Just Films & That is a podcast that celebrates underrated and underseen films. In this episode, Alice chose family film Beethoven as she believes it is underrated. Seeing that the film had such low scores across IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes, was she just being fooled by nostalgia? We don’t think so!
There is so much to love about this film (besides the big, beautiful beasts) and we can’t quite understand why the film wasn’t a hit with the critics or audiences. You can listen to the full episode on Beethoven, and all episodes of Just Films and That, wherever you get your podcasts.
There is so much to love about this film (besides the big, beautiful beasts) and we can’t quite understand why the film wasn’t a hit with the critics or audiences. You can listen to the full episode on Beethoven, and all episodes of Just Films and That, wherever you get your podcasts.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 Beethoven.
00:02 No, no, no, no!
00:06 No, no, no!
00:08 So Beethoven from 1992.
00:14 For those of you who haven't seen it at home, it's the story of a St. Bernard puppy
00:17 who escapes from some pretty bad guys and stumbles into a family who make him their own
00:23 despite the fact that the dad of the family, played by Charles Grodin, is a little bit grumpy.
00:27 Alice, you picked this one then, so tell us a little bit about why you picked it.
00:31 So I picked Beethoven because I think that it is very underrated and here's why.
00:36 So over on IMDb at the time of recording it gets a 5.7 out of 10.
00:41 Then over on Rotten Tomatoes the audience give it 36% and then the critics give it 31%.
00:46 And when I chose the film for the podcast, that score was even lower and in the 20s
00:51 and it was only because in the interim one person has gone on and given it a slightly positive review.
00:56 But I think that is just criminally underrated and I don't fully understand
01:00 what the critics have got against this film.
01:02 So naturally I absolutely love this as a kid. I am a huge dog person anyway
01:07 and I think this is a fantastic family film and it's got all the elements in there
01:11 that you want in a family film. But my favourite thing about this is the dad character.
01:16 So our dad, George Newton. So he is so reluctant to get this dog.
01:21 And when you're a child watching this film, he comes across as a little bit of a villain
01:25 and a little bit of a bad guy. You know, oh why won't he let the family have a dog
01:29 and that sort of thing. But watching it as a woman in her 30s with a large dog,
01:33 I completely understand everything he was talking about.
01:36 He was worried about how large the dog would get, about the cost of having to feed the dog
01:40 and of course the inevitable that he would be the one to end up looking after it.
01:45 So I am completely on his side throughout this.
01:47 But then he goes on this wonderful journey of falling in love with Beethoven.
01:51 He's got some great physical comedy moments in this as well and he is a reason
01:55 for a lot of the comedy in general throughout this.
01:57 You get some great slapstick comedy and there are loads of different types of comedy.
02:01 But also what they do really well in this is the family grow and change
02:05 through the eyes of the dog. You have Beethoven sort of, not as a narrator,
02:09 but as a character who is almost holding your hand as the audience as he goes
02:13 through each person in the family's life.
02:15 One of the main issues for me with this film is that the villains are very one-dimensional.
02:19 So they are just the baddest of bad guys and there isn't a lot else to them.
02:23 And I know it is a kids film and it's sort of very cartoony in that regard.
02:26 But I do like it when our villains have a bit more of a backstory and they have
02:30 a bit more to them and they are developed and explored a little bit further.
02:34 The other thing for me was I think it lacked a little bit of exposition,
02:37 particularly at the beginning. Until the end, I didn't know all the characters' names
02:41 and I think we maybe needed to know a little bit more about the family Beethoven
02:45 was joining him before he joined them, if that makes sense.
02:48 I was actually nervous going into this. I thought maybe, oh, have I just got my
02:51 rose-tinted goggles on? And seeing those scores before going in, I genuinely thought,
02:55 well, maybe I've missed something here and I've got this wrong.
02:57 But I absolutely don't think so. I really do think this film is underrated
03:01 and I just don't understand where those poor scores have come from.