Doraemon: Robot War (partially found bootleg anime film; 1983): Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 17:30, 19 October 2023

Doraemon as seen in the movie.

Status: Partially Found

Doraemon: Robot War (小叮噹大戰機器人) is a 1983 bootleg Doraemon film created by Cuckoo's Nest Studio (now known as Wang Film Productions). The film was directed by Wang Ya Quan. The film was released in theaters on February 12th, 1983, but it did poorly at the box office and was never released on home video.

Plot

A robotics exhibition is held in Taiwan, where attendees vote to decide the world's best robot. Doraemon and Nobita enter the competition. Having been accidentally coerced into the competition, Doraemon uses a wide variety of gadgets to defeat his opponents and wins the World's Most Excellent Robot award.

One professor becomes jealous of Doraemon's success and begins to develop an evil robot to destroy Doraemon. Meanwhile, Doraemon becomes a famous household name overnight. Nobita, wanting some time in the spotlight for himself, uses a gadget to disguise himself as Doraemon.

As a result, Nobita is abducted by the evil professor's robot while disguised as Doraemon. Doraemon immediately sets out to rescue Nobita, while the evil professor deploys an army of robots to carry out terrorist attacks around the world.

Eventually, Doraemon saves Nobita and learns that the evil professor's robots are afraid of a certain type of gemstone. Nobita and friends embark on an adventure to find the gemstone and save the world.

Wang Film Productions

Wang Film Productions is an overseas animation outlet, originally created by James Wang for Hanna-Barbera. It has worked for, among lesser-known studios, Hanna-Barbera/Cartoon Network (Jetsons: The Movie, numerous Scooby-Doo specials), and Disney (Tron, The 7D, Phineas and Ferb movies, Goof Troop), as well as three episodes of Ren and Stimpy and thirty episodes of Tiny Toon Adventures.

Unlike more amateurish companies such as Regal Studios or Wolf Tracer Studios, this is a "legitimate" production house that does legitimate animation work, which makes the fact that they made an unauthorized Doraemon film even stranger. The studio's current whereabouts remain unknown.

Leads

No. 1: Msun Chang

Msun Chang, who wrote the blog that hosted the existing images and posted a 30-second clip on Facebook, has not uploaded anything else, claiming that his videos were being "stolen" and reuploaded to YouTube. Msun also noted that, when he first uploaded the clip, he was the only one to receive a takedown — apparently by Doraemon's original publisher — which means the movie may be official or at least acknowledged by said publisher.

No. 2: Pirated bootleg

Msun claimed his father bought his copy of the film at a DVD store, and that pirated recordings of movies were popular in early 1980s Taiwan. If there is any chance of finding another copy, someone would have to know their way around Taiwan's pirate VHS shops or know someone else that does.

Availability

Information on the film is extremely scarce, and the only proof of its existence is in a few Chinese websites, containing several screenshots and one clip of ending footage from the film, that was posted on Facebook sometime in 2012.

Gallery

A clip of the film.

An advertisement for the film.
A screenshot of the film's title. Strangely enough, it does not use the logo in the advert.
Nobita trying to do his homework.
Nobita, Gian, and Suneo.
Doraemon meets the weird professor and an evil robot.
The main characters looking upset.
A giant robot destroying everything.
Nobita and the Teacher (or somebody else) looking at something.
Gian and Suneo shooting at something (presumably the robot).

