Doraemon: Great Adventure in the Antarctic Kachi Kochi is a 2017 anime movie in the Doraemon Film Series, directed and written by Atsushi Takahashi - known for being the assistant director of Spirited Away and an alumni of Studio Ghibli.
Yeah, you know what that means.
100,000 years ago, a mysterious red-haired girl and her elderly professor mentor uncovers an Ancient Artifact in a set of ruins on a frozen world, only to be attacked by an octopus-like giant monster. The girl managed to retrieve an ancient sword, which transforms into a golden bracelet moments after it was found, only for her to accidentally drop it into the freezing ocean.
In the present day, Doraemon and Nobita, feeling the need to escape the intense summer heat, uses the Anywhere Door to travel to the edge of the Antartic. Deciding the land is too empty for their liking, Doraemon shows Nobita his Ice-Working Iron and how it works, and soon enough they actually created their own amusement park in the middle of the wintery wasteland, which Nobita quickly invites Shizuka, Gian and Suneo to come over and join him.
But in the middle of their fun, Nobita who tried exploring a deeper section of the Antarctic Ice stumbles across the golden bracelet, frozen into the floor, and retrieves it out of curiosity. One thing leads to another, and the gang soon find themselves on a time-traveling quest to find the bracelet's owner - and along the way, save planet Earth from an impending, permanent ice age from an eons-old threat.
Doraemon: Great Adventure in the Antarctic Kachi Kochi contain examples of:
- Adaptation Expansion: Like several other movies, the first act is based on a short from the manga. This time it's from one where Nobita and Doraemon, trying to escape the summer heat, goes to a stray iceberg which broke off from the Antarctic and uses Doraemon's ice-crafting gadget to create their own mini-hideout. In this case however, Doraemon and Nobita managed to make their own amusement park.
- Action Prologue: The film opens with Carla and Hyakkoi finding a way to defeat Blizarga in the lost city's ruins, only for them to be attacked by Octagon. An intense chase follows, leading to Carla losing the gold bracelet she found, as it drops into the freezing waters. Then cue a Time Skip of 100,000 years into present-day Tokyo.
- Animate Inanimate Object: One of Doraemon's gadgets, the Missing Person Stick (seemingly an upgraded prototype compared to previous versions from the manga or earlier movies) develops a mind of its own, literally dragging Doraemon and Nobita to follow it when they thought their friends are "in that other way". The stick even have a Big Damn Heroes moment when it awakens the unconscious Doraemon, tied up by Yamitem, for Doraemon to save the gang from Yamitem who's posing as him.
- Bat Out of Hell: Shortly after arriving in Carla's world, the gang gets assaulted by a horde of alien bats, one which stole Carla's bracelet. Doraemon's attempts to retrieve the bracelet via the Obtaining Bag only leads to him getting bitten by the bat, but later Doraemon managed to put a Tracer Badge on the one bat (out of several hundreds) who stole the bracelet.
- Book Ends: The Distant Prologue takes place 100,000 years ago, where Carla and Professor Hyakkoi barely escapes Octogon's rampage. Cue the adventure, which ends with a Distant Epilogue 100,000 years and one week later where Nobita and Doraemon reflects on the adventure they have last week, before Doraemon's telescope reveals Carla and Hyakkoi have successfully restored Planet Hyuga Hyuga to its natural, peaceful state.
- Collapsing Lair: Early in the adventure, after Nobita found Carla's bracelet, he then needs to outrun the collapsing self-made amusement park as it breaks apart behind him. He barely made it (with Carla's bracelet, then frozen in a block of ice, tucked in his coat) by jumping into the ice-cold waters of Antartica, which Doraemon and gang saves him by pulling him out later on.
- Continuity Cavalcade: The scene in Doraemon's closet when he's trying to examine Karla's gold bracelet have the walls decorated with multiple photos depicting past events in both the manga and anime. Notably, Sumire Hoshino and Tsubasa Ito - minor characters from the manga - cameos as photographs, and there's the faked conspiracy photo Nobita took with a toy UFO in the background on a side wall.
