| Doraemon the Movie: Nobita's Little Star Wars 2021 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |||||
| Japanese name | |||||
| Kanji | ドラえもん: のび太 の宇宙小戦争 2021 | ||||
| |||||
| Directed by | Susumu Yamaguchi | ||||
| Screenplay by | Dai Satō | ||||
| Based on | Doraemon Long Stories: Nobita's Little Star Wars byFujiko F. Fujio | ||||
| Produced by | Aarav ogra | ||||
| Starring | |||||
| Music by | Takayuki Hattori | ||||
Production company | |||||
| Distributed by | Toho | ||||
Release date |
| ||||
Running time | 108 minutes[1] | ||||
| Country | Japan | ||||
| Language | Japanese | ||||
| Box office | $22.1 million[2] | ||||
Doraemon: Nobita's Little Star Wars 2021 (ドラえもん: のび太の宇宙小戦争 2021,Doraemon: Nobita no Ritoru Sutā Wōzu 2021) is a 2022 Japanese animatedepicspace opera film. It is the 41stDoraemon film and serves as a remake of the 1985 filmDoraemon: Nobita's Little Star Wars.[3]
During summer vacation, Nobita and his friends begin making a sci-fi film on space war using a diorama at Suneo’s house. After feeling left out, Nobita discovers a tiny rocket containing Papi, the president of Planet Pirika, who is fleeing a rebel army led by General Gilmore and his agent Dorakoruru. Doraemon and the others befriend Papi and use the "Small Light" to shrink themselves and play with him, deepening their bond. When Papi’s location is discovered, they travel to Pirika to help the Freedom Alliance resist the dictatorship. Despite being captured and separated, the friends reunite when the Small Light’s effect wears off, returning to full size and rallying the people. Together, they defeat Dorakoruru, stop Gilmore, and restore peace to Pirika. Back on Earth, they screen their finished film, hinting it was based on their real adventure.
| Character | Voice actor |
|---|---|
| Doraemon | Wasabi Mizuta |
| Nobita Nobi | Megumi Ōhara |
| Shizuka Minamoto | Yumi Kakazu |
| Suneo Honekawa | Tomokazu Seki |
| Takeshi 'Gian' Goda | Subaru Kimura |
| Papi | Romi Park[4] |
| Piina | Mayu Matsuoka[5] |
| Rokoroko | Yuki Kaji[4] |
| Dorakoruru | Junichi Suwabe[4] |
| Gilmore | Teruyuki Kagawa[5] |
| Underground leader | Takashi Utsumi (Milk Boy)[6] |
| Pilot | Takashi Komaba (Milk Boy)[6] |
| Tamako Nobi | Kotono Mitsuishi |
| Shizuka's Mother | Ai Orikasa |
| Hidetoshi Dekisugi | Shihoko Hagino |
Kazuaki Imai, who directed the previous Doraemon feature filmNobita's New Dinosaur, was replaced by Susumu Yamaguchi. Yamaguchi stated, 'I used to participate only in drawing, but it was over. However, I thought, I want to make a Doraemon film before I die. So I took the initiative and acted under the name of the 'five-year plan.'" He had previously worked on the production of TV specials and movies and appealed to the production team to direct this film. As a result, he was eventually chosen. However, because the production of an original film was difficult due to the schedules, Yamaguchi decided to remakeNobita's Little Star Wars. According to Yamaguchi,Nobita and the Castle of the Undersea Devil was also recommended, was not finalized because of the difficulty to animate scenes in underwater.[10]
Dai Satō wrote the screenplay of the film, who has worked on many works including the Science fiction anime seriesCowboy Bebop. Yamaguchi said that he was glad with his screenplay.[10]
Koichi Maruyama was selected from the TV series for character design,[11] and Junya Ishigaki was in charge of mechanical design.[9]
Sato had written his own plot to make the remake compatible to the 2020s age. After that, it had turned out that director Susumu Yamaguchi had also written a plot based on similar changes. Therefore, the two decided to pursue the character of Papi, the guest character of this work. In the original story, Papi was separated from Nobita and others by PCIA in the first half of the story, but since it was not possible to show the interaction between Papi and Nobita and Papi's feeling about it, Sato had consulted with Yamaguchi and had decided to write the first half of the original shorter. For the same reason, Papi's older sister Piina had been introduced as a new character.[12] In addition, the original Papi was depicted as "an intelligent life form far superior to earthlings," which was slightly changed in the remake to make it compatible to the modern times. For this reason, a scene in which Papi becomes emotionally angry was included.[12]
For characters other than Papi, a deep digging of the character was done. For example, in the case of Suneo, he was portrayed as a representative of the majority of people who want to be brave enough to do heroic things, but they only keep things to themselves.[13] Also, in the original work, Suneo showed a war-weary attitude which remained in the remake, but scenes were increased where Suneo was reluctant to fight.[12]Mayu Matsuoka, who voiced Piina, said in a stage greeting on 27 March 2022 that she had been encouraged by Suneo's honest expression of his fear of fighting.[14]
On the other hand, Nobita had been depicted clumsy sometimes because they thought Nobita could be 'too heroic'.[13]
In addition, in the originalmanga, the defeat of Gilmore by the public was easily drawn in one page. Sato said that he had focused on Gilmore's coronation ceremony, which had been only mentioned in the original manga, while it had been difficult to come up with a good idea, although it had lacked balance if he followed the depiction of the final stage because he had strengthened other part.
