Review | Stand by Me Doraemon 2 movie review: Nobita, Shizuka finally get married in entertaining animated sequel
- Despite lacking the emotional impact of its predecessor, this sequel provides a consistently entertaining parade of playful mischief and adventurous high jinks
- The story is filled with plenty of humour and heart, and both the characterisations and Nobita’s relationships with those around him shine through
3.5/5 stars
For more than 50 years, the futuristic blue robot cat Doraemon has been helping a ten-year-old boy named Nobita avoid school bullies, make better life choices, and hopefully win the heart of his friend, Shizuka.
Writer-illustrator duo Fujiko Fujio’s creations have become a multimedia phenomenon, spanning manga, anime, and animated films, while never straying far from their simple premise – until 2014’s computer-generated feature Stand By Me Doraemon, billed as a “special film” and which attempted to tell a more mature and adult-oriented story.
The film was a monumental success, grossing US$200 million at the Japanese box office and winning the Japanese Academy Award for best animated feature. Stand By Me Doraemon 2 continues its story, and sees Nobita encounter both his younger and older selves, attend his own wedding, and pay a visit to his dearly departed grandmother.
After receiving yet another scolding from his mother for failing a school test, Nobita (voiced by Megumi Ohara) declares that he must be adopted, as his real parents would never treat him so badly. He yearns for the unerring dotage of his grandmother (Nobuko Miyamoto), who used to spoil him rotten.