The earliest idea was conceived by Don Bluth after finishing work on
The Secret of NIMH. The
treatment was originally about a canine
private eye, and one of three short stories, making up an
anthology film. The character of a shaggy German Shepherd was designed specifically for Burt Reynolds.
Don Bluth Productions, however, was going through a period of financial difficulty, ultimately having to declare bankruptcy, and the idea never made it beyond rough storyboards. The concept was revived by Bluth,
John Pomeroy and
Gary Goldman, and rewritten by
David N. Weiss, collaborating with the producers from October through December 1987. They built around the title
All Dogs Go to Heaven and drew inspiration from films, such as ''
It's a Wonderful Life, Little Miss Marker and A Guy Named Joe''. The film's title came from a book read to Bluth's fourth-grade class, and he resisted suggestions to change it, stating he liked how "provocative" it sounded, and how people reacted to the title alone. During the production of their previous feature film, Sullivan Bluth Studios had moved from
Van Nuys, California, to a state-of-the-art studio facility in
Dublin, Ireland, and the film was their first to begin production wholly at the Irish studio. It was also their first film to be funded from sources outside of Hollywood, as the previous two feature films,
An American Tail and
The Land Before Time, had been backed by
Amblin Entertainment and
Universal Pictures, and executive producers
Steven Spielberg and
George Lucas (for
The Land Before Time only) exercised a degree of control over the content of the films, a situation that Bluth found disagreeable. The studio found investment from UK-based Goldcrest Films in a US$70m deal to produce three animated feature films (though only two,
Rock-a-Doodle and it, were completed under the deal). The three founding members of the studio, Bluth, Pomeroy, and Goldman, had all moved to Ireland to set up the new facility, but during the film's production, John Pomeroy returned to the United States to head up a satellite studio which provided some of the animation for the film. Pomeroy also used his presence in the United States to generate early publicity for the film, including a presentation at the 1987
San Diego Comic-Con. The film's lead voices,
Burt Reynolds and
Dom DeLuise, had previously appeared together in five films. For this one, they requested them to record their parts in the studio together (in American animation, actors more commonly record their parts solo). Bluth agreed and allowed the duo to
ad-lib extensively; Bluth later commented that "their ad-libs were often better than the original script", but Reynolds was more complimentary of the draft, warmly quipping, "Great script, kid", as he left the studio. Another pair of voices, those of Carface and Killer (
Vic Tayback and
Charles Nelson Reilly, respectively), also recorded together.
Loni Anderson, who voices Flo, was Reynolds' then-wife. As production neared completion, the studio held test screenings and decided that some scenes were too intense for younger viewers. Pomeroy decided to shorten Charlie's nightmare about being condemned. Goldman also agreed to the cut, recognizing that the concession needed to be made in the name of commercial appeal. Bluth owned a private 35-mm print with the excised scenes and planned to convince Goldcrest on releasing a director's cut after returning from Ireland in the mid-1990s, but the print was eventually stolen from Bluth's locked storage room, diminishing hopes of this version being released on home media. == Music ==