Films lauding cats come around about as often as Halley's Comet, so whenever one does arrive it should be shouted about from the rooftops. Yeah, sure... Dogs save peoples lives, look cute and are a reliable source of defecation jokes, but can anything compare to the grace and mystique of a feline? I say no. And if you disagree, you're wrong. 'Nuff said.It's a pretty unusual plot... A cat from another planet crashlands on our shores in his spaceship, and needs 120k dollars worth of gold for repairs (Don't ask). He enlists the help of a maverick scientist, a ditzy blonde and a sleazy gambler to these ends, all the while pursued by the military and an evil criminal mastermind, who would LOVE to possess the pussy's magical collar (which has levitation and telepathic powers).What did I tell ya? I said it was an odd story... And yet, despite the sheer inanity of what's on display, it somehow all holds together. The mystical capabilities of the collar provide much of the humour, including freezing people in mid-movement, and helping to rig a very one-sided game of pool.The special effects are about as good as you'd expect from the 70's (e.g not very) but the adorable cat is so well trained you'd almost think it WAS an intelligent extra-terrestrial lifeform, and with the exception of an over-elongated climax in the sky, there's little padding here to make young minds impatient.So, not quite the cat's whiskers, but far from worthy of the litter box. Did'ja see what I did there?! 6/10

No major spoilers here.Why would I watch TCFOS let alone write about it? (Or is that "why would I write about it, let alone watch it"?) Well, for one thing, it gives me a small measure of satisfaction to rate a silly old Disney flick much higher than I would "Avatar". (Much much much higher.) Secondly, it's a nice little opportunity to compare the cat's "performance" to Tom Cruise's in… just about any movie he's been in. The cat beats him every time, hands down. (And it only got paid in Friskies, not millions of dollars.) It has only one facial expression, but it's a multi-faceted expression compared to Cruise's wide "variety" of annoying grins.Someone pointed out that the cat used for TCFOS waggled its tail every time someone lifted it. "It didn't like being handled," this amazing Agatha-Christian detective pointed out. Which brings me to the third reason for writing this comment: considering what crap some daft people write, nothing I include in this comment can be any worse. Look, I can be a detective too! Example: I have NOTICED that the cat doesn't open its mouth when it talks. So they must have used a NORMAL cat as opposed to an actual alien feline that can talk. The bleedin'-obvious detective work; I am so glad I am capable of it too.TCFOS is a cute little feature with a simple plot, the usual broad Disney acting, and dialog aimed at young kids – so it should be right up Nicholas Cage's alley. (I also hotly recommend the movie and its non-complex story to Sean Penn.) In fact, I'd suggest TCFOS to Nick as study material should he ever want to "improve" on his over-acting shout-a-lot method-acting technique (which I hear normally takes 500 years to develop). In any case, he should watch the film because I hear that these kinds of Disney flicks help develop the young, under-developed mind. On a more embarrassing note, the grand-finale chopper/plane action sequence beats almost anything any recent James Bond film had given us. Daniel Craig is actually shorter than the damsel-in-distress being rescued here (and she's of average female height), so I don't even know if she could have been cast in any new 007 movie; Bond should never be towered over by a taller woman – not even in a Craig "Bond". What this has got to do with either TCFOS or the rotting Bond franchise, you ask. Absolutely nothing. And yet everything.

I love the Cat From Outer Space and did you realize that Jake the cat took Ken Berry's motorcycle over a fence 4 years before ET flew bikes over the forest. Mr. Spielberg, did you see this movie. I would like to see Disney remake this movie with Tim Allen in the Ken Berry role and a sphynx cat in the title roll or even a Devon Rex, they kind of look like ET. Ken Berry can have a cameo as the cat vet as did Alan Young in the original, but he can have an abyssinian as a pet whose name is Jake. The voice for the feline e.t. could be Zachary Ty Bryan, Tim's oldest son from Home Improvement and the voice from the mother ship could be that of Patricia Richardson.I love any movies featuring cats and I would love to see more made. I have fond memories of The Cat From Outer Space, I especially loved the collar idea and Ronnie Schell who provided the voice for him. Remember Ronnie Schell as Duke from Gomer Pyle, shazam! Ronnie was even in the movie but another actor dubbed his voice because he was the voice of Jake. There have been a good deal of feline actors in the movies, starting with a cat named Pepper during the silent era to the cat Neopoleon in the movie Mrs. Miniver, Rhubarb(Orangey)a cat who appeared in many films and even t.v. shows, the great Morris, Tonto, Tao, whom was also the original That Darn Cat, Sassy, and more that I can't think of now. Well, that's it for 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