Over the last half century, Godzilla has battled King Kong, the Japanese army and overgrown creatures of every origin –but what finally took down the 100-meter radioactive lizard, alas, was a feline robot one-hundredth its size.
Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesDoraemon, Japan’s robot cat from the future.
Doraemon, a stubby, animated robot cat with a pocketful of magical tools beat out the king of all monsters last week in box office attendance records, according to Toho Co., the producer/distributor of both series.
Toho said the Doraemon film series has sold just over 100 million tickets during its 30-year-run compared with Godzilla, which had held the top spot for audience attendance in a 28-production series since its last episode in 2004, mobilizing 99 million moviegoers over its 50-year history.
Arguably the most beloved cartoon character in Japan, Doraemon was created in 1969 by two legendary manga artists going under the name Fujiko Fujio. Kids lapped up the misadventures of Nobita, Doraemon’s underachieving human sidekick, and his friends. The story of the mechanical cat — sent from the future to live with Nobita by his grandson — soon took to the TV airwaves, and hit the box office with a bang. The series has defined childhood for many Japanese children, so much so that an overhaul of the voice actors in 2005 caused an uproar, mostly among adults who grew up watching Doraemon on Saturday evenings.
The latest in the film series, “Doraemon The Movie: Nobita in the Secret Gagets Museum” has so far sold 1.9 million tickets since its March 9 release. Toho typically releases Doraemon films each March to coincide with the end of the Japanese school year.
Doraemon’s creators acknowledge the difficulty of keeping fresh a 40-year-old franchise built on children’s fascination with magic tools in the age of smartphones. In 2005, Doraemon’s director Kozo Kusuba told the Sankei Shimbun: “The original story is not about the magical tools, but the drama found in the ordinary, only triggered by extraordinary tools,” adding, “We’ve banned cellphones and game consoles in the series to maintain the magic of Doraemon.”
Doraemon, a stubby, animated robot cat with a pocketful of magical tools beat out the king of all monsters last week in box office attendance records, according to Toho Co., the producer/distributor of both series.
Toho said the Doraemon film series has sold just over 100 million tickets during its 30-year-run compared with Godzilla, which had held the top spot for audience attendance in a 28-production series since its last episode in 2004, mobilizing 99 million moviegoers over its 50-year history.
Arguably the most beloved cartoon character in Japan, Doraemon was created in 1969 by two legendary manga artists going under the name Fujiko Fujio. Kids lapped up the misadventures of Nobita, Doraemon’s underachieving human sidekick, and his friends. The story of the mechanical cat — sent from the future to live with Nobita by his grandson — soon took to the TV airwaves, and hit the box office with a bang. The series has defined childhood for many Japanese children, so much so that an overhaul of the voice actors in 2005 caused an uproar, mostly among adults who grew up watching Doraemon on Saturday evenings.
The latest in the film series, “Doraemon The Movie: Nobita in the Secret Gagets Museum” has so far sold 1.9 million tickets since its March 9 release. Toho typically releases Doraemon films each March to coincide with the end of the Japanese school year.
Doraemon’s creators acknowledge the difficulty of keeping fresh a 40-year-old franchise built on children’s fascination with magic tools in the age of smartphones. In 2005, Doraemon’s director Kozo Kusuba told the Sankei Shimbun: “The original story is not about the magical tools, but the drama found in the ordinary, only triggered by extraordinary tools,” adding, “We’ve banned cellphones and game consoles in the series to maintain the magic of Doraemon.”
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