Tag: media

Culture

Cats in Media: Sleepwalkers (1992)

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Meredith Hemphill

mehshadoweye

While Sleepwalkers fails spectacularly as a horror movie, it triumphs as a loopy camp comedy. Sleepwalkers gets crazier and crazier as it proceeds, which is saying something, as it starts out batshit insane.

Nathan Rabin, The Dissolve
The Sleepwalkers movie poster

I identify strongly with the British tradition of Christmas as a time for telling scary stories. I think you’re supposed to tell ghost stories around a roaring fireplace, but I interpret this age-old pastime as reading and watching as much horror as possible. Preferably Christmas- or winter-themed, but this time I picked something cat-related to share with you all. I learned my fondness for Stephen King from my mother, who picked up Carrie when she was twelve and never looked back. Sleepwalkers, released April 10, 1992 [1], is not on Carrie‘s level. But it is very cat-centric, and I had fun with it.

Sleepwalkers was Stephen King’s first screenplay [2] and the only Stephen King movie that isn’t an adaptation of one of his short stories or novels [3]. The titular sleepwalkers are shapeshifting, werecat-like psychic vampires that feed on the life energy of virgin young women [1-7]. They can look like normal people, although their true appearance is revealed in the mirror, and they can become invisible or case their shapeshifting spell onto nearby inanimate objects [4]. Their one great weakness? Cats. As a fictional encyclopedia entry at the beginning of the film tells us, the claws of the domestic cat are fatally injurious to sleepwalkers [2, 4]. Cats aren’t fooled by the sleepwalkers’ illusions, either [4, 5].

As he usually does, Stephen King has a cameo in this movie: he appears as the cemetery attendant [4, 5]. There are a surprising number of other celebrity cameos, too. Look out for Mark Hamill as a cop in the opening scene and Clive Barker and Tobe Hooper as forensic technicians [2, 4].

Plot Summary

In the movie, two sleepwalkers, Charles and his mother, Mary, move to a small town in Indiana after fleeing the scene of their last crimes, leaving dozens of dead cats and a mummified teenage girl in their wake [4]. Within minutes, the film makes it clear that Charles and Mary have a much closer relationship than any mother and son should [1-7]. Also, it’s Charles’s job to go out and seduce a virgin girl to bring home for dinner, while Mary stays home and attempts to fend off the increasing number of cats gathering around their new house [4].

Charles specifically picks out a classmate at his new high school named Tanya that he thinks will be the perfect target [4]. Given Tanya’s terrible choices throughout the film, I think he was probably right. But this little Indiana town is not going to make things easy for Charles and Mary. A local policeman and his mascot, Clovis the Attack Cat (that’s what it says on his collar) are onto Charles [4].

When Charles finally gets Tanya alone, Clovis and his human come to the rescue. Charles kills the policeman, first jabbing a pencil in his ear and then shooting him with his own gun, but Clovis nearly kills Charles [4]. Charles stumbles home to Mary, who decides to leave the house for once and take care of things. She kidnaps Tanya, brutalizing Tanya’s parents and magically stabbing a cop to death with a corn cob in the process (I can’t even) [4].

At Mary’s house, she puppeteers her nearly-dead son and makes Tanya dance with him as he tries to drain her life force, but help is on the way [4]. Outside, Clovis is leading every cat in town to Mary’s house, and all available police units are pulling into the driveway [4]. The police don’t fare that well, but the swarm of cats enter the house, led by Clovis breaking a window–somehow–and they claw and bite Mary until she bursts into flames–somehow [4]. Meanwhile, Tanya gouges Charles’s eyes out, and he finally dies [4]. I think. With her last words, Mary mourns the loss of her son. The cats disperse because their work here is done. Tanya picks up our hero, Clovis, and he starts making biscuits on her arm [4] and it is the cutest thing I have ever seen.

What’s the Deal with the Sleepwalkers?

The sleepwalkers take three primary forms in the movie. They usually appear human, but when threatened or on the attack their faces take on a feline aspect [4]. Their true form, as seen in mirrors and during the climax of the film, is a furless, two-legged creature with a sort of pantherine head [4]. Charles and Mary may be the last of their kind, as Charles laments, “We still haven’t seen another sleepwalker” [4, 5]. The opening credits hint that sleepwalkers may have Egyptian origins [4], but there isn’t really an explanation for where these creatures come from or, perhaps more importantly, why Charles and Mary are the way they are. A lot of things go unexplained, actually. Why are cats their one great weakness, when they seem to be of feline type themselves? They both shrug off bullets, but one cat and Charles was down. Why did Mary spontaneously combust when attacked by a whole army of cats? Have they never thought about, I don’t know, getting a hunting dog to chase off all these cats?