- Crowd Surfing: The friendly Pao Paos inhabiting Carla and Hyakkoi's world shows their hospitality to Doraemon and the surface folk by lifting them gently with their trunks and passing them through their members from one end to another right up to the steps of Professor Hyakkoi's lab, much to their delight.
- Danger — Thin Ice: The sled-chase in Antartica have the one Nobita, Doraemon and Shizuka are on running into this fate as the frozen floor cracks underneath them, though instead of a pool of icy water it leads to a deep chasm instead. Doraemon, in control of the Robotic Live Wire, quickly turns it from wire-dogs into a rope, as Gian and Suneo hurriedly turns around and helps drag them out. Doraemon even turns part of the wire into wire-robots to help with the pulling.
- Descending Ceiling: Yamitem-as-Doraemon tricks the gang into following him up an elevating platform, where icicles on the above will extend and impale everyone to their deaths (except Yamitem, since he's a shapeshifting statue). The real Doraemon shows up on time to warn the others before the trap can work, leading to an intense Spot the Imposter moment.
- Distressed Dude: Doraemon for a large chunk of the movie, after Yamitem, the shapeshifting living statue, poses as Doraemon, knocks him unconscious and steals his bell and pocket. Cue Doraemon trying to break free and warn Nobita and gang, just as Yamitem-as-Doraemon intends to have everyone Lured into a Trap.
- Exposed to the Elements: Averted all the way - most of the adventure is set in the Antarctic, and the gang is clad in appropriate winter gear. Right at the start, Nobita accidentally fell into the freezing cold water and is visibly shivering when Doraemon teleports everyone back to Tokyo with the Anywhere Door. However it was invoked in one scene where Nobita sees Carla, the mysterious girl of his dreams, in the middle of a frozen wasteland while wearing only his pajamas (later revealed to be All Just a Dream).
- Fire-Breathing Diner: The gang, while dining at Carla's place, gets to enjoy Carla's special dish - bomb puddings, cherry-shaped delicacies which explodes in a harmless puff in the mouth of anyone who eats them. Cue everyone else giddily enjoying the puddings, which results in steam coming out of their noses.
- Giant Squid: The monster Octogon which inhabits Planet Hyuga Hyuga, that Carla and Professor Hyakkoi stumbles upon menacing them early on before the opening credits and later tries attacking Nobita and Carla in a frentic chase across the city.
- Going to See the Elephant: The adventure is kickstarted when Nobita found Carla's mysterious gold bracelet, which Doraemon's gadget identifies it to be a 100,000 year old artifact. The whole gang then decides to travel back in time to find its owner, kickstarting the adventure.
- Human Popsicle: Yamitem, the rogue robot guardian, was discovered in this state until Doraemon unintentionally melts the ice around him. Also Mofusuke at the end.
- Kaiju: Both Octogon and Blizarga are skyscraper-sized monsters antagonizing the heroes.
- Ludicrous Precision: The final scene is set 100,000 years and one week later.
- Mysterious Waif: Carla, for most of the first half of the story, shows up repeatedly in Nobita's daydreams after he found her missing bracelet frozen in ice, even convincing Nobita to follow her in the Antartic one night (with Nobita in pyjamas in the snow, wondering what just happened until he wakes up). Later on Nobita meets Carla in person after reaching 100,000 years ago, recognizing her as "the mysterious girl with red hair from his dreams".
- Mythology Gag:
- The Delayed Reaction joke from Doraemon: Nobita and the Haunts of Evil gets reused here when Doraemon and Nobita passes Nobita's parents, Nobisuke and Tamako.
Tamako: Where are you two going this early in the morning?Doraemon: Off to Antartica for a while. [leaves]Tamako: Just be back before lunch... huh?[cue Tamako and Nobisuke exchanging a confused look at each other, but Nobita and Doraemon are already well out of the house]- Gian defeating a giant monster (in this case, Octogon) using his singing, shown in earlier works like Doraemon: Nobita's Great Adventure into the Underworld and Doraemon: Nobita's Great Adventure in the South Seas.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Nobita's attempt to recover the gold bracelet, frozen in the ice floor, somehow leads to the ice cracking. The cracks then spreads, and somehow leads to the entire floor, walls, ceiling... and then the whole self-made amusement park starts collapsing, to everybody's horror.
