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Movie Review # 328: The Adventures Of Milo & Otis (1986 in Japan; 1989 In The US)

Ladies & gentlemen, I’m very excited to be typing my very first post here on this blog. Today, we review an older film revolving around animals that live apparently in Japan in this movie. It was a story that most likely many of us, who grew up around the late 1980s, or early 1990s, saw, and more often than not, really loved. With that said, I proudly present to you all on this post, my review of The Adventures Of Milo & Otis.

Plot: A cat named Milo, and a dog named Otis (both animals, along with the other animals in the film, are given voice overs by the narrator of this movie, whose name is Dudley Moore) grow up being the best of friends. But one day, circumstances occur where Milo gets lost, and Otis must go save him before it’s too late. Can Milo & Otis reunite before the winter time comes around?

Now, my family and I really enjoying this film when we were younger. So much so that we would watch The Adventures Of Milo & Otis throughout the years. With that said, partly because this film just reached it’s 30th anniversary at least here in the US (33rd anniversary in Japan apparently), along with getting an additional VHS copy of it for free, I figured, why not rewatch this film again, you know? So with all of that said, does this movie hold up just as much today, as it did thirty years ago? Well, let me put it to you all this way! I had debated certain aspects of it, like with that catchy tune “Gonna Take A Walk Outside Today,” and other areas too. I thought, if people still love music from the 60s like from The Beatles, or even songs from the 70s and 80s, how could people not still enjoy a song like that one from this movie even to this day? The song is catchy, and very upbeat overall. Now, what about the rest of The Adventures Of Milo & Otis? Well, even for being made by a company like Columbia Pictures, this story, while only having a running time of around an hour, and twenty minutes, the movie is very simple, yet also fun, and heartwarming. Consisting, that when it was first released in Japan three years before, the movie was much supposedly more dark and violent, that’s saying plenty. There is an incredible amount of depth with these characters, especially the main characters Milo & Otis. You get to be really invested in their friendship from the beginning all the way to the very end of this film. It’s also interesting how well Dudley Moore does with narrating the story, as well as the dialogue with each, and every single one of these characters. Not only that, but Moore does a splendid job of making the sounds of different animals. When he needs to make a supposed sound of a dog, he’ll make that sound. Same can be said about the sounds of how a seagull talks, frogs, and so on. Honestly, I don’t know why Dudley Moore is not talked about as much as someone like Matt Damon, or Robin Williams, or someone like that. Did Moore not become as popular as celebrities like those? You got me! One way or another, this guy should be brought up more in conversations. Now, about the musical score, I’m not sure if the score was different, or the same when this movie was released in both nations during their respective years. My guess is that since many scenes were evidently cut out for the US release, there was more music in the Japanese version that was cut out too. Either way, the music seems to have the sounding of some type of Irish, British, or some other type of European music. It is so beautiful to listen too. In fact, remember how I mentioned back in my review for the Disney film Treasure Planet, back in 2017, how the musical score on that film is something that one could easily listen to in a sit-down restaurant with a quieter setting? If you do remember me discussing about that deal, then let me tell you, the same can, more than likely, be said about the music in The Adventures Of Milo & Otis as well. Not to mention that there’s this one particular piece of music in this film that one could think about at night when he/she is wanting to go to sleep, and wants to think about a really quiet sounding type of ballad. As for the cinematography, oh man, it is stunning even today. Sure, if this movie hadn’t come out until today, the landscapes would probably be in 3D. But you know what, would we really have needed the landscapes to be in that format? Hopefully not. So it’s definitely a good thing that this movie came out three decades ago instead. As for the story itself, there is a tremendous amount of greatness and depth to this simple, yet heartwarming story. That is to the point where one could decide to watch many times, and probably never get tired of it, no matter how old he/she is. Finally, The Adventures Of Milo & Otis has a really memorable story, and, of course extremely memorable characters overall.

And that concludes my review for The Adventures Of Milo & Otis. Is is an amazing film with colorful characters, a wonderful setting, and other things too. There is so much to recommend when it comes to the film The Adventures Of Milo & Otis. If you haven’t seen it yet, make sure you do ASAP. It is definitely a classic film that will probably be timeless for years to come. And yes, one will likely want to watch it more than once.