| Doraemon the Movie: Nobita and the Birth of Japan | |
|---|---|
 Japanese Release Poster | |
| Directed by | Tsutomu Shibayama |
| Written by | Fujiko Fujio |
| Produced by | Fujiko Fujio |
| Starring | |
| Production company | Shin-Ei Animation |
| Distributed by | Toho |
| Release date |
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| Running time | 100 minutes (1h 40m) |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
| Box office | $31.4 million |
Doraemon: Nobita and the Birth of Japan (ドラえもん のび太の日本誕生, Doraemon: Nobita no Nippon Tanjō) is a feature-length Doraemon film which premiered in Japan on 11 March 1989, based on the ninth volume of the same name of the Doraemon Long Stories series. This was the tenth Doraemon film, and the first of the Heisei era. In 2016, the movie was remade, with the title of Doraemon: Nobita and the Birth of Japan 2016.
Plot
The movie starts with a boy who belongs to prehistoric time hunting a fish, who returns his village in ruins and right after gets sucked in a time vortex and travels to the 20th century. In the 20th century, Nobita wants to run away from his home. Nobita decides to make a makeshift place to live, but he still cannot find a place to live due to land property ownership laws. At the same time, Shizuka, Gian, Suneo and Doraemon want to run away from their homes. Nobita suggests that they should go back in time to live in a place with no humans residing in Japan. The group agree with him and thus, they then go to prehistoric Japan, around 70,000 years in the past.
When they reach Japan, Doraemon assigns everyone a ministry. Shizuka is given the Ministry of Gardening, Gian gets the Ministry of Development, Suneo receives the Ministry of Agriculture and Nobita receives the Ministry of Pets, with Doraemon overseeing all ministries. Nobita mixes the genes of different animals and creates a dragon, griffin and pegasus. When Doraemon comes, he hides them from him.
At night, the group eat the supper and decide to return home and visit there another day. On the next day, the boy from the start of the movie secretly moves into Nobita's room and hides inside the closet. When Gian and Suneo come, the boy attacks Gian and Gian fights with him. Due to weakness, the boy faints. On the arrival of Nobita, Shizuka and Doraemon, the group again moves to the past. They take the boy into their cave and where he regains consciousness after Shizuka nurses him back to health. Meanwhile, Doraemon searches with a signal through time and learns that the boy hails from somewhere in present-day China, which has been already inhabited by humans by this era. Doraemon then uses a translation tool in order to understand him. He tells them that he belongs to the light tribe and his tribe got attacked by dark tribe who took all of his people. The group decide to help him.
They trace the dark tribe on Pegasus, Dragon and Griffin for four days. On the fourth day, they find and fight with them. However, their dogū proves to be strong and possess magical powers and gives them a strong challenge only to be defeated by Doraemon's gadgets. Unknown to them, the dogū restores itself after they leave. The group take the whole tribe to Japan to give them a peaceful place to live. At night, they return home.
Next day Doraemon tells everybody that the dogū can restore itself and the light tribe is still in danger, so they again go back in time. Once they arrive, they discover their village had already been destroyed by the dark tribe. Again, the group trace the dark tribe with Doraemon's human train gadget, but Nobita gets lost and is separated from the group during a harsh snowstorm.
Except for Nobita, the rest of the group continue to move and they find the light tribe. Doraemon fights with Gigazombie, who is the king of spirits. Doraemon reveals him to be a 23rd century time criminal who aims to create his own world by destroying the time passage, so that no one can find him. He easily defeats Doraemon and the others since he has more updated gadgets than Doraemon.
On the other hand, Nobita finds a box near him and sees a mammoth that tells him that if he needs help he should just press the button. Nobita's pet animals Pegasus, Dragon and Griffin return and they rescue his friend. However Gigazombie shuts them to a lone place. Nobita uses the button and the helper is revealed to be a time patrol who arrests Gigazombie. At the end, Pegasus, Dragon and Griffin are taken to the future as they were fictitious creatures in the current era. The group bids a sad farewell and leaves for their home.
Cast
An English version produced and released exclusively in Malaysia by Speedy Video, features an unknown voice cast.
| Character | Voice |
|---|---|
| Doraemon | Nobuyo Ōyama |
| Nobita Nobi | Noriko Ohara |
| Shizuka Minamoto | Michiko Nomura |
| Takeshi "Gian" Goda | Kazuya Tatekabe |
| Suneo Honekawa | Kaneta Kimotsuki |
| Kukuru | Yōko Matsuoka |
| Kuzakaru | Ryūji Nakagi |
| Tarane | Sakiko Tamagawa |
| Elder | Kōichi Kitamura |
| Utabe | Issei Futamata |
| Hikari Tribe villagers | Chafurin Naoki Bandō Kiyoyuki Yanada |
| Gigazombie | Ichirō Nagai |
| Mammoth | Teiji Ōmiya |
| Tsuchidama | Gara Takashima |
| Kurayami Tribe villagers | Masashi Hirose Kazuhiko Kishino Daisuke Gōri |
| Time Machine | Yūji Mitsuya |
| Landlord | Takashi Taguchi |
| Future Time Patrol | Kōichi Hashimoto |
| Boy | Mari Mashiba |
| Girls | Tamao Hayashi Masae Asaka |
| Tamako Nobi | Sachiko Chijimatsu |
| Nobisuke Nobi | Masayuki Sato |
| Sensei | Ryoichi Tanaka |
| Gian's Mama | Kazuyo Aoki |
References
- "邦画興行収入ランキング". SF MOVIE DataBank. General Works. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
- English translation as shown on an official website for the 25th anniversary of the movie franchise.
- Malaysian English Dub Doraemon Archived 2019-05-24 at the Wayback Machine - The Lost Media Wiki
External links
- Doraemon: Nobita and the Birth of Japan (film) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
- Doraemon: Nobita and the Birth of Japan at IMDb
| Shin-Ei Animation theatrical features | |
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 Category | |
- 1989 films
- Doraemon films
- 1989 anime films
- 1989 fantasy films
- Animated films set in prehistory
- Films directed by Tsutomu Shibayama
- Animated films set in Japan
- Animated films set in China
- Animated films about friendship
- Animated films about time travel
- Films about runaways
- Films scored by Shunsuke Kikuchi
- 1989 in Japanese cinema
- 1980s films about time travel