In Yugoslavia, the Petrovic family's favorite son Stepjan is a celebrated soccer player. The other son Andy is the failure of the family until he discovers that the family donkey Gus can kick a ball over 100 yards. Meanwhile, the professional football team California Atoms owned by Hank Cooper (Ed Asner) and coached by Venner (Don Knotts) can't do anything right. Hank decides to sign the mule with Andy as his handler and assigns Debbie Kovac as their caretaker to the frustration of her jealous boyfriend football player Rob Cargil (Dick Butkus). With crimpling debts, Hank is forced to take an all-or-nothing bet with loan shark Charles Gwynn (Harold Gould). The winless Atoms has to win the Superbowl or he would lose the team. Hank puts the halftime show mule into the game and the team starts winning. With his bet in doubt, Gwynn and his partner Cal Wilson (Dick Van Patten) recruit bumbling criminal team Crankcase (Tim Conway) and Spinner (Tom Bosley) fresh out of prison to sabotage Andy and Gus.
It's a relatively unfunny one joke movie for the first part of the movie. Even the addition of Tim Conway cannot get it over the top. Over and over again, it's infuriating how simple it is to protect the mule but they don't do it. Neither Andy nor Debbie are that charismatic. Both are somewhat duds. It's also infuriating that Disney and the like keep going back to the animal sports movie. It's one of the least interesting sub-genres.
It's a relatively unfunny one joke movie for the first part of the movie. Even the addition of Tim Conway cannot get it over the top. Over and over again, it's infuriating how simple it is to protect the mule but they don't do it. Neither Andy nor Debbie are that charismatic. Both are somewhat duds. It's also infuriating that Disney and the like keep going back to the animal sports movie. It's one of the least interesting sub-genres.