Film / Beethoven

A series of family comedy films from Universal about a St. Bernard dog named after Ludwig van Beethoven. Unlike in its animated spin-off, Beethoven could not speak, although he still had Amplified Animal Aptitude. In keeping with the theme of the composer, the sequel movies were titled Beethoven's 2nd, Beethoven's 3rd, etc.

The first film, released in 1992 and directed by Brian Levant, was executive produced by Ivan Reitman and co-written by John Hughes under the pseudonym "Edmond Dantes." The story focuses on Beethoven's adoption by the Newton family: curmudgeon father George (Charles Grodin), earnest wife Alice (Bonnie Hunt), Cool Big Sis Ryce (Nicholle Tom from The Nanny), geeky son Ted (Christopher Castile from Step by Step), and Cheerful Child Emily (Sarah Rose Karr from Kindergarten Cop). Unbeknownst to them, their new pet is an escaped would-be test animal from a lab run by Dr. Herman Varnick (Dean Jones^note  Jones would later voice George Newton in the animated series; Nicholle Tom was the only other cast member to return for the series, providing Ryce's voice ), an evil veterinarian who sounds like Satan and is stealing his customers' dogs to conduct unethical experiments on.

The American Veterinary Association apparently wasn't any too happy about the film featuring an evil vet who uses dogs as ballistic test dummies, and subsequently sent a scathing letter to Jack Valenti, then-president of the Motion Picture Association of America. Probably as a result, the first sequel has a "safe" villain in the form of Regina (Debi Mazar), a Cruella de Vil-esque Rich Bitch and her arrogant but somewhat-dimwitted boyfriend Floyd (Chris Penn). Beethoven's 2nd was the last film to feature the original cast and the last to be released theatrically. It was also the last film to involve Reitman as executive producer.

Seven years after Beethoven's 2nd, the series was resurrected with some Direct to Video sequels. The family members were replaced with Suspiciously Similar Substitutes, with the explanation that Beethoven was living "temporarily" with George's brother Richard Newton (Judge Reinhold) and his family. This family includes wife Beth (Julia Sweeney), son Brennan (Joe Pichler) and daughter Sara (Michaela Gallo). After two films with them, Beethoven's 5th featured Sara (now played by Daveigh Chase) bringing Beethoven along on a visit to her Uncle Freddie (Dave Thomas) with the rest of the family absent. This was the last movie set in the original continuity.

Harvey Comics published a Beethoven Comic Book series in 1994.

In 2008, Beethoven's Big Break rebooted the franchise. Big Break was followed by Beethoven's Christmas Adventure in 2011 and Beethoven's Treasure Tail in 2014.

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The series in general provides examples of:

• Artistic License – Animal Care:
  • Plenty of it::
    • Beethoven's owners are seen feeding him bacon and Twinkies, and he eats other human foods like cookies when nobody's around. Such foods are known to give dogs indigestion, and too much bacon could give a dog pancreatitis. One little girl is seen feeding Beethoven her vanilla ice cream cone as she continues to lick it herself. Understandable as she's just a child, but vanilla is likely not to sit well with Beethoven either. Had it been a chocolate cone, he'd be even worse for wear.
    • The Newtons never seem to consider having Beethoven neutered, even though this is highly recommended for domestic pets and would curb any aggression or destruction of the house. Of course, if they had, then the events of the sequel would never have happened.
• Big Eater: Beethoven, who is often looking for food and annihilates a holiday turkey in one scene.
• Big Friendly Dog: The titular character is a large, but lovable St. Bernard.
• Comic-Book Time: There's a seven-year gap between Beethoven's 2nd and Beethoven's 3rd, but they apparently take place in immediate succession. So evidently the world just randomly jumps from the early '90s to the early '00s.
• Dogs Are Dumb: Played with. It's intentionally left vague just how smart Beethoven is and he does things that are both astoundingly brilliant and incredibly dumb, sometimes simultaneously.
• Happily Married: George and Alice. Despite any disagreements they may have about Beethoven or George's business ambitions, they still show each other affection regularly and have each other's backs through thick and thin. The second movie even shows the pair slow-dancing on the jetty of their cabin, much to the delight of their children and Beethoven's puppies.
  • Another example is Beethoven and Missy in the 2nd movie. While dogs don't technically get married, the relationship between the two is completely unaffected by distance or time apart, even after the puppies come along, the romance between them is still going strong.
• Heroic Dog: Beethoven saves Emily from drowning, Ted from being bullied, Ryce from being raped, the family from being swindled, and performs tons of other feats of heroism.
• Lighter and Softer: The series tends to get sillier and more light-hearted as it goes along. The first movie had villains involved in unethical animal experiments, and the second one had a scene in which Beethoven saves Ryce from being raped. Compared to the direct-to-video sequels that would follow, the two theatrically-released Beethoven films look positively gritty and hard-edged.
• Only Sane Man: Gender-flipped, with Alice filling this role in the first two movies, mostly observing the chaos caused by her husband, kids, and Beethoven.
• Put on a Prison Bus: Happens to all the villains in the franchise, except for Regina and Floyd (onscreen at least).
• Sibling Rivalry: Averted in the first two movies. The Newton siblings regularly do activities together and rarely squabble despite their different ages.

