My mother got the movie last night on DVD! I was so excited; I hadn't seen it in years. We all watched the movie together (my sister and I were the last ones remaining by the end) and it was even better than I remembered. I laughed and cried.

(Spoiler alert!) The story, if you don't know it, is about a cat and a dog named Milo and Otis. They were friends since they were kitten and pup, and had all sorts of adventures together. One day, Milo climbs into a wooden box and floats down a river. Otis tries to follow him, but they both get lost and separated. They have to overcome challenges and eventually become reunited, fall in love, start their own families, and return to the farm where they were born. The story is like an Odyssey with small animals.

What I noticed, though, was that the movie was originally Japanese. They had bears throughout the movie, which seemed unusual. And occasionally, the animals would suffer a bit (for example, pinched by a crab claw, attacked by seagulls, tossed in water). At the end, instead of stating that the animals were not harmed in the making, it said they were supervised and cared for as well as possible.

In the United States, animal cruelty is illegal, so they can't hurt animals in the making of entertainment. But since this movie was made in Japan, they must have had different laws. Do you think it's right, then, for the production to be remade and sold in the US?