Doraemon: Nobita's Dorabian Nights

The twelfth entry in the Doraemon film series, this 1991 animated feature was written by series creator Fujiko F. Fujio himself and directed by Tsutomu Shibayama. Nobita and Doraemon use a storybook entry gadget to drop into the Sinbad tale, but Nobita gets bored watching passively and invites Shizuka into the storybook world, with Gian and Suneo tagging along by accident. The pair's attempts to shuffle the storybooks into a fresher tale scramble the stories together, and as Shizuka tries to leave she is knocked unconscious by Sinbad's flying carpet and stranded in the desert. The next day Doraemon realizes she never made it back, and with the original book destroyed the group mounts a rescue expedition into eighth century Baghdad during the reign of the historical caliph Harun al Rashid. The film won the Grand Prize at Japan's ninth Golden Gross Awards and took in one point eight billion yen in distribution revenue. Who it's for: Family audiences following the Doraemon series and fans of classic Japanese animated adventure. Who it's not for: Not for adult viewers unfamiliar with the characters, since the film leans on a formula that rewards existing fans.