…Wow…just wow…SOMEONE clearly paid no attention to the film whatsoever. I saw this movie just last night, so let me clear a lot of things up with you:
The only bits you actually got right were the “jilted by a skirt” being in a dance number, the kid being used by Carface, and Charlie escaping from Heaven.
First off: Charlie DID NOT betray Carface, it was the other way around - Carface convinced Charlie to give up his share of the gambling business, got him drunk during a goodbye party, and had him RUN OVER in the docks and forced into the lake/river/ocean by a driverless car. You never actually see him get hit. He WAS NOT killed in a drive by shooting. Although there IS a scene where he’s shot at in a drive-by rigged by Carface later in the movie, he manages to come out of it unscathed and nobody gets hurt.
Second: Anabelle the archangel whippet never gave off a “sleazy” vibe. I have no idea where in the world you got that idea from.
Third: The ONLY mob slang used is when Carface is referring to his plans to kill Charlie by using phrases as “Friends need to be taken care of bussiness-like” and “give him his surprise” and they aren’t even that hard to decipher. The rest of the film is used in plain, clear, and simple English…except for the “jilted by a skirt” thing. I’m 21 and never heard that phrase before and had no idea what that meant myself.
Four: Charlie ONLY DIES TWICE: once in the beginning and again at the end of the film, and both times he winds up in Heaven. The Hell scene you remember is only a nightmare he had.
Five: Charlie DID NOT KILL ANYONE! Carface was chased down and eaten OFF SCREEN - as in we can not see or hear him when this happened - by a gator that befriended Charlie earlier in the film. (The gator ate Carface of his own free will. Charlie did not coax him to do this in any way).
Six: Ann-Marie WAS NOT A SUBPLOT!!! She was VERY CRUCIAL to the story - perhaps even the central focus of it despite not being the protagonist.
Seven: While there is a gator in drag with a musical number, Itchy was NEVER INVOLVED with this scene.
And finally: Despite the death, alcohol use, gambling, and potentially frightening nightmare scene, there’s nothing wrong with this film. The moral choice Charlie has near the end teaches us that one good moral can go a long way for our own fate, and Ann-Marie has her own stance with what is right and wrong and either scolds Charlie for stealing and lying to her or reacts all heartbroken when he betrays the friendship they had. She frequently forgives him and gives him second chances however, which is another life lesson we could all learn, especially at an early age. And the movie still has it’s cute and humorous moments for the kids to keep them entertained. And sure, children are impressionable, but they’re not morons; they know when they shouldn’t copy everything they see on TV and they’re perfectly capable of understand the moral lessons the story tells. You, apparently, weren’t one of these children if all you got from it was a blur of terror and confusion. Or perhaps you were and simply forgot about what this movie was trying to tell you over time.
Quite honestly, I find it sad that animated films simply aren’t made like this anymore. Everything’s all bright and colorful, squash-and-stretch, and censored now. There’s no real life lessons you can’t learn by simply having friends and the only sad moments are when friendships end and couples break up. There isn’t any dark realism, well thought-out plots, genuine tragedies, and truly touching goodbye scenes anymore.
