Every kid’s favorite disaster-causing, slobbering St. Bernard Beethoven is back for his eighth motion picture comedy adventure, Beethoven’s Treasure Tail.

The story follows the events of the sixth film, 2008’s Beethoven’s Big Break in which Beethoven ends up under the care of Eddie (Johnathan Silverman), a somewhat successful animal trainer for motion pictures.

While on location shooting a doggy spy movie, Beethoven loses his groove and for whatever reason just will not perform his stunts. Fired from the film, Eddie and Beethoven start making their way back home when car problems cause them to get stuck in the small coastal village of O’Malley’s Cove, while they wait for the inept local mechanic (David DeLuise) to order parts and fix their car.

We soon discover that the town is in financial trouble and the residents are considering selling out a portion of the historic land and iconic lighthouse to a rich, evil land developer named Fritz Bruchschnauser.

Beethoven befriends a local boy named Sam whose great, great, great, great, grandfather, Captain Patrick O’Malley, was a pirate who sailed from England to the cove in the 1700s and founded the town. Using a series of maps left by Captain O’Malley, Sam has been trying to find a mythical buried treasure to save the town. Eventually he stumbles upon what appears to be the real map and despite his mother Anne’s (Kristy Swanson) stern warnings not to go on these dangerous treasure seeking adventures, he and Beethoven embark on one anyways.

Little do they know, the evil Mr. Bruchschnauser is also after the treasure, and a madcap adventure ensues.

Though the Beethoven series has been running since 1992 when Charles Grodin reluctantly first took in this havoc -reaking dog, this was my first experience with the series other than the trailers and clips I’d seen in passing over the years.

I’ll cut right to the chase and let you know that my 5 and 7.5 year-old daughters really enjoyed Beethoven’s Treasure Tail…their parents…not so much.

Before we even started the film, I said to my wife, I bet there is a fart joke…which had my older daughter in a fit of giggles already. There were actually THREE fart jokes, two of which were throw-aways and didn’t really garner any laughs (even from the kids), but the third one was tear-inducingly funny for all of us, and was easily the best scene in the entire film.

My younger daughter is all about physical comedy, so of course this film was right up her alley. She loved all of the parts when Beethoven destroyed stuff, slobbered on stuff and of course the obligatory slow motion run and slobber sequence as Beethoven’s unwitting target looks on helplessly.

Beethoven’s Treasure Tail has that living cartoon aesthetic which feels a little fake and that, in my opinion, is way too popular with ‘family films’. Don’t get me wrong, I loved these types of movies as a kid, but not as an adult who has to sit and watch them with my kids. The film has some nice tender moments sprinkled in with the physical dog humor, but they seem a little disingenuous due the the style of the rest of the film.

There were a few issues with the story itself where at one point early on Anne just finishes telling Eddie how the tourism of the town is really washed up and that it’s in danger, yet in the very next scene, Beethoven goes barreling through a very busy boardwalk and outdoor restaurant filled with people. It just didn’t seem to fit with the comments she had just made. And at the very end of the film there is a plot twist that seemed completely out of place and an odd inclusion.

I almost wish they had chosen to make an entire movie out of the cool Spy Dog fake movie they were filming in Beethoven’s Treasure Tail‘s opening sequence. I think I may have found that to be more enjoyable.

As for the Blu-ray itself, the picture quality was excellent and nicely shows off the film’s beautiful scenic views of O’Malley’s Cove. The 5.1 DTS-HD sound was an unexpected treat. however several times during playback we did experience some strange choppiness. I couldn’t reproduce this issue, but figured it was worth noting here. The combo pack comes with Blu-ray, DVD and digital versions of the film which is great for giving us flexibility. Unfortunately there are no extras on the disc except for some previews.

What’s Included:

Film: (98 min)

Blu-ray:
• 1080p / Widescreen 1.78:1
• Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, Spanish 5.1 DTS Digital Surround, French 5.1 DTS Digital Surround
• Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French

DVD:

• 480p / Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78:1
• Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1
• Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French

Digital Copy (For Redemption Deadline see NBCUcodes.com):

• UltraViolet DigitalHD Copy
• Digital Copy redeemable via iTunes

Extras:

None

Final Thoughts:

Beethoven’s Treasure Tail has a great cast including Jonathan Silverman and Kristy Swanson that parents will surely remember from some of their favorite 80’s films like Weekend at Bernies, Girls Just Want to Have Fun and Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Younger kids will no doubt enjoy this film and if you are a die hard fan of the Beethoven series then you’ve probably already picked this one up. However, if you are hoping for something that you will all enjoy as a family, parents included, your results may vary. This is probably a film best reserved for in car entertainment for road trips or just for the kids while you are tackling some chores around the house.