MOVIE REVIEWS : The ‘Cocoon’ Saga: It’s Worth Repeating

“Cocoon: The Return” (citywide) is the best kind of sequel: It doesn’t merely cash in on the success of the original but actually continues its story in new directions, eliciting fresh meaning and emotion.

It has also the charm, imagination, humor and originality of “Cocoon,” but even more poignance. What’s more, the entire cast of the first film has returned, which is unusual in itself. “Cocoon II” deserves to be every bit as popular as “Cocoon I,” but it does presume that you’ve seen the first. You may well be a bit baffled if you haven’t.

More than most successful films, “Cocoon” lent itself to a sequel. After all, when we took leave of it, an exceptionally vibrant group of Florida retirees were embarking on a journey to the planet Antarea, where there is no death, illness or aging (or crime or poverty, for that matter).

Yet the film makers have resisted the obvious by following the group to Antarea, which, as a paradise, doesn’t sound like a terribly exciting place. Instead, the Zanuck/Brown Co.’s feature debuting writers Stephen McPherson and Elizabeth Bradley (whose background has been in TV) have envisioned what it would be like if the retirees were to return for a visit after five years on Antarea.

The pretext for their return is simple: Those mysterious pods that give the films their name are endangered by predicted “seismic activity,” and the Antareans (Tawnee Welch, Mike Nomad and Tyrone Power Jr.) must come back to St. Petersburg to rescue them from their underwater resting place. The seniors are just along for the ride.

The irony is that in coming back to Earth they are heading for a greater unknown than they were in going to Antarea. A lot can happen in five years in this world: How could they know that a return would confront them with so many impossible-to-predict reactions and developments, leaving each to make monumental life choices?

McPherson and Bradley have thought of virtually every possible response, and as a result, Don Ameche (who won an Oscar for his performance the first time) and Gwen Verdon, Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy and Wilford Brimley and Maureen Stapleton actually have even richer parts this time. They are are enormously moving as they express all the contradictory emotions one could expect in such unusual circumstances. If “Cocoon: The Return” makes us aware of the absolute necessity for people to take responsibility for themselves and their decisions, it is far from being completely serious.

Once again, there’s comic relief in the way Welch’s seductive Kitty comes on, Antarean fashion, to Steve Guttenberg’s still-smitten glass-bottom boat operator, and in the way the superhumanly agile Ameche, Brimley and Cronyn demolish a team of basketball players young enough to be their their grandsons. Meanwhile, there’s much ado over at the St. Petersburg Oceanographic Institute where a young scientist (Courteney Cox) is studying a wistful, glowing alien discovered inside one of those pods.

Also, the seniors are trying to cheer up their widower friend (Jack Gilford), who refused to go with them to Antarea, and to nudge him into a courtship with the brassy, good-hearted owner (Elaine Stritch) of the Art Deco motel where they’re staying. The film is an all-star affair, but Gilford as the quirky Bernie and Stritch as the life-loving Ruby are first among their notable peers.

“Cocoon: The Return” (rated PG) has many story lines, and director Daniel Petrie does an expert job in keeping them untangled and unfolding briskly. Spanning several generations in its characters and its appeal, this warm and endearing film is a quality effort, and by golly, it does send you home happy.