Adventures of Milo and Otis, The

image for Adventures of Milo and Otis, The

Short takes

Not recommended under 5, PG to 8 (Scary scenes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Adventures of Milo and Otis, The
  • a review of Adventures of Milo and Otis, The completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 10 January 2012.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 5 Not recommended due to scary scenes
Children aged 5-8 Parental guidance recommended due to scary scenes
Children aged over 8 OK for this age group

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Adventures of Milo and Otis, The
Classification: G
Consumer advice lines: None
Length: 75 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

This delightful tale of the special relationship between Milo the ginger cat and Otis the pug dog is comically narrated by Dudley Moore. Milo is a very curious kitten and befriends most of the farm animals but in particular Otis, the pug puppy. They have much fun exploring together but their real adventure begins when Milo accidentally takes a journey down a river in a box with Otis running along the river bank trying to keep up. They eventually get separated and continue on a hazardous trek, where they encounter many adventures and dangers before they finally return home.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Animals in danger

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie including:

  • Milo hits at a baby bird with his paw
  • Milo hits a crab which bites  him back
  • Otis attacks a black bear which is growling at Milo. This starts a fight between them that ends when the bear runs off.
  • A flock of seagulls attack and peck at Milo who jumps over a cliff to escape.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • Milo falls into the river and has to be rescued by his mother
  • A baby chicken hatches and looks wet and bedraggled
  • Milo nearly gets run over by a train.
  • Live births of kittens and puppies are shown

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • Milo looks very scared as the box gets into fast running waters and goes down rapids.
  • Milo is scared when he finds himself alone at night and is frightened by the sounds and sights in the dark.
  • Otis passes through a scary swamp with dead trees.
  • A fox is shown digging up a muskrat which it has in its mouth. Milo eats the muskrat.
  • Otis is stranded on a rock in the ocean and has to be rescued by a turtle.
  • The black bear searches for Milo in a wood cabin and nearly catches him.
  • Milo gets chased by a snake up in a tree, falls off the branch and into a pit.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

No additional scenes

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Nothing of concern

Product placement

Nothing of concern

Sexual references

Nothing of concern

Nudity and sexual activity

Nothing of concern

Use of substances

Nothing of concern

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • “cruddy”, “punk”

In a nutshell

The Adventures of Milo and Otis is a charming adventure story of two young, unlikely friends which will appeal to all the family. Real animals are used in this movie, so some of the scenes might be too intense for younger viewers.

The main messages from this movie are that good friends always stick together.
Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • friendship
  • loyalty
  • courage

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children how baby animals are born and the fact that animals in the wild have to kill other animals for their food.