The premise doesn’t really gel, but it was nice to see cats come to the rescue in a horror movie. Usually, cats in horror movies are either scary scene dressing or the evil creature feature themselves. The only other one I can think of right now with a heroic cat is Hocus Pocus, and seeing as that was meant to be a kids’ movie, it’s pretty low on the scare-factor in general.

Sympathy for the Devil

Interestingly, Sleepwalkers focuses mostly on Charles and Mary, as off-putting as they can be. We don’t learn much about Tanya, even though she should be our protagonist. When Charles reads a thinly-veiled autobiography in their creative writing class, Tanya points out how sad it is that “They were always driven away. Because they were such outsiders” [4, 6]. Curiously, Tanya later tells Charles that she feels the same way, but the movie never explains why Tanya feels like an outsider. She is always shown enjoying a perfectly happy, middle-class life. Really, Tanya seems almost incidental to the plot of the movie. The main characters are the sleepwalkers.

Stephen Hoda wrote a great essay about the sympathetic otherness of the sleepwalkers for Sublime Horror. I highly recommend it. I’m not going to repeat everything he had to say here, but Hoda highlights the implicit queerness of the way Charles and Mary live, hiding in plain sight but also behind closed doors [6]. They are portrayed as unquestionably monstrous but also strangely sympathetic [6]. The first on-screen kill in the movie involves Charles defending himself from a predatory teacher, a much more pedestrian sort of monster with a human face [4, 6]. Hoda remarks that the arc of Charles’s death and Mary’s vengeance is an old story, hearkening back to the epic of Beowulf in the monstrous characters of Grendel and his mother [6]. More mainstream horror cinema is no stranger to this dynamic, either. Consider Norma and Norman Bates, Pamela and Jason Voorhees, Debra Salt and Billy Loomis [6].

Mary and Charles are both tragic and revolting. They are a train wreck you can’t look away from. And they only have each other, twisted and toxic as their relationship may be. In a movie that isn’t exactly Oscar-worthy, it gives you a little something to think about in the midst of all the bloodshed.

Cats in Sleepwalkers

Clovis is listed in the credits as being played by Sparks [4]. Alas, none of the other feline actors are credited, but American Humane provides a lot of information about the cats in Sleepwalkers on their Humane Hollywood website [7]. Lots of live cats participated in the filming, including one hundred of them in the scene where every cat for miles around has gathered at Mary’s house [7]. However, in any scenes where violence was done to a cat, mechanical, replica, or even taxidermy cats replaced live ones for all dangerous stunts [7]. In some scenes, this meant doing numerous partial takes, some with live cats and some with fake ones, like when Clovis breaks the window [7]. The cat that breaks the candy-glass window is a fake, but Sparks/Clovis is clearly the one walking through a moment later [7].

As I was watching the movie, I wondered how the live cats were induced to hiss at the sleepwalkers. I don’t think you can train a cat to hiss on cue. Well, I found the answer. Either the trainers would hiss, which made the cats hiss in return, or they held up one of the replica cats in front of the live ones [7]. I would probably respond similarly if a mannequin suddenly popped up in my face.

Final Thoughts

Let’s be real: this is not a great movie. The make-up and prosthetics are pretty good, and I suppose the effects aren’t bad for the early 90s. But the plot is full of holes, the characters are flat, and the dialogue is…well, Stephen King is a brilliant writer, but I don’t think screenwriting is his best medium. And I’m sorry, but you cannot stab a person with a corn cob. Then 100+ cute cats [7] cover a lot of sins, but I know some people will find the gruesome violence against cats too disturbing, even though none of it was real. And let’s not forget the incest. That’s just disturbing, full stop. Then again, I think that was rather the point. It is supposed to be a horror movie.

I personally enjoy a weird, campy horror movie, and I loved that Clovis the Attack Cat was the hero. I give Sleepwalkers three out of five paws. It was entertaining, and I wouldn’t be opposed to watching it again. It definitely isn’t for everybody, though. I wouldn’t say it ever manages to get scary, but it certainly achieves “unsettling.” If you like unhinged, B-movie horror, it’s worth a watch. Pop some popcorn, snuggle up on the couch with your cat, and tell them what a good job they do guarding your house from sleepwalkers.

