User Reviews

This movie was told from the point of view of a child, as the title implies, and I believe it largely succeeds for that audience. It's easy to see how a child would find this imposing man frightening - he bosses people around and gets away with it, he's loud, he's peculiar, and he's very angry. The journey for the boy is from fear to awe, and seeing that the Beethoven's pain and struggle had a purpose: it was not madness at all.

This is not a comprehensive portrayal of Beethoven, but shows younger viewers that people are not always what they appear, and are worth understanding. It also shows that great accomplishments sometimes have a high price associated with them.

I found this movie while channel surfing, and it held my attention partially because it made frequent use of Beethoven's wonderful music.

This is kind of one of those kids' after-school TV movies they used to have on television before Ophra and her ilk took over on late afternoon. It's only 50 minutes long which doesn't give it much chance for us to get the know anyone's character in any depth.

The kid, Illya Woloshyn, reminds me a little of Max Pomeranc of "Searching for Bobby Fischer." The story is so-so, certainly no 'Fischer'."

I found too much yelling (raving, actually) by Beethoven and too slow a story, even for 50 minutes.

The main attributes are the some pretty scenery and some of Beethoven's music, which is beautiful and dramatic.

Overall, not very memorable.

I have seen this movie many times and even own it. It is excellently written and produced. I have shown it to my piano students to give them a better understanding of the life of Beethoven. It is very definitely kid friendly as opposed to "Immortal Beloved" because of the content.

The young boy goes through an adjustment period after having lost his father, that is compounded by having what appears at first glance to be a monster living upstairs in his house. The 'monster' of course turns out to Beethoven! When showing it to young children as part of a class, it is recommended that one should give a bit of background on exactly who Beethoven is and that these events are not happening in real time. They may tend to buy into the events a little too much. Explanation might also be needed about his deafness. The actor who portrayed Beethoven did a very excellent job of getting across the difficulty of being able to hear so much wonderful music in your head but always knowing the frustration of never being able to actually hear it.

The costumes are very accurate for the period and the cinematography is also very good. I give this movie, eight stars!

This film was designed for children, and as a result, it is an excellent movie if used for that purpose only. Having said that, the fact that this film won any awards is beyond me.

Pro: Neil Munro is to Beethoven as Tom Hulce was to Mozart (in Amadeus) - absolutely and perfectly dead-on! If one were to meet the real Beethoven, this is likely the person they would see.

Cons: Everything else.

Children might not notice the difference, and that's fine, but from a factual point of view, take this one with more than a grain of salt. There are so many errors and artistic liberties taken by Heather Conkie (who I respect for her work done, both past and present) that this film can never be taken as anything more than pure fiction with regards to Beethoven and his life.

Examples: In the film, Beethoven says he's becoming deaf for six years. This would put his age at about mid-30's, yet the premise of the film is that he has just died. This wasn't about to happen for another 20+ years or so. Also, in the film, he is working on his 9th Symphony. Fact: it should have been his 7th, but Conkie has altered history for the sake of the children. And there's much more. So, in this respect alone, don't plan to do a master's thesis on the factual stuff in this film - it's mostly fiction.

Then there's the acting itself, which ranges from wooden to horrible to outright poor. Illya Woloshyn as the young boy Christoph is just terrible, as is Albert Schultz as Uncle Kurt. Veteran actor Paul Soles almost makes a convincing Schindler, who in actual life was a more dominant personality, and the only one who could boss Beethoven around and get away with it. Sheila McCarthy's only good scenes are where she goes toe-to-toe with Munro's Beethoven, and these are worth the price of admission alone.

So, providing this film is seen only by children up to the age of maybe 10, it's excellent. To anyone older, it's horribly misleading, slower than a glacier and historically butchered beyond the call of duty. Its only saving grace is that it's a children's film on Beethoven. And as far as I know, it's the ONLY one. Not hard to be number 1 in a group of 1.

Caution: Watch at own risk.

No wonder a lot of us hate classical music; and what are the children to think? With "educational" PR like this, serious music will soon slip from life support to the morgue. Kids know when they're being talked down to, and this is no exception; why can't someone good do a movie about classical music for kids? I must admit, I enjoyed the actor who played Beethoven, he took to the role with enthusiasm and a keen balance of the poignant and humorous aspects of Beethoven's character; he obviously did his research. Otherwise, this is a third rate rehash of the old ABC Afterschool Special format, with none of the occasional charm those short films had. Sorry about the rant, but this is an important subject for young people to know about, and it could have been done well; I wonder if musicians or filmmakers were responsible? Either way, the kids are hipper than you think, folks...

Medtner

I first saw this movie 12 years ago, as a first grade student. I didn't think much about it - it was a really neat movie, and I was jealous that Christoph got to meet someone who I'd always heard adults refer to with reverence and admiration. I don't think I really realized how much I'd enjoyed it until we were given the opportunity to buy the film. I didn't have enough saved to buy the VHS, but I could afford the cassette soundtrack. When it arrived I was so excited. I took it home and spent hours listening to the story over and over, until I could practically recite it word for word. As I grew up, I would occasionally stumble across it and listen to the story again with a smile. Now, as a freshman in college, I'm taking a course on Beethoven's Symphonies. I credit my interest to seeing this movie as a child. It's a fantastic film for children. Is it on the same level as Amadeus? No, but it's still very much worth watching, and is a great way to introduce the great classical composers to young minds.

There is none of the sentimental and heroic garbage in this movie that one sees portrayed in the lives of other great men.

This movie, while recognizing Beethoven's Genius, takes him off his Mount Olympus Pedestal and makes him a real life breathing, seeing and hearing though going deaf man who runs a business, works every day, bathes, shaves and does all the things that ordinary men do. Munroe is very convincing in his portrayal as well as his appearance. I do not know what he looks like in real life but if he looks anything like Beethoven in real life I would think that I had met Beethoven's Ghost. While the viewing audience for this film is aimed for children--it is also a good film for adults to see.

I think ho0vdawg was too hard on this movie. It certainly was never intended to be on par with Amadeus or suitable for the same audience. That it was made for children younger than high school age is quite obvious, and one should take that into consideration when watching and evaluating it. I would recommend this movie to any interested child.

Beethovan Lives Upstairs is a very bad movie. In my World History class, our teacher had us watch this movie and Amadeus to be able to compare the two composers or something. We watched Amadeus first and it was a very good movie, but when she had us watch this movie directly after that, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The acting was horrific, the costumes were ugly (the little boy's was especially ugly and girlish), and the cinematography was z-grade. My Friend compared it to a home movie without the date display in the bottom right corner. I understand this was a T.V. movie from Canada and probably cost $10 to make, but please, they could have done better. I have seen a few good T.V. movies in my time, but this was not one of them. The biggest thing that I don't understand is why my World History class couldn't just watch Immortal Beloved or something. How is it possible to compare composers when given the movie Amadeus, for Mozart, and Beethovan Lives Upstairs, for Beethovan? It's not possible to do that when this is the choice of movie for Beethovan. I give Amadeus an A- (9 out of 10) if anyone cares to know, but Beethovan Lives Upstairs gets an F (1 out of 10).