This one goes straight for the kid who was picked last, and it does not let you off easy. Nobita is the slowest, the weakest, the one whose only world-class talent is falling asleep on demand, so of course the movie hands him a gadget that turns sleep itself into a country he can rule. Then it does the cruel, brilliant thing: the dream stops being an escape once an evil sorcerer moves in, and Nobita has to drag Gian, Suneo and Shizuka into his own head to fight beside him as the Three Musketeers. Watching Gian and Suneo, the bully and the sycophant, actually stand shoulder to shoulder with the loser is the whole point of Doraemon compressed into one story. It says the fantasy only counts if you bleed for it. You wake up from it feeling weirdly called out.

Nobita is tired of everyday life and of being the weakest, slowest and least clever of his group. He finds comfort in his dreams, where Doraemon's tools let him set off on a fantasy journey of his own making. When an evil sorcerer threatens that dream world, Nobita gathers his friends to join him inside the dream, and together they take up the fight as the Three Musketeers in this Doraemon fantasy film.