Beethoven: Special Edition

All animal movies have a formula, and they’re all different. Horse movies, for example, are a more dramatic affair. They’re about the bond humans have with animals, this primal connection between man and beast. Dog movies, on the other hand, are usually about some uptight paterfamilias who, god bless him, is set in his ways and needs to have his comfort zone shaken up by some wild, untamed quadruped who shows this square a thing or two about living.

Charles Grodin plays George Newton, the uptight father. Beethoven, who’s still just a wee, cute puppy, escapes from the clutches of some no-good thieves who intend to kidnap dogs for medical experiments. The puppy wanders the Newton residence, where the entire family, except for George, falls in love right away. “Can’t we keep him, Dad?” the kids all plead. He may be set in his ways, but he loves his family all the same, so he relents.

Watch as the fastidious fuddy duddy grapples with drool, chewed-up shoes, and hair that covers every inch of every piece of furniture they own. Watch as he must do what he never thought in a million years he’d ever do, and have to launch a rescue mission for man’s best friend after he’s rediscovered and re-kidnapped by the same thieves from the beginning, and must free him to live out the rest of his days with the Newtons.

As far as family-friendly pet movies go, Beethoven is solidly not bad entertainment. It’s predictable as can be, but that’s part of its comfort. You’re not watching Beethoven to be intellectually challenged. You’re watching it because you’re inviting the entire family to turn off their brains for a gloriously swift 87 minutes. Every bit you think you’ll see makes its way into the movie. Beethoven will absolutely knock some people into a swimming pool, and a scene-stealing Jack Russell is 100% going to bite someone right on the nads. As far as the human performances, Charles Grodin is clearly having a fun time as the cranky, workaholic dad who learns to lighten up a little bit.

If Beethoven did invite my brain to wander and to ponder anything with any serious consideration, I did take a moment of pause to realize how strange the concept of pet ownership is when you really think about it. As a species, we’ve built up these walls to protect ourselves from the environment, including animals that may harm us or steal our food. But we’ve invited the ones we find cute enough to come live inside with us. And, sure, they shed, and poop, and destroy things, and they’re kinda smelly and stinky, but they have cute little feet, so it’s okay.

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray
Kino Lorber calls Beethoven over to sit, siiiit, lay down, that’s a good boy, on Blu-ray in a single-disc release, housed in a standard case with a removable slipcover. Both the case and the slipcover contain the same artwork, which dates back to its original theatrical release.

Okay. So. I’m not the biggest snob when it comes to video presentations, but the 1080p HD presentation here had me digging into the internet to make sure I wasn’t crazy. According to Kino Lorber’s website, as well as the disc info on the case, it says that it’s a brand-new HD master, sourced from a 2K scan of the film’s original 35mm interpositive. Great! Terrific! For a Blu-ray release, that’s all you need. As I watched the film, though, I noticed odd things that were decidedly not in keeping with Kino Lorber’s usual modus operandi. KLSC generally has a very hands-off procedure for their masters, without a whole lot of tinkering. They keep it simple, they keep it more or less the way they found it, and that’s the way I likes it. But, I noticed a lot of scenes with very obvious-looking DNR application to scrub it of film grain, and then to make up for the loss of sharpness, a heavy application of edge-enhancement was slapped onto it. This doesn’t sound like Kino Lorber, I thought. This sounds like Universal. This is right up their alley.

From what I was able to gather, this appears to be something of a repress effort of Universal’s scan from their own 2016 Blu-ray release. I can neither confirm nor deny this, but I will say that sounds about right. Does it look terrible? No, actually, it looks fine. There are some moments that look terrific. And even those softened sequences, with a garish application of edge-enhancement, don’t look as over-the-top terrible as something like Universal’s own King Kong release on 4K, but come on. This is touted as a brand-new scan HD master, and even if that is true, it's indistinguishable from its previous release.

Now, as for audio, again, I wasn’t able to confirm much about the mix included on the disc. When I hit the playback info button on my Blu-ray player, it confirms that the audio mix included is DTS-HD MA 2.0, but not whether it’s 2.0 stereo or 2.0 surround. I had my sound system on “standard,” which I always do, to honor filmmaker intent and all that sound purist stuff, but my rear speakers did see some activity. The musical score overflowed to the rear of the soundstage, and some of the louder effects, like a clattering ruckus of dog-related mayhem, also reached the satellites. This is one of those occasions where, since I don’t know FOR SURE if the mix was 2.0 stereo or surround, I’m not sure if this was intended or if my sound system just became possessed and decided to take it upon itself and matrix some of the effects into the rears. 

In either case, it sounded great! Dialogue clarity was top-notch, while sound effects and Randy Edelman’s playful score pack a punch without ever getting overloud.

Beethoven, sadly, is lacking on the special features front. For a movie that made a fortune at the box office, it’s kind of a bummer that there aren’t any retrospective interviews or more extensive featurettes about the making of the film. There are, however, two full-length audio commentaries for those who want to get academic about the film’s production history.

• Audio Commentary – Director Brian Levant, moderated by filmmaker Douglas Hosdale
• Audio Commentary – Film historian Joe Ramoni
• Theatrical Trailer

Perhaps I’ve been a tad harsh on Beethoven, wielding a rolled-up newspaper like some Grodin-esque ogre. It’s a slight, inconsequential film starring a big ol’ dog, and it has some decent laughs in there. For movies of its type, you can’t ask for much more. There’s just not much of a reason to upgrade your existing Blu-ray disc, if you already own one, to this version, because it appears to be the exact same transfer. The DTS-HD MA 2.0 mix, which may or may not be surround, is a ton of fun, too, and there are a pair of audio commentaries for fans. Overall, if you have the film on your shelf, for this release you can probably skip it, otherwise if you still need the film, it's Worth A Look