A family film in the tradition of Born Free (1966), the Disney live-action adventure Cheetah takes viewers to the plains of Africa for a story of American kids in Kenya who adopt an orphaned cheetah cub. Keith Coogan and Lucy Deakins star as Ted and Susan, spunky California teens in Africa for a six-month visit with their parents at the Rift Valley of Kenya, where their father works at a NASA tracking station in the desert and mother works at a clinic. Craving adventure, they leave their protected compound to explore and they meet Morogo (Colin Mothupi), a 10-year-old goat herder from the local Masai tribe, and find a cheetah cub orphaned by poachers. Just as in Born Free, the African cat grows up tame and trusting of its human family and they realize that they must train their beloved pet, who they name Duma, to hunt so they can return him to the wild before going home to America.

It's an old school Disney natural history drama, filled with footage of wild animals in their habitat and adorable scenes of the pet cheetah playing with the human stars. The story, which is adapted from the novel The Cheetahs by actor/writer/professional hunter Alan Caillou, involves a catnapping and a journey by the three friends across the savanna to rescue their furry, four-legged friend. The kids also learn a little about one another's cultures and Morogo introduces them to the phrase "hakuna matata," Swahili for "no worries," which became famous when Disney used the phrase in a song in the animated smash hit The Lion King (1994) nearly 30 years later.

Keith Coogan, grandson of the great child actor Jackie Coogan, is the closest the film has to a major star. A veteran child actor, Keith had appeared in dozens of TV shows (billed as Keith Mitchell), voiced the character of the young fox Tod in Disney's animated film The Fox and the Hound (1981) and starred opposite Elisabeth Shue in the hit comedy Adventures in Babysitting (1987) before taking the lead in Cheetah. He continues to act in movies and on TV. Lucy Deakins starred in the 1986 family fantasy The Boy Who Could Fly and had supporting roles in the thriller Little Nikita (1988 and opposite River Phoenix) and the comedy The Great Outdoors (1988), but soon left the acting profession to pursue other interests, including a stint as a firefighter and eventually embarked on a career as a lawyer.

Cheetah is the first feature by filmmaker Jeff Blyth, who had made documentaries all over the world and shot the spectacular footage in Circle-Vision 360-degree film, featured in Disney theme parks. A veteran of natural history filmmaking, he shot the film on location at Nairobu National Park in Kenya. He described shooting in Africa "a little bit like waterskiing- from in front of the boat. You went out there hoping to have a good time, but now you're just hoping not to get run over by the damned thing." Three different cheetahs played the role of Duma, all of them perfectly tame and affectionate with the cast.

Lawrence Van Gelder, reviewing the film for The New York Times, praised the scenery and the wildlife footage. "On a rainy summer day, when the real great outdoors or a visit to the zoo may be too soggy to contemplate, the G-rated Cheetah may do its bit for preservation by providing an antidote to cabin fever for parents of children growing restless with Big Bird but not yet ready for Indiana Jones."

Sources:
"A Cheetah, Two Teen-Agers and Mickey," Lawrence Van Gelder. The New York Times, August 18, 1989.
AFI Catalog of Feature Films
IMDb

By Sean Axmaker