All Dogs Go to Heaven: The Series is an American animated series sequel to All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989) and All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 (1996). Produced without Don Bluth's involvement at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Animation, the series had two seasons in First-Run Syndication and a third on Fox Family Channel, for a total of 40 episodes from 1996 (roughly six months after the second film's release) to 1998, ending that November with a Christmas Carol inspired direct-to-video movie.
Some episodes feature a song, more frequent in the first two seasons, and season three only has one. Two of them—"The Perfect Dog" and "Take the Easy Way Out"—earned the series two Daytime Emmy nominations for Outstanding Original Song. A handful of episodes were released on VHS in the late 1990s, and a complete series set came out in 2013. As of 2025, it is available on Prime Video.
The animated series provides the following tropes:
- Animal Talk: Charlie, Itchy, and all other dogs can communicate with each other, as well as other animals. This is different from the first film, where animals could (mostly) only talk to their own species.
- Aesop Amnesia: A large mass of episodes involve Charlie acting selfishly or carelessly and needing his ego taken down a peg by Annabelle. The last few episodes do at least show some Character Development sticking, with Charlie at least trying to reign in his worst qualities, as well as Annabelle coming to respect his less "squeaky clean" sense of goodwill.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: In "Dog Eat Dog", Sasha leaves Charlie and Itchy in charge of the cafe, of course not without an almost endless list of do's and don'ts. Among the latter are the expected "don't forget to check the thermostat", "don't operate an all-you-can-eat buffet", "never book a blues act", and "don't forget the rent", but there's also "don't say anything bad at Scotland".note
- Art Evolution: While the first film boasted Don Bluth's trademark lush, classical animation, with the sequel being lower budget but still reasonably fluid, the TV series simplified the characters to be more youthful and easier to animate until they resembled Filmation levels of Limited Animation. Compare this
◊ to this
, and you'd almost think these were two different characters.- It's especially noticeable since the opening titles consist entirely of clips from the second filmnote .
- While most of the series was animated on hand-painted cels like the films, two episodes "All Creatures Great & Dinky" and "Haunted Is As Haunted Does" used digital ink and paint.
- "Christmas Carol" was half hand-painted, half digitally-colored. While still much lower budget than the two films, it also has more flourishes of full animation than the TV show.
- Anthropomorphic Shift: In the Christmas special, Itchy, Sasha, and Charlie become notably more anthropomorphic while playing the roles of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. Particularly notable with Charlie when he dons his snazzy yellow suit.
- Artistic License – Biology: The series brings back Killer, Carface’s henchman in the 1930s, and is impossibly still alive in The '90s. Same goes for Carface’s mother, whom he decides to pay a visit. Dogs don’t have that long a lifespan.
- Ascended Extra: Annabelle gets a bit more involvement than in the movies, due to recurrently being The Conscience and Trickster Mentor for Charlie. A few episodes (particularly the finale) also develop her relationship with Charlie, showing they've come to meet halfway better and are friendlier than in the films.
- Big "STOP IT!": Belladonna drops one at the end of "Why Not Be Happy Now?" in the final episode.
- Big Word Shout: Carface screams, "STOOOOPPPPPPPPP!" when Timmy, under the control of Belladonna's dog whistle steals a present and goes out the dog door.
- Broad Strokes: To say that the series followed the films... loosely would be an understatement. "When Hairy Met Silly" retcons the entire first film.
- Canine Confusion: In the series, Belladonna has no visible ears, though this could be justified by the fact that she's a demon.
- Continuity Nod: Despite the title of the franchise, Christmas Carol sees Carface informed by the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come that he is going to Hell if he dies a villain. In the second film, Carface threw away his one free trip to Heaven to side with Red and, like Charlie in the first, has to earn his way back in.
- A Day in the Limelight: "Sidekicked", where Itchy and Killer are caught by a dogcatcher, escape and go on the run.
- Denser and Wackier: The show really amps up the cartoon antics. Carface, Killer and even Belladonna act more like pantomime villains (though Belladonna far less so), and Charlie and Itchy go through ten times more slapstick abuse than what killed them in the two films.
- Drama-Preserving Handicap: In the sequel, when sent back to Earth, the dogs were still spirits, needing Red's collars to be tangible. In the series, Charlie and Itchy when acting as "guardian angels" are effectively mortal dogs for the large part, allowing them to be put in dangerous situations (and take lots of slapstick).
- Played with in one instance Annabelle switches with Itchy for an assignment after he and Charlie start bickering. Since she is also Brought Down to Normal as they are, Hilarity Ensues and the two get captured by a pound. As soon as Charlie accepts he misses Itchy however, she reveals she can still switch with him and let him solve the problem.