Tropes specific to the first film:

• Angry Guard Dog: The Dobermans guarding the junkyard at the end of the film.
• Armor-Piercing Response:
  George: Come on. My dream is going down the drain and you're worried about a dog.
  Alice: Our family is going down the drain and you're worried about a dream.
• Artistic License – Animal Care: There is so much wrong with the way Dr. Varnick runs his practice that anyone with knowledge of veterinary care is going to either laugh uncontrollably or Facepalm throughout the film. Some of it crosses over into Artistic License – Law, to boot. Some of it can be hand waved on account of him being, y'know, evil and obviously willing to lie to achieve his goals, but not all of it.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Beethoven gives a pastry to the stray dog who helped him escape from the Varnick's goons as a puppy.
• Bedmate Reveal: Beethoven keeps climbing into bed with George, who is far from amused.
• Big "NO!": George screams this as the mud-soaked Beethoven shakes himself dry, getting George all wet.
• Big Sister Instinct: When Ryce realizes that Emily had fallen into the babysitter's pool, then sees that the babysitter is trying to get Emily to keep the accident a secret, she immediately asks to call her mother.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Dr. Varnick acts nice to people, but deep down, he's a son of a bitch of the highest order.
• Brick Joke: At the beginning, a biker woman comes into the pet shop, saying she has a big junkyard and needs a big junkyard dog. She rejects the St. Bernard puppy after he pees on her and exclaims "You got any pit bulls?" Much later in the film, when Dr. Varnick's goons flee the dogs, they take cover in a big junkyard, occupied by four big dobermans.
• Bullying a Dragon: Vernon and Harvey at the end.
  Stupid, stupid doggies! Stupid, stupid doggies!
• Butt-Monkey: George gets the brunt of Beethoven's mischief.
• Car Fu: Ted crashes the family station wagon into the bad guys' warehouse.
• Cassandra Truth: From a window, little Emily sees Dr. Varnick hit Beethoven in order to provoke the dog to lunge forward. Varnick then pulls the Wounded Gazelle Gambit detailed below. Because of Emily's age, the adults initially don't believe her, but when Alice sees that Emily sticks to the story no matter what on top of having never accused an adult of lying before, she convinces George to investigate the situation.
• Chekhov's Skill: Beethoven learned ways to escape the gate that he's locked behind in the backyard. It does come in handy when he races to save Emily from drowning in a swimming pool.
• Child Hater: George's Jerkass clients who are a married couple with careers.
• Cool Old Lady: The babysitter was trying very hard to come across as this - she played "Lady Marmalade" on a parlor organ for the kids and bragged about playing in clubs. However, the kids were so unimpressed they asked to be allowed to do their homework. This is to say nothing of the criminal negligence, while entertaining the older kids she loses track of the youngest, who falls in the pool and would've drowned had it not been for Beethoven.
• Creator Cameo: Transportation coordinator Craig Pinkard has a minor role as a homeless man digging in the garbage who meets and befriends Sparky, the Jack Russell terrier who helped Beethoven escape from Harvey and Vernon.
• Creator Thumbprint: Vernon and Harvey, the bungling henchmen, recall The Wet Bandits, the bumbling pair of thieves from a previous John Hughes film. Yuppies Brad and Brie bear some resemblance to the snooty Todd and Margo of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.
• Cruella to Animals: Dr. Varnick uses poor, innocent dogs for his deadly animal experiments and he wants to test a new type of bullets on Beethoven, something he expresses with perverse pleasure.
• Dirty Coward: Harvey and Vernon. Both run from the dogs they stole, then hold hands in fear when the doberman pinschers attack them in the junkyard.
• Even the Dog Is Ashamed: When George goes to the vet to have Beethoven put down, you see three dogs with their owners in the waiting room as he exits. All three of said dogs look away from George and/or whimper at him.
• Even the Girls Want Her: Ryce comments on the "perfection" of her secret crush's girlfriend.
• Everybody Cries: Ryce, Ted, and Emily cry just before Beethoven is sent to be put down after Dr. Varnick fakes a dog attack in order to label Beethoven as a dangerous dog.
