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1[[quoteright:315:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_adventures_of_milo_and_otis.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:315:We're gonna take a walk outside today.]]
3
4''The Adventures of Milo and Otis'' (or ''Koneko Monogatari'', meaning "A Kitten's Story" in its original Japanese[[note]]It's also known in Japan as "The Adventures of Chatran".[[/note]]) is a 1986 film (released in the U.S. in 1989).
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6Milo is a curious orange kitten whose best friend is a serious pug named Otis. They live a carefree life on a farm where they spend their days playing hide and seek and causing mischief. All that changes though when Milo is swept away by the river and Otis must embark on an amazing journey to rescue his friend and bring him home.
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8The American version was narrated by Creator/DudleyMoore[[note]]The original Japanese version also has narration in some spots.[[/note]], and notably cut many scenes out from the original Japanese version to be LighterAndSofter.
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12!!We're gonna take a trope outside today...
13* AllAnimalsAreDogs: Inverted: when Milo and Otis first meet and Otis explains that he's a dog, Milo thinks "dog" is a type of cat. [[spoiler:Played straight when their children meet and one of Otis's sons thinks Milo's family are "strange-looking dogs."]]
14** Also used as a CallBack with this exchange late in the film:
15--->'''Milo:''' You have [[spoiler:puppies]]? Me too!
16--->'''Otis:''' You have '''''[[BigWhat WHAT?]]'''''
17--->'''Milo:''' [[ThatCameOutWrong I mean-- um, uh...]] ''[[spoiler:kittens]]!''
18* AshFace: During Milo's hide-and-seek game with Otis, Milo finds a hiding spot in the form of a chimney. He pops out of the chimney covered in ashes.
19-->'''Narrator:''' [[WasItReallyWorthIt But Milo wondered if it was really worth the trouble.]]
20* BabiesEverAfter: [[spoiler:Both Milo and Otis end up with mates and a litter, and [[AndTheAdventureContinues the film ends with both families resuming their journey back to the farm where Milo and Otis grew up.]] Several of the animals encountered during the initial journey are also shown to have their own babies by the end.]]
21* BearsAreBadNews: Milo and Otis encounter several bears on their adventures. It's never a good thing.
22* BigDamnHeroes: Milo just barely escaped from the bear, but he ends up falling into a steep pit that's too deep to climb or jump out of. All he could do is meow and call for help, even though he doesn't think that there's anyone around to hear him. "But someone did..." - cue Otis finally finding Milo and helping his friend out.
23* BittersweetEnding: In the Japanese version, Milo and Otis are far from home and probably have no hope of ever returning. However they still have each other and their own families.
24* BookEnds: See AllAnimalsAreDogs
25* BrickJoke: When Milo and Otis first meet, Milo thinks that dogs are a type of cat. [[spoiler:Towards the end of the film, one of Otis' children thinks that Milo and his family are dogs; one of Milo's children quickly corrects him.]]
26* CallBack: When Otis yells for Milo to get out of the box [[TemptingFate before something happens,]] the narrator says "But something did!" Cue the box floating away. Much later, when Milo is struggling to climb out of a deep pit, he meows for help even though he's certain that no one will hear him. The narrator says "But someone did." and we hear Otis barking as he rushes to Milo's aid.
27* CatsAreMean: Averted. The movie was extensively reworked from its original Japanese release, but the protagonist cat, Milo, is portrayed as good natured and curious, and even his occasional mischievous moments are generally endearing rather than off-putting. He's also best friends with a dog.
28** Briefly played straight in the original Japanese version when Joyce [[KickTheDog hisses at]] ''[[KickTheDog and]]'' [[KickTheDog strikes Otis]], causing Otis to run away (rather than Otis leaving of his own volition; see ThirdWheel for details).
29* ChekhovsGun: When Milo's mother takes him and his siblings down to the river for the first time, there is a wooden box inexplicably floating next to the dock. It stays in that spot for years to come, only drifting away at precisely the wrong moment for no apparent reason.
30* ComingOfAgeStory: Milo is born, has a happy childhood, but ends up disobeying his mother and as a consequence leaves home and faces the hardships of the world. After overcoming many dangers and staring death in the face, he finds another cat with whom he falls in love and eventually becomes father to a litter of kittens of his own. Most of this applies to Otis as well, although his reason for leaving home was to rescue Milo.
31* CunningLikeAFox: The fox that both Milo and Otis meet on separate occasions appears to be crafty and fun loving (although Milo does outsmart him).
32* CuteKitten: Milo of course. There are also a couple of others on his farm, identified only as "the local snoops". [[spoiler:Also. Milo's own offspring.]]
33* DownOnTheFarm: The first portion of the movie takes place on the farm where both Milo and Otis are born. Milo sees at least two more farms during his part of the journey.
34* DubNameChange: The original names of the cat and dog are Chatran and Poosky respectively. These names were kept in some of the dubs such as the Norwegian one. In English however, they were named Milo and Otis.
35* DubInducedPlotlineChange: Both the original ''Koneko Monogatari'' and the adaptation ''Milo and Otis'' were cut separately from the huge amount (over 40 hours) of raw footage originally shot. This leads to both of the two versions containing scenes that are exclusive to it and not present in the other. The overall tone as conveyed through the editing, music, and narration is also markedly different between the two versions, with ''Milo and Otis'' coming across as a bit LighterAndSofter compared to the more artsy and dramatic ''Koneko Monogatari.''
