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Beethoven
Directed by	Brian Levant
Produced by	Joe Medjuck Michael Gross
Written by	John Hughes Amy Holden Jones
Starring	Charles Grodin Bonnie Hunt Dean Jones
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	April 3, 1992 (USA)
Running time	87 minutes
Language	English
Followed by	Beethoven's 2nd
IMDb profile

Beethoven is a 1992 comedy film directed by Brian Levant and 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 stars Charles Grodin,Bonnie Hunt, Nicholle Tom, Christopher Castile, Sarah Rose Karr and Dean Jones

Beethoven starts off the movie as a puppy in a pet shop. Every child that walks by seems to pick out another puppy, and the owner of the store is having a terrible time selling dogs. At night, two dognappers break into the shop and steal several dogs including Beethoven. Another small dog, Mitch, however, helps Beethoven escape his cage during the long truck ride. The other dogs notice and become excited. When one of the two thieves come to check on the dogs, Beethoven and Mitch jump out of the back of the truck.

Mitch is pursued by one of the thieves while Beethoven hides overnight in a trash can. In the morning, Beethoven sneaks into the Newton house and subsequently finds children in the Newton household. Emily (Karr), the youngest daughter, believes that her father has finally bought her a puppy. George, the father, is in a sticky situation, the kids believe he brought the dog home, but he does not want the added responsibility and aggravation of owning a dog. Soon he is talked into keeping the dog. While they are naming the dog, Emily plays a famous part of Ludwig van Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, and the dog immediately begins to bark. Thus, the family decides to name him Beethoven. As the family grows attached to him, George is left to single-handedly house train the pup, who regularly chooses to relieve himself in George's suitcase and on the living room rug. As the pup grows into middle size, the antics only increase. The adolescent pup scratches apart the door, sheds endlessly upon the furniture, and dines off of the kitchen counter. As Beethoven reaches 189 lb. status, he begins to chew the house apart.

As Beethoven grows up, he helps the children. Ted challenges the bullies to a fistfight, and Beethoven growls at them from behind him. Beethoven runs away when Ted sees that the bullies have fled, making Ted believe that he caused the bullies to run.

He also helps Ryce (Tom) to talk to her crush, Mark. Beethoven forcibly drags Ryce nearer to him after Ryce confesses her obsession. Thus, Ryce is finally able to talk, even if non-romantically, with Mark and overcomes her insecurity of not being perfect.

The family takes Beethoven in for a routine medical examination. They take him to Herman Varnick, who is posing as a veterinarian. Varnick has been asked to acquire a very large dog for deadly experiments. George has persuaded Alice to return to work with him so a babysitter is hired. While the babysitter entertains Ted and Ryce a shrill sing-along, Emily goes out back to play ball, but the ball lands into a pool. When Emily tries to reach it, she falls in. She flails and cries for help as she can't swim, but the babysitter is playing loud enough to block her cries for help, so her siblings and the babysitter can't hear her. Beethoven, however, hears Emily screaming from the Newton yard and saves her.

Later, Alice walks to the babysitters house and after hearing of Emily's fall in the pool fires the baby sitter. The next day, Beethoven ruins a BBQ that George was holding for two business assosiates, and afterwards complains about the dog. The children hear, and decide to take responsibility for the dog themselves. Later, as part of his scheme to get the Newton family to give up the dog, Varnick visits the Newton home under the guise of delivering Beethoven a vaccine. He manages to create the impression that Beethoven attacked him. Varnick says Beethoven must be euthanized or he may have to bring legal action. Emily saw Varnick hit Beethoven and yells at him. George reluctently takes Beethoven to the vets office, at the office even sadly admits his father did the same thing to him as a child, having the family dog euthanized. Later that night Alice and George talk about Beethoven, they recalled Emily telling them Varnick hit the dog. With some encouragement, George decides to go see Varnick and do a little investigating. The entire family insists on going with him. They drive in the station wagon to the vet, and find Varnick leaving. They then follow him to the facility where he does his deadly experiments on dogs. George leaves the car climbs on the roof of the building and steps on the skylight and crashes through the glass landing on top of one of the dog thieves, while Ted drives the family car through the wall of the facility, knocking over some toxic chemicals and impaling Varnick with many toxic syringes. Varnick is drugged and later arrested.

The family later gets to appear on local news. The movie ends with the family going to bed and saying good night to the dozens of dogs they adopted from Varnick's facility.

• 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 Herman Varnick
• Oliver Platt as Harvey
• Stanley Tucci as Vernon
• David Duchovny as Brad
• Patricia Heaton as Brie
• Chris as Beethoven (the dog)

The film was followed by four sequels: Beethoven's 2nd (puppies) in 1993 and three direct-to-video films, Beethoven's 3rd (Road Trip) (2000), Beethoven's 4th (Obedience School) (2001) and Beethoven's 5th (Hidden Treasure) (2003). It also had a animated TV series in 1993. Ironically, Dean Jones voiced the role of George Newton in this series after playing the villain in the film.

• Beethoven at the Internet Movie Database

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