• Fanservice Extra: There is a lingering shot of Beethoven jumping over a reclining girl in a bikini.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Father: George, as he was reluctant to adopt Beethoven, but his family overrule his decision and kept him as the family pet.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: During George's business lunch, you can see Beethoven's leash wrapping around Brad and Brie's chairs, knowing that something bad is coming.
• For the Evulz: Dr. Varnick hurts innocents dogs merely for his own sadistic amusement.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Dr. Varnick wears a pair of glasses, and is a very bad guy.
• Freudian Excuse: George's reason for his hostility towards Beethoven. While driving Beethoven to be put down, George tells him how he hated his own dad for taking his dog away but it's implied that it was for a good reason.
• Funny Background Event: If you watch closely during the scene where all the dogs freed from Dr. Varnick's lab chase his mooks through a market, a golden retriever picks up an entire cabbage in its mouth and spends the rest of the scene hanging onto it.
• Groin Attack: Dr. Varnick gets this by Sparky, the Jack Russell terrier who helped Beethoven escape in the beginning.
• Heel–Face Turn: George has one towards Beethoven. He even jumped through a skylight to save him from being shot.
• Hidden Depths: George, after seemingly finding every reason to dislike Beethoven throughout most of the movie, reveals that he is still bitter because of his father taking his old family dog to the vet to be euthanized, and regrets that he thought he had to do the same to Beethoven (and having the same resentment from his own kids). Thankfully, as soon as he realizes that Dr. Varnick is corrupt, he does everything possible to save Beethoven.
• If I Do Not Return: When George decides to sneak into Varnick's lab to look for clues, as well as the whereabouts of Beethoven, he tells Alice and the kids to call the police if he doesn't return in fifteen minutes. When Alice decides to follow him, she starts to tell the kids the same thing but stops herself and says that she'll be back.
• I Never Said It Was Poison: A variation of it. George was told by the secretary that Beethoven will be put down the next day. Later that night when he return to the vet with his family to take back Beethoven, Dr. Varnick told him the dog was already put down. That's how George knew he was lying.
• Jerkass Has a Point: George opposes adopting Beethoven—saying he's a cute little puppy for now but will grow to be enormous, drool everywhere and wreck the house. The following montage of Beethoven wrecking the house shows George was on point.
• Karma Houdini: The ammunition company representative and/or the company in general is this, unless Varnick and/or his mooks pled out for reduced sentences in which case the representative/company would instead be Karma Houdini Warranty.
• Kids Driving Cars: With George off dealing with the bad guys and Alice calling the police, Ted borrows the family station wagon in order to pull off a Big Damn Heroes moment.
• Kindly Vet: Completely averted; Dr. Herman Varnick is an utterly dirty veterinarian.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Dr. Varnick, who spent a lot of time injecting experimental chemicals into dogs, gets pumped full of his own chemicals. And his henchmen, who spend a lot of the movie being cruel to dogs, get mauled by Dobermans.
• Mama Bear: Downplayed. When Alice picks up her kids from the babysitter, she’s understandably upset one of her kids almost drowned and she does not believe the babysitter when she tries to act like it wasn’t her fault. Alice does the right thing and fires the woman.
• Mooks: The two characters played by Stanley Tucci (Vernon) and Oliver Platt (Harvey).
• My God, What Have I Done?: George is hit with this after he leaves Beethoven with Dr. Varnick to be put down after the alleged attack; having wished constantly for his mischievous pet to be out of his life, George realizes that he wasn't that bad after all.
• My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Beethoven sensed Emily was about to fall into the pool and ran to the rescue.
• Never My Fault: The babysitter tries to gloss over her negligence by claiming that the fault lies with Emily for wandering off. Alice is not impressed.
