Watch Zebra in the Kitchen For Free

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Lack of good storyline.

hyped garbage

Admirable film.

Enjoyably silly Disney nature film has a boy forced to put his pet puma in the zoo, who then steals the zoo keeper's key to free all of the animals. So, no, Disney did not exactly make "Day of the Animals" or a nature-gone-wild horror film, but my kids found the silly animal antics pretty hilarious, even if in real-life there would would have been a lot more mauling. My kids also did not notice that a teenage Jay North is still as bad of an actor as he was on TV as Dennis the Menace. In the plus column for the film, the above mentioned zookeeper is played by the great Andy Devine. Nothing classic here, but it mostly held my interest and you could probably do worse.

Gravel-voiced zoo-keeper Andy Devine (as Branch Hawksbill) tells the heart-warming tale of young Jay North (as Christopher "Chris" Carlyle) and his mountain lion. "Sunshine" is an outside pet, which works out well because young North lives with his mom and dad on a farm. But that's about to change. After his father suffers an unseen mishap, the family must move to the city. North secretly brings the lion along. Sunshine startles the neighbors and must be sent to live at the local zoo. North is devastated. He is allowed in Sunshine's cage and gets the distressed feline to eat. A natural with animals, North gets a summer job as junior zoo keeper. He feels his pet and the other animals are in something like a "jail" and longs to set them free..."Zebra in the Kitchen" is confusingly titled. You're expecting it to be about a pet zebra. That animal is barely seen. The title is just the first line of song played over the opening credits, written by Hal Hopper (North's uncle and a show business veteran) and sung by The Standells...North is freshly free of his series "Dennis the Menace". He's got a different shade of hair color and successful sheds many of the TV character's quirky mannerisms. Producer-director Ivan Tors did much better with this fare on TV, with animal and kid adventure shows. So did earnest zoo manager Martin Milner (as Del Hartwood), herein between "Route 66" and "Adam-12". Best of the cameos is seeing Eddie Quillan enjoy watching Laurel and Hardy on TV, in the old film "Hollywood Party" (1934). Mr. Quillan was in that original movie, and his "I've Had My Moments" song and dance upstaged most, if not all, of his co-stars.***** Zebra in the Kitchen (6/65) Ivan Tors ~ Jay North, Andy Devine, Martin Milner, Jim Davis

"Zebra In The Kitchen" may look at first glance to be a wholesome family movie, seeing that it was made by Ivan Tors of "Flipper" fame, and that it was made in the innocent '60s, long before humor like breaking wind becoming popular. Yet when you examine it closely, it has some disturbing messages that may give kids the wrong ideas. It has the idea that it's okay that truly wild animals like cougars should be domesticated and kept around the house. The movie also feels that it's okay for the child protagonist to free all the animals kept in a zoo and let them run riot in the adjoining town. And get this - the kid doesn't really get punished for this in the end! Besides disturbing messages like this, we get stupid characters and situations, like a family driving 800 miles between sunup and sunset. And I think even kids will find the child protagonist very annoying with his constant whining about his cougar named "Sunshine" (!) Only for viewers who want to see animals sprayed with whipped cream.

This is the first movie I ever saw in a theatre (with my brother and cousins). I was about five or six years old, and I remember laughing 'til I cried. I went home and told Mom all about the funniest moments. Also, that huge screen up there, glowing bright and the people so big: it was all magical! Nowadays, I see this movie on the video store shelf and I refuse to rent it: apparently this movie is not very good, and I don't want the realization of its mediocrity to obliterate my magical childhood memory. We need to keep those memories intact: we retain them as little nuggets of magic, optimism and fun in our jaded adult hearts. If this wasn't YOUR first movie, rent it for your kids today (though I'd rather they see it on the big screen, of course!).