If you close your eyes and listen to Charlie B. Barkin, you don't just hear a cartoon German Shepherd. You hear a rasp. A frantic, fast-talking, New Orleans hustler energy that feels lived-in. That’s because who voices Charlie in All Dogs Go to Heaven isn't just a voice actor—it was Burt Reynolds at the absolute height of his charismatic, chaotic powers.
Don Bluth, the animation visionary behind the film, didn’t want a clean, polished performance. He wanted grit. He wanted a dog that sounded like he’d spent too many nights at the track and too many mornings regretting it. Reynolds delivered that, but the story of how that voice came to be, and how it changed across the franchise, is actually kind of heartbreaking.
Burt Reynolds and the Birth of Charlie B. Barkin
Most people think voice acting happens in a vacuum. A guy in a booth, reading lines. But for the original 1989 film, the chemistry between the leads was everything. Burt Reynolds (Charlie) and Dom DeLuise (Itchy) were best friends in real life. They had this shorthand. This weird, kinetic energy that you can't fake with a script.
Bluth actually allowed them to ad-lib. That was almost unheard of in 80s animation because it’s a nightmare for the animators who have to match the lip-syncing. But they did it anyway. When you hear Charlie and Itchy bickering, that's often just Burt and Dom being Burt and Dom. It gave the movie a jagged, adult edge that set it apart from the Disney films of the era.
Reynolds brought a specific vulnerability to the role. He played Charlie as a guy who was terrified of death but too proud to admit he needed a kid like Anne-Marie to save his soul. It was a career-best performance that many people overlook because it’s "just a cartoon." Honestly, it’s one of the most human things he ever did on screen.
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The Shift: Why the Voice Changed
By the time the sequel, All Dogs Go to Heaven 2, rolled around in 1996, something was different. If you watch them back-to-back, you’ll notice the voice shifted. Burt Reynolds didn't come back.
Charlie Sheen stepped into the role.
It’s a weird transition. Sheen tried to maintain that smooth-talking, roguish charm, but the texture was different. He was younger, his voice was higher, and the New Orleans "old soul" vibe of the first movie felt replaced by a more standard 90s leading man energy. Why did Reynolds leave? It mostly came down to scheduling and the fact that the sequel was a very different production, handled by MGM instead of Don Bluth’s original studio.
Sheen did a fine job, especially with the musical numbers like "I Will Always Be With You," but for the purists, it wasn't the same Charlie. The character felt less like a reformed gambler and more like a generic hero.
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The TV Series and the Final Voice
Then things got even more complicated. When the franchise moved to television and the final movie, An All Dogs Christmas Carol, the voice changed yet again. This time, the role went to Steven Weber.
You probably know Weber from the sitcom Wings. He’s a versatile actor, and he actually voiced Charlie for more total minutes of content than Reynolds and Sheen combined. He leaned into the comedy. The TV series was lighter, less focused on the heavy themes of hell and redemption, so Weber’s bouncy, energetic delivery fit the new tone perfectly.
A Quick Breakdown of the Voices:
- Burt Reynolds: The original 1989 film. The gold standard.
- Charlie Sheen: The 1996 sequel. The pop-star era.
- Steven Weber: The TV series (1996-1999) and the Christmas special.
The Ghost of the Original Performance
There’s a reason why, when you ask who voices Charlie in All Dogs Go to Heaven, everyone says Burt Reynolds. It’s the legacy. The first movie was released on the exact same day as Disney’s The Little Mermaid. It got crushed at the box office. But on VHS? It became a cult phenomenon.
A huge part of that was the genuine emotion Reynolds put into the final scenes. When Charlie has to say goodbye, it doesn't sound like a movie. It sounds like a man reckoning with his own life. Interestingly, Reynolds later said in interviews that Charlie Barkin was one of his favorite roles because he got to work so closely with DeLuise without the "Hollywood" distractions.
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Behind the Scenes Drama
It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. The production of the first film was famously troubled. The movie was originally much darker—so dark that it received a PG rating and had to be cut down to get a G. There’s a "lost" version of the Hell sequence that is supposedly terrifying.
Reynolds’ voice work had to be edited to fit these cleaner versions, but his performance still carried that "bad boy" energy that made the cuts feel like they had real stakes. You could hear the smoke in his lungs. You could hear the desperation in his voice when he realizes his life clock is ticking down.
Actionable Next Steps for Fans
If you want to truly appreciate the work of the actors who voiced Charlie, don't just watch the movies. Dig deeper into the history of the era.
- Watch the "making of" featurettes for the 1989 film to see footage of Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise recording together in the booth. It’s a masterclass in chemistry.
- Compare the soundtracks. Listen to Burt Reynolds’ "You Can't Keep a Good Dog Down" against Charlie Sheen's "Easy Street." The difference in vocal characterization tells you everything about how the franchise evolved from a gritty indie project to a commercial property.
- Look for the deleted scenes. While the "Director's Cut" of the first film doesn't officially exist, many storyboards and audio snippets of the darker dialogue have leaked online over the years, showcasing a much more intense performance from Reynolds.
- Check out Steven Weber's range. If you only know him as Charlie, watch his work in The Shining miniseries or Wings to see how he adapted his natural voice to mimic the foundation Reynolds built.
The voice of Charlie B. Barkin is a roadmap of 90s Hollywood history. It started with an icon, moved to a rising star, and settled with a reliable TV veteran. But no matter who was behind the mic, the soul of the character remained that of a scoundrel with a heart of gold who just needed one more chance to do the right thing.