As a child Beethoven is taught by his father to play the piano: His drunken teacher often beat him when he did not meet his standards.

Celebrated as musical genius, Beethoven's compositions are often extremely difficult to play.

Beethoven gets the opportunity to go to Vienna and looks to play for Mozart. When he finally gets the chance, Mozart is instantly impressed.

Beethoven begins to lose his hearing and decides to begin composing.

Feeling that something is lacking in their lives, the family of suburbanite Charles Grodin adopts a stray St. Bernard puppy. The cute lite beast grows up to be the less-than-cute Beethoven, a sloppy, slobbery, oversized and extremely destructive animal. Beethoven also brings with him a lot of hidden baggage in the form of evil veterinarian Dean Jones, who'll stop at nothing to steal Beethoven for the purposes of his insidious lab experiment. Several sequels followed, beginning with 1993 Beethoven's Second. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide.