Remember Charlie’s nightmarish vision of Hell? It was originally even scarier.
Many family films from the ’80s have scenes that are scarier than most you’ll find in horror movies from the time, and Don Bluth’s All Dogs Go to Heaven is one of the most infamous. At one point in the 1989 movie, Charlie has a nightmare about Hell, which was edited by the studio after test screenings indicated it was just too intense.
Via Wikipedia…
As production neared completion, the studio held test screenings and decided that some of the scenes were too intense for younger viewers. Writer and producer John Pomeroy decided to shorten Charlie’s nightmare about being condemned. Co-director Gary Goldman also agreed to the cut, recognizing that the concession needed to be made in the name of commercial appeal.
Also according to Wiki, Bluth had at one point planned on releasing the fully uncut version of All Dogs Go to Heaven, but it never came to be. His 35mm print was stolen and long thought to be lost, but the uncut nightmare sequence just recently popped up on YouTube. Nearly 30 years later, you can now watch it as it was originally intended to be.
Thanks to Reddit for the heads up!