  • Sal DeMargo in Big Break.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Had Dr. Varnick's mooks not recapture the Jack Russell terrier who helped Beethoven escape, he wouldn't have been there to again help Beethoven as well as George.
• Oh, Crap!: The two mooks upon realizing that they just tried to take shelter in a junkyard...patrolled by four very vicious Dobermans.
  • George's reaction upon meeting Beethoven for the first time also counts.
• Papa Wolf: Don't cross George Newton. He may not look like it, but he is very protective of his kids and later his dog.
• Pet's Homage Name: Beethoven himself was named after the composer when he seemed to react positively to Emily playing Beethoven's 5th Symphony on the piano.
• Police Are Useless: When George tries to report Dr. Varnick to the police and tells them about him faking being attacked by Beethoven as an excuse to take him, the police responder replies with 'So what?' Averted in the climax, where they are all arrested.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Harvey isn't anywhere close to a likeable guy, but he isn't close to being the sadist that Dr. Varnick and Vernon are.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: George really lays one on Beethoven, failing to comprehend why his family likes a sniffing and drooling creature better than him. Maybe if he paid more attention to them than his career obsession to raise more capital, hence his obliviousness to Brad and Brie's plans to eventually take over his business, it wouldn't seem that way so much.
• Redemption Rejection: Harvey appears to contemplate a Heel–Face Turn when he learns that Dr. Varnick wants them destroy the dogs along with all the other evidence. Then he shrugs and gets back to work.
• Revenge Is a Dish Best Served: Brad patronisingly asks Alice to refill his drink and calls her "Alecia" in the process. Alice takes a quick sip and spits it back into the glass before handing it to Brad.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: One of Dr. Varnick's henchmen, when Beethoven broke free.
• Soft Glass: George enters the bad guys' warehouse through a skylight.
• Time-Passes Montage: A montage depicts Beethoven going from a puppy to a full-grown St. Bernard, all the while, highlighting George's frustration with the dog as Paul Shaffer's rendition of "Roll Over Beethoven" plays in the background.
• Too Dumb to Live:
  • Dr Varnick's dim-witted thieves.
  • Dr. Vernick himself. Upright and uncapped is not how you place a syringe when you aren't using it!
• Undying Loyalty: No matter how much George berates Beethoven when the latter causes trouble for the former and deploring his gross habits in general, Beethoven still acts caring towards him, as shown when he saved George from getting scammed by a couple of con artists.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: A local pet store is robbed of several dozen of its puppies and the authorities don't know what became of them. George places dozens of lost dog posters for Beethoven when he wanders into their home for the first time. Nobody in town makes the connection that he's one of the stolen pups.
• Urine Trouble: Beethoven as a puppy pees on a biker woman who considered adopting him, until he did that to her.
• Vile Villain, Laughable Lackey: The veterinarian's goons' bumbling and cowardice were Played for Laughs, but the veterinarian himself was not.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Alice calls George out for caring more about his dream than his own family. And his kids were mad at him for taking Beethoven to be put to sleep. Both are angry at his "unreasonable" hatred of Beethoven from the start and for always looking for "excuses" to get rid of him.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Dr. Varnick pulls this on Beethoven by pouring fake blood on his arm to make it look like Beethoven attacked him so he'll have an excuse to have him euthanized with the threat to press charges otherwise. Thankfully, it backfires against him later since Emily saw the whole thing and when George goes to confront him, his arm isn't covered in a cast or stitches and doesn't even have any bite marks.
• "You!" Exclamation: George shouts this at Beethoven after coming home on a rainy day to find his house completely trashed and the mud-soaked dog lying on his and Alice's bed. What follows is the above-mentioned Big "NO!" from George, as the dog stands up and shakes himself dry, soaking the frustrated dad in the process.