- No OSHA Compliance: The lost city Carla and Hyakkoi, and later Doraemon and gang, find themselves in. From suspended catwalks without railings to steep climbs and deadly falls, and highly-breakable walls, one doesn't need to wonder why it's a "lost" city in the first place.
- Polar Penguins: There's a lingering shot on a flock of Emperor Penguins when the gang arrives in Antarctica, for no reason other than indication that they're in the heart of the frozen land.
- The Precarious Ledge: One of the most nail-biting moments near the end have Doraemon, being separated from the gang, ending on a ledge as Blizarga freezes the entire ruins behind him. Trying to avoid getting frozen alive, Doraemon is reduced to Hanging by the Fingers, but then Nobita and everyone else - having found the spare battery of the Time Belt, arrives right on time.
- Retractable Weapon: Carla's gold bracelet is actually an enchanted Golden Sword, the bracelet being the handle. The sword can retract itself to bracelet form when not in use (which Carla discovers after pulling it out in the prologue) and later expand into a complete sword again.
- Sled Dogs Through the Snow: A variant; when searching for Carla's world in the middle of the Antarctic, Doraemon brings out a pair of sleds, each with a set of Robotic Iron Wire attached, which can contort into any shapes desired by playing a tune on a flute gadget. Cue two sleds pulled by robotic wire-dogs - one where Nobita, Doraemon and Shizuka is seated, while the other had Suneo and Gian on it - racing through the snow in an intense chase.
- The Slow Path: Mofusuke in the ending when everyone ends up in the past, who instead of following the Time Belt, decide to be frozen in ice for 100,000 years and rendezvous with Nobita and gang in the future.
- Spot the Imposter: When the gang sees two Doraemons at the same time - the one leading them being Yamitem the imposter, and the real Doraemon being badly battered and barely able to walk straight after getting beaten up by Yamitem while trying to warn the gang of the trap Yamitem is leading them into. After several unsuccessful attempts by Doraemon to convince everyone he's the real deal (not helped by the fact that Yamitem pretty much stole Doraemon's voice), the gang decide to have Nobita identify the real Doraemon. Thankfully, their true friendship allows Nobita to recognize the imposter through the eyes, warning the gang in time before Yamitem-as-Doraemon can attack.
- Time Travel: One that doesn't involve the Time Machine in Nobita's desk (the standard time-traveling device used by the gang for such purposes), for once. Instead for this adventure the gang travels to the Antartic to find the ancient, frozen city where the bracelet's origins was detected, and then puts on the Time Belt to travel to 100,000 years ago after reaching the spot.
- Walking Wasteland: The monster Blizarga is a walking frozen wasteland, coating everywhere it steps on in solid ice. It destroyed Planet Hyuga Hyuga, Carla and Hyakkoi's home, in the past, and is now targeting earth from 100,000 years ago to extend the ice age.
- Wintry Auroral Sky: After the sled chase, when everyone has arrived at the entrance of the lost city, they then take a break from the frentic chase earlier (what with Doraemon's sled nearly falling into a chasm) and enjoying the Antartic scenery, which includes a colurful aurora borealis.
- Words Can Break My Bones: Doraemon's Frozen Voice Amplifier Potion from the comics is used in this adventure as a weapon, when Nobita and Carla are being chased by Octagon. Cue Gian and Suneo, both of them having drank the potion, coming to the rescue as they begin shouting word-shaped projectiles into the octopoid monster. For Gian (whose voice is loud) his projectiles are especially effective.Suneo: Watch this! Dododododododododoo...[cue Octagon getting hit by various projectiles shaped like the "Do" kanji]Gian: This one's better! Here, Dadadadadaddadadada...[Octagon gets pelted by multiple projectiles shaped like the "Da" kanji]
