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Wednesday, April 24, 2024
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HOLLYWOOD DORAEMON IN NOBITA AND THE STEEL TROOPS: THE NEW AGE
EDITOR'S PICK
Rating: **
There`s an old tradition of treating children`s content with lightness. The
usual justification given for making bad children`s films is that put anything
moving in front of kids, and they will like it (by that logic, there`s no need
for any specialised content for kids).
And it is this same malady that Doraemon... suffers from, with a
substandard story and execution. And it`s a greater sin considering that it
comes from Japan, the nation that has made some of the most cutting-edge
animation films ever. Yet, it does uplift itself a bit with a good message in
the end.
Nobita and Doraemon discover a plot by a robot race to take over the planet.
They manage to fool the robot army but have to contend with a female robot who
can make or break their plans. Can Nobita, Doraemon and his gang of motley
friends stop world destruction?
Japan has a very rich tradition of animation films. So much so that it has
created a unique identify for itself with `anime`. Masters like Osamu Tezuka and
Hayao Miyazaki among a host of other luminaries come to mind.
And in that genre, the robot anime genre was and still is the most popular
Japanese export to animation. It is hence disturbing to see a film that does not
match up to the high standards set by these masters, both in terms of animation
and story.
There are other problems with this version of Doraemon. A female robot is
objectified as a pretty, young thing in the film. Later, she is shown stark
naked in the scene. Yes, it is a robot but it has a female body with a bust and
curves. Showing her naked in front of children should not have been permitted,
even in Japan. It almost borders on child pornography and is like surrogate
advertising of alcohol. Though it is mineral water or music that is seemingly
being advertised, the whole world knows that it is actually alcohol.
Yet, the humanity of the film rescues it a bit from its pits of darkness. The
message is love, compassion and humanity. If robots can develop humanity, surely
humans can develop a little more of the same for each other.
Thankfully, unlike other Hindi dubbed films, Disney has done a decent job of
dubbing the film. The Hindi in the film does not feel jarring to the senses.
In the end, thus, the ones who will really like the movie are die-hard fans of
the TV series. Though as a film it may not totally work, seeing their darling
robots doing antics not on a little TV screen, but in cinemascope, would be