Tropes specific to Beethoven's 2nd:

• Award-Bait Song: "The Day I Fall In Love" by James Ingram and Dolly Parton.
• Babies Ever After: Beethoven and Missy's puppies. While they are born in the middle of the movie, they are still a fruit of the solid relationship between their parents, even after they grow to full-size.
• Bad People Abuse Animals: Regina. She is generally unpleasant to be around, but the abuse of Missy and intention to drown her puppies cement her as a nasty piece of work.
• Batman in My Basement: After rescuing Missy's puppies, the children hide them in the basement, knowing that George would not allow them to stay if he knew. He inevitably finds out, but is eventually won over.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Ryce's handsome and seemingly nice boyfriend Taylor shows his true colors when he locks her in his room so she can't escape his sexual advances.
• Bowdlerize: A version of the film released on streaming services such as HBO removed the scene where Taylor attempts to sexually assault Ryce. For some reason, it also removed the part where Ryce sticks her finger in dog poo to check if the puppies are nearby.
• Climbing Climax: Of sorts. The final confrontation takes place on the edge of a cliff in the mountains, with Floyd threatening to drop one of Beethoven's puppies over the edge. Beethoven saves his puppies and his human owners by causing Floyd and Regina to fall over the edge.
• Cruella to Animals: Played straight with Regina, to the point where she comes across as something of an Expy of Cruella de Vil. She initially wants to get rid of Beethoven's puppies by any means necessary, and only decides not to drown them when she finds out that they're purebred and worth a bunch of money.
• Date Rape Averted: Taylor locks Ryce in his room with him, but she is saved from being sexually assaulted when Beethoven destroys half of the house, causing Taylor to fall into the lake below.
• Demoted to Extra: While Sparky the Jack Russell played a large role in the first movie, in this movie he's barely onscreen for more than 5 minutes.
  • He is first seen with another Jack Russell Terrier, just minutes before Beethoven meets Missy in the same park; afterwards he is on a lawn and watches in confusion as Beethoven is out on a walk with his four puppies.
  • A small but noteworthy detail is that Sparky has a collar around his neck, suggesting that some time after the first movie, after having lived as a stray for so long, he has finally been adopted.
• Derailing Love Interests: At one point Ryce can't decide between two boys, Seth and Taylor, before the latter removes her dilemma by revealing himself to be a potential rapist.
• Didn't Think This Through: Regina spends the whole movie in a custody battle for Missy, on the grounds that Brillo can't pay his ex-wife the money she wants. Then she kidnaps puppies that the kids have been raising and threatens Beethoven, who belongs to another family. In addition, her boyfriend threatens to toss one of the puppies off a cliff and assaults George. The family testified offscreen about this to the courts, and Regina unsurprisingly lost the case on grounds of animal abuse.
• Disney Villain Death: Subverted. Floyd and Regina fall from a potentially fatal height off a cliff, but survive by landing in a muddy pool.
• Eating Contest: George and Beethoven participate in one, and win.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • George at first understandably doesn't want to raise four more St. Bernard puppies and be responsible for five dogs; Beethoven was bad enough. Then the kids explain that Regina wanted to sell them, and that she's not a nice lady. George acquiesces. In the climax, he leads the rescue for them when Beethoven goes searching for his puppies and Regina.
  • Even though Regina tried kidnapping the puppies, Alice is genuinely worried for Regina and Floyd when they fall from the cliff into the muddy river. So is George, despite the fact that Floyd attacked him. She tries reassuring them they'll be fine, up until they get swept away by the river currents. Then Alice looks askance, and decides to treat everyone to lunch.
• Feet-First Introduction: Regina is introduced this way as she arrives to claim Missy from Brillo.
• Foil:
  • Animal Lover Nice Guy Brillo, who dotes on his dog Missy and buys her ice-creams, is one to his ex-wife, the conniving, greedy Regina who sees Missy and the puppies only in terms of how they can benefit her financially.
  • Ryce's two love interests Seth and Taylor are this to each other: Seth appears at first glance to be a reckless Bad Boy, but is eventually revealed to be a genuine Nice Guy who actually cares about Ryce, while Taylor appears to be a handsome Nice Guy with a slight penchant for womanizing, but is eventually revealed to be a predatory Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, who traps Ryce in his room with the intention of having his way with her – whether she wants to or not. This actually also applies to how the boys are greeted by Alice. When Taylor shows up to the Newton's door, Alice is somewhat cold and dismissive towards him. By contrast, when she meets Seth later on, she's far warmer and more welcoming.
