Beethoven (film)

Beethoven (film)

Infobox Film
name = Beethoven


imagesize = 240px
caption =
director = Brian Levant
writer = John Hughes
Amy Holden Jones
starring = Charles Grodin
Bonnie Hunt
Dean Jones
producer = Joe Medjuck
Michael C. Gross
distributor = Universal Pictures
budget =
released = April 30, 1992 (USA)
runtime = 87 minutes
language = English
followed_by = "Beethoven's 2nd"
amg_id = 1:4589
imdb_id = 0103786

"Beethoven" is a 1992 American family film, directed by Brian Levant and starring Charles Grodin. The film is the first in "Beethoven" film series.

It was written by John Hughes (under the pseudonym Edmond Dantès) and Amy Holden Jones. The story centers on a St. Bernard dog named after the composer Ludwig van Beethoven owned by the Newton family and co-stars Bonnie Hunt, Nicholle Tom, Christopher Castile, Sarah Rose Karr Stanley Tucci, Oliver Platt, and Dean Jones.

Plot

Beethoven starts off the movie as a puppy in a pet shop. At night, two dog thieves break into the shop and steal several dogs including Beethoven. However, another dog, Sparky, helps Beethoven escape his cage during the truck ride. The other dogs notice and get excited. When one of the thieves, Harvey, checks on the dogs, Beethoven and Sparky escape.

Sparky is pursued by one of the thieves, Vernon, while Beethoven hides overnight in a trash can. Sparky gets away from Vernon but the two thieves catch him again later on. The next morning, Beethoven sneaks into the Newton house and subsequently finds children. Emily (Karr), the youngest daughter is excited, believing that her father has finally bought her a puppy, as the rest of the family believes. Excited about having a puppy, they forgive George, the father for every bad thing they have ever said about him. However, George is angry when he discovers that the dog has wandered in as he does not want to deal with the responsibility and aggravation of owning a dog. But the children talk him into keeping the dog.

While the family is trying to name the dog, Emily plays a famous part of Ludwig van Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, and the dog barks. Thus, he is named Beethoven. As the family grows attached to him, George is left to house train the pup, who regularly relieves himself in George's briefcase and on the living room rug. As the pup grows, the antics increase. The adolescent pup scratches the door, sheds endlessly upon the furniture, dines off the kitchen counter, and otherwise chews the house apart.

As Beethoven grows up, he helps the children. Ted challenges 3 bullies to a fistfight, and Beethoven growls at them, scaring them away. He also helps Ryce (Tom) to talk to her crush, Mark, by dragging him nearer to her after she confesses her obsession. Thus, she is finally able to talk with Mark and overcomes her insecurity of not being perfect.

That night, Beethoven sneaks out of his dog house and into the Newton's house, turns on the TV, and watches a special report pertaining to the stolen animals in the region. He then sneaks into George and Alice's room while George leaves to turn the TV off and Alice checks the heat. When George returns to bed, Beethoven licks him, with George thinking it's Alice. But when Alice returns to the room, George turns around and screams at the sight of Beethoven, then follows him out of the house, and back to the dog house. George realizes his mode of escape and decides to block it the next day.

The family takes Beethoven to a local veterinarian, Herman Varnick, for a routine medical examination and immunizations. Varnick is involved in unethical and deadly experimentation on animals and is attempting to acquire a large dog for an ammunition test, and others for chemical testing. Harvey and Vernon are helping him acquire the animals, but he is also evaluating the dogs brought to his clinic for suitability, and realizes that Beethoven is a suitable dog for the ammunition test. Therefore, he urges the family to leave him overnight, but they refuse.

George persuades Alice, who has been a full-time homemaker to return to work with him and they hire a babysitter for the children. While the babysitter, Devonia Pest, entertains Ted and Ryce with a shrill sing-along, Emily goes out back to play ball, and the ball lands in a swimming pool. Emily reaches for the ball and falls in. She cries and shouts for help as she can't swim, but Devonia is playing loudly so that she, Ted, and Ryce do not hear Emily screaming. But Beethoven hears Emily from the Newton yard, escapes from the dog house, and saves her.

Later, Ryce calls Alice and informs her of the incident, after Devonia says she is going to keep it secret. Alice picks the kids up early and fires Devonia, much to the joy of the children. The next day, Beethoven ruins a BBQ that George was holding for two business associates. (The associates were really trying to swindle George out of his air freshener business.) Afterwards, George complains about the dog, and Alice quits work again after only one day back. The children hear, and decide to take responsibility for the dog themselves.

Later, as part of a scheme to get the Newton family to give up the dog, Varnick visits the Newton home under the guise of doing a follow-up exam on Beethoven after his rabies vaccine. He manages to create the impression that Beethoven attacked him and bit his arm. Varnick says Beethoven must be euthanized or he may bring legal action. But Emily saw Varnick hit Beethoven and cries, knowing George does not believe her only because he had never liked Beethoven. George reluctantly takes Beethoven to the vet's office. Later that night, Alice and George talk about Beethoven and recall Emily telling them Varnick hit the dog. Reluctantly, George decides to go see Varnick and do a little investigating. The entire family insists on going with him. At the vet's office, they discovered that Varnick faked Beethoven having bitten him and immediately realize that Dr. Varnick has evil intentions. They then go inside and when they cannot find Beethoven, the vet says he already killed him. George then punches Varnick. After leaving the vet's office, they find Varnick leaving and follow him to the facility where he conducts his experiments. George leaves the car, climbs on the roof of the building, steps on the skylight and crashes through the glass landing on top of the dog thieves while Alice calls the police and Ted drives the family car through the wall of the facility, throwing chemical syringes at Dr. Varnick, who is penetrated by the syringes and later arrested and indicted.

The family later gets to appear on local news. After seeing Ryce on television, Mark calls her and asks her to go out with him. The movie ends with George and Alice saying goodnight to all the dogs they brought home from Dr. Varnick's facility.

Cast

* Charles Grodin as George Newton
* Bonnie Hunt as Alice Newton
* Nicholle Tom as Ryce Newton
* Christopher Castile as Ted Newton
* Sarah Rose Karr as Emily Newton
* Dean Jones as Dr. Herman Varnick
* David Duchovny as Brad
* Patricia Heaton as Brie
* Oliver Platt as Harvey (Dognapper #1)
* Stanley Tucci as Vernon (Dognapper # 2)

equels and spinoffs

The film was followed by four sequels. "Beethoven's 2nd" was released to theaters in 1993. The remaining sequels were direct-to-video films: "Beethoven's 3rd" (2000), "Beethoven's 4th" (2001) and "Beethoven's 5th" (2003). An animated TV series was also created around the films that debuted in 1993. Dean Jones voiced the role of George Newton in this series after playing the villain in the film. There is also an upcoming "Beethoven" film set for release in 2008 called "".

Features

*The Wolf Man (1941)
*Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988) (VG)

External links

*imdb title|id=0103786|title=Beethoven


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