THE ADVENTURES OF MILO AND OTIS
(CHATRAN)
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1996 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): **
THE ADVENTURES OF MILO AND OTIS (CHATRAN) (1989) is a live action film staring an orange tabby cat called Milo and a white pug with a black face called Otis. Being a person who likes all animals but has three cats, I was pleased to see the cat get top billing and the best lines.
The way to view this picture is to think of the Discovery Channel nature documentaries. Now imagine that someone combines various pieces of film stock so that a story begins to emerge. To this a narrator is hired, and, voila, a feature length film is born. Actually, most of the scenes are set up, but they seem more nature than in a lot of animal pictures. In the English language version, Dudley Moore is the narrator, and he does all of the voices, but the film, which appears to have been shot in America, was made by a Japanese crew and was first released in Japan in 1986 as CHATRAN.
So what is the plot you ask? Wrong question. This is a slice of animal life picture. There is not much plot other than the animals play and slowly grow up. While growing up they have many natural adventures with other animals - hedgehogs, chickens, foxes, and even bears. To give you an idea of the level of the dialog (Masanori Hata and Mark Saltzman), Milo tells the hedgehog, "Touch it and your dead meat," when he looks at the chicken egg Milo has been charged with guarding.
The cinematography by Hideo Fujii and Shinji Tomita is lovely. The music by Ryuichi Sakamoto is effusive. The music helps in the scenes that have potentially frightening aspects like the scene with the bear because they switch to a happy melody like you might hear at a circus.
The best part about the film is its star. Milo is a wonderfully inquisitive kitty with large and expressive eyes. The other animals are also lovable. The only problem with the show is that there is almost nothing there. Granted this is a film aimed at the younger set, say ages 3-6, but still I would have hoped for more.
THE ADVENTURES OF MILO AND OTIS runs 1:16 minutes and boredom set in after about 20 minutes for me. The film is correctly rated G and nothing offensive occurs. The movie would be fine for kids of any age. Although I can not recommend it, my son Jeffrey (almost 7) said he liked it. I give ** for its undeniable sweetness.
**** = One of the top few films of this or any year. A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = One of the worst films of this or any year. Totally unbearable.
REVIEW WRITTEN ON: March 31, 1996
Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's.
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