Gilmore's coronation ceremony had been set with Papi's death penalty, and the content of Papi's speech was based on his interaction with Nobita and others. Also Papi's scream to Gilmore in the original was the scene when the death sentence was announced, but since the public did not witness the scene and it looked like a loser's howl, in the remake it was changed to Gilmore's coronation ceremony, which led the public to an uprising.[13]
Among the guest voice actors,Mayu Matsuoka was selected as Papi's older sister, Piina. In an interview withAnimate Times, Yamaguchi revealed that when he heard Matsuoka's first line, 'Doracoluru', he felt that Matsuoka was a good choice. In addition, the leader of the underground organization and the pilot of the Free Alliance, who were collaborators of Doraemon and others, were played by the comedy duo Milk Boy, Takashi Utsumi and Takashi Komaba respectively. In an interview with the Animate Times, Yamaguchi said that the two characters in the play are not comedy relief, but rather young people who are desperate to save their nation.Teruyuki Kagawa was appointed as Gilmore, the dictator of the planet Pirika. Yamaguchi revealed in an interview with Animate Times that he had asked Kagawa to play 'the most hated person' in a letter. He also said that Kagawa was acting with his body and gestures.Romi Park,Yuki Kaji andJunichi Suwabe were selected as Papi, Rokoroko and Dorakoruru respectively.[13]
Care was taken to keep the character designs close to the original, but not too old-fashioned.[11] Also, in the remake, as a respect for special effects films of the 20th century, real miniatures are used as part of the background in some scenes, which is the first time in the Doraemon film series.[13]
On 16 November 2020, it was announced that the film would get release on 5 March 2021. Major staff and theme song artist were also announced.[15] On 9 January 2021, The theme songUniverse byOfficial Hige Dandism was published on theYouTube channel of the pop band.[16] The release date of the film got postponed indefinitely due to theCOVID-19 pandemic on 29 January 2021.[17] After almost six months, on 17 July 2021 it was announced that the film would get release in early 2022.[18][19] On 9 November 2021, the new release date, 4 March 2022 was announced and guest voice actors were announced of the following two characters, Piina and Gilmore.[5][20] After nine days, on 18 November 2021, a new trailer was published on the officialYouTube channel and voice actors of Papi, Rokoroko and Dorakoruru were announced.[4] On 17 January 2022, insert song artist was announced.[8][21] Two more guest voice artists were announced on 25 January 2022.[6]
The film was released in theaters on 4 March 2022 in Japan[5] after being postponed from 5 March 2021 due toCOVID-19 pandemic.[15][17] Vietnamese film distributor CGV released this film inVietnam on 27 May 2022.[22][23] It was released inChina on 28 May 2022.[24][25] The film was released byOdex inMalaysia on 16 June 2022.[26] Odex opened a fan screening of the film on 9 July 2022 and SM Cinema generally released it in theatres inPhilippines on 13 July 2022.[27] InTaiwan it was released on 15 July 2022.[28] Odex also released the film inAzerbaijan andMauritius on 30 June 2022,[29][30] inBahrain,Oman,Kuwait,Saudi Arabia,United Arab Emirates,Iraq,Qatar,Jordan andLebanon on 7 July 2022,[31] inEgypt on 20 July 2022,[32] inCyprus on 21 July 2022,[33] and inSouth Africa on 5 August 2022.[34] The film was also released inSouth Korea on 3 August 2022.[35][36] It got a release inTurkey on 5 August 2022, with a Turkish-language dub.[37] The film was released in Thailand on October 10, 2022.[38][39]
