Pet Shop (film) explained

Pet Shop
Director:Hope Perello
Producer:Albert Band
Charles Band
Debra Dion
Pete von Sholly
Starring:Terry Kiser
Marcella Avila
Joanne Baron
Cody Burger
Alfred Dennis
Leigh Ann Orsi
Music:Reg Powell
Cinematography:Karen Grossman
Editing:Lauren A. Schaffer
Distributor:Moonbeam Entertainment
Runtime:88 min.
Country:United States
Language:English

Pet Shop is a 1994 science fantasy children's film by Moonbeam Entertainment. The film's plot involves an alien couple that comes to Earth in disguise.

Plot

Evening falls over the city of Cactus Flats, Arizona, and in it a young boy named Mike Powers rides his bike along the town's strip mall. What looks to be shooting star streams across the sky, and Mike stops to chat with Barney the pet shop owner who asks him what he wished for, to which Mike responds with a pet turtle. As Mike rides off, Barney quips that he wishes only to retire. As he is locking up for the evening, the shop’s dogs begin to bark and act up. In the sky, a pink blob of light descends over the pet shop and as it does, the backroom begins to glow. Barney opens the door to find a man and woman both dressed in cowboyish attire and very large gallon hats, making odd, raspy noises to each other in some unknown speech. The couple offers Barney a suitcase filled with stacks of hundred-dollar bills in exchange for his store. He wordlessly and happily agrees. A family of four known as the Yeagher’s (Joe and Marilyn, and their children Charlie and Dena) are moving to town as a consequence of being in the witness protection program, being relocated from Brooklyn, New York and assuming new identities as the Vincenza’s. Their caseworker, Marshall Dave, posing as an uncle informs them that they must refrain from outside contact and ensure to use their new names to avoid issues with Tony Marino, an imprisoned criminal who Joe “ratted” out. At the prison, Marino consorts with his “boys” (Babe and Curly) discussing "rats" that must be exterminated before his release, or else be exterminated themselves. Back at the Yeagher’s home, “Vickie” expresses how she misses their family dog Rocko. Meanwhile, back at the pet shop, it is revealed that the new owners of the establishment, (Mr. and Mrs. Zimm) have transformed the backroom of the shop into a spaceship-esque room filled with advanced alien devices and an array of alien creatures, who possess a higher intelligence above earth animals as they respond to the Zimm’s commands and form an orderly line. The Zimm's threaten the creatures and tell them they must transform into more earthly forms to avoid unwanted detection by the townsfolk, and then administer their special vitamins to them.

Release

Originally intended for a release in the summer of 1994, the film ended up being released on videocassette on March 28, 1995, though it did get released on video in Australia in December 1994. Full Moon released a new remastered Blu-Ray on December 11, 2018.