Its plot follows Professor James Krippendorf (Dreyfuss), an anthropologist who, with the help of his three children, creates a fictitious lost New Guinea tribe to cover up his misuse of grant money.

After Jennifer's death back in the U.S., James falls into academic stagnation, having spent all his foundation grant money raising the children as a single parent.

Scheduled to lecture at a college and fearful of being charged with misuse of grant funds, James concocts an imaginary tribe, the Shelmikedmu, using the names of his children as a basis.

Unknown to the majority of the characters, Shelly has contacted the New Guineans befriended by her family during the futile search for the lost tribe, urging them to masquerade as the Shelmikedmu in order to disappoint Ruth Allen.

[4] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a score of two out of four stars, writing: "Is it possible to recommend a whole comedy on the basis of one scene that made you laugh almost uncontrollably?

"[5] Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the film "revives all those old demeaning racist stereotypes in the most horrible ways," and that it "isn't remotely intelligent or sophisticated enough to make it as a pitch-dark comedy or satire", calling it "arguably the worst movie ever to come out of Disney".