Just because of all the controversy going on here I borrowed my friend's copy of the movie and watched it tonight.

I hadn't seen it in many years, and I remember I loved that show as a child.

After watching it, many of the scenes did seem cruel to me. Both of the animals (especially Milo) seem scared to death almost the entire movie. I'm sure some of the things were fake, but most of them looked real and the animals looked miserable and possibly placed in danger.

It also promotes irresponsible breeding of animals.

However, I must agree it's really not worth getting all worked up about considering the movie was made such a long time ago; there's not much you can do now.