References

  1. IMDb. (n.d.) Sleepwalkers. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105428/
  2. Ayala, N. (2020, November 23). Stephen King’s sleepwalkers: Why the creatures were afraid of cats. Screen Rant. https://screenrant.com/stephen-king-sleepwalkers-creature-cat-fear-explained-reason/
  3. Nonstop Nerd. (2023, October 12). ‘Sleepwalkers’: The wackiest Stephen King movie. https://nonstopnerd.com/2023/10/12/sleepwalkers-the-wackiest-stephen-king-movie/
  4. Garris, M. (Director). (1992). Sleepwalkers. [Film]. Columbia Pictures.
  5. Sleepwalkers. (n.d.). Stephen King. https://stephenking.com/works/movie/sleepwalkers.html
  6. Hoda, S. (2019, October 19). Sympathetic monsters: Queerness in Stephen King’s Sleepwalkers. Sublime Horror. https://www.sublimehorror.com/film/sympathetic-monsters-queerness-in-stephen-kings-sleepwalkers/
  7. American Humane. (n.d.). Sleepwalkers (1992). Humane Hollywood. https://humanehollywood.org/production/sleepwalkers/
Culture

Cats in Media: Milo and Otis

mehshadoweye

Meredith Hemphill

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Milo and Otis movie poster
The Adventure of Milo and Otis movie poster – Image from IMDb

Once upon a time, there was a ginger tabby kitten. He was born under our front porch, the summer before I started kindergarten. He looked just like the kitten in one of my favorite movies, so I named him Milo. And just like the cat in the movie, “Milo was trouble from the very beginning” [9]. Milo was one of the kittens we kept. All three of his littermates were girls, so there was no Otis, but he and his sister Cara were equally inseparable for their entire lives.

I grew up with those cats. The Adventures of Milo and Otis took on new meaning as I spent 15+ years with a Milo of my own, just as ginger and mischievous as the Milo in the film. The two or three VHS tapes and two DVDs people gave us of the movie over the years never let us forget it. “Look, there’s an orange cat named Milo in it, just like yours!” Sometimes you have to wonder about people.

When I thought about doing some articles on cats in movies, books, etc., Milo and Otis sprang immediately to mind. I don’t even remember the first time I saw it. It sort of seems like it was always there. I suspect this movie played a big part in my desire for a cat as a young child. I’m sure I’m not the only one. Of course, no beloved childhood memory goes unruined–The Adventures of Milo and Otis has faced some controversy. This simple and extremely cute movie has a surprisingly complicated story.

Summary

Koneko Monogatari movie poster
Koneko Monogatari movie poster – Image from Yahoo Movies

First, let’s make sure everybody’s on the same page. The Adventures of Milo and Otis is a children’s movie about a ginger tabby tomcat named Milo and a tan-and-black pug named Otis. Milo is fun-loving and danger-prone while Otis is serious and responsible, but the two are best friends. The story begins on the farm where both were born. They have all sorts of adventures, even hatching a chicken egg together, but things take a turn when Milo decides to play hide and seek at the dock.

He hides in a box floating in the water, and the box comes unmoored and floats downriver. Otis takes off in pursuit, and so begins the real adventure as the two friends try to find each other and return home. Along the way, they meet animals both friendly and dangerous, grow up, find love, and finally return home together with new families in tow.

The Making Of Milo and Otis

Milo and Otis didn’t start out as Milo and Otis, but as Chatran and Poosky. The Adventures of Milo and Otis was first a Japanese film called Koneko Monogatari, or “A Kitten’s Story” [5, 8, 13]. The director, Masanori Hata, is an author and zoologist [3, 7]. He owns a private island where he had collected over 300 animals of a wide variety of species [3]. He called it Mutsugoro’s Animal Kingdom, and he wanted to show it all off in a film about his animals [3].

It was no small undertaking. Koneko Monogatari was filmed over the course of four years [3, 6, 8, 13, 14]. Hata wrote and directed the movie himself [3, 5, 6, 13]. It was made sort of documentary-style [3, 7, 13, 14]. To some extent, the animals were filmed just doing their thing. But there are scenes that could only have been staged. After the film was edited together to form a story, music, narration, and poetry recitation were added [13, 14]. Koneko Monogatari was released to Japanese audiences in 1986 [3, 5, 12, 13].

