UNIDENTIFIED FLYING ODDBALL is a '70s version of the classic Mark Twain story, A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT. The story has been updated to the space age, with a lone young astronaut and his android double breaking through a time barrier in space and finding themselves back in King Arthur's day, where they must battle evil and romance willing maidens and the like.
It's all very juvenile, of course, but then you expect little else from a Disney production. However, like a lot of Disney movies, UNIDENTIFIED FLYING ODDBALL is a colourful romp through medieval times and one that's filled with incident, so there's plenty to enjoy here, as long as you like your entertainment basic and your jokes rather obvious. I thought the main American star, Dennis Dugan, was poor indeed, but the supporting cast of British character actors makes up for him: Jim Dale, cast against type as the villain; Ron Moody as the delightfully sneaky Merlin; a near unrecognisably aged Kenneth Moore as Arthur; and the reliable Rodney Bewes and John Le Mesurier in comic support.
It's all very juvenile, of course, but then you expect little else from a Disney production. However, like a lot of Disney movies, UNIDENTIFIED FLYING ODDBALL is a colourful romp through medieval times and one that's filled with incident, so there's plenty to enjoy here, as long as you like your entertainment basic and your jokes rather obvious. I thought the main American star, Dennis Dugan, was poor indeed, but the supporting cast of British character actors makes up for him: Jim Dale, cast against type as the villain; Ron Moody as the delightfully sneaky Merlin; a near unrecognisably aged Kenneth Moore as Arthur; and the reliable Rodney Bewes and John Le Mesurier in comic support.