Friday, November 6, 2009

A Caturday Review - The Cat From Outer Space (1978)


If I had kids I would have a whole library of these old Disney movies like the 'Herbie' series, 'The Computer That Wore Tennis Shoes', 'Gus', 'The World's Greatest Athlete', 'Now You See Him', Now You Don't' and 'Snowball Express'. They were just goofy and fun. None of them however did I love more than The Cat From Outer Space. Starring Ken Berry and a totally adorable Sandy Duncan. (Was any actress ever as cute?) Harry Morgan plays possibly the worst General in US history (The "Colonel", "Captain", "Sgt" line never gets old). Roddy McDowall plays an evil spy and Mclean Stevenson is Ken Berry's flakey friend.


The story involves a cat from another planet (named Zunar-J-5/Doric-4-7, or Jake as he is called by his human friends) who has to make an emergency landing on earth. After his space ship is confiscated by the military seeks allies to help get it back. He wears a special jeweled collar that allows him to speak to others and control most everything from doors to vehicles. I love when the cat talks but I was wishing they could have animated his mouth somehow although for actors the two identical cat's they used were very well trained. That is hard to do. Just ask any cat owner.


Its safe and silly with lowgrade effects but I enjoyed seeing it again after all these years. I wish they showed these films on satellite more often. Why not a Family/Disney channel 2 and 3 just for the vast library of movies in the Disney vault. Time to re-introduce these for a whole new generation of kids.

5 comments:

Wings1295 said...

Dang, I haven't seen any of those older Disney family flicks in a LONG time. How long before they do a remake of this one?

The League said...

How different the world were be if the movie were preceeded by the simple words: Based on a true story

Artman2112 said...

never saw this one but i did see Herbie Rides Again in the theater when it came out. always had a fondness for ken berry, goes back to my love of F-Troop i guess, but i think he's hilarious!

Nathan said...

I think I remember seeing a made-for-TV remake of The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, from the time when Internet access in schools was a new thing.

FilmFather said...

I remember being shown this movie at school in sixth grade, and the class erupted into applause at the end.

And, uh, who failed to tell me there were Viewmaster slides?

I must line this one up for my boy and I to watch together, before Disney ruins -- er, I mean remakes it.