Journey to America

Koneko Monogatari did very well in Japan, and Hollywood took notice. Columbia Pictures took on the project of adapting the film for a North American audience [8, 9, 13, 14]. They didn’t simply translate it into English, however. Screenwriter Mark Saltzman, known for his work on Sesame Street, wrote a new script that is less whimsical and devoid of poetry interludes [5, 7, 9, 13]. Fifteen minutes of footage were cut [6, 10, 11, 13]. Much of the rest was reordered to make the story more appealing for Westerners [6]. The result is a sort of rambling coming-of-age tale.

Obviously, the characters were given new, English-language names, and Milo and Otis were born. Otis also received an expanded role in the Columbia Pictures adaptation [13]. Add a new narrator and a new soundtrack, and there you have it: The Adventures of Milo and Otis. It was released in the United States in 1989 [5, 8, 9, 12, 13].

“Walk Outside,” the theme song from The Adventures of Milo and Otis

Reception

Koneko Monogatari was the number one film at the box office in Japan in 1986 [8, 13]. It was the third highest-grossing film ever in Japan at the time [13]. A video game tie-in was released on the Famicon at the same time as the movie [13], but I don’t think it was as enthusiastically embraced. Koneko Monogatari‘s star would continue to rise, however. In 1987, it won Most Popular Film at the Japanese Academy Awards and received a nomination for Best Music Score [5, 13]. And of course, the money continued to pour in [5, 13].

The Adventures of Milo and Otis wasn’t quite as overwhelmingly successful, but the film still did very well. It received a Young Artist Awards nomination for Best Family Motion Picture – Adventure or Cartoon in 1990 [5, 13]. Critical reception was generally positive. According to The Washington Post’s Rita Kempley in 1990, “It’s totally awwwwww-some” [7]. The $13.3 million The Adventures of Milo and Otis grossed in the United States suggests that audiences agreed [5, 13].

Animal Abuse Allegations

Since the release of Koneko Monogatari, rumors of animal abuse have haunted the film. Australian animal rights groups raised the alarm and called for a boycott [8, 13]. Animal Liberation Queensland alleged that more than 20 kittens died during production [8, 12, 13]. Japanese activists also voiced concerns [14]. A 1986 article from The Economist read, “It’s hard to see how [Chatran] survived. Indeed, according to Japan’s biggest animal-rights group, he did not. Or, to be accurate, a third of the Chatrans used did not” [14].

Pug sitting on frosty grass
Image by devlopenet0 from Pixabay

Activists also alleged that a producer deliberately broke a kitten’s paw so that it would limp for a particular shot [8, 12, 13]. Then there were complaints about what could clearly be seen in the movie itself, such as Chatran/Milo plummeting from a 100-foot (30.5-meter) cliff and trying to climb back up, Poosky/Otis fighting a bear, and Milo being attacked by seagulls. Interestingly, most of the footage that was cut from the North American version consisted of controversial scenes and shots such as these, including the scene in which the kitten’s paw was allegedly broken [5, 10, 11, 14]. Whether this was more about avoiding the wrath of American and Canadian animal activists or making the movie more palatable for Western kiddos is hard to say.

The American Humane Association investigated the rumors of animal abuse through contacts in Europe and Japan [3, 8]. In their own words, “everything has led to a dead end” [3]. In their report, they did note that five Japanese humane societies “allowed their names to be used in connection with the picture” [3]. However, the fact that American Humane themselves did not sign off on the production and were not present during filming is kind of a big deal. In fact, it has often been cited as further evidence that animal abuse may have occurred.

You know the “no animals were harmed” statement you see at the end of a lot of movies? That’s the stamp of approval of American Humane’s film program [1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 14]. The program has been in place since 1940 and is extremely rigorous in ensuring the welfare of all animals in film at every stage of the process [4]. Only United States, Screen Actors Guild productions are required to work with American Humane [2]. Other filmmakers, including international ones, can choose to do so, but they are under no such obligation [2]. Many do, however, for the weight that the American Humane name carries.

So it’s not that surprising that neither Koneko Monogatari nor The Adventures of Milo and Otis contains the “no animals were harmed” statement in the end credits. Instead, they run this odd bit: “The animals used were filmed under strict supervision with the utmost care for their safety and well-being” [8, 9, 12, 14]. Admittedly, that’s not quite as reassuring.

