs in Heaven, including Annabelle, and imprisons them on Alkatraz Island. Charlie soon realized in horror what his actions have caused and quickly tries to reverse it.
• Named in the Sequel: This film reveals that the Whippet Angel from the original is named Annabelle.
• New Parent Nomenclature Problem: David wasn't too happy with his stepmother's request to call her "Mom." But he does so at the end.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Annabelle, won over by Carface's redeemed act, awards him a pin for "Most Rehabilitated". This ends up pivotal to Carface stealing Gabriel's horn.
  • After recovering it, Charlie reluctantly mortgages Gabriel's horn to Red in order to fulfill his promise to David... giving Red just what he needs to fulfill his plans.
• No Challenge Equals No Satisfaction: Part of the reason why Charlie is so bored out of his mind with Heaven has to do with how relatively easy everything is, that even simple games of chance involving Dice always has them rolling into perfect 7's every time.
• Non-Standard Character Design: David is the only human in the entire film to be drawn with as much detail as the dogs. All the other humans have very stylized and cartoony proportions.
• Police Are Useless: The chase scene between a couple of police officers and David and the dogs.
• Poorly Disguised Pilot: Less a sequel to the 1989 movie and more of a pilot for the TV series, which debuted several months later, but even that played fast and loose with the continuity from its predecessor.
• Power Ballad: "I Will Always Be With You." Do you expect a character played by Sheena Easton, the queen of power ballads, to sing anything else?
• Pun: After Red reveals his true form to Charlie and Itchy:
  Red: "Guess the cat's out of the bag!!"
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Red, when he's disguised as a dog, has these at a few parts in the movie.
• Refusal of the Call: Charlie initially only undertakes the mission to retrieve Gabriel's horn because he's gotten bored with Heaven and wants to go back to Earth; when he arrives, he immediately makes his way to a dog bar to goof off, only to discover that he is a ghost and unable to interact with the physical world.
• Restraining Bolt: The collars that Red gives Charlie to make him visible and tangible also serve as a means of controlling him. During the final confrontation, Red magically tightens said collar around Charlie's neck twice to prevent him from blowing Gabriel's horn.
• Reunion Kiss: Charlie and Sasha share this at the end of the movie when Charlie is brought back to life once again after saving Heaven from Red.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Carface betrayed Heaven to Red in exchange for being physical and whole on Earth. Once Red is defeated, he's come to collect Carface, who stupidly offered his soul for his collar, not realizing what it meant. He gets dragged to Hell.
• The Runaway: David in this case because he feels his stepmom only cares about the new baby and not him.
• Satan: Though he doesn't appear this time, this installment has Red, an anthropomorphic red hellcat who seems to be the lap-demon of Old Scratch. When Carface asked where Red disappeared to, Charlie comments that "his master yanked his leash".
• Setting Update: Seems to take place in the 90's rather than the 30's, calling Itchy's extreme longevity into question.
  • Alcatraz was decommissioned as a (human) prison in 1963, so it couldn’t have been set before then. But even a mid-1960s date would have still made Itchy unusually long-lived. Plus, there are plenty of things that would have been anachronistic in 1960s San Francisco, including boomboxes (one is seen during the “Easy Street” scene). And the hippies are nowhere to be seen.
• The Shadow Knows: When first meeting Charlie, Red appears in his dog disguise, but his shadow on the wall is that of his true demon cat form.
• Sidekick Song: "Easy Street," despite not being sung by the sidekicks.
• Singing Voice Dissonance: Charlie's voice when he sings is somehow higher pitched than his speaking voice, thanks to two different actors playing him.
• Stock Femur Bone: After Red eats a rat, he pulls a bone out of his teeth in the shape of a femur.
• Street Performer: Charlie attempts to help David make it as a professional street magician, but the former had to compete against several other street performers for the attention of the pedestrians.
• Strong Family Resemblance: David’s dad looks just like an older version of David, and even sports a similar hairstyle to his son.
• Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Itchy is sent to Heaven after choking to death on a chicken drumstick, reuniting him with Charlie.
• Talking Animal: Charlie and Itchy can now openly talk with humans due to being angels rather than normal dogs, and Charlie uses the miracle Annabelle gave him to turn Sasha into a talking dog as well.
• Timey-Wimey Ball: Assuming that he died after at least a couple of years after the events of the first movie (set in the late 1930s), this is the only explanation as to how Itchy can be recently deceased, yet gets sent down to Earth with Charlie in the mid 1990s. That, or he's some kind of miracle dog who lived into his sixties. A general interpretation of Book of Revelations’ description of time passage in Heaven is that it doesn’t pass the same way it does on Earth. If the film goes by that interpretation, it could be that 60 years passed on Earth while only a few moments passed after Itchy died and arrived in Heaven.
• Title Drop:
  Itchy: (after seeing Carface get dragged to Hell by Red) Heh, what do you know? And I thought all dogs go to Heaven.
• Too Dumb to Live: If Carface only knew what he bartered to Red for his collar...
  Carface: He wanted the bottom of my shoes or something! I don't even wear shoes! Ha! Stupid cat!
  Red: Stupid dog! IT WAS YOUR SOUL!!!
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Seems very little alarm was raised as Red began sinking Alcatraz Island in a vortex right in the middle of San Francisco.
• Villain Decay: In the original movie, Carface is intelligent and dangerous. Here, he's a cowardly Bumbling Sidekick for Red. Compared to the TV series however, he retains some of his sleazy manipulative streak from the first film.
• Villain Opening Scene: The sequel opens with Carface calling Red at a telephone booth in Heaven.
• Villain Pedigree: Crime boss Carface is Demoted to Dragon by the far more powerful demon Red. Red sees Carface as 'entry-level' at best.
• Villain Song: Red sings "So good to be bad!" to Carface after they tricked Charlie and Itchy into using the collars to become living again.
• You Can Talk?: David exclaims this when he hears Charlie and Itchy (and later Sasha) talk.

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