All Dogs Go to Heaven

If you are after a comedy that actually makes you laugh out loud, All Dogs Go to Heaven is available in Australia on Amazon Prime Video, and in the US on Wonder Project Amazon Channel and Hoopla right now. The length is exactly right for the story it is telling — nothing rushed, nothing dragged out. With 1,152 viewer ratings on TMDB, this is not a title flying under the radar. Burt Reynolds sets the tone, and the rest of the cast matches it scene for scene. There is no real reason to keep putting it off — it is right there on Amazon Prime Video.

Whatever else is competing for your attention this week, All Dogs Go to Heaven is worth clearing space for. The jokes in All Dogs Go to Heaven land because the characters underneath them are worth caring about. When a casino-owning dog named Charlie is murdered by his rival Carface, he finds himself in Heaven. Wanting to get back at his killer, he cons his way back to the living with the warning that doing so damns him to Hell. Once back, he teams with his old partner, Itchy, to prep his retaliation. The chemistry Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise bring to it does a lot of the heavy lifting. It hit screens in 1989. The real test of any comedy is whether it is still funny once you know all the jokes, and All Dogs Go to Heaven holds up on rewatch in a way that separates it from one-off curiosities. It delivers reliably on what it promises, which is more than most of its competition manages.

All Dogs Go to Heaven is the kind of thing you put on in the background and end up fully watching. It rewards viewers regardless of what else is in their watch history. Short enough to finish in one sitting, substantial enough to feel satisfying. Burt Reynolds's comic timing carries it through its weaker moments. The kind of comedy you recommend to someone who claims they do not watch much.