A kid plants a tree and names it his brother. That's it, and it's everything Doraemon has always been about. The movie trades spectacle for something quieter, pencil-sketch backgrounds that breathe, leaf animations that feel hand-drawn even when they're not, a story so simple it could break if you looked at it wrong. But it doesn't break because the film knows that a child's loneliness and a tree's growth are the same thing. The predictability isn't a flaw here. It's permission to feel something without being tricked into it.

Nobita comes across a small sapling behind the hill and wants to plant it in the backyard, but his mother refuses to allow it. With the help of one of Doraemon's special gadgets, the tree comes to life and gains the ability to move around freely. Nobita names it Ki-bō, and the two grow as close as brothers. Their friendship marks the start of a new adventure in this comedic Doraemon film.