Doraemon: Nobita's Dinosaur (Some spoilers ahead)
Once every blue moon or so, a franchise movie appears that's also watchable as a stand-alone movie due to sheer quality. I believe this to be the case with Nobita's Dinosaur.
Ayumu Watanabe is a great director, I loved his take on the franchise. The movie is not very Doraemon-like on a surface level (at least, comparing to what I had seen as a kid on TV), but it manages to capture its essence with a completely different approach that's much more interesting and enjoyable in my books.
First of all, the animation for the whole thing is INSANE. The character designs are really sketchy, giving room to some very good expressive acting and enjoyable movement overall, and they are also really simple, which goes a long way to the huge consistency of the animation. A lot of the times, the narrative will take a sidestep to the visual rollercoaster that is taking place on the screen. I'd say the film thrives on its animation, but that would be dismissing the slick directing and storyboarding that are able to elevate the silly atmosphere from the TV show to the scope and tone required by a movie in an amazing way.
The film can be roughly divided in three parts, and I'll talk separately about each one of them.
The first segment is set in the usual urban setting, and its job is presenting the characters and premise. Even if you have never watched any Doraemon, the movie eases you in into the characters' personalities since the very beginning with the scene at Suneo's house.
What I really like about these characters is that they're realistically flawed (well, except for Shizuka): Suneo is a spoiled rich kid who will always want to show off, Gian is a lot of the time a dumb jerk, and Nobita is totally self-centered and bratty in his own way. They're really annoying as single characters, and that is what makes the dynamic between all of them so entertaining. Doraemon is mostly the voice of reason and a plot device, but he has some nice bits in the movie too.
This first part, as it focuses on the everyday world, has a lot of naturalistic imagery and transitions that help establish the atmosphere and setting. Every image is really detailed and carefully framed, it shows that a lot of effort went into them.
Some time ago people were talking about Mochizou's room from
Tamako Market not being very boy-like, and I immediately thought of that discussion when I saw how chaotic and messy Nobita's room is. In this case, I think it really shows what type of kid he is.
So Nobita says things without really minding them, and one thing leading to the other, he finds himself with a dinosaur egg. Using some of Doraemon's magic gadgets, he manages to turn the egg fossil into a real dinosaur egg, and a little baby ends up being born. The scene of the egg hatching had a lot of very obvious imagery but I thought it was nice either way.
I'm a sucker for playful scenes, and they're featured extensively between Nobita and new pet Piisuke. They really bring the good side of his character to foreground.
So, plot progresses, some shit hits the fan and we're thrown in to the second part of the movie, which is without doubt its highlight.
Nobita and all the gang are thrown into a classic dinosaur adventure setting, and for the next ~30 minutes we accompany them as they have wacky, heartwarming, dangerous hijinks. A lot of these parts make the animation shine, I particularly liked the part when they all get out of the sand before the sun rises, and later, the part when the T-rex attacks the Brontosaurs. Some shots are really accomplished and difficult to create technically, and nevertheless are approached in a really daring way, highlighting lines and having very rough and expressive drawings. Great stuff overall.
Even though this part is mostly carried by that adventurous feeling and the visuals, it doesn't forget its characters and exploits the situation as a way to make them bond.
I watched
Land Before Time a lot when I was little, and the dinosaur segment of
Fantasia (1940) was always among my favorites, so the thorough focus that went into the dinosaurs and their depictions made the dino-nerd inside me happy. If anyone shares this interest, YOU NEED to check this movie out. Actually scrap that, everyone should watch this amazing film.
The third part was my least favorite, because it mostly dealt with the antagonists and I couldn't give a fuck about any of them, but it had great moments like the conversation between the two guys which was very nicely framed, or the scenes with the kids in the cage and the T-Rex near the end. Some instances of character development occurred here, particularly with Suneo.
That discussion they had was extremely interesting in how organically it flowed. The characters were all talking on top of each other! such a rare sight, and it worked perfectly too thanks to the good script and the expressive acting animation.
Another remarkable thing was the score. It felt very "dinosaur movie"-like, I don't know how to put it. But it certainly gave that adventurous, romantic feel, although I think at some instances it was kind of overplayed, but it never reached the point of being truly cheesy.
So, this film is fantastic, and I recommend it to everyone as you don't need to be familiar at all with Doraemon (just know that a robot cat from the future has magic gadgets and that anything goes), and such well-made adventure films are hard to come by. Props to everyone involved in the production!