• Foreshadowing: Beethoven saves Ryce from danger by causing her would-be attacker to fall from a height into water. At the climax of the movie, he saves his human and dog families from danger by causing their would-be attackers to fall from a high cliff into a muddy pool, ultimately resulting in them being washed down the river.
• Fresh Clue: As the Newtons are tracking their dogs, they happen to find some dog poo that likely belongs to one of the dogs. To find out when they left it there, Ryce sticks a finger in it to feel if it's still warm. It is.
• Genre Mashup: The movie is a fusion of the family comedy and romcom genres, with the latter genre being primarily being about the dogs' relationship.
• Groin Attack: Beethoven delivers one to Floyd in retaliation for the latter threatening one of his puppies and assaulting George with a stick.
• Hate Sink: It's a wonder what Brillo ever saw in Regina. She never exhibits anything other than hateful spite.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: When Floyd pokes George with a stick, Beethoven charges the stick to ram the other end into Floyd's groin, pushing him (along with Regina) off the edge of the cliff.
• Icy Blue Eyes / Creepy Blue Eyes: Regina has a pair of chilly blue eyes, which is fitting for her cruel behavior.
• Informed Poverty: George and Alice mention multiple times that the Newtons aren't well off. Only in Hollywood would the beautiful two-story house that the Newtons have in a very nice suburban neighborhood be reflective of this. This may be justified as them having trouble expanding George's business rather than them being outright poor.
• The Igor: Floyd fills this role for Regina.
• Mama Bear: Missy protectively stands in front of her puppies and barks threateningly when Regina discovers her litter. In addition to her being aware of Regina’s evil personality, this is true to mother dogs’ nature as they will be in protective mode over their pups.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Rich Bitch Regina's name means "queen" in Latin.
  • Brillo has a sunny disposition and is bespectacled. His name is a Spanish word for "brightness" and is also similar to the German word Brille meaning "glasses".
• Mood Whiplash:
  • The almost excessively adorable scene in which Brillo feeds Missy and Beethoven ice-creams is interrupted by the sinister Feet-First Introduction of Regina who has come to break up the fun.
  • Similarly, the heartwarming reunion of Beethoven and Missy with their puppies on the cliff top is darkened when the villains arrive.
  • Ryce has a seemingly romantic scene with Taylor in his bedroom upstairs and they share a kiss, before it is suddenly revealed that he has locked the door and intends to have his way with her.
• Negative Continuity: Ambiguously. The test dogs George adopted at the end of the first movie are not present in this one, although it's possible that he only kept them temporarily until someone else could be found to adopt them.
• Nice Guy:
  • Seth, in contrast to Ryce's previous boyfriend Taylor.
  • Brillo is this. He treats Beethoven to ice-cream when he sees the dog likes his St. Bernard Missy, and he begs Regina not to take away Missy for his dog's sake. Later, he comes at the end of the movie to reassure the Newtons that Regina lost the case, he regained custody of Missy, and he's going to help with the puppies.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Several of the minor antagonists do this:
  • Thanks to the bully who harasses Janie, Ted (with Beethoven's help) has an opportunity to impress her by scaring him away, which induces her to return Ted's previously unrequited interest.
  • In the previous scene, the Jerkass teen boys who pour beer over Beethoven provoke him to run forward, detaching the support pillar he's tied to, which destroys the front of the house and saves Ryce from being at least assaulted by Taylor.
  • Presumably, the family reports Regina trying to kidnap their puppies to the court because that is a nasty thing to do when you're demanding custody of your spouse's dog. Brillo reports that she lost the case.
• Offscreen Karma: Although Regina is seen to be punished physically (falling off a cliff and being washed down the river), her ultimate comeuppance, the loss of her court case against Brillo, happens off-screen and is reported by Brillo to the heroes.
• Pale Females, Dark Males: Missy has a light brown color while Beethoven’s is dark brown.
• Papa Wolf:
  • Beethoven for his pups. When one of his sons was threatened, he didn't hesitate to ram a tree branch in Floyd's crotch. He also looks out for his humans, especially George.
  • George also develops this towards the puppies. He yells at Floyd to put one of them down and would attack if Floyd weren't using threatening to drop one over the cliff.
• Pet's Homage Name: In keeping with the tradition, one of Beethoven's puppies is named Tchaikovsky.
• Puppy Love: Beethoven and Missy are a literal example.
• Revolting Rescue: Downplayed. The family are out looking for Beethoven's missing puppies when they come across some puppy poop, but they can't tell if it means the puppies are nearby or not. Ryce reluctantly sticks her fingers into the poop to find out whether or not it's warm.
• Rich Bitch: Regina, in spades.
• Save the Villain: After Regina and Floyd fall off the cliff into the muddy pond, the Newtons call down that they will try to help them. Regina angrily refuses to accept any assistance.
