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The crossover between Doraemon and Arabian Nights.

Doraemon: Nobita's Dorabian Nights is a 1991 anime film, the twelfth in the Doraemon Film Series, based on the installment of Doraemon's Long Tales of the same name.

Nobita, Shizuka, Suneo and Gian are exploring the world of storybooks and fairytales in Nobita's bedroom using Doraemon's Storybook Shoes, but after a bunch of unfortunate run-ins with some nasty fictional characters, Shizuka decide to bail first, followed by Gian and Suneo. Nobita leaves last, but later on something's amiss when Doraemon realize there's only three pairs of Storybook Shoes around, even though there's four of them.

As it turns out, Shizuka was accidentally lost in the world of Arabian Nights, and to make matters worse Nobita's old storybook collection gets mistaken for trash and burnt up. Doraemon, Nobita, Gian and Suneo - together with Mikujin, the robot tour guide from the future hired by Doraemon capable of making the trip - travels all the way to the Middle East to find and rescue Shizuka, reaching the point where reality and fiction intersects, where they must battle the forty thieves, giant genies, survive a raging storm, cross a desert and eventually meet Sinbad from the storybooks who, to their surprise, is a retired adventurer with his seafaring days long behind.


Doraemon: Nobita's Dorabian Nights contains examples of:

  • Adaptational Villainy: Cassim from Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, alongside Spared by the Adaptation, although it's likely caused by Gian and Suneo taping random storybooks together. The original story of the forty thieves has Cassin being killed and quartered by them, but in this version not only is Cassim alive and well, he's their leader!
  • All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Thanks to his negligence and leaving his magical goodies unguarded, Sinbad ends up having Abdil, Cassim and their goons stealing his genies, magic soldier beads, and hijacking his entire castle, with the lengthy climax being Sinbad working together with Doraemon and friends to reclaim his palace.
  • "Arabian Nights" Days: Most of the story takes place in a heavily-fictionalized version of the Arabian mythos, which is allegedly set in the real world, but at some point crosses over into the storybook verse from the original 1001 Nights.
  • Bedlah Babe: The outfit Shizuka gets once she's finished cleaning herself in Sinbad's palace.
  • Changed My Mind, Kid: Mikujin the robot guide hired by Doraemon unintentionally offends Nobita, Suneo and Giann early in the film, leading to Suneo and Gian calling him a "third-rate guide" prompting Mikujin to pull a Screw This, I'm Outta Here... except he didn't completely leave, coming back later to save Doraemon and friends after they're cast into the Arabian seas by Cassim and his men, and showing up in the dungeon of Sinbad's palace to rescue everybody.
  • Comically Missing the Point: When Doraemon and friends are on Sinbad's ship, cruising on the desert sands, Nobita points out at some sand-dolphins coming out of the dunes.
    Nobita: Look, a fish!
    Suneo: That's not a fish, dummy. Dolphins are mammals.
    Nobita: But... that's not what I meant!
  • Damsel out of Distress: After spending most of the movie as the Damsel in Distress, Shizuka gets captured again at the climax by Cassim and his subordinates, who try to use her as a hostage. However, she breaks free from them by herself and even helps the others restrain them afterward.
  • Daydream Surprise: One from Nobita early on, which he sees Shizuka on a slave ship.
  • Deadly Dust Storm: One of the many hazards that hits Doraemon and gang during their search for Shizuka in the desert. This sudden freak storm allows Shizuka to escape while fleeing from Abdil, although not for long since she's on foot and Abdil has a camel.
  • Gave Up Too Soon: After being fooled by a mirage, Suneo, while trekking through the Arabian desert, sees a second oasis... and quickly turns around, believing that's a mirage too. Except that is the real deal. To add insult on injury, the missing Shizuka is in that very oasis, being supervised by Abdil while she bathes herself.
  • Genie in a Bottle: One of Sinbad's two genies, specifically the larger, more competent one. It's a Beast Man-esque genie who usually sleeps in a translucent bottle, until Sinbad uncorks it, at which point the genie then pops out of the bottle, grows to kaiju size, and performs his master's bidding. Unfortunately, said bottle turns out to be one of Sinbad's various artifacts stolen by Abdil and Cassim.
  • Heroic BSoD: The fate that befell Sinbad after being kicked out of his palace, having the whole place taken over by Adbil and Cassim. It takes a Rousing Speech from Nobita, Suneo and Gian to get him back into fighting shape.
    Sinbad: Just let me die here and be done with it already!
  • High-Altitude Battle: The story climaxes with one of these as Abdil hits a switch that sends Sinbad's castle airborne; Sinbad made it to the top in time and took on Abdil in a Sword Fight on the roof of the ascending castle.
  • Magic Carpet: Well, yeah, given the setting of course Sinbad would have a magic flying carpet in his arsenal, which is used to instantaneously transport Doraemon and friends in the desert for locating Shizuka. But it was subverted in an earlier scene when the gang finds a fake flying carpet holding a sponge dummy which they assumed was real, used to bait Cassim and his forty thieves.
  • Massive Multiplayer Crossover: Due to the setting being in the world of storybooks...
    • Early on, Gian and Suneo sticking together random pages from various storybooks into one giant book just to screw with Nobita turns the world of fairy tales upside-down, with random characters bumping into each other for no coherent reason. Like the Evil Queen from Snow White offering the Candy Witch an apple, the Genie of the Lamp scaring away some Yōkai, and Issun-boshi bumping into Thumbelina.
