A kid raises a dinosaur he wasn't supposed to find, and the movie doesn't waste time pretending he gets to keep it. The real story is Nobita learning what love means when you have to let something go. Prehistoric battles and time-travel stakes matter less than watching him choose the dinosaur's life over his own want, and the Sukima Switch soundtrack makes sure you feel every second of it.

Nobita comes across a fossilized dinosaur egg by chance, and with the help of Doraemon's gadgets the two hatch it and start raising the baby dinosaur. They soon accept that they cannot keep it with them forever, so Nobita has to send it back to prehistoric times. That era, however, is threatened by a band of hunters from the future who put the dinosaurs in danger. Resolved to protect the dinosaurs from these hunters, Doraemon, Nobita and their friends head back into the distant past on a prehistoric adventure, in a family film that mixes adventure with comedy.