Gekijōban Doubutsu no Mori

Gekijōban Doubutsu no Mori
Theatrical release poster
Image gallery
Directed by			Jōji Shimura
Produced by			Bunshō Kajiya
Written by			Aya Matsui
Starring			Yui Horie Misato Fukuen Fumiko Orikasa Yū Kobayashi Naoki Tatsuta Kenichi Ogata Shun Oguri Yūichi Kimura
Music by			Kazumi Totaka
Cinematography			Kōji Yamakoshi
Edited by			Toshio Henmi
Distributed by			Toho (theatrical release) VAP (DVD release)
Release date(s)			December 16, 2006 July 25, 2007 (DVD)
Running time			87 minutes
Country			Japan
Language			Japanese
Box office			¥1.7 billion (US$16,216,000)

Gekijōban Doubutsu no Mori is a 2006 Japanese animated film based on Animal Crossing: Wild World. The film was directed by Jōji Shimura with production by OLM, Inc. and was released in theaters on December 16, 2006, where it earned an estimated total of ¥1.7 billion (US$16,216,731) at the box office as of 2007.

The film features characters and elements from the video games and follows Ai, a human girl, as she moves into a village of animals and meets various friends along the way.

Plot

Ai arriving in Animal Village.

Ai, a human girl, moves to Animal Village during spring. After she arrives, she goes to town hall and is told by Pelly to meet Tom Nook at his shop to receive her house key. Once she meets Tom Nook, he gives her work to do in the form of deliveries to the village residents. During her deliveries, Ai meets Rosie, Alfonso, Whitney, and a human boy named Yū. Afterward, she visits the Able Sisters for her last delivery and meets Margie. On her way home, Ai encounters Yū again, who attempts to catch a Spider that had landed on her; the two then introduce themselves and become acquaintances.

After several more deliveries, Ai is tasked with a delivery to Apollo. When she arrives at his house, she learns he is not home. Yū once again appears and causes Ai to fall in a patch of rare blue roses—this causes Mr. Resetti to appear and scold her; after learning what happened, he tells Ai to look in The Roost for Apollo. Ai heads to the museum, where she meets Blathers and Celeste, the latter of whom leads her to The Roost. Once there, Ai meets Cesar and Cyrano, and shortly afterward, Apollo arrives. She makes her delivery and heads home when she encounters Margie, whom she quickly befriends. Margie reveals her dream of being a fashion designer and compares accomplishing her dream to eating a cherry pie. Later that night, Ai finds a note in a bottle on the beach that reads, "Above the pine forest, on the night of the Winter Festival, a miracle will occur." She then sees what she believes to be a UFO.

The next night, Ai encounters another note in a bottle, which instructs her to plant pine trees across Animal Village for a miracle to take place during the Winter Festival. The next day, Ai, Margie, and Rosie meet up with Yū and Alfonso, who are looking for fossils. Rosie tells them to look in a nearby cave for fossils, which they visit and find a Seismosaurus fossil, the one fossil missing from the museum's collection; however, the cave collapses, forcing the group to leave. Later, during the Fireworks Festival, Margie realizes her dream, and Ai wishes to have one of her own. Once she returns home, she reads two more letters in bottles, which reveal that an alien has been writing them, hoping to arrive on her planet during the Winter Festival and meet her.

Some time after the Fireworks Festival, Ai learns from Rosie that Margie left Animal Village to pursue her dream. Disappointed that she did not let her know before leaving, Ai goes to The Roost, where Whitney comforts her. That night, Ai receives a letter from Margie, who explains why she did not let her know that she was moving—she says she would have been overwhelmed with emotion had she approached her before leaving. Attached to the letter is a drawing of Ai and a note telling her to "eat her own cherry pie," or to follow her dreams.

In the winter, Tortimer, the mayor, announces the beginning of the Winter Festival, where the resident with the best holiday decorations is crowned the winner. Ai visits the cedar trees that she is revealed to have planted earlier in the year to find them fully grown. She then visits Celeste's observatory in the museum and sees a UFO crash in the village. The townsfolk gather at the crash site, and Gulliver, who claims to be an alien, steps out, explaining that five parts of his ship must be found so he can leave. The residents of the village then split up to find the parts; Champ goes to the woods, Apollo, Cyrano, and Cesar go to the mountains, Whitney searches near the ocean, and Ai, Rosie, Alfonso, and Yū head toward the cave where they found the Seismosaurus fossil. However, the entrance is blocked by a boulder, which is moved with the help of Margie, who has returned to Animal Village for the Winter Festival. The group enters the cave and finds the spaceship part on top of the Seismosaurus. Yū climbs up the fossil and retrieves the part.

Ai and the alien

The trees planted by Ai around the village, lit up in the shape of a star.