Paw Rating

So, all that being said, where do I stand on Milo and Otis? It really depends. If the rumors of animal abuse are true, then obviously it gets 0 out of 5 paws. Or, like, -1000 out of 5 paws. But there is really no solid evidence that the allegations are true, or that they aren’t. It’s a thorny situation, to say the least. And now that’s it’s been over thirty years, we’ll probably never know the truth.

If I regard The Adventures of Milo and Otis apart from the abuse allegations, I feel like it still has the same charm it did when I was five years old. There’s not a strong plot. It doesn’t try to teach big life lessons–except that seagulls are jerks, which is a good one to live by. But it’s full of cute animals and has always just made me happy to watch. This is definitely intended to be a kids’ movie; however, a word of warning about that. When the kittens and puppies are born, the birthing process is shown in great detail. That never disturbed me as a child. Actually, I think knowing that baby cats come out of cats made it easier for me to later comprehend that baby humans come out of humans. But all children are different, so just bear that in mind.

As much as I love Milo and Otis, and as important as it was in my childhood, I don’t think I can fairly give it the full compliment of paws. It probably won’t be catalogued among the greatest movies of the 20th century, but that’s not why. Even if the rumors were all false, I can’t help thinking that some animal endangerment was part of this production.

I remember several other all-animal movies from around that time, but that hasn’t been a lasting trend. I’m sure there’s multiple reasons for that, but one of them must be that you can’t make a movie that way without some stress and risk to the animals. And I think Masanori Hata et al. subjected their cast to even more risks than strictly necessary. Maybe I just haven’t seen Napoleon or Homeward Bound in a while, but I don’t remember those animals looking genuinely distressed onscreen. However, I did notice a couple times Milo or Otis was clearly not happy. I’m going to give it 3 out of 5 paws. Adorable movie, but it would have been cuter if they hadn’t tried so hard to make the animals act.

Bound and leap, then bound, and perhaps, also leap.

Works Cited

  1. American Humane. (n.d.). About us. Humane Hollywood. https://humanehollywood.org/about-us/
  2. American Humane. (2016, August 26). “No animals were harmed” frequently asked questions. https://www.americanhumane.org/fact-sheet/no-animals-were-harmed/
  3. American Humane Association. (2001, May 31). Movie review: The Adventures of Milo and Otis. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20010531234131/http://www.ahafilm.org/oldmovies1/theadventures/
  4. American Humane Association. (2015). Guidelines for the safe use of animals in filmed media. https://www.americanhumane.org/app/uploads/2016/08/Guidelines2015-WEB-Revised-110315-1.pdf
  5. IMDb. (n.d.). The Adventures of Milo and Otis. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097050/
  6. Kamal, N. (2011, October 16). Childhood revisited: The Adventures of Milo and Otis. Spectrum Culture. https://spectrumculture.com/2011/10/16/childhood-revisited-the-adventures-of-milo-otis/
  7. Kempley, R. (1990, June 16). The Adventures of Milo and Otis. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/theadventuresofmiloandotisgkempley_a0a019.htm
  8. Long, C. (2021, January). The animal abuse rumors of ‘The Adventures of Milo and Otis.’ Wide Open Pets. https://www.wideopenpets.com/milo-and-otis-deaths/
  9. Masanori, H. (Director). (1989). The Adventures of Milo and Otis [Film]. Columbia Pictures.
  10. [Retcon Media]. (2008, March 22). The Adventures of Milo and Otis deleted scenes 1 of 2 [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goix8a6xMok&ab_channel=RetconMedia
  11. [Retcon Media]. (2008, March 22). The Adventures of Milo and Otis deleted scenes 2 of 2 [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2W_UbTAaw8&ab_channel=RetconMedia
  12. Rizov, V., Robinson, T., Rabin, N., Tobias, S., et al. (2012, April 9). Yes, animals were harmed: 21 films and TV shows that killed or hurt animals. The A.V. Club. https://film.avclub.com/yes-animals-were-harmed-21-films-and-tv-shows-that-ki-1798230791
  13. The Adventures of Milo and Otis. (2021, June 16). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Adventures_of_Milo_and_Otis&oldid=1016106539
  14. The Adventures of Milo and Otis. (n.d.). Channel Awesome. https://thatguywiththeglasses.fandom.com/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Milo_and_Otis

Published September 12, 2021

Updated July 9, 2022