Disney's 'The Cat From Outer Space,' released in 1978 and starring Ken Berry and McLean Stevenson as two military engineers who help an alien named Jake, who just happens to be a cat! The chaos of comedy ensues as Jake is on the run from being caught by the military commander, Harry Morgan, and from being stuck on Earth. Jake must fix his own spaceship in order to leave Earth and return to his mother-ship. For that to happen though, he needs Gold! $120,000 worth of gold, that is. How does he get the money? Jesse White of Maytag repair fame, co-stars as a loan shark who makes a bet with Frank (Ken Berry) and Link (Stevenson) for the money. Meanwhile, the woman that Frank is in love with (Sandy Duncan) is interfering with the objective. In the end, Jake the cat gets what he wants. After all, it is a Disney film, what else could happen?

I've watched this movie when I was a kid and loved it, now I'm 25 and I watched it again yesterday and loved it even more! OK, so it might be simplistic and naive, but it's good old-style Disney. OK, so the cat who comes from a Galaxy far far away looks exactly like an Earth cat, and speaks perfect English. So what? You can't spend 1 hour in a 1 and a half hour film showing the cat and the human trying to "understand each other" and a "universal translator" would be just as stupid. So forget that, accept it, and enjoy the story! Some of the funny stuff probably works better for kids then for adults, but it still makes you smile. The cat talks, but no stupid and ugly 3D/puppet moving mouth, just good old fashioned training and snacks behind camera to make him "act" perfectly! And he does: a close-up on his face and his stare makes you BELIEVE that he is talking. There are some goofs and some mistakes, sometimes you see a puppet-cat (for stunts!)which is obviously a puppet, but it's still a very enjoyable movie for all ages! I just wish they made more of these films now!

2004 has been a really awful year for Disney movies and I will not add insult to injury by reeling out a list of mega turkeys they`ve released in the past 12 months . If it`s any consolation to the studio at least their recent flops have had high production values unlike this 1978 offering The story itself is fair though somewhat silly but what really brings the movie down are the simply irredemable production values . First up is the picture quality which instantly reminded me of an old 70s cop show that had been lying in a TV archive for too long . You know those old repeats of STARSKY AND HUTCH and KOJAK that turn up on cable late at night ? well that`s how the picture quality looks like on this movie . Secondly I lost count ( or rather I stopped counting after 300 ) of the number of times that the action cuts away from a location long shot to an actor standing in front of some laughably obvious back projection . I say " laughably obvious " but that gives the impression there`s something amusing about it when there`s not . Finally if this movie is called THE CAT FROM OUTER SPACE then why couldn`t they have dubbed the cat with a voice that sounds feline ? I know the cat is called Jake but couldn`t the producers have changed its name to something female and got Eartha Kitt to do the voice ? All in all very grim stuff from the studio that brought us MARY POPPINS and 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA

This was the first movie that I ever *remember* seeing. It stands out in my mind (and yes probably has clouded my viewing judgement for years) because it was the first film to ever feature the mode of moggy that has been my constant companion for over 25 years - The Abbysinian. An Abby was the perfect cat to play Zunar-J5/9-Doric-47 (or Jake for the non fanatics out there). Being three years old and the proud owner of one of the first Abbys in Australia - I remember for days after putting different collars on my very patient cat Tawney and begging him to talk to me. He obviously didn't, and it broke my little heart, but what he couldn't express verbally he more than made up for with his smooches and furry nudges. Ok the Film never won an Oscar, it was a Disney Kid flick, but as kid flicks go - it was all right. And lets face it - I can't be all bad, McLean Stevenson, Harry Morgan AND Roddy McDowell! Now if I could just find out who did the voice of Jake!