    • When Nobita and friends (sans Shizuka - she's lost somewhere in there and they're looking for her) arrive into Arabia, specifically, the point where the real world intersects with the fictional 1001 Nights verse. Doraemon and friends barely survives an attack from the forty thieves led by Cassim, before being rescued by Sinbad. They're then offered a tour of Sinbad's palace, whose assorted treasures and goodies include the mechanical Flying Horse, Aladdin's flying carpet, a different genie of the lamp, and a size-shifting genie in a bottle. Additionally, there's a secret short cut leading straight to Sinbad's palace... via Ali Baba's cave, accessible with an "Open Sesame!"
  • Mistaken for Transformed: In the original manga, when Doraemon and gang tries helping Sinbad retrieve his artifacts, Doraemon drinks a shapeshifting potion transforming himself into Abdil to retrieve the chest, leading to Abdil sounding an alarm that there's an imposter posing as him. Cue Abdil's minions beating up Abdil... and suddenly realizing they're kicking the snot out of the real deal.
  • Our Genies Are Different: Sinbad has two genies in his collection. The Genie of the Lamp which is a slacker, and a fifty-foot behemoth genie kaiju incapable of speech. The latter has a Sleep-Mode Size stored in a bottle until it's uncorked.
  • Percussive Maintenance: An example that doesn't involve electronics, for once. But as Sinbad's attempts to inspect the villains in his Fountain of Visions starts getting fuzzy, cue Sinbad, Nobita and Doraemon kicking the Fountain's sides while getting it to work. Nobita even exclaims "This is like an old TV!"
  • Public Domain Character: With Sinbad (albeit an elderly, retired version) as the benefactor to Doraemon and friends, while Cassim from Forty Thieves serves as one of the main villains. The actual Big Bad, Abdil, doesn't seem to be from any stories in the Arabian Nights though.
  • Retired Badass: Sinbad, who early in the adventure (back when things are still normal) is depicted as a brave, resourceful hero in a storybook. Later on Nobita and friends eventually made their way into the fictional Arabian Nights-verse, only to discover Sinbad had long ditched his adventuring past, and is content living all alone in a Golden Palace in the middle of the Arabian Desert, with his genies, gadgets and robot servvants as company,
  • Robot Buddy: A robot tour guide named Mikujin serves as the story's token Kid-Appeal Character, hired by Doraemon as their guide to crossing the Arabian world in the point where reality crosses into the fictional world.
  • Rousing Speech: After Sinbad suffers from his Heroic BSoD from having his palace captured by Abdil and his goons, the other heroes have to deliver this to boost his morale.
    Nobita: I'm disappointed. You're nothing like the Sinbad that I knew.
    Suneo: Your majesty's adventures has been collected in a book several hundred years from now, called "Arabian Nights". Children from all over the world has read it. Sinbad is a hero. If children out there knew Sinbad was a weak old man, they would be dissapointed.
    Sinbad: You're right... after hearing what you say, I have awakened again. Let's go to Baghdad! And prepare for the eighth voyage!
  • Sand Is Water: While touring the Arabian Desert on Sinbad's ship, Doraemon, Nobita and their friends realize they're no longer in the "real world" version of the Middle East, but in the storybook-verse instead, when they saw sand-whales and sand-dolphins leaping out of the sand. And yes, Sinbad's ship travels on the sand.
  • Sealed Army in a Can: Sinbad's "Army-in-a-Box", which is a box of magical beads that transforms into dozens and dozens of magical soldiers when flung. They can be recalled by anyone who holds the box.
  • Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: The moment Sinbad meets his former nemesis, Abdil, for the first time in years, only to find out Abdil is still in the slave trade (with Shizuka as his latest prisoner!) Sinbad quickly tells Abdil to beat it, leaving him in the middle of the desert. Although he did throw a couple of sacks containing food and water to Abdil.
  • A Taste of the Lash: What Abdil is about to deliver on Shizuka, for trying to run away from him in an oasis. But Doraemon and gang arrives right on time on Sinbad's flying carpet.
  • Thirsty Desert: Doraemon, Nobita, Gian and Suneo had to cross one of these after barely surviving a storm while being dumped overboard by Cassim and his goons. But as it turns out, Cassim himself suffers the same fate, his ship getting wrecked by the same storm with him and two minions surviving. And it turns out Shizuka is somewhere in the middle of that desert, being watched by the slavemaster Abdil.
  • Trapped in Another World: The fate that befell poor Shizuka early into the film thanks to losing her Storybook Shoes, causing her to be trapped in the Arabian Nights verse. Suneo and Gian got out of the storybook verse first, and Nobita assumed Shizuka had left before him after getting out himself, and then realize there are only 3 (of the initial 4) pairs of Doraemon's Storybook Shoes around. And then his old storybooks get burnt up with no way to return...
  • "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The end credits art not only shows the protagonists returning to their own time period, but also suggests that they do eventually visit Sinbad again like they had promised.
  • Woken Up at an Ungodly Hour: The Establishing Character Moment of the ditzy Robot Buddy genie, Miku-jin, have him arriving in Nobita's bedroom in the dead of night via Time Machine, waking up Nobita from sleep by pulling his nose and then giving a briefing of the tour to Arabia... before suddenly realizing he actually a day too early and Doraemon had not called for him yet, at which point an embarassed Miku-jin quickly bails leading to Nobita wondering what just happened.

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