Il gatto venuto dallo spazio

I still list this classic from my "kittenhood" as one of the best of it's kind. Just a must see for cat lovers, and animal lovers of all kinds. Just really cute story, very funny and all around great for kids of all ages!

If you have not seen since were a kitten maybe you need to see it again. If have not seen it then see it! It's Disney so how can you go wrong?

I wish they would do more like this. I mean sure they did Cats and Dogs and have done others but non that deal with space Cats or such, not in long time.

Meow!

I have been slowly introducing my children to the great Disney family movies of the 70's. They were a little hesitant to watch this movie stating, "Not another one of Dad's old movie favorites"! But time and time again, they find themselves laughing out loud and realizing why this and others (Snowball Express, Blackbeard's Ghost, Herbie Rides Again, Shaggy D.A.) are family classics. This one was extra special because it starred a lovable pussycat who happens to be, "From Outer Space." Oddly enough, our cat Aslan, watched this movie from start to finish. The kids all joked that it was, "his favorite movie." Our children need more movies like this one! Fun, light-hearted comedies with family-oriented values and an interesting storyline that stimulates the imagination.

Wow, now this is certainly a rarity – a talking animal flick that doesn't rely on that moving-mouth-n-lip-synch gimmick which has really been dogging the genre of late (bad pun on my part, I know). Sure, the only thing we can attribute this merit to is its age – as others round here have already pointed out, were this movie shot in this day and age the overused and overplayed technique would have undoubtedly been employed. I also imagine that, at some point during the running time, they'd have Jake spit up a big slimy hairball, mark his territory over some sucker's flowerbed, and stick a leg in the air so he can lick at his crotch – along with any other animal bodily function they could swipe a gag out of. It's one of those reasons why, for all its skimpy production values, 'the Cat from Outer Space' is now such a refreshing blast from the past – in an era swamped by crude, flashy animal movies made exclusively for the under-12 market, this is comes across as quite a pleasant piece of nostalgia, harking back to the good old days when the humour was always clean, and any critter who wanted to wrap their tongue around the English language did so the conveniently telepathic way. (Yikes, I'm starting to sound like a right old whinger here, which really I'm not, but that's just how jaded I am).

As a stand-alone film, TCFOS is very much a cheesy but warm-hearted affair and, for fans of all things sublime n' feline like myself, this was a childhood classic growing up in the 1980s. Back then, it always qualified as my runner-up pick for Disney's coolest live action feature, second only to the original 'Incredible Journey' (yeah, I *did* watch Mary Poppins', but never really got much further than the animated sequences – it just got boring after that). I happened to come across it on my shelves recently, having left it undisturbed for several years, and decided it was time for a revisit.

The worst thing about it is inevitably the title (which just screams 'B Movie!', don't it?), only just managing to pip some of the flat and, quite frankly, irritating human characters on display to the post, who've more-or-less accepted that churning out even Oscar-worthy performances ain't gonna spare them from being upstaged by the four-legged favourite. Sandy Duncan in particular portrays a bimbo so staggering it'll make your jaw drop that she even made it into the paranormal research department (plus, she believes all of Frank's lame excuses – yikes, how dumb is she?). Then there's that spy character who insists on speaking with such loathsome smarminess not seen since 'the Shop Around the Corner', you could break your TV screen trying to sock him one in the mouth.

The best things about TCFOS, oddly enough, owe a lot to the retrospectives we have after 26 years. Jake is definitely entitled to feel smug that he was getting himself stranded on planet Earth, amongst all the typically hostile folks, and making his human ally's bicycle fly *four freakin' years* before ET showed up on the scene (is that uncanny or what?). Not to mention the casually conniving fashion in which Jake goes about trying to secure his way back home, somehow managing to involve rigged sports games along the way; ethics so dodgy by today's standards that really you gotta love it. And the special effects are now so crude and outdated that, well, they're cute! Jake is undeniably the star of this vehicle, churning out all the better lines of dialogue, and this is such an endearing story deep down that it's all too bad that the script never delves particularly deeply into his friendship with Frank (after all, ET's major trump card was always his lump-in-the-throat relationship with Elliot), choosing instead to skim through the character interactions at such a pace that the film never really has the chance to deliver any true emotional wallop.

I did also get a kick out of reading the previous comment concerning the body language of the feline double act playing Jake, and will verify it all the way – pay close attention to the climax in particular, and note that the poor kitty currently on the scene looks positively bewildered!

Sure, it's imperfect and now that I'm older I can see where the faults lie a lot more than I used to – but still, it's a likable and evocative romp, and personally I'd much rather be subject to this than to recent animal conspiracy theory trash like 'Cats and Dogs' or 'Good Boy!', any day. A real treat for cat lovers everywhere.

Grade: B-

A feline from another planet makes an unscheduled stop on Earth. While the U.S. military ponders over his spacecraft and tries to determine if it's Russian (or otherwise) in origin, he makes contact with a bumbling, likeable, eccentric scientist (Ken Berry) and implores the human to help him with his spacecraft repairs. Meanwhile, a nefarious enemy agent (William Prince) is determined to unravel the secrets of the cats' powerful collar.

It's true that you can't be too hard on films like this. Although, as an adult, I found "The Cat from Outer Space" overlong and not always good at gaining momentum, it's still quite engaging family fare that the kids ought to enjoy. Certainly the talented cast makes it quite easy to watch: Sandy Duncan is cute as Berry's would-be love interest, McLean Stevenson a hoot as his sports-obsessed pal, Harry Morgan hilarious as a ramrod-straight Army general. There's a generous dose of familiar faces in the supporting cast, too: Roddy McDowall, Jesse White, Alan Young, Hans Conried, Ronnie Schell (who plays both Sergeant Duffy and the voice of Jake the cat), James Hampton, Howard Platt, etc. Berry is quite personable in the lead.

Overall, this is fairly mild as far as live-action Disney comedy goes, with not that many true laugh-out-loud moments, but again, kids are likely to be far less judgmental, and may very well take to most of the gags (there is one good laugh when we see Morgans' underwear); young and old alike will be endeared to the feline star, a very well trained animal indeed. The airborne finale is reasonably tense and exciting.

Sorrell "Boss Hogg" Booke appears unbilled at the conclusion, in his final feature film appearance.

Seven out of 10.

This movie is just fun. No serious plot, just an enjoyable movie with some really wonderful actors. If anyone has kids, enjoys cats, or just likes a lighthearted film, see this one. This movie is the reason we named our cat "Jake" not because of his looks, but because of his intelligence (from another world you might say).