User Reviews

Although this film is pretty average, with not much excitement, it still has some good virtues like the performance of boehm as beethoven, the music, and the film looks great as with all disney productions, the film is a good little intro to the music of beethoven for those who dont know anything about his life and work.The music featured by beethoven in the film is put to good use, we get all the classic ones- the 5th symphony, the 9th symphony, fur elise, moonlight sonata all played around incidents in his life , there is a nice scene where he is sitting in a cafe with a long lost love, and the cafe musicians are playing one of his tunes, where he remarks they are playing it too slow! not being too impressed somewhat, and a few others similar of interest like when he comes up with the main parts to his 5th symphony while his landlord is knocking hard on his door demanding he pay him his outstanding rent, all in all not a bad film.

Charming biography of Ludwig van Beethoven, originally made for the "Disneyland" television series. The film skims past the maestro's early life to begin with his struggle for recognition as a young composer and his friendship with Franz Josef Hayden. Beethoven's bullish manner and tortured genius are superbly portrayed by the German concert pianist turned movie star Karl Boehm, who was born for this role - and he makes the most of it. The family-friendly requirements of being a Walt Disney production make the film seem contrived and simplistic, but that's more due the Disney style than a deficiency in Joanne Court's script. (Court, a talented writer who was blacklisted during the U.S. anti-communism hysteria in the 1950's, received screen credit as Joanne Scott.) Beautifully produced in Europe with superlative production values, this doesn't look at all like a television programme. Released theatrically in Europe and Australasia.