The 22nd installment of the long-running Doraemon Film Series.
Nobita learns about humanoid birds sighted in Africa and decides to learn to fly on his own. But after an unsuccessful practice round, Nobita, Doraemon, and Shizuka (who had lost her pet canary) meet a young humanoid bird named Gusuke who is from a world known as Birdopia, emerging from a mid-air portal in the skies and crashing into the trio, before getting stranded on earth with his flying his makeshift airplane.
After helping Gusuke fix his airplane, with Gusuke about to leave, an inquisitive Gian and Suneo (having seen Gusuke crashing and curiously watching from the sidelines) grabs onto the plane and ends up in Birdopia with him. Nobita, Doraemon, and Shizuka follow them to this new world populated by humanoid birds, where the gang learn of a plot to free all birds in the real world by destroying mankind.
Doraemon: Nobita and the Winged Braves contains the following tropes:
- Acrophobic Bird: Gusuke is afraid of flying due to the trauma falling when he was a hatchling. He gets over this to save Nobita from Phoenicia, with encouragement from Icarus.
- Adaptation Species Change: In the manga, Nobita wears a sparrow hat as a disguise in Birdopia, while in the film he wears a duck hat.
- Animal Jingoism: Besides humans, cats are also despised in Birdopia (since they are natural predators of birds), so Doraemon also has to disguise himself as a bird.
- Animal Stereotypes: You can expect the bird-people to be based on how their species is stereotyped. Which is why the eagle is heroic, the owl is wise, the stork helps with childbirth, and the villains are a vulture, a falcon, and crows.
- Brutal Bird of Prey: Babylon is a falcon who is The Dragon to Segrid.
- Creepy Crows: The soldiers of Commander Seagrid are all crows, led by a particularly menacing captain.
- Clothes Make the Superman: In a manner similar to Doraemon: Nobita and the Animal Planet, the gang gains bird-like powers and features after donning Doraemon's bird-caps.
- The Dragon: Babylon, a falcon who is Seagrid's lieutenant.
- Evil Is Not a Toy: Seagrid intends to use the giant, destructive Phoenicia as way to get revenge on the humans. Too bad the creature does not listen to him, especially after getting hit by the Transgression Beam.
- Exposed to the Elements: The climax have Nobita and friends, including Gusuke, racing to the top of the World Tree somewhere in the clouds, and they're not affected by the cold. While it could be justified by Doraemon's Bird Cap granting them the same DNA as birds, however Nobita lose his cap at one point and doesn't suffer hypothermia or any ill effects.
- Fantastic Racism: Commander Seagrid hates humans, due to them shooting him in the wing rendering him flightless. The crow soldiers also don't seem to be fond of cats, calling them "enemy to all birds".
- Furry Confusion: Downplayed. While flying bird-people are all Winged Humanoids, flightless bird-people like ostriches and penguins look largely the same as their non-sapient counterparts.
- Happily Adopted: Gusuke accepts his adoptive family.
- I Am Not Weasel: Subverted for once when the crow soldiers and an ostrich taxi properly identify Doraemon as a cat (to his joy), but then played straight when Professor Hou called him a tanuki.
- Kick the Dog: Seagrid and Babylon mock Gusuke for participating the Icarus Rally when he won't fly on his own.
- Noble Bird of Prey: Icarus, a large and powerful eagle who allies with the heroes in the final battle. Gusuke is revealed to be also an eagle, since he's Icarus's long-lost son.
- Not So Extinct: It turns out moas are not extinct but taken to Birdopia so that their populations can recover.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Phoenicia is a large dragon-like creature. He doesn't show fire-breathing until he gets accidentally evolved by the Transgression Beam.
- The Owl-Knowing One: Professor Hou, a great horned owl.
- Scavengers Are Scum: The main antagonistic bird is a vulture, with crows for henchman. Downplayed in that the vulture is a Well-Intentioned Extremist and the crows are likely Just Following Orders.
- Sealed Evil in Another World: Doraemon and friends visits Birdopia, an Alternate Universe inhabited by Bird People and accessible by a portal in the sky, and in the Birdopian equivalent of Antartica the Prehistoric Monster Phoenixia was sealed in the bottom of an ice shelf. Unfortunately, the Birdopian commander Seagrid who harbors a hatred towards humans have plans to awaken Phoenixia and lead the monster through the portal, intending to use it to wipe out humanity.
- Shown Their Work:
- The ostriches have only claw on the inner toe, just like real ostriches.
- While wearing the albatross hat, Gian has to take a running start during take-off. When taking off from land, albatrosses must run to build up gusts for lifting their long wings.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Subverted. When the crow soldiers identify Doraemon as a cat, he cries Tears of Joy because for once someone correctly called him a cat rather than a tanuki. This turns out to be bad, because cats are natural enemies of birds and thus not welcome in a world of bird-people.
- Toothy Bird: The bird-people often show gritting teeth. Possibly justified in that they're evolved birds.
- Transplanted Aliens: The bird-people are descended from the pets of a misanthropic ornithologist who brought them to another reality and used an Evolution Ray on them.
- Unpleasant Animal Counterpart: The main heroic bird is an eagle, while the main antagonist is a vulture.
- Vile Vulture: Commander Seagrid is a vulture and the main antagonist for the majority of the film.
- Waxing Lyrical: When Nobita asks Doraemon for a gadget to fly with, Doraemon quotes the lines from the theme song where he offers the singer a Take-copter.
- Winged Humanoid: The flying citizens of Birdopia are bird-human with wings growing from their backs.
- Would Hurt a Child: Seagrid sentences Gian and Suneo to execution just because they're human.
