Charlie, the Lonesome Cougar

It isn't billed as one of his true-life series, but it could be. It ranks with Bear Country and Living Desert, two of his True Life Adventure episodes. Charlie is the name loggers of the Northwest give to a cougar who has the habit of visiting their camp at mealtime. Soon, he's as tame as Disney's imagination can make all wild animals. He does revert a couple of times to the wild instinct in him, but nothing too violent for children of all ages. It could be used in the schoolroom, if there weren't so many other good media choices already.

This is a really fun movie with great narration. The acting is sub-par generally, but this only seems to add to the effect of a rough logging camp and its workers.

Adults should find this film enjoyable, but it's mainly for young people. This film deals with issues that youth will find prescient: loneliness, alienation, fitting-in, and growing up... all through that scampish yet delightful cougar.

Much better than Disney's silly, flashy, A.D.D. inducing, garish animated movies of recent years; "Charlie, the Lonesome Cougar" should not be overlooked, parents.

This is one of those movies you just watch for the pictures. There isn't much of a story and there isn't much acting, aside from the animals, but the scenery is great and it's amazing they can train animals like that.

It's worth watching just to see actual footage of one of the last log drives on the Clearwater river. Not long after the movie was made, the Clearwater was dammed up, and that whole beautiful valley was killed by the muck and slack-water behind Dworshak dam. If they tried to make a movie like this these days, they'd have to do it with CGI, because you just can't pile up 600,000 feet of old-growth logs and dump them in a river any more, even if you could find one that wasn't dammed up. The animal rights people would probably have something to say about having a cougar jump into a pen full of sheep and run over top of a bunch of piglets, too.

There are some hokey parts of the production such as the "moonlight" cougar romp under a bright sunny sky, and the dynamiting of a small pile of driftwood that is supposed to be a "log jam" (after lighting the "wick", no less), but in the genre of "animal pictures" this is one of the best.

This film has not been seen by me in quite a few years. It came on the Disney Channel in the wee hours of the morning. I stayed up to watch it, and found it even more entertaining than the first time. The story, the scenery and the characters are as good as they come. I know that if anyone takes the time to view this film, they will find it definitely worth seeing a second time. It's very memorable in more ways than one. I would recommend this film to anyone because it is both entertaining and educational for all concerned.

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I recently saw this film on TV for the 1st time in more than 30 years. The memories it brought back are indescribable. It reminded me of a time when Disney made family films that were not just cartoons. For those of us who are parents now, it is becoming harder and harder to find films that we can take our children to, except for cartoons. It is very sad that films such as Swiss Family Robinson, Candleshoe and Freaky Friday are no longer being made. And after seeing this film again made me curious about what happened to the cougar who played Charlie. As far as I know, he never played in another film. Where did he live and when did he die? If anyone knows, I would appreciate any information they can offer.