Once the group returns to Gulliver's ship, UFOs fly overhead, and the part they retrieved is revealed to be an alien life form. The alien appears to thank Ai before flying to the other UFOs; it then draws Ai's face as a constellation. Afterward, Tortimer announces Ai as the winner of the Winter Festival for the alien's constellation, and Ai feels for the first time that she is a true resident of Animal Village.

During the film's end credits sequence, several still frames are displayed, showing Animal Village and its residents over the next few months. The stills include Blathers excavating the Seismosaurus fossil and adding it to the museum's collection, Whitney receiving blue roses from someone who is implied to be Apollo, and Nook's Cranny being upgraded to Nook 'n' Go, among others. In a post-credits scene, set one year after Ai moved into Animal Village, Ai narrates a letter written to her mother while running toward the museum to meet Celeste. The camera then pans down to show lilies of the valley growing.

Characters

The following characters appear in Gekijōban Doubutsu no Mori in order.

Various characters from the film

Character	Voiced by	Description
Ai	Yui Horie	An 11-year-old human girl who moves to Animal Village.
Kapp'n	Mitsuo Iwata	A kappa who drives Ai to Animal Village in his taxi.
Pelly	Otoha	A pelican who works at the town hall. Ai visits her after arriving in the village, and Pelly directs her to Tom Nook. She also appears to serve as Tortimer's assistant and caretaker, often accompanying him.
Tortimer	Kenichi Ogata	An elderly tortoise who is the mayor of Animal Village. He meets Ai at the town hall, and he hosts the Winter Festival. Throughout the film, he worries about the results of the upcoming election, despite running unopposed. In the end, he wins the election by one vote—himself, as he was the only one who voted, much to the chagrin of all the other residents.
Tom Nook	Naoki Tatsuta	A tanuki who owns Nook's Cranny, the village shop. He employs Ai part-time after she arrives in town.
Timmy	Kimiko Koyama	A young tanuki who runs a stall at the Fireworks Festival.
Tommy	Noriko Namiki	A young tanuki who runs a stall at the Fireworks Festival.
Hopper	Hisao Egawa	A penguin who fishes in the lake. He often tries to catch fish throughout but keeps failing, eventually catching a tiny fish in the credits.
Rosie	Misato Fukuen	A cat who lives in Animal Village. Ai meets her during her deliveries while working for Tom Nook, and they become close friends.
Alfonso	Takatoshi Kaneko	An alligator who lives in Animal Village. Ai meets her during her deliveries while working for Tom Nook. He is close friends with Yū.
Yū	Yū Kobayashi	A human boy from another town who often visits Animal Village. Ai meets him while making a delivery to Alfonso, whom Yū is close friends with. Yū often plays with Alfonso and wears various costumes and disguises , not revealing his real face until the end of the movie.
Whitney	Yurika Hino	A wolf who lives in Animal Village. Ai meets her during her deliveries while working for Tom Nook. She consoles Ai after Margie moves away, and acts as a sort of mentor. She is rumored by the other villagers to have had a relationship with Apollo.
Champ	Yasuhiro Takato	A monkey who lives in Animal Village. He loves exercise, running everywhere he goes, and makes “uki uki” sounds (described as monkey noises).
Mabel	Saori Hattori	A hedgehog who operates the Able Sisters with her sister Sable. She is the one who greets Ai.
Sable	Mari Adachi	A hedgehog seamstress who operates the Able Sisters with her sister Mabel. She is often working on the sewing machine.
Margie	Fumiko Orikasa	An elephant who lives in Animal Village. Ai meets her at the Able Sisters, and they become close friends. Her dream is to become a fashion designer, and she leaves Animal Village to pursue it. She returns to visit when Gulliver appears, as she has the holidays off.
Mr. Resetti	Yuichi Kimura	A mole who is the "rule enforcer" of Animal Village. He scolds Ai after she falls on Apollo's blue roses, does the same to Yū and Alfonso when they hit him with a shovel, and he decorates the village's trees during the Winter Festival.
Blathers	Kappei Yamaguchi	An owl who curates the museum. He is Celeste's brother.
Celeste	Mika Kanai	An owl who operates the observatory in the museum. She is Blathers's sister.
Brewster	Takaya Hashi	A pigeon who operates The Roost, a café in the basement of the museum.
Cesar	Kazuya Tatekabe	A gorilla who lives in Animal Village. Ai meets him with Cyrano, who he often hangs out with, at The Roost.
Cyrano	Yūji Ueda	An anteater who lives in Animal Village. Ai meets him with Cesar, who he often hangs out with, at The Roost.
Apollo	Masaki Terasoma	An eagle who lives in Animal Village. Ai, who tramples his blue roses by accident, meets him at The Roost. He is rumored by the other villagers to have had a relationship with Whitney, and he is implied to leave her a bouquet of blue roses during the film's credits sequence.
Pascal	Takashi Miike	An otter who Tortimer visits for advice about his election.
K.K. Slider	Shun Oguri	A dog musician who performs "K.K. Bossa" during the Fireworks Festival at the request of Margie.
Redd	Tetsuo Sakaguchi	A fox who operates a shop during the Fireworks Festival. He attempts to sell fake golden slingshots to Yū and Alfonso.
Wendell	Junpei Takiguchi	A hungry walrus who Ai meets on the beach. She brings him to her house and feeds him onigiri (Japanese rice balls).
Pete	Akio Suyama	A pelican postman who delivers Margie's goodbye letter to Ai.
Phyllis	Yūko Mizutani	A pelican who appears alongside Pelly in several scenes. She appears to be a bit rude, unlike her kinder sister.
Gulliver	Wataru Takagi	A gull who crash-lands his UFO in Animal Village. He claims to be an alien, and asks for the Animal Village residents to find his missing UFO parts.
	-	An alien that disguises itself as a piece of Gulliver's UFO. It reveals itself when UFOs appear above the village, presumably more of its kind, and it flies to them. It can also morph its body to that of Ai.