References

@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 |image=DoraemonRobotWars_Taiwanese.png
 |imagecaption=Doraemon as seen in the movie.
-|status=<span style="color:red;">'''Lost'''</span>
+|status=<span style="color:orange;">'''Partially Found'''</span>
 }}
-'''''Doraemon: Robot War''''' (小叮噹大戰機器人) is a 1983 bootleg ''Doraemon'' film created by Cuckoo's Nest Studio (now known as Wang Film Productions).
+'''''Doraemon: Robot War''''' (小叮噹大戰機器人) is a 1983 bootleg ''Doraemon'' film created by Cuckoo's Nest Studio (now known as Wang Film Productions). The film was directed by Wang Ya Quan. The film was released in theaters on February 12th, 1983, but it did poorly at the box office and was never released on home video.
-Information on the film is extremely scarce, and the only proof of it's existence is an entry in a Chinese blogging site called Roodo, containing several screenshots and one clip of footage from the film.
+==Plot==
+A robotics exhibition is held in Taiwan, where attendees vote to decide the world's best robot. Doraemon and Nobita enter the competition. Having been accidentally coerced into the competition, Doraemon uses a wide variety of gadgets to defeat his opponents and wins the World's Most Excellent Robot award.
-It is unknown if this film was released in theaters, released on home video, or both.
+One professor becomes jealous of Doraemon's success and begins to develop an evil robot to destroy Doraemon. Meanwhile, Doraemon becomes a famous household name overnight. Nobita, wanting some time in the spotlight for himself, uses a gadget to disguise himself as Doraemon.
+As a result, Nobita is abducted by the evil professor's robot while disguised as Doraemon. Doraemon immediately sets out to rescue Nobita, while the evil professor deploys an army of robots to carry out terrorist attacks around the world.
-{| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;"
+Eventually, Doraemon saves Nobita and learns that the evil professor's robots are afraid of a certain type of gemstone. Nobita and friends embark on an adventure to find the gemstone and save the world.
-|- style="vertical-align:top;"
-| {{#ev:youtube|https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdgPMA2GO5c|320x240|center|Clip from the movie.'''}}
-|}
+==Wang Film Productions==
+Wang Film Productions is an overseas animation outlet, originally created by James Wang for Hanna-Barbera. It has worked for, among lesser-known studios, Hanna-Barbera/Cartoon Network (''Jetsons: The Movie'', numerous ''Scooby-Doo'' specials), and Disney (''Tron'', ''The 7D'', ''Phineas and Ferb'' movies, ''Goof Troop''), as well as three episodes of ''Ren and Stimpy'' and thirty episodes of ''Tiny Toon Adventures''.
-----
+Unlike more amateurish companies such as Regal Studios or Wolf Tracer Studios, this is a "legitimate" production house that does legitimate animation work, which makes the fact that they made an unauthorized ''Doraemon'' film even stranger. The studio's current whereabouts remain unknown.
+==Leads==
+===No. 1: Msun Chang===
+Msun Chang, who wrote the blog that hosted the existing images and posted a 30-second clip on Facebook, has not uploaded anything else, claiming that his videos were being "stolen" and reuploaded to YouTube. Msun also noted that, when he first uploaded the clip, he was the only one to receive a takedown — apparently by ''Doraemon'''s original publisher — which means the movie may be official or at least acknowledged by said publisher.
+===No. 2: Pirated bootleg===
+Msun claimed his father bought his copy of the film at a DVD store, and that pirated recordings of movies were popular in early 1980s Taiwan. If there is any chance of finding another copy, someone would have to know their way around Taiwan's pirate VHS shops or know someone else that does.
+==Availability==
+Information on the film is extremely scarce, and the only proof of its existence is in a few Chinese websites, containing several screenshots and one clip of ending footage from the film, that was posted on Facebook sometime in 2012.
+==Gallery==
+{{Video|perrow  =1
+  |service1     =youtube
+  |id1          =QNFyNHi1864
+  |description1 =A clip of the film.
+}}
 <gallery mode=packed heights=175px>
 File:Doraemon Chinese Bootleg Movie Ad.jpg|An advertisement for the film.
-File:File1.png|The film's title.
+File:File1.png|A screenshot of the film's title. Strangely enough, it does not use the logo in the advert.
-File:Newb.png|Nobita on his homework.
+File:Newb.png|Nobita trying to do his homework.
-File:The three.png|Nobita, Gian and Suneo.
+File:The three.png|Nobita, Gian, and Suneo.
-File:Doraemon, Doctor and Robot.png|Doraemon meets scientist and a robot.
+File:Doraemon, Doctor and Robot.png|Doraemon meets the weird professor and an evil robot.
-File:sad.png|The main characters looking sad.
+File:sad.png|The main characters looking upset.
-File:robot.png|A robot destroying everything.
+File:robot.png|A giant robot destroying everything.
-File:Doraemon stocking.png|Nobita and Gian stocking at something.
+File:Doraemon stocking.png|Nobita and the Teacher (or somebody else) looking at something.
 File:noneed.png|Gian and Suneo shooting at something (presumably the robot).
 </gallery>
+==See also==
+*[[A "Draw Dorami-chan" Song / A Week in Our Time Machine (Partially Found English version of "Doraemon" single; 1980)]]
+*[[Doraemon "Adventures in Candy Land" (non-existent unaired English dub of anime episode; 2015)]]
+*[[Doraemon '05 (partially found British dub of anime series; 2015)]]
+*[[Doraemon '79 (partially found Phuuz English dub pilot of anime; early 2000s)]]
+*[[Doraemon (partially found Asian English dubs of anime series; late 1990s-early 2000s)]]
+*[[Doraemon (partially found first-adaptation anime series; 1973)]]
+*[[Doraemon: In A Thrilling Solar Car (partially found anime short film; 1992)]]
+*[[Doraemon: Ken-chan's Adventure (lost anime short film/TV special; 1980-1981)]]
+*[[Doraemon: Nobita no Doki Doki! Obake Land (lost build of unreleased Virtual Boy game; 1996)]]
+*[[Stand by Me Doraemon (partially found Philippines English dub of anime movie; 2015)]]
+*[[The Adventures of Albert and Sidney (partially found English dub of "Doraemon" anime series; late 1980s-early 1990s)]]
 ==References==
-http://blog.roodo.com/msun/archives/21020918.html
+*[http://blog.roodo.com/msun/archives/21020918.html An archived blog post about the film.]
-[[Category:Lost animation]][[Category:Lost films]]
+*[http://pastebin.com/Z93DWKzA English translations of existing information from the Chinese sites.]
+*[http://blog.roodo.com/msun/archives/21020918.html Untranslated archive of the original post showing the images.]
+*[http://talk.doracity.net/viewtopic.php?f=5&p=138588&sid=9c870aedf59fe8ffc4a15e47d80353ff Post on doracity with more newspaper clippings on the film.]
+*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Film_Productions The Wikipedia page on the studio.]
+*[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/WangFilmProductions TVTropes info, on the studio behind the film.]
+*[https://facebook.com/304841462877244/videos/256449697808764/ Ending clip of the movie.]
+[[Category:Lost animation]]
+[[Category:Lost films]]
+[[Category:Partially found media]]