Dōbutsu no Mori (film)

An anime movie was released in Japan on December 16th, 2006. It was directed by Jouji Shimura and has been released on DVD. It features many aspects of the series. The trailer can be found here.

Plot


The Animal Crossing film starts with a girl named Ai traveling by cab, driven by Kapp'n, to a far-away town called Animal Village. On the way, Ai is established as an enthusiastic and independent young girl, keen to experience a life on her own. After being dropped off outside of the Town Hall, she is greeted by Pelly and Mayor Tortimer, who heckles her over the winter vote for mayor (and does not take it too well when she does not understand his question). She is given a map and is directed to "Nook's Cranny" - after finding her way there, she is quickly sent out on a bicycle to deliver lots of items by Mr. Nook, the excuse being that she ought to greet the members of the town. Sent out with a pile of goods, Ai quickly becomes friends with the dramatic Rosie. She soon delivers a box of 500 pies to Alfonso, but is abruptly interrupted by his cries of ecstasy for his delivery, and a boy dressed as a ninja with a net called Yu, causing Alfonso to give chase with his net leaving Ai to place the delivery in his house. She delivers to Whitney, who appears cold (much like snooty villagers) and asks her to place the delivery in her house for her, it is not until she starts walking away she then realizes that Ai is new. Ai leaves Whitney and goes to the Able Sisters' shop, where she is greeted by Mabel. While making the delivery, she notices the clothes (a bunny shirt and cherry shirt) when suddenly Margie walks in and begins conversation between the two sisters. She leaves them to talk and we soon see Tom Nook waving at Ai after a hard day's work. She leaves for her house, walking by the beach when she is confronted by Yu after having a spider drop on her head, we soon find out Alfonso and Yu were competing against each other to catch it (much like the bug competitions in the game). After having a net dropped on her head and a cockroach thrown at her face, the scene ends with her screaming in disgust.

On the second day, Ai is sent to do more deliveries, heading to Apollo's house (when a Common Butterfly flies passed). Again, Yu interrupts, chasing a dragonfly. This knocks Ai into Apollo's flowerbed, crushing many of his blue roses. This causes Mr.Resetti to appear - about to give a lecture on town rules. He lets her off as it was an accident. He directs her to the The Roost to find Apollo. After finishing her deliveries, Ai heads home and says hello to Margie. They quickly get along - Ai learns that it is Margie's dream to become a designer. Margie refers to a person's talent as a "cherry pie" and subsequently shakes a cherry tree, giving some of its fruit to Ai. On this day, we are also introduced to Hopper and Champ, who feature throughout the film as minor characters.

In her search for the mysterious Apollo, Ai is directed to The Roost by Resetti. She walks into the Museum and finds an almost complete fossil exhibit, which causes her to scream. Blathers and Celeste come to see what happens. Ai notices that the fossils have information and find one fossil empty. Blathers starts mentioning facts about the empty fossil container and explains that it is his dream to see it filled. Celeste pulls her aside and directs her to the cafe.

Ai walks into the Roost, and meets two people arguing about music over a table. After inquiring if either of them is Apollo, they burst out laughing - they are Cesar and Cyrano. They claim that Apollo has been very grumpy recently, but stop talking when he enters the room.Apollo then says someone destroyed his flowers then Ai then confesses and apoligze for killing his flowers. Ai soon discovers a secret note-in-a-bottle saying: Plant a conifer on the snow festival and something miraculous will happen.

After some time, Yu and Alfonso start a fossil search and make Ai, Margie, and Rosie lead them to a cave full of fossils. As Yu tries to climb up to reach a higher one, the rocks begin to crumble and the group only just make it out. A few days later, there is festival where K.K. Slider performs K.K. Bossa upon Margie's request. Soon after, Rosie tells Ai that Margie moved away in order to fulfill her dream of becoming a designer, which makes Ai upset because Margie never mentioned it, although she soon recovers. Ai soon discovers a secret note-in-a-bottle saying: Plant a conifer on the snow festival and something miraculous will happen. After she receives many more letters like the first, she plants what she is supposed to plant on the Winter Festival.

That is when Gulliver arrives in his broken ship and requests that the villagers find his missing pieces. Ai, Rosie, Yu, and Alfonso go to the same cave they visited in the summer, where they find Margie who had come for a visit. Yu retrieves the missing piece which they return to the alien. However, Champ has also found the same piece, which confuses Gulliver. The piece Ai found turns out to be a whole separate alien, which thanks Ai before returning home. The trees Ai planted turn out to be in the shape of a star.

Starring Characters

 * Ai
 * Alfonso
 * Pelly
 * Margie
 * Mayor Tortimer
 * Rosie
 * Tom Nook
 * Yu

Minor Characters

 * Apollo
 * Blathers
 * Brewster
 * Celeste
 * Cesar
 * Champ
 * Cyrano
 * Gulliver
 * Hopper
 * Kapp'n
 * K.K. Slider
 * Mabel
 * Mr. Resetti
 * Pascal
 * Pete
 * Phyllis
 * Redd
 * Sable
 * Wendell
 * Whitney

Background Characters

 * Dr. Shrunk
 * Lyle
 * Kaitlin
 * Katie (Maigo-chan)
 * Saharah (Roland)
 * Timmy
 * Tommy

Trivia

 * During the credits sequence, a present attached to a balloon appears in every scene.
 * In the fan-dubbed version, Alfonso frequently said "It's-a me," a reference to the Mario Emblem on his shirt.

Links to film

 * Part 1
 * Part 2
 * Part 3

Images