The 44th film in the Doraemon series, based on the original work by Fujiko F. Fujio, Doraemon: Nobita's Art World Tales, will be released on March 7th. The story is set in a world inside a painting, where Doraemon and Nobita embark on a great adventure that transcends time and space in search of a phantom jewel. The director is Teramoto Yukiyo, who directed the TV series and made headlines in 2007 as the first female director of the series with Doraemon : Nobita's New Great Adventure into the Underworld - The Seven Magicians. This is the first Doraemon film in about 12 years since Nobita: Doraemon's Secret Gadget Museum, which was released in 2013. We spoke to Teramoto about her commitment to production and the unique appeal of the anime Doraemon.
◇Reproduce the European style of light and shadow painting
The latest film is also the 45th anniversary of the "Doraemon" movie series. Director Teramoto was offered the role of director for the first time in about Doraemon years, and said, "I was surprised, but I was also very happy to be able to depict the world of Doraemon again."
The story takes place in the "world inside a painting."Nobita Nobita is working on his summer homework, a piece of the painting suddenly falls in front of him, and he uses the hidden light to enter the painting. At the request of Claire, a mysterious girl he met inside the painting, Doraemon and Doraemon head for the Principality of Arturia, but they find themselves in the world of medieval Europe depicted in the painting that was the subject of the news... This is the story.
Director Teramoto was initially approached about "making a film based on a painting," and he shaped the story together with screenwriter Ito Kimihisa and other staff members. "Doraemon has a secret gadget called a picture book sneaker, and I thought it would be interesting if we could do all sorts of things in the world of a painting like that. We thought it would be interesting to mix in the atmosphere of medieval Europe, which hasn't been the setting for many of the Doraemon movies up until now, and that's how the story solidified," he said.
However, there are few works themed on medieval Europe, and the resources were limited, so Teramoto and his staff decided to scout locations in Europe. It is unusual for a "Doraemon" movie to be shot on location overseas.
"I also had the opportunity to cover places in Europe where 13th century streetscapes remain, which was very inspiring. You can see photos of current streetscapes on the internet, but going there in person allowed me to experience things you can't get from photos, such as the intensity of light and the atmosphere that is unique to Europe and different to Japan. The film also makes full use of what I learned from filming on location, such as old townscapes and depictions of light and shadow. In the scene where Nobita and his friends go to medieval Europe, the edges of the characters are given dazzling highlights to express the intensity of the light, so I think it will make you feel like you've traveled to 13th century Europe."
In the opening scene, Doraemon and friends enter real paintings such as Van Gogh's "Starry Night" and Munch's "The Scream." In order to express the "world inside the painting," the director put special effort into the background art.
"The world inside the picture is designed so that the brush strokes can be seen. For example, when we enter an oil painting at the beginning, we asked the art director to express the thick feel of oil paint, and we had different brush strokes for each picture. Also, we wanted the atmosphere inside the picture to be different from the present day where Nobita live, so we made the present day world more realistic than usual to make the difference."
◇I want people to become interested in the world of art.
Director Teramoto and his staff tried to express the great adventure of the dazzling "world inside the painting" by scouting locations in Europe. The most important thing in the production was "I want people to be interested in the world of the painting."
"I made this movie with the hope that kids who don't like drawing, like Nobita, or aren't good at it, would become interested in drawing, even if just a little, and start to like it."
The film also includes a scene in which paint is made from eggs, as was done by painters in medieval Europe.
"These days, you can easily use a variety of colors in a tube, but I wanted to convey how difficult it was to make paint back then. I interviewed a professor at Tokyo University of the Arts, and he told me even the small details, like, 'Egg yolks were a little whiter back then than they are now.' I wanted to incorporate as much of that art knowledge as possible and have the viewer reminisce about what it was like back then."
◇Rather than chasing realism, it's important to focus on anime-like movements
Director Teramoto himself says he likes the artwork of Kobayashi Kaichi, who was active from the late Taisho period to the early Showa period, saying, "I prefer design-like artwork over realistic artwork. This is true for anime as well, because rather than realistic photographic style, I want to express the kind of crazy movements that are more typical of anime."
He says that what he values most when working on the "Doraemon Movies" is "unrealistic fun."
"In Doraemon, the characters themselves are very well designed. They are expressed with few lines, yet with a richness of character. Even with the animated Doraemon the Movie, I wanted to value animation-like movements, rather than striving for realism. For example, in this movie, there is a scene where Gian rescues Claire, who is in trouble at the construction site, and does a fist pump, and in that scene, Gian's physique is momentarily transformed into a muscular one. I think that being able to do that is what makes animation interesting, and I think that the Doraemon the Movie is one of the few works that can do that in this day and age. These days, there are a lot of works with detailed depictions and realistic scenes, and I think that realism is of course wonderful, but I would like people to see the fun that is not like that."
Director Teramoto said of the highlights of the latest film, "There is action, tears and laughter. I think it's a film that will leave viewers with a warm and gentle feeling when they leave the cinema, so I hope many people will see it." I want to experience the "world inside the picture" with Doraemon, Nobita and Nobita.
