Dom DeLuise Had to Shame Burt Reynolds into Not Ruining a Beloved Cartoon

Anyone who grew up in the 1980s or 1990s and spent more time watching VHS tapes than they did experiencing fresh air and direct sunlight is likely familiar with the name Don Bluth. The animation legend gave us iconic films like An American Tale, The Secret of NIMH and The Land Before Time, which were chock-full of delightful visuals, heartwarming characters and pure uncut trauma fuel. Because it’s never too early to teach kids that life is a terrifying nightmare place full of disappointment and dead dinosaur moms.

One of Bluth’s most memorable works was 1989’s All Dogs Go to Heaven. Sounds pleasant enough, right? Well, it’s about a lovable German Shepherd scoundrel named Charlie, who gets sloppy drunk, then promptly murdered by a mobster like 10 minutes into the movie.

Despite the title, after Charlie dies and visits Heaven, he escapes back to Earth and spends much of the movie tortured by the thought that he will spend eternity in the fiery depths of Hell as a result. 

All Dogs Go to Heaven was entertaining for kids, but it also appealed to adults thanks to its voice cast, namely screen/mustache legend Burt Reynolds as Charlie and comedy/cookbook great Dom DeLuise as his best buddy Itchy. Reynolds and DeLuise had already starred in five other movies together, including the two Cannonball Run films, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and Smokey and the Bandit II.

Surprisingly, as Bluth recently revealed on social media, DeLuise was only hired in order to keep Reynolds from ruining the entire movie. Apparently, after being cast in All Dogs Go to Heaven, his first ever animated film, Reynolds decided that he should come up with a funny dog voice for the part. “My wonderful dog voice,” he called it. But, according to Bluth, “it was awful.”

So the director called up his friend DeLuise, who previously worked with Bluth on The Secret of NIMH, and asked for some advice as to “how to get Burt not to use his dog voice.” 

“Put me in the movie,” DeLuise responded. “Call me Itchy. I can fix this.”

So Bluth shoehorned an entirely new canine character into the movie, just so DeLuise could sit in the recording studio with Reynolds. As they started performing their lines, Reynolds predictably launched into his dog voice. But this time, DeLuise turned to him and barked, “What the hell is that? You’re embarrassing me. Just be Burt, the audience loves Burt.”

The plan worked, hence why Charlie the dog sounds like Burt Reynolds. We’ll never know just how bad Reynolds’ dog voice was, because Bluth claims that it has been “lost in time.” Perhaps they sealed up the tapes and stashed them in a top-secret government warehouse like the Ark of the Covenant.

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