The Beasts Are on the Streets

Yes, the animals were all largely in one pen, but use your imagination, there were numerous automobiles smashing into one another there, perhaps tearing down more than one pen and panicking several animals. Still, the shots of that herd storming out amongst the burning wrecks was very dramatic and astonishing for me as a kid. I would hate to see it now and have it ruined. This was a Hanna Barbera movie, I do remember that, and it was supposed to be groundbreaking for the company to have the lion cub die, as well as a gunshot victim. I haven't seen this thing near about since it first aired, and I really enjoyed the animal scenes, but how did the bears or the lions escape from the same pens with all those livestock? In the end, for some odd reason there seemed to be nothing left running wild but lions. I deduced it must be because they trained better or something. Fantasy fun, that's for sure.

I have already seen some features speaking of wild animals from zoo and on the loose. I think of an Italian movie from 1983, I don't remember the title. Well, I like this scheme, too rare on screen. So I waited some times to get this one. The beginning is quite exciting, a real disaster movie, with a spectacular truck accident on a highway. And a scene of a man attacked by a tiger is awesome, especially from 1978, when there were no special effects as now, in the 2010's... Unfortunately this TV stuff rapidly turns to be a family show. In resume, it begins like a disaster flick, continues rather in a good way but turns to end as a BORN FREE, or DAKTARI episode... I would have like it more bloody, more tragic, with more action. Anyway, I don't regret this movie. It's rare too.

This is one of those over-the-top type of 70's disaster-ish stories with a preposterous plot scenario: a truck hits one outer chain-link fence of a wild animal park and somehow all manner of animals escape through the fence - never mind that such parks carefully segregate dangerous animals and have multiple fences and living areas to prevent escape. Somehow, though, this cheaply made TV movie is fun to watch - if anything just to see the lion cub run through a hospital, the stereotype "hick" life as portrayed by the Dallas suburb of Grand Prairie, and the mindless extras screaming in raw panic whenever an animal appears. (I personally enjoy seeing myself tackled by the bear as it breaks through the crowd watching the juggler. It really scared the bear's trainer when that happened!) Carol Lynley does the best she can with the script, and the film overall is a fun if forgettable piece.