Japanese filmmaker Masanori Hata made this above-average family film about a dog and a cat--friends with a tendency to make mischief--who go on an unanticipated adventure when one is rushed downriver and the other follows. Hata, who took four years to complete the work, relies on purely cinematic storytelling techniques (these animals don't have human voices on the soundtrack), making the film an international favorite. Dudley Moore narrates, but the film works because Hata's filmmaking fundamentals are so good. Kids love this, but adults can easily appreciate and enjoy it, too. --Tom Keogh

Customer Rating:
Summary: Animals were killed during the making of this movie.
Comment: When this movie was originally released, I saw on Entertainment Tonight that several puppies and kittens were killed in order to capture the footage. The movie was not made in America, and the Humane Society was not involved in the production, as it usually is, to ensure animal safety. I think it's hard to watch a movie knowing this.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Strange movie
Comment: I only watched about 30 minutes of this, with two very young girls, one of whom wanted me to turn it away due to the fear of Milo and Otis's separation at one point (it really wasn't that traumatic, btw, but just relaying what happened).

In any case, suffice to say this is not a movie that could be made today or was made "without hurting any animals". The story is a heavily narrated thing overlaid over animals that are doing what animals do, which is to say their handlers (you can even see one at one point) put them in strange situations and film it as if it's actual acting.

I found a few parts where Milo was clearly under genuine duress: 1) Fell/pushed (who knows) into a stream where he swims and his mom chases him down. Cats don't like water! 2) A part where the handlers put him next to a crab to play with, it latches onto his nose, and he tries to get it off. Clearly, that hurt. 3) His handlers put him on a tree next to a bird that's distressed, squaking, trying to scare him away from its chicks. He ends up hitting it with his paw several times as the thing tries to ward him off.

There was a part with Otis "fighting" a bear in the water, but I wonder if in fact he was basically drowning/panicked in real life.

All very strange. Obviously a lot of people like this movie, but it was just a tiny bit weird. A lot of cute closeups but something about the movie just seemed anachronistic.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Milo Down the River
Comment: "Milo and Otis" must have taken a lot to put together. There is so much they have all the animals doing and interacting with. There's all of Milo's hiding places on the farm, Milo's adventures down waterfalls and off cliffs, Otis' struggle with a bear, Otis' ride on the back of a turtle during high tide. How did they manage it all? A friend who I was watching with suggested the turtle wasn't real when it was shown being ridden on. I don't know about that myself, I think it's hard to say...

The story is of Milo the cat and Otis the dog, who grow up as kitten and puppy on the farm, helping look after the chickens' eggs and playing hide and seek among other things. One of Milo's hiding places is a box on the river, but this ends up drifting downstream, with Milo helpless inside. Otis follows Milo, and during the adventures to come back together and get back to the farm, they both grow up a lot.

Dudley Moore does the narration, and I think he does a charming job, and helps make the funny moments funnier. The beginning of the film is a lot faster paced than I remember when I was a kid in the cinema, which was surprising. It's interesting to hear how Dudley keeps up with all the farm scenes coming one after the other. I love the scenery out in the wild too, with it's rivers and forests and greenery. I'd love to visit wherever it was they filmed.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Picked it up for my 2 year-old, I'd forgotten most of it.
Comment: I bought this for my son, and when he saw the front cover he immediatly wanted to see it. He simply referred to it as just Otis he has a hard time saying Milo for some reason. I was very happy I bought it, and that he wanted to watch it with me since normally he only wants to watch cartoon DVD's. My long-term memory could only pick up a yellow kitten floating in a box down a river, so I must admit I was just as excited to watch it again for the first time in over a decade.

When I finished watching it I thought wow this is a really great movie. I read that it took 4 years to make, and I could see why every scene was absolutely perfect. The so-called "animal abuse" in this film should be overlooked, because animals on farms do have to deal with things like this, and the bear was obviously a trained animal, and he never hurt the dog or cat. I did feel kind of bad at first for the cat when he went down the waterfall, but I don't think he was really in there they had to have did some kind of trick, because I'm sure the cat would have fallen out and drowned if they hadn't.

I won't spoil the end but I just think it was so cute, and this is a great movie for kids of all ages, especially toddlers because they get to see all the farm animals. My son just laughed and laughed at the "doggie" and "kitty", especially when Otis fell in this little hole. Ignore the bad comments on this movie, and just buy it.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Milo and Otis
Comment: This is a funny and cute video for the whole
family. It's beautifully photographed and
narrated hilariously by Dudley Moore.

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