- Easily Condemned: Reconstructed in "He Barked, She Barked", where Belladonna frames Charlie for misusing a miracle dog tag and failing to rescue someone, leaving the court and even Annabelle seriously doubting him. The catch being that, while the evidence and witnesses (namely Carface and Killer) are blatantly flimsy, Belladonna also exploits Charlie's terrible track record throughout the series (complete with a quick Clip Show montage of his real acts of misconduct) and that even in this case, Charlie did break rules by hoarding a miracle dog tag, even if he tried to use it selflessly. After being vindicated, a surprisingly humble and morose Charlie laments that he doesn't really deserve Annabelle's trust after letting her down so many times, though she insists that isn't an excuse for jumping the gun and gives a heartfelt apology to Charlie.
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: Belladonna describes "the other side" as an equal opportunity employer when she's trying to recruit Charlie to her side.
- Evil Counterpart: Belladonna to Annabelle.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: In "Mutts Ado About Nothing", Annabelle swaps Charlie and Itchy's souls as punishment for their constant squabbling. Even worse, it happens on their double date night respectively with Sasha and Bess.
- Grand Finale: "An All Dogs Christmas Carol", a feature-length Christmas Special which culminates in Carface undergoing a Heel–Face Turn.
- Heel–Face Turn: Invoked with Carface in the Christmas Special, where Charlie's plot is to turn him good so that Belladonna's plan could be stopped.
- Heel Realization: The end of the series has a surprisingly pivotal one between Charlie and Annabelle. Throughout the films and series, the two have constantly bickered and condescended to each other due to their differing ethics, Charlie loathing Annabelle's pious attitude and monotonously orderly and goody-goody management of Heaven, and Annabelle patronizing Charlie for his many vices, shirking responsibilities and rejecting the afterlife. In "He Barked, She Barked", this leads to Annabelle rather quickly distrusting Charlie after Belladonna frames him for misconduct. Charlie vindicates himself, but not before realizing how many times he let Annabelle down despite being his Positive Friend Influence, and admits sadly that he doesn't deserve her trust. Annabelle however, realizng how quick she was to turn on Charlie for simply not being the "squeaky clean" angel she prefers, apologizes and sticks up for him, accepting that she sometimes needs a "rascal" like him on her side. Their relationship is noticeably warmer in the Grand Finale Christmas Special.
- Humanity Ensues: In "Charlie the Human", Charlie uses a miracle dog tag to turn himself human so he can do what humans can do what dogs can't.
- Karmic Transformation: In "Field Trip", Charlie transforms a canine-hating kid into a dog in order to teach him a lesson.
- Annabelle does this to Charlie several times throughout. Shrinking him smaller than a mouse when he says he's too important for them, inflicting a Pinocchio-esque curse when he lies, body-swapping him with Itchy when they fight. Though she undoes them when he learns his lesson.
- Knight of Cerebus: Belladonna, whose episodes are always far more serious in nature and she's considerably more powerful and dangerous than Carface in every way, if still very hammy, and at her worst is comparably murderous to Carface in the first film (her debut episode has her trying to put Itchy through a meat grinder).
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Charlie does this often, with references to cartoon antics. Itchy is guilty a few times as well, with this line from the episode/song "The Perfect Dog"."The only perfect dog is in an animated feature!"
- Mood Whiplash: Practically invoked in "Clean Up Your Act" in Christmas Carol. Switching back and forth between visions of Heaven and of Hell, it works because it's done by the Ghost of Christmas Future (Charlie) and is showing both possible outcomes to Carface's future.
- Origins Episode: "When Hairy Met Silly", detailing how Charlie and Itchy met and became friends, which also retcons the original film.
- Pinocchio Nose: In "Heaven Nose", Annabelle gives this to Charlie for his compulsive lying.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Happens with Carface in the Christmas Special, also the series finale. Applies because he was working as Belladonna's henchman at the time.
- The Rashomon: The final episode "He Barked, She Barked" combines this with a Courtroom Episode where Belladonna accuses Charlie of abusing his miracle dog tag for selfish gain to take a canine widow's steaks while leaving her to presumably die in a sewer pit as it collapsed. Carface's testimony portrays Charlie as a thug more like his pre-Character Development self and himself as a goody two-shoes. Itchy's testimony makes Charlie into an overly heroic figure (complete with a Stetson) and Carface as a Dastardly Whiplash villain. Killer's testimony portrays Carface as his lackey and Charlie as dropping the widow when the "rescue failed". And Charlie's own testimony portrays him as trying to save the widow but dropping her when the miracle dog tag fails to levitate her. Belladonna herself was the widow dog and it was all an obvious scheme to get Charlie's angelic status revoked. Miracle dog tags don't work on hellish beings like her.
- Reality Warper: Charlie and Itchy can use miracles in the form of dog tags to alter reality in a specific way, such as transforming them into cats to sneak into a Crazy Cat Lady’s house. But Annabelle only gives them out so often and Charlie has been known to use them frivolously, so they often have to rely on their wits alone.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: Literally. At the end of “Lance the Wonder Dog”, Annabelle tasks Lance the annoyingly by-the-book angel dog with helping the penguins. It turns out she sent him to San Fran in the first place because he was annoying everyone else in Heaven too.
