A little visit from my childhood (A look at Doraemon: Stand by Me)

 Have you ever wanted a robot from the future with wonderful gadgets to help you whenever you have trouble? When I was a kid, that's the first thing my list of things I wish I have....heck, it hadn't moved from the number 1 spot...and that list constantly shifting. So...where am I going with this? Well, let me introduce to you, my dear readers, to the wonderful and still running series of Doraemon.

For those of you who don't know(if you're from a Western country...or if you're a Malaysian whose been living under a rock for a long number of years), Doraemon is one of the longest running anime series(the manga series is capped at 45 volumes....but still see print to this day) which is about the title character, Doraemon, is the quintessential example of the Robot Buddy; he is a robotic cat from the future sent back to help the socially inept Nobita Nobi through the use of futuristic technology (known as "Dogu" [Japanese for "tools"]) produced from his Four Dimensional Pocket Typically, the devices are used to impress his love interest Shizuka Minamoto or humiliate the street bully, Takeshi "Gian" (Or "Giant" at some translations) Goda....and 9 times out of the 10, the gadgets usually malfunction and Nobita has to sort out his problems without it. Interestingly enough, the often overused story arc is a critique of the Japanese culture back in the 1970's that increasingly relying upon superfluous technology(what with the gadgets usually make more problems or magnify the existing problem)....which if you think about it, still rings true today as today's society can attest. Anyways, this series has been going on long enough that I can honestly say that generations of families had grew up watching this and the series shows no signs of stopping anytime soon....and possibly never will as the creator of the series passed away in 1996 before he could pen the ending to the series and now his apprentices carry on his work. Also worth noting that Doraemon was featured in Time Magazine as one of the 22 Asian Heroes in 2002, being the only fictional character among the real life heroes...and in the most surreal yet awesome moment, Doraemon was appointed as Japan's first anime ambassador by its Prime Minister...think about that for a moment how impressive that is. Sure, Astroboy got a statue, the RX-78-2 got a life size statue but Doraemon? He got a statue dedicated to him...and a real life title to boot. Not bad for a kiddie anime, ain't it? Let see the modern crap get to that level of appreciation. Heck, with any luck, the new stuff gets remembered till next year...if they're lucky.

Anyways, enough bashing the unworthy (kidding, kidding), let's talk about the CG movie released last year, Doraemon: Stand By Me. Granted..the look is a little late as it was screened last month if I recall correctly but I couldn't catch it on the big screen as it is only screened in ONE cinema and that's in the capital..way too far for me to drive and way too unfamiliar for me to go alone so I have to wait until it appeared on paid TV. And yes...only one cinema screened this movie...and the Rurouni Kenshin movie...and the Lupin III/ Detective Conan crossover movie while shitty romance movies got nationwide distribution. Yeah, it's a local production but that's no excuse to withhold the masterpieces while letting the crap through for public consumption. Yes...I call this movie a masterpiece. If this movie is supposed to be the last piece of Doraemon media....I'd call this the greatest send off to a series in all of fiction...and believe it or not, this film has made grown adults to buckle down and cry. According to a poll in Japan, nearly 90% of the audience actually admitted to crying while watching this movie as this movie is the most tear-jerking entry of the franchise...and this is the franchise that's packed with tear-jerking entries. Heck, I love this movie so much, I actually watched it 4 to 5 times (that and I only have the movie for 48 hours on TV).

So, what's this movie about? Well, this film is actually an adaptation of the first 6(or 7 if you're that iffy) volumes of the manga series...and you would think that a condensed retelling of 6/7 volumes of manga in 95 minutes sounds like a bad idea, right? Heck, better series had tried and failed completely(just look at Galaxy Express 555 for an example)....but surprisingly, this one actually pulled it off nicely with trimming some of the stuff down to vignettes that woven together to create a solid plot that ran through a year in-story. Granted, they deviated from the source material (take Doraemon's introduction scene for starters. If you read the manga, you can tell where they deviated) but the deviation can be forgiven as they did a terrific job getting a plot together by stringing together a lot of the episodic and comedic short stories to tell a solid and cohesive story. I can't really suggest it for newcomers to jump in but they are welcome to try as it does get the point across quite well. As a fan of the series, I was skeptical at first for this movie to be made in CGI especially when the rest of the series still does well even with the classic hand drawn animation...but I stand corrected as the animation is drop dead beautiful, being all CG yet still staying true to original design of the characters(unlike the Cyborg 009 CG movie that wildly deviated from the design we're used to that they became barely recognizable) and while I do need some time get used to seeing the characters in CG, it is pretty good and they don't look stiff and they somehow managed to get the character models to be as expressive as their hand drawn counterpart, just watch the movie for their expressions, it's as if they're 2D than 3D.

Of course, still images can't do the animation justice...you'll just have to see them in action

This is where I give my thoughts on this...you notice the title of the article? A little visit from my childhood? Yeah...watching this movie made me feel like a kid again. It's like the first time I watched the anime way back in 97 in my jammies after a long day, a perfect cap to my Saturday(the only time it aired in my country). Watching this movie felt like I'm not just watching a movie...it's meeting an old friend you haven't met in years and you and your friend reliving the greatest moments you have with each other...and then you both say your goodbyes and you may not see him or her again anytime soon....but you'll always cherish the moments you have with them. To be honest, I'm trying desperately to hold back my tears while writing this and rewatching the film and I'm failing at it. This film is beautiful for what it is and it made me want to be a kid again. If you're interested, wait for the DVD or Blue Ray to come out and watch it yourself....you may be surprised.