Doraemon: Nobita and the Windmasters

This 2003 Doraemon film opens after a typhoon hits Nobita's town. He and Doraemon find a small wind creature left behind by the storm and manage to keep it alive with twenty-second-century gadgets. Nobita names her Fuuko. She comes from a world of people who live with the wind, where a quarrel among their gods is under way, and she has brought the children there for a reason, one that turns out to run through Suneo. The pattern the series repeats works here too: a story that begins in ordinary life opens into an adventure that hands the group of friends a responsibility. It is one of the middling entries in the long Doraemon film tradition, though its closing stretch is among the ones fans remember. Who it's for: family viewing and anyone already following the series. Who it's not for: adult viewers new to Doraemon looking for an animated film that stands strongly on its own.