Mini Moni The Movie: Okashi na Daibōken! is a live-action/animation hybrid movie starring the popular Morning Musume subgroup Mini Moni. Made as a way to explain Mari Yaguchi leaving the group and Ai Takahashi joining as her replacement, the majority of the movie is all-CGI, with live-action beginning and ending segments filmed on green screens.
It's almost the second anniversary of Mini Moni's founding, and everyone at the Mini Moni Cafe is busy preparing a fabulous cake shaped like a castle to celebrate. Cafe leader Mari Yaguchi oversees baker Mika Todd and waitresses Nozomi Tsuji and Ai Kago, but when the curious customer Ai Takahashi wants to know why the cakes they make taste so great, they're unable to answer. She decides to find out for herself by stealing the cakes, but soon deeper trouble forms.
The vain, cake-hating fairy queen Nakajalinu the 29th invades the cafe and claims the castle for her own, instructing her servants to turn all the cakes into stone. They succeed, but Mini Moni and Takahashi are shrunk down as well, turning into cute, CGI versions of themselves. Mini Moni heads to confront the queen, determined to restore the cafe to normal and get their original bodies back, but they may not succeed without the help of Takahashi, Reizo the living fridge, and the power of cake.
This movie contains examples of:
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Nakajalinu takes over Mini Moni's cake castle, turning it into a real castle fit for a queen.
- Art Shift: The flashback to why the Queen hates cake is done in a realistic oil painting style.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: In the castle basement, Mini Moni is attacked by a giant cream puff monster.
- Band Toon: The movie stars a popular band and features their songs for a majority of the soundtrack.
- Big Eater: Tsuji and Kago love to eat Mini Moni Cafe treats. They later weaponize this trait against a cream puff monster.
- Bigger on the Inside: Thanks to Nakajalinu's magic the fridge leads to an entire world full of sweets, and the cake castle becomes as big as an actual castle on the inside, with multiple floors and a dungeon.
- But Now I Must Go: After the fairies are turned into humans Yaguchi leaves Mini Moni to help them get started in their new lives and show them everything fun in the world.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: The yellow fairy child tends to jump in with random phrases and thinks the fairy queen's chibi form is a horrible monster.
- A Dog Named "Dog": The living fridge is named Reizo, which translates to "fridge."
- Ear Worm: The Magic Pocket song is so infectious it makes all the gingerbread men sing along and dance, and it later entices them to help Mini Moni.
- Fun Size: The fairies' spell shrinks Mini Moni and Takahashi into chibi versions of themselves. This also happens to Nakajalinu when she eats cake.
- Gratuitous English: Mika Todd tends to pepper her speech with English phrases, and the anniversary cake's message is written in English.
- Hilarious Outtakes: The second half of the credits is full of funny outtakes and bloopers in both mediums.
- Humanity Ensues: The four fairies become human children after they lose their wings carrying Mini Moni to safety.
- Level Ate: The land inside the fridge is entirely composed of sweets and desserts, with the cake castle as its centerpiece.
- Load-Bearing Boss: After Nakajalinu eats the cake all her spells wear off, causing the castle to start collapsing.
- Magical Land: The movie takes place on a planet shaped like the Mini Moni rabbit mascot, Minimo, and many of the customers are Minimos of various colors. The land of sweets inside the fridge is also one.
- Medium Blending: Live-action segments at the beginning transition into all-CGI scenes before becoming live-action again at the end of the movie.
- Minion with an F in Evil: The four fairy children are pretty bad at being evil, especially the yellow one, who loves sweets and enjoys slacking off.
- Our Founder: Nakajalinu replaces the Happy Anniversary cake sign with her own name.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Despite being a chibi who's 1/4th the size of her opponent, Ai Kago headbutts the Queen so hard she's knocked flat.
- Spy Catsuit: Takahashi wears one when infiltrating the cafe, complete with cat ears and tail.
- Storming the Castle: Mini Moni infiltrates Nakajalinu's castle to confront her and get the cafe back to normal.
- Taken for Granite: Nakajalinu turns the cake castle to stone, as well as every other pastry in the cafe.
- Trap Door: Mini Moni falls into one the first time they enter the castle, and are captured as a result. The second time they realize what they're standing on too late, but are saved from falling by hundreds of gingerbread men.
- Vain Sorceress: Queen Nakajalinu is extremely proud of her beauty and tall, slender body. She hates cakes because they turn her into a chibi, which she sees as ugly.
- Villain Song: Queen Nakajalinu gets a song boasting about her beauty and how much she hates cake and sweets.
- World-Wrecking Wave: As Nakajalinu eats the cake, power radiates from her and destroys her soldiers, then turns the castle back into cake—which immediately starts to melt and collapse.
