An All Dogs Christmas Carol

All your favorite characters from the All Dogs Go To Heaven children's series are back in this captivating canine retelling of a Christmas classic the whole family will love! It'sshaping up to be a wonderful Christmas for all the precious pooches at the Flea Bite Cafe. There's shining packages, sparkling decorations, and even a hefty donation fund for Timmy, a lovable little pup who's in need of an operation. But the festivities and good will don't mean anything to Carface,a big bully of a bulldog. Carface doesn't like Christmas. In fact, he even hates it. And together with his bad dog buddies, he's come up with a plan to ruin itfor everybody! But that's when Charlie and Itchy step in andwith a little divine interventiondevise a brilliant plan of their own to save Christmas and transform Carface from a holiday humbug to a bonafide Yuletide hero!

Another straight-to-video sequel of a so-so animated film. The original 1989 All Dogs Go to Heaven was hardly inspired but contained expert Don Bluth animation and the amusing voices of Burt Reynolds and his gang. Now Steven Weber voices the animated mutt Charlie who is still palling around with the same gang through three movies and an animated series. Here the arch villain, Carface (Ernest Borgnine), gets the traditional Dickens treatment of being visited by three ghosts on Christmas Eve. The opening number, "When I Hear a Christmas Carol," is a good start, but soon TV-ish animation and the low humor wears one down. Kids who like the earlier Dog efforts won't be disappointed, but the entire series can never be defined as great entertainment. The saving grace is the foolproof Christmas Carol visitations. --Doug Thomas