Beethoven

After a St. Bernard puppy is abducted from a pet shop by animal abductors, the puppy escapes and finds its way to the home of the Newton family. Mother Alice (Bonnie Hunt) and children Emily(Sarah Rose Karr), Ted (Christopher Castile), and Ryce (Nicholle Tom) all immediately take to the puppy whom they name Beethoven, however father George Newton (Charles Grodin) is less enthused by the idea. While Beethoven enjoys the comforts of living with the Newtons, the animal abduction ring, run by sinister vet/black market animal tester Dr. Herman Varnick (Dean Jones) sets his sights on Beethoven as a test candidate for testing a new type of ammunition.

Released in 1992 to rather mediocre reviews but very healthy box office, Beethoven certainly fits well within the oeuvre of 1990s post Home Alone/Uncle Buck family comedies that ended up defining John Hughes career in the decade. While Beethoven is still a very early revisit of Hughes to the successful formula, it is quite noticeable that Hughes is setting the foundation for common place tropes that would reappear in further films. With that said, the movie is actually quite charming thanks to a well trained dog serving as the titular character, and Amy Holden Jones balances out the Hughes' tropes with some charm and edge that help the film to keep from going overboard with formula.

The best scenes in Beethoven are just watching the dog interact with people. The filmmakers do a pretty decent job of given Beethoven a personality as the gentle giant who's full of energy and intelligence but lacking in self awareness or grace in his movements. The scenes where Beethoven casually escapes his backyard enclosure are quite fun and there's a nice small town/Disney type vibe as he meets the Newton children around town and helps them deal with bullies, getting the attention of crushes, or in one instance engaging in a Lassie type rescue during a close call. The scenes with Beethoven frolicking around with the family or various people in town (firefighters, small business owners, etc.) are charming and make the film a pleasant enough sit.

The actors are perfectly servicable. Charles Grodin is perfectly fine playing an overworked, overstressed, father (even if at points it feels like he's doing a Steve Martin impression), and the rest of the family is perfectly fine as well. Some performances unfortunately go a bit too broad for my taste, such as Stanley Tucci and Oliver Platt playing a rehash of the comedic crook duo a la Horace and Jasper or Harry and Marv, or David Duchovny and Patricia Heaton playing a pair of snobbish DINK(Dual Income No Kids) who are basically insidious versions of Todd and Margo from Christmas Vacation. The real standout in the human performances is Dean Jones who washes away any history of light hearted Disney comedies and away and gives a fittingly sinister and slimey performance that honestly wouldn't be out of place in a straight thriller. It's a terrific villain performance and allows Jones to lift a bit more weight than he usually is allowed and he does so quite well.

The movie in terms of the movie itself it's perfectly fine. It doesn't reach the gold standards of Disney animal movies like '67's That Darn Cat or either of The Incredible Journey movies, but it also doesn't embarrass itself as seen in cases like C. H. O. M. P. S. or Bingo. Beethoven rests comfortably around the level of a Benji movie but with a bigger budget and more polish. The direction by Brian Levant is very exaggerated and lacking in subtlety or restraint, but unlike his other movies he tries to resist the temptation to go full cartoon logic (save for one scene with Duchonvy and Heaton). The movie is very much a collection of character based plots in the first half loosely connected with the second half being more based around the animal abduction ring. There's not much in the way of surprises, but it's all done well enough.

Beethoven is an above average family film anchored by a good performance from its central dog. The movie does a good job of making Beethoven feel like a character, and while the script is certainly formula its at least well done formula that moves at a good pace and doesn't linger on any point long enough to drag. Beethoven is the kind of movie you can watch with your kids and they'll enjoy it while you'll smile once every so often. It won't stick with you, but as family films of this type go it's one of the better ones.