Beethoven's 5th is a 2003 direct-to-video animal comedy film, and is the fifth installment in the Beethoven film series. Daveigh Chase takes over the role of Sara, which was originally played by Michaela Gallo in the previous two films.
This was the final film of the original series, as the next film, Beethoven's Big Break, was a reboot of the character.
Plot[]
After being forced to leave summer camp, Sara Newton and her St. Bernard Beethoven are sent to a small town known as Quicksilver to stay with Sara's uncle Freddy (her mom's brother), who's a mechanic. Sara meets a boy named Garret who tells her how the town was once a mercury-mining town, while out fishing with Garett and Freddy, Beethoven discovers a really old 10 dollar bill. The next day they discover the dollar is actually a rare out of print Andrew Jackson 10 dollar bill, by town sheriff Julie Dempsey (whom Freddy has a crush on).
Freddy, Beethoven, Sara and Garret pay a visit to Harold Herman town mayor and President of Chamber of Commerce who tells Sara that the Jackson 10 is part of the lost loot of 1920's husband and wife bank robbers Rita and Moe Selig who supposedly drowned in Quicksilver Lake after being pursued by police officers. Mayor Herman then explains how the ghosts of Rita and Moe haunt the forests protecting their loot ever since they drowned. That night Freddy takes the kids and Beethoven out into the woods in search of the money, during which Sara and Beethoven see what appears to be the ghosts of Rita and Moe as well as a red carnation which Moe would leave behind after a heist. The following evening they meet Cora Wilkins (aka Crazy Cora) a local woman who believes in aliens and runs whiskey warehouse in the woods, who tells them that her father told her that Rita and Moe actually got away, but they don't believe her. Later that evening Freddy and Sara are awaken by Beethoven to find the Jackson 10 has gone missing and a red carnation is left in its place. The following day Sara and Garret visit the Quicksilver library where they encounter Mr. Giles the library's creepy caretaker who's been hoarding all the books about Rita and Moe in the library's "Special Collections" room. Freddy, Beethoven and the kids break into the library the next day while Giles is out to lunch and discover pictures of Rita and Moe and a large scale model of Quicksilver in his office. The next day Freddy and Sara discover Beethoven has been dognapped, Sara soon concludes that Mr. Giles is really the son of Rita and Moe, after discoing his secret Giles confesses that he really is their son and that his parents did survive the plunge into the lake and escaped to Canada, giving up their days of robbing banks and how they buried their loot somewhere in the mercury mine. As it turns out Beethoven was really dognapped by Harold Herman, Beethoven manages to escape and returns to Sara and Freddy who leads them to where the loot is buried. Upon finding the loot, Freddy's truck won't start (because Harold stole his distributor cap) they soon discover Cora inside the mine with the ghosts who are really holograms, where she reveal that Harold was behind everything. They quickly discover Harold making off with the money in his truck and begin to pursue him, causing him to crash his truck into Julie's cruiser. After trying to escape on foot with the loot, Harold is stopped by Freddy and Beethoven and arrested by Julie.
At the end of the month Rita and Moe's loot is seen to have helped the town, including creating a new library wing exclusively about the Seligs. After saying goodbye to Freddy and the others, Sara and Beethoven board the bus for home asking to come back again next year. As the movie ends the bus is pursued by Babycakes, a little Pomeranian who developed a crush on Beethoven earlier in the film.