The Cat from Outer Space

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Digging far down inside the barrel of forgotten Disney films, here we have a title that may sound familiar, but has seemingly fallen by the wayside. You may very well have heard of other titles brought to us from director Norman Tokar, though. He was responsible for a good run of 'The Magical World of Disney' between '62 and '82 (this would become a part of that lineup in 1982), several episodes of 'Leave it to Beaver', and he brought us film titles like 'The Apple Dumpling Gang'.

'The Cat from Outer Space' fits in with the light charm of something like 'The Apple Dumpling Gang', and is very "family Disney" in that respect. But for the life of me, I cannot fathom why it gets such positive reviews for what it is. Upon watching it, I had a great time with it, but for the same reasons I would have a great time with 'Manos' or 'Troll 2'. The only difference, really, is that one can forgive this a little more for being an innocent family movie. There's nothing too extreme here. The "so bad its good" quality mostly comes from a lot of the visuals. It's actually, otherwise, a pretty charming (but maybe a little boring) story, but it does shock me to see that it's rated quite fairly.

Of course, the story here is probably something along the lines of what you'd expect with a title like 'The Cat from Outer Space'. It's about a cat named Zunar-J-5/9 Doric-4-7 (Ronnie Schell), or "Jake" who needs to make an emergency landing on Earth. Due to circumstances beyond his control, a rescue party isn't able to be sent for him right away, so he takes fixing his ship into his own hands. He soon befriends a scientist named Frank (Ken Berry) who seems to understand how his ship's power source works, and together they set to work on repairs, taking place, in secret, within a US government facility, only accessible due to Frank's work for the government.

In the meantime, an industrial spy named Stallwood (Roddy McDowall), working for a criminal mastermind known as Olympus (William Prince) soon learns of their activities, as well as a collar that can provide telekinetic powers. Soon, Frank and Jake find themselves thrust into an adventure, when their love interests become involved - Liz (Sandy Duncan) and her cat, Lucibelle. It all culminates in one of the greatest action sequences in Disney history, featuring a beat up plane, flown by Jake and Frank (mostly Jake) chasing a helicopter very slowly, and the whole sequence is dragged out but hilarious. You might find yourself hitting rewind a lot here.

This isn't necessarily something I'd sit and pick away at, dubbing it one of the worst films of all time. But I will say that there's plenty here that needs to be seen to be believed. It may very well have worked okay for 1978. Not necessarily good, but passable. But to watch that older footage with today's technology in mind, it becomes pretty laughable. I honestly recommend checking it out just for a solid blend of laughs and WTF moments.

I think I remember talking about this with my peers way back in elementary school, never having seen it. I think it was even said to have been good. So, I could see this having the same sort of nostalgic tie that I have with something like the 'Boogedy' films I reviewed earlier this month. But as a first-time watch now, it's worth the view for cheesey purposes only. It's fun on the level where you're laughing at how silly it is. There's not too much to the story or characters. If you want a really good family film about he same sort of subject matter, look no further than 'E.T.' If you wanna gather the family around for a good, ironic laugh, though, this is available on Disney Plus.

​2/5

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