DISNEY - CAT FROM OUTER SPACE, THE(1978)
This is a great movie that I have enjoyed many times! With
an ensemble of top notch comedians from the era, this moves
along at a fast and breezy pace that is a lot of fun! A
A review from Amazon:
Here's today's trivia question: What Disney movie costars
both colonels from television's M*A*S*H--that is, Henry Blake
(McLean Stevenson) and Sherman Potter (Harry Morgan)?
Heck, that's easy: 1978's The Cat from Outer Space, a family
comedy about a feline extraterrestrial named Jake (voiced
by actor Ronnie Schell, who also plays Sergeant Duffy). Eerily
similar to the plot of Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,
released four years later, Cat finds Jake stuck on Earth and in
danger of being trapped here forever if his fellow space kitties
can't rendezvous with him soon.
While a gruff Army general (Morgan) tries to scare up some
answers about the whereabouts and agenda of the purring
alien, Jake allies himself with an unorthodox scientist (Ken Berry),
plus the latter's friend (Stevenson)--a compulsive gambler--and
mathematician girlfriend (Sandy Duncan). Together, they try to
raise the scratch to purchase expensive materials to make Jake's
ship run again, and in short order. Norman Tokar, an old Disney
hand (The Happiest Millionaire) directing his final film before he
died the following year, gets the comic machinery going with his
slick cast of character actors (Roddy McDowall, Jesse White, Hans
Conried), sly one-liners, and lots of enjoyable suspense. A kid-pleaser
for sure. --Tom Keogh