Kôzô Kusuba's entertaining aquatic adventure "Doraemon: Nobita's Great Battle of the Mermaid King" follows Nobita and his pals as they attempt to prevent the destruction of a mysterious undersea nation. The story appeals to a wide age range of readers by skillfully fusing friendship, fantasy, and environmental awareness. The film's brilliant animation, striking colors, and recognizable Doraemon devices provide the narrative fun and inventiveness. The film embodies the endearing essence of Doraemon, advocating for fundamental principles of bravery, camaraderie, and preservation of the environment. The movie appeals to both young and senior viewers.
4 Reviews
What a great movie for kids :-) ...SPOILERS...
wilson_t_t8 December 2010
Warning: Spoilers
Just saw the movie and honestly, I think this is such a good movie, especially for kids.
In this movie, Doraemon actually managed to risk the safety of everyone in Tokyo by releasing sea animals to float around on the streets, and that includes a huge bull shark. It nearly killed Dekisugi too. How interesting.
Not to mention, Nobita's most loyal & helpful friends: "Giant and Suneo" which always accompanies him in hundreds of his adventures, and yet for hundreds of times always managed to betray & dishonor their friendship with Nobita by bullying, sizing up, cornering him, being only-a-friend-scenario-and-opportunity-wise, and discards him on his daily life; Instead of offering a helping hand, sincere friendships and encouragements as what real friends would always do. Therefore as expected, in this movie Giant and Suneo still lived up to their expectations by teaching Japanese kids about the values of "friendship, honor, and good will." Nevertheless, in the end our little heroes managed to capture hundreds/thousands of their enemy's soldiers, and ordered them all to be put to death by being fed alive to the giant shark. Too bad, the movie finished before we can see how their enemies' limbs were ripped apart and eaten by the shark. Must've been censored then.
But hey, now that these grade five children have contributed to the gruesome deaths of their enemies, then I guess there won't be another sequel to the mermaid series, therefore it's a happy ending, and the mermaids will live happily ever after :) Well, I'd personally give this movie a 10 out of 10. This truly is a magnificent movie. A true Quentin Tarantino's style movie made for kids. What a genius!
In this movie, Doraemon actually managed to risk the safety of everyone in Tokyo by releasing sea animals to float around on the streets, and that includes a huge bull shark. It nearly killed Dekisugi too. How interesting.
Not to mention, Nobita's most loyal & helpful friends: "Giant and Suneo" which always accompanies him in hundreds of his adventures, and yet for hundreds of times always managed to betray & dishonor their friendship with Nobita by bullying, sizing up, cornering him, being only-a-friend-scenario-and-opportunity-wise, and discards him on his daily life; Instead of offering a helping hand, sincere friendships and encouragements as what real friends would always do. Therefore as expected, in this movie Giant and Suneo still lived up to their expectations by teaching Japanese kids about the values of "friendship, honor, and good will." Nevertheless, in the end our little heroes managed to capture hundreds/thousands of their enemy's soldiers, and ordered them all to be put to death by being fed alive to the giant shark. Too bad, the movie finished before we can see how their enemies' limbs were ripped apart and eaten by the shark. Must've been censored then.
But hey, now that these grade five children have contributed to the gruesome deaths of their enemies, then I guess there won't be another sequel to the mermaid series, therefore it's a happy ending, and the mermaids will live happily ever after :) Well, I'd personally give this movie a 10 out of 10. This truly is a magnificent movie. A true Quentin Tarantino's style movie made for kids. What a genius!
One of my least favorite Doraemon movies, filled with logical inconsistencies and unsatisfying payoffs
albertonykus10 March 2024
Warning: Spoilers
In this movie, Nobita and Doraemon accidentally strand a mermaid princess in their yard. I distinctly remember this being the first Doraemon movie that I actively thought was bad, and sadly, my opinion has not changed much after a rewatch. I wish it weren't so, because the undersea setting and mermaid concept could have been a lot of fun.
To briefly discuss a few of my main issues with this movie:
-The mermaid princess Sophia is amazed by cars and doesn't realize they're dangerous, yet we later see that she comes from a society that has roads and vehicles.
-Dorami suddenly shows up to deliver some exposition about mermaids, apparently at Doraemon's request, even though mermaids have barely been mentioned by that point.
-When the villains are about to invade, the mermaid queen dumps the responsibility of leading the war onto Sophia, and this is portrayed as a good thing for some reason.
-There's an abrupt scene cut into the middle of the final battle. (I seriously wondered whether I'd been watching a faulty copy of this movie when I first saw it.)
-After everyone spends much of the story trying to figure out how the obtain a legendary mermaid sword, the end result is that Sophia can just summon it without even intending to, because she happens to be the chosen one, rendering most of that subplot pointless. (Also, why couldn't the protagonists use Translation Konjac to decipher the ancient texts about the sword again? They've done similar things in previous movies.)
-Despite that, Sophia ultimately doesn't do much to help neutralize the villains. The sword she summons immediately gets taken by the villain leader, making him more powerful, and it isn't even directly used to defeat him later. The other main thing Sophia does during the final battle is attempt to fight the villain leader herself, and... she gets disarmed in one hit. Yet her actions in battle are enough for her to be crowned queen in the aftermath. Huh?
-The porcupinefish-boy Haribo (who is somehow the leader of the merperson army) is a leading contender for the most annoying character in a Doraemon movie.
