Bette Davis and Christopher Lee are respectable in their performances as the villains, Davis representing the evil of wealth and Lee the evil of science. Classic Disney villains who don't believe in childlike values of magic and innocence and just being plain nice. Disney was trying to be more tough and urban in this picture by having youth street gangs battling for their turf. One gang of four younger boys who haven't established themselves as the top dogs in their neighborhood because they're still scared of their mothers yelling at them, they still sometimes go to school, and they're just pretty dorky, befriend the alien girl Tia. All the scenes with the children, which is most of the movie, are full of awful dialog and stiff performances. The plot of the movie involves Tia searching for her brother Tony who has been captured by Davis and Lee and is having his mind controlled for their evil purposes. The only other major adult character besides Davis and Lee's henchman is an Oriental man who the kids derogatorily call Yo-Yo. The character's real name is Mr. Yokomoto, but no, I guess that's too hard to pronounce, or it's another bad example of Disney trying to make the kids sound tough like they're from the street and don't care what adults think. Anyways Mr. Yokomoto drives a van from the Education Department around town looking to pick up delinquent kids and the actor delivers a couple really corny after-school-special kind of monologues about kids staying in school. I'm all for kids staying in school, but this is not the way to deliver the message or fix the problem.

Psychic space kids Tony and Tia are separated in an urban setting. Bette Davis and Christopher Lee are using Tony's powers to steal gold. Tia must enlist the help of a street gang to rescue her brother. It's a lot of ultra-cool Disney fun. The scene where Tony robs the western museum and animates the mannequins was freaky. The scene where Tia enpowers Jack Soo's bus was memorable. Not as fresh as the original movie, but it's rare that we see psychic children using their powers for good.