Mo~tto Ojamajo Doremi movie features the five witches Doremi, Aiko, Hazuki, Onpu, and Momoko as they visit Doremi's grandpa's home. There, they learn of the mystery of the frog stone, a magical place where magic used to mingle in the old countryside. Aiko rediscovers her love for grandpa, and Doremi learns a piece of the magical kingdom's past.
To my tastes, this film is extremely pretty, much more so than the previous Sharp film. Some of the visual elements remind me of Casshern Sins. There's an occasion wonky 3D environment, but it looks mostly great, even for Doremi standards. And honestly this film is pretty much an excuse to see the Doremi cast well-animated, in a pretty environment, and in HD. That said, the presentation is the most significant element here.
Structure wise the film is a bit of a mess. The pacing feels bizarre at many points. Some scenes feel weird and focused on for too long, yet major plot points are...sprinted through. And this plot is not particularly memorble compared to the show, it's like the show knows the plot isn't super significant. The whole thing with the girls wanting to sit on the grandfather's lap was weird. Everyone was so excited to despite the fact they barely new Doremi and Pop's grandfather. When Aiko explains her memories that caused her to be scared of the grandfather and feels better after simply telling Momoko this, I actually thought this was because she didn't want them to worry about her, and this was hinting at a further plot point because of the exaggeration of her relief, but nope, she's fine now.
One great thing about the Doremi series is it's ability to transition between comedy and drama basically seamlessly, but they did not pull that off in this film. There's a segment where everyone's enjoying dinner, Aiko is now feeling comfortable with Doremi's grandfather and suddenly it's revealed he will die soon, and everyone bursts into tears. It felt quite unnatural.
The soundtrack is mostly the same as the show. The closing song was nice, which I think is original.
Despite all my criticism, I liked this, likely because I really enjoy the Doremi series, and it being very aesthetically on-point.
So the movie has no director according to MAL, and while I don't know if that's true or not, it definitely feels like it.
Other than a couple fun expressions and little animations, this has basically nothing in common with the show, its tone or characters. And the thing is, the base story and character exploration as it happens is a good idea that could've easily worked as a movie of 60, or even just 45 minutes. You have basically two stories alongside each other; The story of a stone in the mountains that resembles a frog, modeled after a frog that bemourned a young girl that...tragically died and whose tears made it rain a lot, and the story of a painful memory about her own grandpa Aiko has to confront while spending time with Doremi and Pop's grandparents.
The first big noticeable flaw this movie has is its pacing. There is no buildup to anything, it's constantly loud and annoying. Not a single quiet moment the show had so many of, necessary to allow its world and characters to breathe. Plot points are mentioned kinda off-handedly. Things happen for seemingly no reason. Character motivations are hard to comprehend and don't make sense at all. And likewise, the characters make no sense too. In the show you'd get a very good feeling how each of the girls thinks and acts, how they have different ways of processing things, whereas here, everyone is acting out of character or doesn't really show a character at all, like Hadzuki, Pop or Onpu, who don't have anything to do at all. Or Aiko, who right after remembering a very painful - and for some reason unbelievably exaggerated - event with her granddad, just kiind of immediately gets over it for no reason at all other than "I'm so glad I remembered this"??? And then all of a sudden, Doremi's grandpa is like "oy I might be dying soon you know" out of nowhere and everyone breaks into tears? Or how everyone is super eager to sit on his lap for no concernable reason at all? Like I would understand for Doremi or especially Pop to want that, but everyone else kinda treats it like a slide in the backyard they are eager to ride. Aforementioned Hadzuki and Onpu especially seem weird doing this. Like, I could imagine if they wanted to after spending a week or so with the grandparents, but definitely not upon the first time they really get to talk. Then there's the visual presentation which also is incredibly off-putting. Maybe there was something wrong with the version of the movie I saw, but the frame always felt cluttered and claustrophobic, needlessly zoomed in, the camera almost hit those characters in the face on multiple occasions and the many instances of these 2D-characters just standing out against a weird CG-background.
Overall, this doesn't work at all. I would really like to know about the production history of this one, because it feels like it was supposed to be a much longer movie, but was then cut short to fit a normal episode's length and it just feels unbelievably wrong.
The Secret of the Frog Stone is a supplement "extra episode" to the series as was Sharp's movie last year, though this case is not plot-relevant. It's a pretty interesting take on the existence of Witch Frogs and puts into perspective the length of time passed since the former Queen's reign, as well as interpretations on historical Japan. I thought the masks were really significant, as masks frequently hide emotions and can be read as a sign of adhering to traditional behavior on a surface level, as well as dealing with various factors such as love. I enjoyed the connections to Aiko's parents and the...heartwarming ending as well; this was a great addition to the story, as was the tale of lovers. I found it interesting that making masks was used traditionally and reflective of a time period where harsher circumstances were in effect. It's a shame that there was minimal detail for the lovers, but Doremi's actions to help them unite towards the ending were well-done. Unfortunately, the movie is frankly a bit vague on the actions and references traditional Japanese lore, which could be a turnoff for some viewers looking for a quick story. The movie doesn't really give the viewer enough time to get invested in (or learn about for that matter) Japanese legends and as a result, it can be intimidating. I like the idea, but hopefully something less obscure can be done, unfortunately. The ending is also incredibly morbid and depressing, popping up out of nowhere and leaving things on a sad note for no real reason. 4/10.
