Nobita rescues a drowning dog and names it after the sound it makes, and that's when the movie hooks you. The casual kindness of hiding a pet in a magical drawer becomes the emotional center, the thing that makes everything else matter. A Doraemon film that earns its adventure by starting with a kid who couldn't just walk past something that needed help.

Nobita saves a stray dog from drowning in a river and secretly keeps it at home, calling it Ichi. Soon he is also sheltering a stray cat named Zubu, followed by many more cats and dogs. With so many animals to look after, Nobita and his friends decide to send them 300 million years into the past, to a time with no other living things. They use the Ray of Evolution so the animals can run a food-making machine, then promise to come back. On their return trip, a space-time anomaly strands them in an era where the animals have built an advanced society, while asteroids head toward Earth. The film mixes adventure, comedy and science fiction.