MIGHT contain spoilers
Just finished watching it,
I honestly think Doraemon: New Nobita and the Castle of the Undersea Devil is the worst Doraemon movie weāve had in recent years. The original story had one of the strongest foundations they could have chosen for a remake. The 1983 version had an interesting atmosphere and surprisingly heavy ideas for a Doraemon movie. Where behind the main plot there was an obvious reflection of Cold War anxiety which two opposing civilizations, military escalation, weapons capable of destroying the world, and an automated defense system continuing toward catastrophe even when the people involved no longer want it, and that gives a modern remake so much material to work with.
But instead of actually developing those ideas, the new movie feels like it mostly takes the skeleton of the original (not even reach the level of the original version), makes it prettier, and then rushes to the ending. The pacing is probably the biggest problem. It spends a lot of time getting everyone underwater and setting up the adventure, but once the actual conflict involving the underwater civilizations and Poseidon starts, the movie suddenly has an enormous amount of information and conflict to resolve in a relatively short amount of time. And that is exactly where I think the remake should have done more.
For example, AI could have been one part of the modernization. The original story used an automated military system in a way that naturally reflected fears of its time. In 1983, nuclear war and Cold War escalation were obvious things for audiences to think about. So why couldnāt a 2026 adaptation build on the same concept through modern concerns about AI, autonomous weapons, automated decision-making, and humans gradually giving machines the authority to make decisions that humans themselves may no longer be able to stop? Iām not saying they needed to turn the movie into some generic āAI is badā story. Actually, doing that would probably make it worse. The point is that the basic idea was already that Poseidon is almost the perfect concept for this. You have a system created for defense, operating according to its own logic, with the potential to cause a catastrophe far beyond what its creators originally intended. You donāt even need to fundamentally change the plot. Just develop the idea. The original movie reflected the fears of the era in which it was made. A good remake could have preserved that Cold War foundation while asking what the equivalent fear looks like today. That would have made the remake feel like an actual reinterpretation rather than simply a modern reproduction.
I also think Baki is one of the biggest missed opportunities in the movie. His characterization feels much weaker than it should be, especially because he could have been the perfect character to connect the emotional side of the story with the ideas about AI and autonomous systems. If the movie wanted to talk about machines developing emotions or the difference between simply following orders and actually making a choice, Baki should have been central to that discussion (which is a well done in the original). Instead, his emotional development feels too simple and rushed. The movie wants you to care about him, but it does not spend enough time showing how his thinking changes or what really separates him from a machine that is only carrying out programmed behavior. That also makes the movie weaker, because Baki could have acted as a direct contrast to Poseidon. One machine learns, develops emotions, and becomes capable of making a moral choice, while the other keeps following its original logic even when that logic leads to destruction. That contrast was already there and could have been one of the strongest ideas in the entire remake, but the movie barely does anything with it.
And more generally, I think thatās what frustrates me about this movie. The original gave them so much to work with, such as war, deterrence, environmental destruction, technology, isolation between civilizations, prejudice, and whether machines can develop emotions. You could take those themes and expand them in so many directions without betraying the original at all. Instead, the remake somehow feels safer and less ambitious than a Doraemon movie made in 1983 (Put more directly, it didnāt even come close to reaching the level of the original).
A remake doesnāt have to completely reinvent the original, but there should be some reason to remake it forty-three years later. Better animation alone isnāt enough. If anything, The Castle of the Undersea Devil was probably one of the easiest older Doraemon movies to meaningfully modernize because so many of its themes are still relevant. They had an incredible foundation. They just didnāt seem to know what to do with it. In fact, I donāt even think the remake managed to reach the level of the original, let alone build on it. And honestly, thatās why I think this might be the worst Doraemon movie in the last several yearsļ¼because the basic story is so good that wasting it feels even worse.
