The archive-stuffing party train simply does not stop. To wit, this review of Beethoven’s 4th, originally published upon its 2004 DVD release:

Judge Reinhold and former Saturday Night Live star Julia Sweeney headline this family comedy,
scripted by John Loy and directed by David Evans — the latest installment in the
series about a slobbery St. Bernard and the havoc he inevitably wreaks wherever
he goes. Here the story is one of mistaken canine identity after Beethoven
attends an obedience school, only to be mistakenly switched with Michelangelo,
a perfectly trained hound from a rich and snooty family. Plenty of staged
antics (in which, say, Beethoven launches someone through the air on a see-saw,
or causes them to backflip wildly and lose their hold on a pot roast) and
slow-mo, canted angle and point-of-view shots pepper the production, which is
cookie-cutter, franchised entertainment, a long way from the madcap originality
of the first film.

Still, kids will no doubt like it, since there is after all
the humiliation of various grown-ups. Adults, meanwhile, may find passing
amusement in the film’s flagrant obviousness (it’s kind of like witnessing the
donuts being made at Krispy Kreme), though I have to admit it is a bit
disconcerting to witness Reinhold launch into a celebratory “cabbage patch,”
then slap his own ass and say,
“What’s my name? What’s my name?” That
I didn’t see coming. One can only anxiously await series reinvention with Beethoven’s 9th, in which Beethoven and
a reincarnated Air Bud team up to solve canine mysteries and foil the evil
designs of one Spuds McKenzie. To purchase the film via Amazon, click here. C- (Movie) C- (Disc)