Beethoven (1991)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Comedy	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1991
Running Time	83:20
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Brian Levant
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Charles Grodin Bonnie Hunt Dean Jones Oliver Platt Stanley Tucci
Case	Soft Brackley-Transp-Dual v2
RPI	Box	Music	Randy Edelman

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French Portuguese Danish Finnish Swedish Norwegian German Dutch Czech Polish	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    So, you want to make a family comedy? Name the essential ingredients thereof. Well, those ingredients are here in abundance - cute kids; poor, suffering, but basically clueless father; strong-as-a-rock mother; and a big, cute, fluffy animal. It might sound somewhat formulaic, but the mixture known as Beethoven works pretty well. It grossed pretty well at the box office (sufficient to spawn a sequel - we will forget the third effort), and sold well on VHS. So it seemed almost inevitable that the film would appear on DVD at some point of time - even if it did so after the lamentable third effort in the franchise. Basically, stick your feet up and enjoy the predictable, but still funny, ride that is the rather large Saint Bernard called Beethoven.

    The broad story of the film is pretty much the life and times of Beethoven. A cute-as-cute-can-be resident of the local pet shop, Beethoven falls into the clutches of the dastardly local vet Dr Hermann Varnick (Dean Jones), who has a little side line that requires the use of puppies, courtesy of the bungling work of rent-a-criminals Harvey (Oliver Platt) and Vernon (Stanley Tucci). But the clutches of Dr Varnick are not that long and Beethoven soon manages to escape into the open world - a world that he is not really accustomed to live in quite yet. His street wanderings find him eventually at the residence of one George Newton (Charles Grodin), where he inveigles his way into the household by sneaking in and locating the youngest member of the household. George has no option but to say yeah to keeping the little puppy, with the usual consequences of such a course of action - namely, much hilarity as well as destruction of house and home. As Beethoven becomes an integral part of the Newton household, he becomes something of a protector as well as a mobile gourmand. But all is not well and our lovable hulk finds himself in a predicament courtesy of the dastardly vet - a predicament that is resolved in a happy-ever-after-ending type of way.

    As you perhaps have guessed, this is a largely successful attempt by Universal to out-Disney Disney. In many ways harking back to some of those great (and not so great) Disney family features of the 1960s and 1970s, this makes the casting of the quintessential Disney nice guy, Dean Jones, as the dastardly vet even more amusing than it would otherwise be. Naturally the story is not that brilliant, but does provide enough opportunity to showcase the big lovable hulk doing the usual sort of cutesy dog things. The fact that I still find some amusement here indicates that this is not a bad thing at all. Charles Grodin plays the somewhat downtrodden notional male head of the household as well as he normally does, and is well-matched by Bonnie Hunt. The kids are the usual collection of cuties, with the only real notable being Nicholle Tom who of course went onto a role in the television series The Nanny. None of the performances are likely to be confused with something close to Oscar-winning stuff, but that is not really the point here at all. Like everything to do with the film, the aim is a broadly entertaining family comedy suitable for all ages that does not need the brain to be engaged for eighty odd minutes, which of course indicates that the directing, cinematography and art direction are pretty much in the average to good area. The unkind will of course suggest that this is very typical of the sort of film that executive producer Ivan Reitman has based his career around.

   Despite the fact that there is nothing here that is really stand-out, the result is quite an enduring and generally endearing family comedy. Just the sort of stuff that can be thrown on to keep the kids happy over the long summer holidays. It's fun, it's harmless and you get to see some age-old gags rehashed. As such, there is a lot to commend it, even if it does not quite compete in the same league as some other recent family releases.

Video

    Just as the film contains nothing really of a stand-out nature, so too the transfer is decent without being spectacular. I guess a good way of describing it is "solid".

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and it is 16x9 enhanced.

    The solidity is demonstrated by the fact that the transfer is decently sharp, without approaching anything like razor sharpness. Everything looks okay without really standing out. Detail is pretty decent in general, although a lack of depth of field is noticed here and there - such as at 61:20, where the background really is most indistinct. Shadow detail is okay, with no real problems other than the fact that a ten year old film would perhaps be expected to have a bit more on offer than is the case here. There is a consistent, albeit slightly, grainy appearance throughout the transfer: it is there but it is really not that much of an issue. There does not appear to be any low level noise in the transfer.

    The colours are similarly of a solid nature - good if slightly flat-looking at times. There are no major issues with the palette that a good dollop of brightness would not fix, but really nothing too worrying at all. Obviously the slightly flat look means that the vibrancy level is fairly low and the saturation tends towards the under rather than the over end of the scale. Colour bleed is not an issue here.

    There are no significant MPEG artefacts in the transfer. There are not much in the way of film-to-video artefacts in the transfer, and certainly nothing that could be considered that bothersome. Some minor shimmer in the jacket at 19:52, some slight aliasing in the box edges at 23:26 and some slight wobble in the image at 54:03 are the sorts of minor issues that we are talking about here. The transfer does show its age in the film artefact department though, and at times these do get to be both plentiful and noticeable. A little disappointing for a film of this age.

    There is a nice collection of subtitle options on the DVD and the English efforts are very good. They miss very little, and certainly nothing of import, and are very legible.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are five soundtracks on the DVD, all being Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded efforts. The choices are English, German, French, Italian and Spanish. I stuck with the English soundtrack for the review. Whilst being indicated as being surround encoded, the soundtrack barely sounds like it according to my ears.

    The dialogue comes up well in the transfer and is generally easy to understand. There does not appear to be any audio sync problems in the soundtrack at all.

    The original score comes from Randy Edelman naturally enough as this is the sort of stuff he can toss out with gay abandon without much thought. Hardly the most taxing of scores, but at least he manages a decent, and quite memorable, theme tune. Like so much about this DVD, good without being anything remarkable.

    Since we are talking about a family film, there is obviously not much required of the soundtrack. Convey the dialogue well and don't draw attention to itself. As such, the soundtrack does its job really well. Although lacking any real rear channel surround support, the overall soundscape is adequate enough. A bit frontal-sounding at times, which suits the dialogue quite well, and all-in-all, a wholly unremarkable soundtrack. It is completely free of any distortions or other blemishes.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    Nothing at all - other than the obligatory menu that is barely used.

    In comparison with the Region 1 release, the Region 4 release misses out on nothing at all (okay, a Pan and Scan presentation aside). The Region 1 release however misses out on:

• Widescreen presentation
• 16x9 enhancement
• German and Italian soundtracks

    Just have to say that the preferred version would have to be Region 4.

    Beethoven is probably one of more enduring family comedies to come out of a studio other than Disney during the 1990s. It might not reach any great heights as an art form, but as a piece of family entertainment it is better than average. There might be better efforts around, but this is certainly a proven film that the big and little kids can return to often. If you are in the market for some family comedy, then you should check this one out.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall