Five years in the making, this entertaining animal story is about a feisty tomcat named Chatran who wanders away from the safety of his farm in Hokkaido and encounters a series of adventures in the outside world. Director Masanori Hata is a zoologist who runs a private animal farm on Hokkaido. His love for animals shines through in his handling of his "cast" here, which features cows, bears, pigs, snakes and birds, with not a single humans in sight. (This certainly eliminated the usual hassles over percentages or salaries.) Even for non-animal lovers, Chatran's adventures, from when he's a kitten until he grows up to have a family of his own, prove to be enjoyable. This film was given English-language voiceovers by Dudley Moore, and rereleased in the U.S., in 1989, as The Adventures of Milo and Otis. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi