All Dogs Go to Heaven 2: An Under-appreciated Sequel
Doesn’t anyone care about the beautiful piece of art and animation that is All Dogs Go to Heaven 2?
Not to forget about the original done by Don Bluth, but the sequel put so much effort into the art and animation that I can’t help but make a big deal about it.
This film SERIOUSLY NEEDS TO BE SUPPORTED! If you want to see this beautiful, amazing, inspiring piece of animation, you can officially buy the movie on YouTube for starters.
Some of us know David Feiss (The Ren & Stimpy Show, I Am Weasel) and Deane Taylor best for Cow and Chicken, but what they did for All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 is almost equal to Don Bluth and his team on All Dogs Go to Heaven. I mean the creator of Cow and Chicken pulling Don Bluth style off! This sequel, though, isn’t as dark, the designs are more cartoon-y, and there’s more great (and faster-paced) animation timing/balance in this one. There’s romance, too... which, in films like this, can be highly inspirational to me. The directors, Larry Leker & Paul Sabella worked on Disney movies, so there could be similar styles of influences. Some of these guys, however, worked on All Dogs Go to Heaven, from Don Bluth’s team, so that’s something.
The day I began this post was with The ATL/WATL’s 3rd airing of this film in syndication, from which I couldn’t record in 2018 or 2017, though I managed to record some stuff from the 1st (HD) airing in 2016. I first saw it on The CW69 in March 2011, and it was very foolish of me not to record it (though I saw it not before) as I found the film to be quite an inspirational work of art. Some of its elements could be considered to be cheesy, perhaps, but the All Dogs Go to Heaven films are one of my favorites (and certainly some of the most inspiring) of [traditionally] animated films / cartoons.
One thing I love about the film is its amazing score, composed by Mark Watters. There’s a great array of songs for this film, too, and Watters’ compositions in animation are very catchy (An All Dogs Christmas Carol, Winnie the Pooh: Springtime with Roo). 10 years after I saw it on WUPA, I listened to the score on YouTube from the rare (and I guess out-of-print) soundtrack. I am seriously feeling the feels with the score. “Battle for Gabriel’s Horn” is DOPE EPIC, man!
Relative to this film is An All Dogs Christmas Carol (1998), which I first saw on WATL (then The WB) in 2005. It aired on WALT (then MyATLTV) on 12/24 & 25/2011; I revisited the film and loved it, and it aired on WAGA (FOX 5) on Christmas in the early morning. The songs and music (still Mark Watters) are very rich, catchy and inspirational, like “Clean Up Your Act” and “I Always Get Emotional at Christmas Time”.
I’ll update this post with more of my pics and opinions.
Original shoutout tweets 1, 2 and 3