- Retcon: Several from the films:
- Carface, despite being Dragged Off to Hell at the end of the sequel, now resides back on Earth. The second season shows he still has affiliations with the underworld, but under Belladonna rather than the completely absent Red.
- Killer is still working for Carface despite quitting at the end of the first film. He’s also inexplicably still alive despite the sixty-year time skip (biologically, dogs don’t have that long a lifespan).
- At the end of the second film, Itchy opts to go back to Heaven when he and Charlie are offered a second chance at life. Here, he’s on Earth with Charlie.
- Charlie and Itchy’s life on Earth is now conditional on their continuing to perform good deeds instead of a reward for retrieving Gabriel’s Horn.
- Sdrawkcab Name: Subverted with Belladonna and Annabelle. The syllables are reversed, not the letters.
- Series Continuity Error: In a flashback of “Fearless Fido” to when Itchy was a pup, everything still looks the same as in the 1990s. Given that Charlie and Itchy were alive in the ‘30s, at best, everyone and the objects during Itchy’s childhood should’ve been reflective of the 1920s at best.
- Sham Supernatural: Supernatural posing as different supernatural version. In Christmas Carol, Itchy, Sasha, and Charlie all pose as the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future respectively in an attempt to persuade Carface into stopping Belladonna from ruining Christmas for dogs and their owners.
- Sidekick Song: "Sidekicks", sung by Itchy and Killer in the episode "Sidekicked".
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Dogs from Heaven while on Earth are susceptible to mortal pain. “Cyrano de Barkinac” is one of few episodes to avert Hollywood Healing and Amusing Injuries where Itchy takes a severe beating from another dog that he has to get treated at a pet hospital.
- Talking Animal: Like the second film, Charlie and Itchy can openly talk to humans, even if they're not the ones Annabelle assigned them to help. Upon first meeting the human, said person will be shocked to find the two dogs talking. This is justified since they're angels who came to Earth from Heaven.
- Terrible Trio: Belladonna usually plays this alongside Carface and Killer whenever she appears.
- Time Skip: On account of David turning 10, the series likely takes place roughly two years after the second film.
- Tiny Tim Template: The Christmas special has an animal version in the form of Timmy, a puppy suffering from a broken hind leg who the other dogs are trying to raise money for his operation.
- Uncanny Family Resemblance: Cousins Annabelle and Belladonna could easily pass for sisters. It doesn't help that they're played by the same actress.
- Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Belladonna, being quite willing to kill others and ruin their lives For the Evulz. Taken further in the Christmas Special.
- J.C. Taggart from "Sidekicked" is a notorious Drill Sergeant Nasty dogcatcher feared by all. He even goes on a Fugitive-type pursuit of Itchy and Killer when they manage to escape. Bonus points to his voice actor.
- Colonel Dijon from the episode "Free Nelly" is arguably an even darker Knight of Cerebus as he's one of the few human villains in the franchise and is shown to be abusing an elephant, threatening to starve her if she can't do her act right.
- Villain Decay: Played with, compared to his more sinister and murderous mob boss characterisation in the first film, Carface here plays a buffoonish lackey to Belladonna, with Killer even tamer than he was before. Being equipped with her tactics and powers beyond mortal capabilities however makes some of their plans more dangerous and higher scale.
- Villainous Crush: At times, it seems Belladonna's interest in Charlie is a bit more than just getting him to 'play for her side' (including shaking her rear at him rather seductively in her Villain Song). Though this doesn't stop her from flying into a psychotic rage when foiled.
- Villain Pedigree: Continuing the trend of the sequel, Belladonna is the Big Bad after she debuts in the second season and is another demon, with Carface Demoted to Dragon and seen as a far lesser threat than she is due to being far more powerful.
- Villain Song: Belladonna, Anabelle's demonic cousin gets one in two appearances. The first is in "La Doggie Vita", where she sings "Take the Easy Way Out", an attempt to lure Charlie to her side which works... for a bit. In the Christmas Special, where she's the Big Bad, she takes part, alongside Killer, in "I Always Get Emotional at Christmas Time", about how much she loves ruining Christmas.
- Vocal Evolution:
- Charlie, who's on his third voice actor (Steven Weber) by the time of the series. Charlie Sheen's voice in the second film wasn't a replica of Burt Reynolds' in the first, though replicated the low-key snarky mannerisms. Weber in turn mimics Sheen's performance to start off with, but plays him much louder and higher-pitched as the show goes on, making the original voice fully lost to translation.
- Similarly, Carface and Annabelle's replacement actors (Ernest Borgnine and Bebe Neuwirth, respectively) while making a halfway attempt to sound like their original voices in the sequel and early episodes, go into full-on Large Ham mode as the series continues.
- David's voice was slightly deeper in "History of All Dogs".
