Albertonykus

Review: I ended my review of the original Nobita and the Castle of the Undersea Devil by saying that I was curious about what a modernized remake would look like. Three years later, such a remake now exists. What did I think of it?

To start off, it's evident that the production team behind the remake made good use of our vastly increased understanding of deep-sea ecosystems since 1983. The original film had its fair share of cameos from deep-sea organisms, but this new version clearly went above and beyond in the diversity and portrayal of marine life that it chose to feature. In fact, New Nobita and the Castle of the Undersea Devil was showcased in an issue of the Japanese popular science magazine Newton earlier this year for its attention to scientific detail. I can see a marine biologist having a good time identifying all the different animal species that appear in the movie!

The background research works its way not only into depictions of real-world organisms, but also into the fictionalized worldbuilding. In the original movie, the people of the undersea civilization Mu looked essentially identical to land-living humans, whereas in the remake, elements of various marine life are incorporated into their designs. My favorite zoological Easter egg was the anthropomorphic anglerfish whose husband is attached to her body, a reference to the bizarre sexual parasitism exhibited by some deep-sea anglerfish.

The main emotional arc of the story is strengthened overall in this remake, with the Underwater Buggy being given more screentime, including scenes where they bond with Nobita (instead of solely with Shizuka like in the original). I commented in my review of the 1983 movie that it was a good showcase of the camaraderie among the main characters, and I was happy to see that the relevant moments were largely kept or even built upon in this version.

With that being said, I came away with mixed feelings as to how much this version actually improves on the original. As much as I appreciated the new designs of the Mu people, the movie leaves it unclear how they came to exhibit biological characteristics from such a wide range of marine fauna in the context of their backstory, considering that they are meant to be descendants of humans that took to life in the ocean 7,000 years ago. (Compare, for example, similar concepts in previous Doraemon movies such as Nobita and the Animal Planet and Nobita and the Winged Braves, where genetic modification by outside parties is offered as an explanation.) Nobita gaining a closer bond with the Underwater Buggy is nice, but ultimately has little payoff, despite the climax being rewritten to include Nobita in it.

Speaking of which, one of the sticking points of the original movie is how long it takes to introduce the main conflict. Unfortunately, it seemed to me that the remake does little to alleviate this issue, with the climax here feeling even more rushed if anything. Several plot points that were added or dropped in this version also reduce the overall coherence of the story. For instance, the presence of a recurring ghost ship is retained as a subplot in the remake... but the reveal that it was being moved by the Mu people to discourage investigation by surface-dwelling humans was cut, leaving the mystery unresolved by the end!

Another example concerns a new scene in which Nobita's friends use Doraemon's Treasure-Finder gadget to look for undersea treasure, only to be redirected multiple times to plastic litter. This came across as a well-intentioned effort to highlight the real-world issue of plastic pollution, but no explanation is given as to why the gadget supposedly malfunctioned.

Similar to some other Doraemon movie remakes like Nobita's New Great Adventure into the Underworld and Nobita and the New Steel Troops, I thought this film downplayed the sense of eeriness and tension that was prevalent in its original counterpart. Your mileage may vary as to whether that is a good thing, but it makes for a pretty different viewing experience by my reckoning.

I suppose this wouldn't be one of my Doraemon reviews if it didn't include some commentary on how Shizuka is portrayed in the movie. She had a pretty important role in the original version of the story, so I was glad to see that this was kept largely intact here. The remake includes some extra justification for why the villain chooses to capture her alive during the climax instead of immediately attacking her. It's an understandable update (given that in the original, she volunteered to be caught based on the untested assumption that she would be spared simply on account of her gender), but it takes some excessively long and convoluted setup. I also found it a shame that the remake cut her declaration that the heroes would destroy the villain in the face of his unrelenting threats.

Star rating: ★★★☆☆