Doraemon and the Curse of the Space Case/Production Notes

The production notes were made in the spring/summer of 1996 during production of the 1997 film Doraemon and the Curse of the Space Case

Overview
The popular Japanese franchise, Doraemon, is set to have an international film that will be directed by Haim Saban, the founder of Saban Entertainment, and is set to be released in the summer of 1997. Toho will distribute the film in Japan, while Buena Vista International will distribute the film in international countries.

Doraemon is a blue robot cat from the future that helps a 10-year old boy, named Nobita, to improve himself and to save him from his unfortunate fate. He has lots of gadgets and gizmos to help Nobita when he's in trouble.

The Plot of Doraemon and the Curse of the Space Case
Doraemon has bought an extremely rare and limited edition dorayaki with rainbow cream filling inside, but when the dorayaki all of a sudden floats up into the air and enters a magical space portal called the rainbow trail, Doraemon and Nobita, along with a few new friends, go out of this world to get the rainbow-creamed dorayaki before the mysterious thief Dorapan and his two bumbling sidekicks use the dorayaki to destroy the rainbow trail.

The Cast of Doraemon and the Curse of the Space Case
Since this film is set for release in many international countries outside of Japan, we needed a foreign, English-speaking cast to introduce the new characters, and a really good one, since it may be hard to understand if we used a Japanese cast.

The Space Commander
When Doraemon and Nobita needed someone brave and courageous to help them throughout the adventure, they meet a lonely and shy space commander who has a dark past. Matthew Broderick plays the space commander very well, with an improvised twist. "I think the Space commander is very brave," Matthew Broderick says, "but he can be very shy, and can hide if bad things happen to him. I think it is fun to play a character that can easily interact with animated characters and to go out of this world."

Hector the Space Master
When Doraemon, Nobita, and the Space Commander get stuck during their adventure and don't know what to do, they ask Hector, an old space master, who gives advice to them about how to get the dorayaki back before the bad guys get it first. "Hector is a great advice giver that tells the rest of the characters, including Doraemon himself, lots of solutions to fix their problems." Jack Lemmon says, "It is great to star in a film like this, it gives me a lot of vibes of other sci-fi movies. I even get to interact with Doraemon, a Japanese robot cat who is very obscure in North America!"

Charolette
It appears that Hector has a nine-year-old granddaughter, named Charolette. She has a big crush on Nobita and falls in love with him very easily. "It is fun to play Charolette," Jamie Renee Smith says while talking about this character,"She is the granddaughter of a space master that gives advice and solves problems. She has a crush on an animated Japanese boy named Nobita, who is one year older than her, and follws him around every time she sees him."

Space Commander, Junior
It also appears that the Space Commander has a 20-year-old son, named Junior, who is very sleepy and can nap at any time, even when he's with Doraemon and Nobita. "I think this character is fun," Michael E. Rodgers says, "but he can be a wee bit tired, don't you think?"

Although, Michael E. Rodgers was the first choice to play Junior, but he declined the role the first time he was called in. "When I got called by the director to have a role in a new Doraemon movie, I declined because I thought the film might be too childish for me, so a lot of other actors, even some actors that were involved in German dubs of Japanese anime, auditioned for the role of Space Commander Jr. After my first on-screen role was successful, I changed my mind and was interested, so they hired me. Although, the other actors might be mad at me because they wanted the role too, right?"

"Originally, my character was going to stay awake and become hyperactive, but I was so tired during filming, that I unexpectally fell asleep at some points. The director thought it was amusing that I slept at the drop of a hat, and let my character have a tired and sleepy personality." Michael E. Rodgers said as he talked about how his character had a sleepy personality.

"It is quite fun to be in an anime movie like this," Michael E. Rodgers said, "I get to interact with Doraemon and his best friend, and I get to go on an exciting adventure to get a magical dorayaki with rainbow cream filling inside. I'm quite surprised that I get to be in a Doraemon film, since the anime and manga franchise is very obscure in North America, well, except for Mexico, and very popular in Asia and some European countries. I think the film is magical and out of this world at the same time!"

Junior 2.0
When Junior was sleepwalking and accidentally went inside a clone machine that was one of Doraemon's gadgets, a clone of Junior comes out and causes trouble for everyone, including Doraemon and Nobita. Caspar Phillipson had a lot of fun playing the clone while filming, "He's a fun character to play," he said as he was talking about his character, "My character is the complete opposite of the real Junior, who is very, very tired and wouldn't stay awake for a long time!"

"He gets into all sorts of trouble with no shame at all! He even almost let the bad guys win! It's great fun playing a character like this! He's very hyperactive and fun-loving!" Caspar Phillipson continues.

The Production of Doraemon and the Curse of the Space Case
The production of this film started as a fully-animated Doraemon anime film that was set for release in the fall of 1993. Unfortunately, the production was kind of troublesome, as many rewrites and reanimations had to be made after a failed test screening in Tokyo, Japan. What's even worse is that they couldn't finish it on time before Haim Saban was hired as the director and Buena Vista got the international rights to the film, since they got a better idea for an international Doraemon movie.

Filming has started on April 15, 1996 in Toronto, Canada, while the weather is a little chilly. The filming production wasn't that bad, but due to the actors waking up early for filming, some actors got a little drowsy. Luckily, nothing bad has ever happened during filming at all and the actors had a fun time. The filming of Doraemon and the Curse of the Space Case ended on July 25, 1996, while the production was completed on August 30, 1996.

The animation for the film is being done by Toho Animation, which is a new animation studio that was founded last year. The animations for the characters were realistic and fast paced, but with the help of Shin-Ei Animation, the animation still kept the charm of the Doraemon anime. Animation production started on March 25, 1996 and ended on August 13, 1997.

The film was is going to have a time limit of 100 minutes for it's release in Japan, while it will be dubbed into English and might be edited for release in international countries.