So-called “family films” are not often among my favorites but I’ve always been partial to this live-action Walt Disney adventure based on Paul Gallico’s popular story of a precocious ginger cat in the Scottish highlands, The Three Lives of Thomasina (1964).

The story is partially told from the cat’s perspective and even features its near-death experience with Bast, the cat god of Egyptian lore (in a neat, gold-flecked sequence that makes little sense but looks really cool).  The director, Don Chaffey, used several cats during shooting and sometimes it’s obvious that Thomasina is not quite Thomasina.  Even so, the cat acting in this movie is excellent.

Like many Disney films, the text does not condescend to children.  It’s filled with adult themes like dealing with grief, single parenthood, rumor-mongering, intimidation and cruelty to animals.  And, of course, death.  No Disney film is complete without death or the threat of death.

Young Mary MacDhui (Karen Dotrice) is heartbroken when her ginger cat is mortally wounded; she refuses to even speak to her father (Patrick McGoohan), a veterinarian who is too busy to try to save it.  But Thomasina is a cat with nine lives, and her savior is a beautiful “witch” (Susan Hampshire) who lives alone in the forest and has a way with animals that the stuffy vet can only envy.

The two main children, Mary and her friend Geordie, are played by Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber in their film debuts.  The same year they starred as siblings in Mary Poppins and three years later appeared as siblings again in The Gnome-Mobile.  That was Garber’s last film and he died in 1977.  But The Three Lives of Thomasina will live on forever.  My rating:  ☆ ☆ ☆.  (9:4).