Zebra In The Kitchen combines the talents of two icons of children's television, Ivan Tors who produced Flipper and Jay North who had finally grown out of playing Dennis The Menace. What they came up with is a film that only kids could possibly appreciate despite a wonderful group of comic character actors in small roles.Young Jay North is not happy over his parents decision to sell the family farm and move to the city. Father Jim Davis was injured and can't work the farm as he used to. But this means that North will have to give up a mountain lion that he has had as a pet since it was a cub.That's the dangers of taking a pet from the wild. One of two things will happen, either it will revert to its natural ways and turn on the owner or if you leave the animal it won't function in the wild. That problem was best dealt with in a far better film, The Yearling. The mountain lion stows away in the family truck. And then breaks loose and while it hurts no one, the city folks are real scared as well they should be.Enter the management at the city zoo which is Martin Milner, Joyce Meadows and Andy Devine. They offer to take the mountain lion and keep him at the zoo. But neither North or the mountain lion are real happy with that. What to do, but North decides no animals should be kept and he gets Devine's keys and opens all the cages. Chaos descends on the city as the animals are running wild.Instead of what does happen in real life North would have gotten a juvenile record and Devine would have been canned if not more. I think even the kids watching above a certain age would know that.Oddly enough almost 30 years before Zebra In The Kitchen, Devine also played a zoo-keeper in the Bing Crosby classic Dr. Rhythm and one of high points of that film is an inebriated Devine letting loose the animals in his charge. Fortunately Bing saved him in the nick of time from letting loose the big cats which do get out here.A really horrible premise and bad choices ruin from the start what Ivan Tors thought was a good idea for a family film.

Was really taken aback by the number of people who recall it as their first movie.However weird and made up it may sound,it was one of my first movies as well.My friends had it on home video and I remember laughing hard and having a really good "childhood" time with my buddies.The memories are very faint,but there was some sequence where they show a big key or something.And its a miracle that I recall the name!Seeing the rating I guess the movie must be pretty crappy,but I would still buy the movie,even though my friends back then are only memories now.I have to see the movie now to make a more critical comment,but for now I just want to reminisce the memories...

Has some fleeting interest for cast trivia buffs: Robert Lowery looking rather handsome and Clark Gable-ish in his one scene as a big game hunter; Jon Lormer in his customary role as the judge; Percy Helton, Tris Coffin, Vince Barnett… Of course the film is actually designed to appeal mainly to those juveniles who love animal antics. Alas, for all its wealth of animalia, it's shot in an extremely pedestrian style. Not only is every jest and gag situation milked thoroughly dry, but the obvious plot is unraveled at the pace of a tortoise. In addition, Tors employs a relentlessly close-up after close-up, television method of shooting and even falls back on such jaded devices as speeded-up action. There's even a long storyboard introduction with the words of the hokey title song displayed for our edification.Unflatteringly photographed Martin Miller makes a rather wet hero. The girls don't impress either, while Andy Devine looks far too old even for a sinecure job as head keeper at the zoo. His fans, however, will be glad to find he has a major role, not a fleeting part or a cameo. Young Jay North registers mildly and occasionally even manages to surmount the impossible script. Production values are firmly on the el cheapo side. As well as a bit of stock footage, Tors even treats us to a generous excerpt of Oliver Hardy and Stan Laurel in their famous encounter with Lupe Velez in "Hollywood Party". This turns out to be the funniest scene in the whole movie!

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!).