-As if all of that weren't enough, this movie includes one of my "favorite" recurring Doraemon tropes: Shizuka getting captured and needing to be rescued. As far as I could tell, this doesn't even serve any narrative purpose here other than to add some tension before the final battle begins. The rest of the story probably would have played out essentially the same way without that subplot.
This next observation is not necessarily a flaw, but Nobita's Great Battle of the Mermaid King is another movie in which the main characters seem rather unfriendly towards each other, more typical of the main Doraemon series than of the franchise's cinematic lineup. Gian and Suneo shamelessly bully Nobita in the beginning of the story, and even Shizuka doesn't show any sympathy or concern for him upon witnessing this.
There is also a strange scene in which everyone else chews out Suneo for being unable to point out a specific constellation (which they suspect to be the planetary system where Sophia's people came from) out of hundreds if not thousands of stars in the night sky. They apparently take this as an offense to Sophia's feelings, though Sophia shows no signs of being upset by it.
To be absolutely fair, I don't think this movie is entirely devoid of merit: the underwater scenes are often quite pretty, and it's nice to see Dorami get screentime that amounts to more than a voiced cameo. If I had to pick a least favorite Doraemon movie though, this would almost certainly be it.
To briefly discuss a few of my main issues with this movie:
-The mermaid princess Sophia is amazed by cars and doesn't realize they're dangerous, yet we later see that she comes from a society that has roads and vehicles.
-Dorami suddenly shows up to deliver some exposition about mermaids, apparently at Doraemon's request, even though mermaids have barely been mentioned by that point.
-When the villains are about to invade, the mermaid queen dumps the responsibility of leading the war onto Sophia, and this is portrayed as a good thing for some reason.
-There's an abrupt scene cut into the middle of the final battle. (I seriously wondered whether I'd been watching a faulty copy of this movie when I first saw it.)
-After everyone spends much of the story trying to figure out how the obtain a legendary mermaid sword, the end result is that Sophia can just summon it without even intending to, because she happens to be the chosen one, rendering most of that subplot pointless. (Also, why couldn't the protagonists use Translation Konjac to decipher the ancient texts about the sword again? They've done similar things in previous movies.)
-Despite that, Sophia ultimately doesn't do much to help neutralize the villains. The sword she summons immediately gets taken by the villain leader, making him more powerful, and it isn't even directly used to defeat him later. The other main thing Sophia does during the final battle is attempt to fight the villain leader herself, and... she gets disarmed in one hit. Yet her actions in battle are enough for her to be crowned queen in the aftermath. Huh?
-The porcupinefish-boy Haribo (who is somehow the leader of the merperson army) is a leading contender for the most annoying character in a Doraemon movie.
-As if all of that weren't enough, this movie includes one of my "favorite" recurring Doraemon tropes: Shizuka getting captured and needing to be rescued. As far as I could tell, this doesn't even serve any narrative purpose here other than to add some tension before the final battle begins. The rest of the story probably would have played out essentially the same way without that subplot.
This next observation is not necessarily a flaw, but Nobita's Great Battle of the Mermaid King is another movie in which the main characters seem rather unfriendly towards each other, more typical of the main Doraemon series than of the franchise's cinematic lineup. Gian and Suneo shamelessly bully Nobita in the beginning of the story, and even Shizuka doesn't show any sympathy or concern for him upon witnessing this.
There is also a strange scene in which everyone else chews out Suneo for being unable to point out a specific constellation (which they suspect to be the planetary system where Sophia's people came from) out of hundreds if not thousands of stars in the night sky. They apparently take this as an offense to Sophia's feelings, though Sophia shows no signs of being upset by it.
To be absolutely fair, I don't think this movie is entirely devoid of merit: the underwater scenes are often quite pretty, and it's nice to see Dorami get screentime that amounts to more than a voiced cameo. If I had to pick a least favorite Doraemon movie though, this would almost certainly be it.
Best Mermaid Movie from Japan!!! XD
princess_vanellope-720-31977024 June 2013
I love this Doraemon movie so much!!! XD
It was in fact My favorite Mermaid Movie of all time!! :D
I love Sophia, The Mermaid Princess of "The Planet Aqua", who ends up landing on Nobita's and Doraemon's backyard, thinking She's so cute and beautiful! XD
It always reminds me of Ariel from Disney's Little Mermaid (1989) and Ripjaws from Ben 10! XD
Sophia from Doraemon, according to the Japanese Wikipedia says that She might have been inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's The little Mermaid from Denmark in 1837.
and she speaks "Aquarian", a native fictional language of Planet Aqua (In Japanese language websites only, of course.).
So, happy "Mermaid" day!! XD
It was in fact My favorite Mermaid Movie of all time!! :D
I love Sophia, The Mermaid Princess of "The Planet Aqua", who ends up landing on Nobita's and Doraemon's backyard, thinking She's so cute and beautiful! XD
It always reminds me of Ariel from Disney's Little Mermaid (1989) and Ripjaws from Ben 10! XD
Sophia from Doraemon, according to the Japanese Wikipedia says that She might have been inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's The little Mermaid from Denmark in 1837.
and she speaks "Aquarian", a native fictional language of Planet Aqua (In Japanese language websites only, of course.).
So, happy "Mermaid" day!! XD
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