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Adventures of Milo and Otis, The

Dudley Moore narrates the story of tabby Milo and pug Otis, beginning with their springtime birth on a farm. In the first few minutes Milo and Otis become fast friends, giving us lots of “awwww” moments of the puppy and kitten playing and sleeping together. The adventures begin when Milo crawls off a dock and into a wooden crate, which begins to float downriver. Faithful Otis follows and catches up with his friend just in time to get him out of deep trouble. The last third of the film plods, as the pair meet females and set up housekeeping in the woods through a long winter.

I expected a fuzzy, feel good flick, but instead, I found myself worrying about the animals used in filming. My concern began when Milo gets bitten on the nose by a crab. Later, he goes over a waterfall, is attacked by angry birds, falls off a cliff into the ocean, and has close encounters with two bears and a snake. You can tell you’re not looking at the same cat and dog throughout, and a disclaimer at the end mentions only that the animal actors were treated with concern; it doesn’t say that no animals were hurt or killed during the production. Perhaps none were seriously hurt, but if so, why don’t the filmmakers tell us that?

Brief text-only bios of Moore and director Masanori Hata – a documentary filmmaker who runs some sort of “animal kingdom”, according to the credits – were the only extras, and the DVD I viewed offered pan-and-scan only.

It’s packaged as a kids movie, but the scenes of animal danger are definitely not for everyone.

Written by: Auriette Lindsey

Reviewers Rating: 3
Reader's Rating: 5.00
Reader's Votes: 1

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