I had originally written this review for my school's newspaper, so please excuse the quality.
The Cat From Outer Space is a somewhat obscure Disney movie released in 1978 starring Ken Berry (Mayberry R.F.D.), Sandy Duncan, Roddy McDowell (Planet of the Apes), Ronnie Schell (Gomer Pyle) and McLean Stevenson (M*A*S*H).
The plot revolves around a cat-like alien named Jake (voiced by Schell) who crash-lands on Earth and must recover his spacecraft from the government with the help of Frank (Berry) and Liz (Duncan), scientists working at the army base holding the UFO. Along the way, there's the typical love-plot between Frank and Liz, a bumbling spy trying to steal a spaceship and an incident in which the scientists must win a game of pool to buy enough gold to fuel Jake's ride home.
Like most live-action Disney movies before and during this time, The Cat From Outer Space is relatively benign – after all, it is a Disney movie, but with all fairness, the idea is certainly unique; the characters aren't terrible (though certainly archetypal), and there's plenty of moments worth the raising of at least one eyebrow.
Probably the best part of the movie is Jake himself, who, despite just being a cat who probably had no idea what he was doing, manages to be the best character in the movie; not being from this planet and all, he communicates with the cast with a specialized collar that grants him psychic powers, telepathy (which explains how he can talk to humans), and whenever the powers that be demand it, the ability to place people and animals in suspended animation for several minutes.
Although a rather uncommon entry in the Disney canon, The Cat from Outer Space shouldn't be overlooked. If you're a fan of old live-action Disney movies, go ahead and pick it up wherever you can find it, be it in a physical or digital format.
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