It has been streaming onAmazon Prime Japan from August 2022.[40] It was also released on DVD and Blu-Ray in Japan on December 7, 2022. The upcoming releases also contains bonus materials.[41]
Doraemon: Nobita's Little Star Wars 2021 debuted at no. 1 in its first weekend, with a sell of about 350,000 tickets in its first three days.[42] According toBox Office Mojo, it grossed $22,060,623 at the box office.[2]
Here is a table which shows the box office of this movie of all the weekends inJapan:
| Weekend no. | Rank | Weekend gross | Total gross till current weekend | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | ¥394 million (US$3.41 million) | ¥440 million (US$3.81 million) | [42] |
| 2 | 1 | ¥281 million (US$2.37 million) | ¥800 million (US$6.76 million) | [43] |
| 3 | 2 | ¥236 million (US$1.95 million) | ¥1.3 billion (US$10.79 million) | [44] |
| 4 | 3 | ¥179 million (US$1.44 million) | ¥1.6 billion (US$12.92 million) | [45] |
| 5 | 3 | ¥149 million (US$1.21 million) | ¥2.1 billion (US$17.1 million) | [46] |
| 6 | 3 | ¥149 million (US$1.21 million) | ¥2.3 billion (US$18.3 million) | [47] |
| 7 | 4 | ¥53,923,700 (US$422,600 (equivalent to $454,076 in 2024)) | ¥2,455,042,800 (US$19.2 million) | [48] |
| 8 | 8 | ¥34,660,050 (US$271,000 (equivalent to $291,185 in 2024)) | ¥2,498,689,600 (US$19.5 million) | [49] |
| 9 | 8 | ¥34,522,900 (US$265,600 (equivalent to $285,383 in 2024)) | ¥2,558,009,800 (US$19.6 million) | [50] |
| 10 | 10 | ¥15,258,700 (US$117,200 (equivalent to $125,929 in 2024)) | ¥2,627,160,350 (US$20.18 million) | [51] |
In Vietnam, the movie also debuted at no.1 in its first weekend, grossed 119.8 billiondong ($5115.94) and surpassedTop Gun: Maverick in the Vietnamese box office.[52]
A week before its release, theRussian invasion of Ukraine had begun. As a result, the story of the film is compared with the incident.[53][54] Among them, RealSound 's Kazuma Kubota points out that the pendant Papi wears in the film is the same color as the Ukrainian flag.[55]
Writer Kaeru Inaka, in an article of 'Real Sound', praised the opening scene from Papi's escape to Nobita's movie shooting and also commented about the fast-going events of the first part of the film. Inaka also evaluated that the scene where Nobita and his friends became small, played with Papi and enjoyed the extraordinary life was a good link between the everyday scene and the upcoming war. In addition, Inaka pointed out that recent Doraemon movies tend to exaggerate emotional expressions so that even children can understand, but the animations had been done carefully so that it did not seem to be a joke. He said that the staff had been succeeded in making the film so that even children feel the terror of war.[56]
Writer Hodaka Sugimoto wrote an article on the anime-specialized news site AnimeAnime.jp. He says that the pitifulness of dictatorship can be understood well through the contrast between Dorakoruru and Gilmore. In addition, Sugimoto pointed out that the bravery of the common people of Pirika was emphasized more than the original manga and the1985 version and highlighted that not an external military force, but the common people living in the planet overthrow the oppressive regime.[57]
A novel written by Naohiro Fukushima and based on the film was released on 4 February 2022.[58]
ANintendo Switch game based on the film and created byFuRyu[59] was scheduled to be released on 4 March 2021,[60] but its release was postponed, along with the film, due toCOVID-19 pandemic. The game was released on 4 March 2022.[61]
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