When I was little, my mom rented a movie for me. It seemed harmless enough. I was all excited and watched it by myself in her bedroom. The movie was ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN. I watched the whole thing, amazingly. I was a little bothered when the dog got killed and went to heaven. I was kind of upset when the dog stole his "life clock" and added more life to it so he could go back to Earth. That just seemed wrong to me. But at the end, he ended up going back to heaven for good, and I just started crying harder than I can even remember.
I don't remember exactly what upset me so much; maybe it was the movie as a whole. I didn't like that the character was murdered. I didn't like the dishonest stuff he did. (I felt like he was cheating God). I didn't like that he went to Heaven in the end.
I just bawled and bawled and I can remember crying and yelling at my mom "WHY DID YOU RENT THIS??? WHY???"
I never saw any of the sequels. I refused to watch the show. It wasn't that it scared me; it just made me incredibly sad. I was a very sensitive little kid. I have not seen that movie since and I still do not want to! I've never even particularly liked DON BLUTH films in general since then.
Movies about dogs: YES!
Movies about dogs dying: NO!
(I'm glad I've never seen OLD YELLER).
That is my worst trauma, mainly because I can't think of anything else that ever caused me to scream and cry like that.
DON BLUTH owes me big time.
As a person who loves cartoons and animals and cartoons ABOUT animals I can honestly say I have never seen a Don Bluth movie that I have liked. I give them a chance, watch most of em, but for the most part I usually don;t make it to the end. ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN is no excepetion. When I was a teenager a friend rented this for me because I had a dog not unlike the hero of this movie (who I believe was named "Charlie") I tryed to watch the whole thing but I'm pretty sure the night ended in a case of beer and listening to LED ZEPPELIN IV for the millionth time. I could not STAND that Dog movie!
Miriam,
I 'm with you on Don Bluth; the man makes animated features that — despite their warm, happy posters and box art — are slow, dreary, and depressing. All Dogs Go To Heaven, The Land Before Time, An American Tail…the list goes on.
I've been lurking here for a while – love the site - but I definitely have to speak up for this one! My comment on this movie, after leaving the theatre in tears (my friend was doing the same), was that I "hoped they cut the film up into a million pieces." I must have been eight or so. Man did I hate that movie!
 Oddly enough, though, I loved An American Tail. Oh wait, that's because it was about talking mice…never mind…
I hate Don Bluth! There is only one Don Bluth movie I ever liked and that was Thumbelina. I actually found it quite unoffensive for a Don Bluth movie, and I liked the songs. American Tail- hate it. The Land Before Time-hate it. Troll in Central Park- hate it. I watched part of the Secret of Nimh and turned it off out of boredom. Luckily, none of these traumatized me the way ADGTH did.
I have always had a fascination with Don Bluth's films and they were always on a more intellectual level than Disney's. I love All Dogs Go To Heaven, Secret of NIMH and Anastasia and watch them at least once a year. I never really found them scary because the character designs were too darn cool.
Agh! I hate this movie too! =[ I actually just sent something about how this movie traumatized me, because seeing the dogs being killed and thrown to hell scared me. But I agree. I refuse to watch these movies to this day.