Background characters

The following characters appear only during the Fireworks Festival and do not have speaking roles. Their roles are also very limited.

• Dr. Shrunk
• Lyle
• Kaitlin
• Katie
• Saharah

Production

Gekijōban Doubutsu no Mori was announced in May 2006 in an issue of Hochi Shimbun, a Japanese online magazine, following the success of Animal Crossing: Wild World. Jōji Shimura, who previously worked on other animated films, directed the film, and staff from the Animal Crossing series assisted production.

In October 2007, Nintendo of America stated there were no plans to localize the film for North America., though some fan dubs exist online.

Music

The film features arrangements of several songs from Animal Crossing: Wild World, originally composed by Kazumi Totaka. One song, "K.K. Bossa", was given original lyrics by Nintendo for the film. "Mori e Ikō" is an original song that plays during the credits sequence, performed by Taeko Onuki and composed by Issei Bedaaka.

Release

Theatrical

The back of the theatrical release poster

Gekijōban Doubutsu no Mori was released theatrically in Japan on December 16, 2006 by Toho and became the third highest-grossing film of its opening weekend, earning approximately ¥246 million (US$2,085,729). By the end of 2006, the film had a total revenue of ¥1.526 billion (US$12,915,432), becoming the 30th highest-grossing film that year in Japan, and by the end of its theatrical run in 2007, it had earned approximately ¥1.7 billion (US$16,216,731). Viewers who pre-purchased tickets to the film received vouchers which could be redeemed for one of the six golden tools in Animal Crossing: Wild World.

Home media

A DVD set for the film

A soundtrack for the film, titled Gekijōban Doubutsu no Mori: Original Soundtrack, was released on CD on December 13, 2006, three days before the film's premiere in theaters. It features 46 tracks from the film as well as five bonus tracks from Animal Crossing: Wild World.

Gekijōban Doubutsu no Mori was released on region 2 DVD in Japan on July 25, 2007 by VAP, retailing for ¥3,990 (US$37.12). First-print copies also included an Animal Crossing-themed carrying case.

Television broadcasts

Gekijōban Doubutsu no Mori has been broadcast on Japanese television several times. Below is a table of known broadcasts of the film:

Date	Time (JST)	Channel	Ref.
October 4, 2008	12:00 PM	Kids Station
October 12, 2008	9:00 PM	Kids Station
March 20, 2020	4:00 PM	Kids Station
March 21, 2020	12:00 PM	Kids Station
March 27, 2020	11:30 AM	Kids Station
May 16, 2020	12:00 PM	Kids Station
July 29, 2020	7:00 AM	BS12

Streaming

Gekijōban Doubutsu no Mori is available to stream in Japan on Amazon Prime Video and Hulu.

Gallery

For more images, view this subject's gallery.

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  Alternate theatrical poster

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  DVD cover

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  Ai

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  Rosie

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  Margie

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  Tom Nook

Trivia

• During the credits sequence, a present attached to a balloon appears in nearly every outdoor scene.

Names in other languages

劇場版 どうぶつの森 Gekijōban Dōbutsu no Mori

Animal Forest: The Movie

External links

Gekijōban Doubutsu no Mori on other wikis

• Wikipedia

• Official website (archived)
• Theatrical trailer #1 on YouTube
• Theatrical trailer #2 on YouTube
• Theatrical trailer #3 on YouTube
• Animal Crossing: The Movie (2006) on IMDb