I watched this movie about a year ago and here is my review:
Napoleon and Samantha (1972) - The theatrical film debut of Jodie Foster, at the age of 8, although she had already appeared in several television shows and TV movies. The title characters are a young boy and girl who run away into the woods with a lion (!!) after the boy's grandfather dies. This Walt Disney Production hasn't aged well, like many cheesy family flicks from this era, but it is almost worth seeing for the amazing fact that a full-grown, male African Lion with a large mane is a major character. The boy rides on his back, puts his hand in the lion's mouth at one point, and I cringed at times as I think the whole idea was incredibly dangerous. In fact, Jodie Foster was actually mauled by the lion and to this day she apparently has scars on her body from the attack. Wow...the things that were done in the early 1970s! She has revealed in interviews that she has suffered from a phobia of all cats ever since. Michael Douglas shows up now and then, in one of his first-ever movies, as a slick young dude who saves the children from a bad guy and Douglas has a lengthy motorcycle chase sequence as the film dramatically turns into an action flick towards the climax. The African Lion also has to deal with a rampaging Cougar in the wild (although they don't physically interact) and there is a full-on fight scene involving the lion and an American Black Bear...all teeth and claws as they clash in a grassy meadow. A curiosity item. C+ grade
