In this movie, Nobita and his friends respond to a mysterious request seeking help from "talented musicians". I was very intrigued when I first heard about the premise, because music is a theme that the Doraemon films had not really explored before. Now that the movie has been released, I'm happy to report that I had a pretty good time with it. Beyond the handling of its main subject matter, I enjoyed that the foreshadowing here was surprisingly well thought out. There's so much setup in the beginning and middle of the story that pays off at the end. This includes the use of a gadget (the Future Diary) that would probably be considered "too overpowered" to be acknowledged in a typical Doraemon movie!
The film does have its flaws, of course, and the biggest in my opinion come down to the pacing. Several moments that are framed as emotional or dramatic are resolved or brushed aside too quickly, when they would've benefited from being given more time and gravitas. There's also some ending fatigue that kept me second-guessing, "Is this the climax? No, wait, is this the climax?"
However, the actual climax is quite nicely done and well worth experiencing in theaters for full effect. (It's a musical performance after all, as is pretty much a given in a movie about music.) As a tribute to the importance and appeal of music to humanity, I think the movie is very much a success.
As usual for a Doraemon movie, most of the character focus is on Nobita and his new movie-exclusive friends, but the rest of the main cast does have an active presence throughout. One thing I would've liked to see is more elaboration on why each character is deemed compatible with the instruments that they're assigned for their performances. Gian is said to be suited to playing the tuba due to his lung capacity, and the relevance of the recorder to Nobita's character arc is self-evident, but no such explanations are given for why Suneo gets the violin or why Shizuka is assigned to percussion.
Speaking of which, I thought there were some missed opportunities for Shizuka's involvement considering that she's the one main character who has an established affinity for playing musical instruments outside of school. Even so, the movie does at least acknowledge both her piano and violin playing (albeit the latter only during the end credits). It's also refreshing to see a Doraemon movie that doesn't contain a bath scene or any other similarly distasteful joke involving her.
