FILM VIEW; Bite vs. Bark Or 'Beethoven' Vs. 'Ferngully' (Published 1992)
- ️https://www.nytimes.com/by/caryn-james
- ️Sun May 17 1992
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.
FILM VIEW
- May 17, 1992
TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers.
About the Archive
This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.
Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.
IF YOU WERE 6 YEARS OLD, WHAT would you rather see? A rain forest fairy who talks gently about "the magic powers of the web of life" or a big sloppy dog who comes in from the rain, shakes his fur and gets your dad all wet?
Somehow, the makers of "Ferngully: The Last Rain Forest," an environmentally correct cartoon, got the answer wrong. And the people behind "Beethoven," the story of a St. Bernard who destroys the carpets and torments the father of a typical suburban family, are making dog jokes all the way to the bank.
"Beethoven" is turning into this season's "Home Alone," a surprise hit that children want to see over and over. The film was No. 3 at the box office last week, more than a month after it opened. And, an even bigger surprise, it has enough energetic charm to keep parents' attention focused on the screen instead of on the hundred other things they could be doing. Given a story that sounds hopelessly stupid, stale and desperate, "Beethoven" is much more enjoyable than it has any right to be.
No one will ever call this film original, but originality is not high on a list of children's demands. "Beethoven" tugs all the right strings, in a manner strangely reminiscent of "Home Alone." It is savvy about kids' troubles, from being ignored by a parent to being picked on by school bullies or having a crush on a cute guy who might not know your name. The film is sentimental but not gooey. Most important, its cartoonish bad guys offer villainy without any true danger and are vanquished by a non-adult hero; whether it's Macaulay Culkin the boy or Beethoven the dog, the star is not a man.
The echoes of "Home Alone" are easy to explain. One of the screenwriters is Amy Holden Jones, a director and a writer of "Mystic Pizza." But her elusive colleague, Edmond Dantes, is the power behind the film. Edmond Dantes is the fictional Count of Monte Cristo, and lurking beneath the pseudonym is none other than John Hughes, who wrote and produced "Home Alone." He left a script for "Beethoven" behind when he parted ways with Universal Pictures, and their deal was that the Hughes identity would be concealed. Secrecy being one of the biggest jokes in Hollywood, of course, published rumors and off-the-record confirmations abound. It is an open secret that "Beethoven" and "Home Alone" share the same creator.
Still, "Beethoven" has its own appeal for children. Here, the dog is the perfect parent. After the puppy Beethoven escapes dognappers, he wanders into the very family that needs him the most. George Newton (Charles Grodin) is the kind of anal-retentive father who gets his three children up at 7 on Saturday morning, on principle. Mr. Grodin fearlessly ignores the standard actors' advice about never working with dogs and children, and provides much of the adult appeal of "Beethoven." He underplays his comic scenes where another actor would have been mugging furiously, but he still lets on that George is a softy underneath it all.