Philippine broadcaster ABS-CBN has announced on its “Kapamilya Asianovelas” Facebook page on Sunday that the premiere of the 3D animated movie Stand By Me Doraemon has been moved to Easter Sunday, March 27.
The movie was set to premiere on March 13, during the “Kapamilya Kiddie Blockbusters” movie block, but was preempted due to “changes in programming sched”. It was replaced by the comedy movie “The Game Plan”, starting Dwayne Johnson and Madison Pettis.
Animation International – Philippines, the licensor of Doraemon in the Philippines, has offered an apology regarding the preemption of the movie airing.
The company also stated that they will “… discuss what has happened with their announcement and why the movie did not push through [on Sunday].”
Stand By Me Doraemon is the 36th feature film of the popular series, as well as the first one to be produced in 3D computer-generated animation.
Takashi Yamazaki and Ryuuichi Yagi, who previously collaborated on Japan’s first feature-length 3D animated film Friends: Mononoke Shima no Naki, directed Stand by Me. Yamazaki also handled the movie’s screenplay.
The movie was released in Japanese theaters in August last year, which had earned commercial success as it ranked number 1 in the Japanese box office and became the fifth highest grossing Japanese film in 2014, which earned a total of ¥8.38 billion.
The movie also earned numerous animation awards, including 38th Japan Academy Prizefor Outstanding Animation and 2015 Tokyo Anime Award for Animation of the Year.
Local film distributor VIVA International Pictures and Multivision Pictures Entertainment had released the anime movie in local cinemas in June last year, which was screened in English dubbing.
Philippine broadcaster GMA Network, which is the main competitor of ABS-CBN, had previously announced that “new episodes” of Doraemon television series is set to premiere within this year.
