CHEETAH

US, 1989, 83 minutes, Colour.
Keith Coogan, Lucy Deakins.
Directed by Jeff Blyth.

Cheetah is a pleasant, entertaining family Disney film - in the tradition of films about Africa, children and animals.
The film is set in the late 80s, technicians working on radio communications in Africa bring their families for several months.

The American teenagers want to explore the country - meet a young boy from a tribe, share adventures with him, see the animals, rescue a baby cheetah and train it. In the Born Free tradition they have to decide how to let it go free. In the meantime it is taken by greedy Indian Africans who want to race it against greyhounds. The children are fairly
precocious and instead of going back to Los Angeles stay to recover the cheetah.

The cheetah excels itself at a race in Nairobi - and the children are able to let the animal go free. The film has beautiful colour photography, excellent sequences of animals. The family story, while a touch implausible, is played fairly straightforwardly and entertainingly. (Music is by Australian Bruce Rowland - Man From Snowy River, Phar Lap.)

1. Entertaining family film? About youngsters? Animals? Africa?

2. The African locations, the beauty of nature, the animals sequences? Musical store?

3. The title and the focus on the cheetah, the relationship of the children to the cheetah? Born Free themes? Captivity, racing, the freedom of the wilds?

4. The American family, the father with his technical work in Africa, the mother and protecting the children? Their living a Californian life-style in Africa? The children wanting to get away, binoculars, going to look at the animals? The encounter with the young boy and the growing friendship? Their escapades in the village with the animals, the rhinoceros - and risking dangers? Elephants? The parents resigning themselves to this situation? The black parents and their attitude towards their young son? The humorous comparisons, food customs, the milk and blood compared with eating fish etc? The points between different cultures? Human friendship?

5. Ted and his sister, their study, being in Africa, looking for adventure, deceiving their parents, being found out, the friendship with the boy? The cheetah, persuading their parents to keep it? Training it? The disappearance and their return to Los Angeles? Change of heart at the airport, Ted persuading his sister what had happened? Their tracking down the information, from the store keeper, with the young boy, getting lifts? Their being captured? Being freed - and pursuing Cheetah to Nairobi, the race? The reconciliation - and the farewells?

6. The young boy, the African, his command of language - and his little proverbs? Friendship with the white Children, guiding them, saving them?

7. The comparison between parents - American style, African style? Their combining to search for their children?

8. The Indian and the store, his colleagues, ambitions for the cheetah, abducting it, keeping it in the cage, training it to race? Their bets? Nairobi, the cheetah and its success with Ted's help? Their losing their money? Being arrested?

9. Audience love of animals, showing the animals in the wild? The law of the jungle and survival of the fittest? the baby cheetah, growing up - and the need to be trained to be a hunter, to be free? The race?

10. The popularity of this kind of film? Wholesome entertainment? The animal stories?