36* ExactWords: The film does ''not'' have a NoAnimalsWereHarmed disclaimer. Instead, it says that all the animals had careful supervision, and never indicates they ''weren't'' harmed.
37* AFriendInNeed: Even though Otis ran off without fully explaining feeling alienated due to being a ThirdWheel when Joyce joined him and Milo, Milo's reaction when he sees Otis again is pure joy, and he readily shares a small haul of fish so that Otis can feed his own family.
38* GossipyHens: A literal version in Gloria, who promptly enlists Otis to guard her newly laid egg while she goes out to tell all the other farm animals about it. Of course, the other hens get in on this too.
39* HeterosexualLifePartners: The titular pair, who are intensely loyal to each other.
40* TheHomewardJourney: Milo gets lost down the river and Otis follows to rescue him. They spend the rest of the film trying to get home.
41* IWillFindYou: Once Milo gets lost, Otis embarks on a relentless journey to rescue him.
42* InevitableWaterfall: Happens to Milo during his trip down the river in a box.
43* InterspeciesAdoption: Milo and Otis take a lesson in responsibility when they raise a baby chicken at the beginning of the film.
44* InterspeciesFriendship: Milo and Otis. Most animals are portrayed as friendly cross species except for {{bears|AreBadNews}}, [[OminousOwl screech owls]], seagulls, and crabs.
45* IncomingHam: When Otis encounters the fox.
46* IsItSomethingYouEat:
47** Early in the film, Milo and Otis come across a scary looking crustacean.
48--->'''Milo:''' "Wow, look at this thing Otis! Do you think we can eat it?"\
49'''Otis:''' "Who would eat something that looks like ''that''!"\
50The crayfish then pinches Otis's butt, causing him to fall into the river.
51** Later, a lost and hungry Milo sees a fox and wonders if he can eat it. He ends up stealing food from the fox instead.
52* LaughablyEvil: The bears. Despite being... Well, freakin' bears, they keep getting outsmarted by an orange tabby and a pug. One even gets a bowling ball dropped on his head!
53* {{Leitmotif}}: The melody of ''Koneko Monogatari'''s titular theme song recurs throughout the background score.
54** In the English dub, the Robert Schumann composition "Of Foreign Lands and Peoples" is used four times through the film (the opening barn scene, Otis's egg-sitting, Milo's dream and Otis heading off to get food [[spoiler:for his family]]).
55* MessyPig: Baby pigs have terrible table manners.
56* MissedHimByThatMuch: Several places Otis visits are places that Milo had just left.
57* NameAndName: The movie is named after the titular pair: Milo and Otis.
58* OddFriendship: Dogs and cats ''can'' be friends. Awww...
59* OminousOwl: There's a scene in the treetops at nighttime where Milo talks with a horned owl with glowing eyes who pops out of nowhere. Though he is friendly, he is needless to say quite terrifying for younger children. The screech owls he warns Milo about, however, aren't quite so friendly.
60* PapaWolf: More of a nuturing variety than a protective one, but when Otis is at his DarkestHour, he imagines the consequences to Sandra and his puppies if he should just give up on hunting for food in the snowstorm. This gives him the HeroicSecondWind needed to outlast it and find food for his family. Also, combining with MamaBear, for all that the seagulls were attacking Milo, they were doing so because Milo ''was'' looking to eat their eggs and young.
61* PopStarComposer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, from {{Synthpop}} band Music/YellowMagicOrchestra, composed the music for the original Japanese release.
62* PreciousPuppy: Otis. Later on, [[spoiler:he has three of his own.]]
63* PublicDomainSoundtrack:
64** Most of the score for the version released '''out'''side of Japan consists of classical music for which the copyrights had ''long'' since elapsed.
65** In the English version, the soundtrack has numerous public domain music such as Camille Saint-Saëns' ''Carnival of the Animals''.
66* PunnyName: "Chatran" is basically the Japanese term for "orange tabby" with an extra "n" tacked on the end.
67* RedOniBlueOni: Wild, carefree Milo is Red; proper, responsible Otis is Blue.
68* SceneryPorn: In the gorgeous Japanese countryside.
69* SleepCute: Milo and Otis, Milo and the deer.
70* SlidingScaleOfAnimalCast: Level 1, no humans at all. Although evidence of rural human civilization abounds in the form of farm buildings and equipment, no humans ever actually appear on screen. Director and zoologist Masanori Hata had dreamed since the early 70s of making a film starring only animals, and over the first half of the 80s finally brought that dream to life. There are rumors that a scene where Milo meets a little girl was filmed but [[WhatCouldHaveBeen went unused in the finished film]].
71* SwampsAreEvil: [[MeaningfulName Deadwood Swamp]] is a desolate, terrible place.
72* TemptingFate: "Milo! Get out of there before something happens!" Right on cue, the box floats away down the river.
73* ThirdWheel: Milo and Otis spend the whole movie looking for each other traveling over harsh terrain and fighting off dangerous predators, finally being reunited near the end. Only to have Milo meet up with a female cat and then the two of them unwittingly snub poor Otis.
74** The original Japanese version extends this trope further with Joyce confronting Otis (see CatsAreMean).

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