The animated Spin-Off of the 1992 film featuring a St. Bernard as its title character. In the animated series, Beethoven could speak, but only to his fellow canine friends, who were exclusive to the series. Also, there was a Guinea pig named Mr. Huggs who wasn't in the movie.
Developed for television by the future creators of Recess and Universal Cartoon Studios. A total of 26 episodes were aired on CBS Saturday Mornings between 1994 and 1995.
The series had most of the episodes released on home video during the shows run, but they were out of print afterwards. The series is now free to watch online through Universal's Peacock service.
Tropes found in the cartoon series:
- Artistic License – Biology: In "Mr. Huggs' Wild Ride", Mr. Huggs is clearly revealed to have a tail, despite guinea pigs not having them.
- Berserk Button: Beethoven is sensitive about his weight.
- Censorship by Spelling: "Okay, who's been teaching the dog to spell?"
- Dogs Are Dumb: The dogs aren't exactly dumb, but they don't understand a lot on human terms a lot. Ceasar takes the cake as the dumbest one out of the group.
- Fragile Speedster: Sparky is the fastest of the main five but gets beat up by a cat.
- I Am Not Weasel: Mr. Huggs dislikes being called a hamster.
- Named After Somebody Famous: Beethoven is named after the famous classical composer.
- Non-Standard Character Design: Both Beethoven and Ryce are the only characters to stand out against everyone else with a cartoon-eqse style.
- Spin-Off: Of the 1992 film based on the Comic Strip
- Talking Animal: In this series, Beethoven can talk to his fellow dogs.
- Three Shorts: Each episode is 2-eleven minute shorts.