• Secret Pet Plot: After the titular dog sires puppies with the neighbour's dog and the the neighbour's ex-wife want to sell them for being purebred, the Newton kids rescue them, but hid them at the basement from their father, knowing the ruckus that Beethoven caused during the first film. They took turns in raising the puppies, to the point of sacrificing their sleep. When the kids' teachers called their parents, they spill the beans, but the father freaks out when he discovers the puppies from the basement. The father reluctantly accepts when the kids reprimand him about how it took them full effort to raise the puppies the same way he and the mother raised the kids.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: This is why Ryce chose Taylor and Seth in the first place at respective times. Taylor turns out to be far from nice, but Seth seems to be a lot better than him.
• Stock Scream: The Howie Long Scream is heard as Taylor falls into the lake when Beethoven destroys the house he's in.
• Stupid Crooks: Regina and Floyd technically aren't crooks (although they were perfectly willing to drown puppies initially) but they fit the trope to a T. The finale showcases how completely moronic they both are.
• Surprise Litter of Puppies: The kids are surprised to learn that Beethoven has a St. Bernard girlfriend and several purebred puppies.
• Take My Hand!: A possible moment when Floyd is teetering on the cliff-edge and he and Regina grab each other's hands; the result is that both of them fall over the edge.
• The Talk: Ted and Emily need George to be distracted so they can sneak Beethoven's puppies into the house. Emily asks George where babies come from and it works perfectly. After he's been desperately trying to tell her in a way that's both pretty honest and as non-sexual as he can muster, she finally ends it with, "You don't really understand this, do you, Dad?" and walks away.
• Too Dumb to Live:
  • The drunken teen party-ers who dump beer on Beethoven for their own amusement; this leads to Beethoven collapsing the entire house where the party is at, sending everyone into the lake! (On the bright side, the incident does save Ryce from a dangerous situation in the process)
  • Floyd, especially when he threatens George with a stick in the presence of Beethoven while standing on the edge of a cliff.
• Took a Level in Badass: Ted. While the first movie has Beethoven scaring his bullies away for him, this time he is the one who took charge in confronting the boy who was bullying his crush, and made the commands to Beethoven that eventually succeeded in scaring the bully away.
• Trick-and-Follow Ploy: Regina and Floyd use the puppies this way to lead them up the mountain to Beethoven and Missy.
• Vile Villain, Laughable Lackey: Floyd's stupidity is Played for Laughs, while his greedy girlfriend Regina is much more cruel and intentional than he was.
• Villain Has a Point: Downplayed. Regina says that as the owner of Missy the puppies belong to her as well. Given that Beethoven belongs to the Newtowns, at best Regina has a claim to the puppies that would have also been up in the air depending on who ultimately had retained ownership of Missy in the divorce. Of course, this all went out the window when Regina resorted to kidnapping and multiple other potential crimes.
• Villainous Breakdown: Regina and Floyd really go off the deep end (pun intended) after falling off a cliff into mud, turning on each other. The sniping and insults continue even as they are washed down the river into the distance, as the Newtons look on from the clifftop.
• Wild Teen Party: Ryce's would-be rape in takes place at such a party. The other teens there are all drinking beer because they are bad, but Ryce refuses to have any since she is a Good Girl.
• Wrong Guy First: Would-be rapist Taylor for Ryce; she ends up with genuine Nice Guy Seth instead.

Tropes specific to subsequent films:

• Desperate Object Catch: Played for Laughs with Beethoven's drool in one of the sequels.
• Evil-Detecting Dog: Beethoven in the third movie. All the damage he causes is a result of protecting the family from a pair of dumbass criminals.
• It's All About Me: Sal DeMargo in Big Break.
• Jedi Mind Trick: Hilariously attempted in the third movie as one of the criminals tries desperately to use this on the cops to avoid getting arrested. Needless to say, it doesn't work.
• Put on a Bus: The entire Newton family after the second film, having passed Beethoven on to their relatives from the third movie onward.
• Prince and Pauper: Whole plot of Beethoven's 4th.
• Suddenly Speaking: In Beethoven's Christmas Adventure (the seventh movie), Beethoven can now speak (with the voice of Tom Arnold).
• Toilet-Drinking Dog Gag: The opening of the fourth movie has one scene where Beethoven drinks from a toilet — then when he finishes and leaves, he accidentally pulls the toilet seat off and gets it hung around his neck (which is where the image on the film's cover comes from). This becomes an issue when Beth tries to use the toilet immediately afterward....
• Toilet Humor: Beethoven's Christmas Adventure includes a scene of Beethoven and another dog farting for almost a solid minute.

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