Crayon Shin-Chan: My Moving Story! Cactus Large Attack! [Review]

This new movie of Crayon Shin-Chan was released in Japan cinemas on April 2015. Malaysia's GSC Cinema has brought this movie into the country starting 20th August. I went to watch it on last Saturday, 22nd August. That was the first time I went to cinema to watch Shin-chan movie. I have watched a few of Shin-chan movies from DVD in Malay language. My favorite one is Shin-chan's 9th Movie: The Storm Called! The Adult Empire Strikes Back! . In this post, I will talk about Shin-chan's newest movie from my point of view and of course, there will be spoilers ahead.

Shin-chan Movie's Promotional Poster from GSC Cinema

In this movie, the head of Nohara family, Nohara Hiroshi, the 'eternal' assistant manager of Futaba Company (as claimed by Shin-chan) got promoted as a manager in Mexico Branch of the company. His job was to import a type of fruit with sweet and delicious honey inside it produced from a new cactus species found in Mexico into Japan. This type of fruit was only available in Madakueruyobaka Town of Mexico.  Appearance wise, it looked like Dragon Fruit.

Fruit from new cactus species.

Initially, Hiroshi decided he will go alone to Mexico but after a discussion with his wife, Misae, the family decided to move out together. Shin-chan was excited with the moving but not his friends/comrades in Kasukabe Defense Force especially Kazama. Shin-chan and Kazama went into a big quarrel until the moving out day arrived, Kazama alone didn't come to say good bye to Shin-chan.

A Good Bye gathering for Nohara Family

Shin-chan's friends (Nene, Bo, and Masao) sent him off

Kazama did not show himself during the sent-off but he ran along Shin-chan's train ride course to exchange final greeting "Kasukabe Defense Force, FIRE!" with Shin-chan. A quite emotional scene between these two best buddies.

Upon arrival in Mexico, Nohara family spend a short time in a capital city before riding a bus to Madakueruyobaka Town. They were so excited to see their new home in a form of nice mansion like in a pamphlet that Hiroshi received but reality was not like that. What they got was a half-completed house with brick walls and windows. In Mexico branch, Manager Hiroshi was assisted by his only employee, Jose who can only speak just a few words of Japanese. Nevertheless, Nohara family was able to adapt in the new environment, get used with their new house, and learned how to speak Spanish.

Nohara family and their new home

Shin-chan attended a local kindergarten with a beauty as his teacher, Carolina Sensei. Knowing Shin-chan, he spent no time to fall in love with Carolina. He also met a school girl who was always busy with her smartphone and he called her 'Smartphone-chan'. The girl didn't like him because of his annoying attitude. Hiroshi encountered a major problem in convincing the town Mayor to give the right to sell the fruits to him. The Mayor refused to sell the fruits outside of town and only insisted to sell them locally. He started babbling on how poor the town before the discovery of the new cactus species and how the town's economy was saved by the fruits.

Shin-chan and Carolina Sensei in Cactus Festival

Smartphone-chan

The stubborn Mayor

The town held a Cactus Festival to celebrate the new cactus species. There was a giant cactus tree from where the fruits were harvested. On top of the tree, a large flower was going to bloom. The whole town was eager to watch it blooming. 

The giant cactus tree with its going-to-bloom flower

However, once the flower was in full bloom, smaller cactuses separated themselves from the giant cactus tree and started to swallow people. It turned out that the giant cactus tree is a killer cactus. Chaos fall upon the town and the smaller cactuses destroyed the town while swallowing the people. 

Chaos in the town and town people got swallowed by the smaller cactuses

Nohara family found themselves as refugees in a bar together with Carolina, Smartphone, Mayor, a coward wrestler called Rodriguez, a jobless singer named Mariachi, and a few of other town residents. They were soon found out by the killer cactuses and tried to escape with a bus to next town. The bus was under attack during the trip which caused the bus to crash. 

The survivors were chased by the killer cactuses on their way to bus station

The bus was under attack

The remaining survivors (Nohara family, Carolina, Mayor, Rodriguez, Smartphone, and Mariachi) escaped into a cactus theme park built by the Mayor for the town's attraction. The gang tried a plan to escape to the nearest town from the smaller cactuses but the plan was spoiled by the Mayor's clumsiness. By some coincidences, they got to know the weakness of the cactuses. Guess what, it's WATER! Duh, I didn't notice that during the screening and it's common sense that cactus is weak to too much water. Well, they found out that weakness after one of the killer cactuses died after got sprayed by Shin-chan's urine during its attempt to swallow him when he was doing his business. Very Shin-chan like.

The last survivors: Nohara family, Mayor, Smartphone, Carolina, Rodriguez, and Mariachi

Shin-chan's dog, Shiro was not with the family. He got left out during the festival. During the chaos, Shiro bravely saved three strays dogs who always bullied him by stealing his food. The stray dogs looked up to him and Shiro gained three lackeys after that. 

Shiro and one of his lackeys

Back to the survivors, now that they knew the cactuses' weakness, they made a plan to use water in reservoir tank, stored it in a big balloon, and splashed it to giant killer cactus. Rodriguez who managed to overcome his cowardice and Mariachi volunteered to distract smaller killer cactuses' attention. The Mayor was initially not agreed with the plan since he still believed that the giant cactus can be useful to the town. But after opening his eyes to the destroyed town, he went to help the gang by becoming a decoy to attract the giant cactus attention to the balloon position. The giant cactus has turned into a monster and chased after the Mayor. 

The giant cactus met with the balloon and attacked it with its tentacles. It turned out that the tentacles didn't have thorns on it so the balloon would not explode. Shin-chan looked at his KB badge that he received from Kasukabe Defense Force and there was needle attached to the badge that was supposed to be a safety pin. He ran to the balloon, jumped, and pierced it with the needle. The balloon successfully got burst and the giant cactus died from the huge amount of water splashed out from the balloon. The swallowed people still alive inside the giant cactus and they safely came out from it. It was noted that carnivorous plant took some time to digest food. 

Notice the needle behind the badge

The peace restored in Madakueruyobaka Town and since the giant cactus has died, Mexico branch of Futaba company was shut down and Nohara family would return to Kasukabe. The Mayor opened the cactus theme park in his effort to rejuvenate the town's economy and it proved to be a success. The End.

OooHoiii!!! I'm back, kasukabe!

The movie was entertaining for 1 hour and half although there were some boring moments especially before the climax. It certainly not the best or funniest Shin-chan movie ever but it is very fun to watch for kids and families. The kids can learn about cactus, its weakness against water, cooperation and teamwork. It's really a pity to not be able to see Kasukabe Defense Force in action this time since the team was a core element in the previous movies. But it's also refreshing to see how Shin-chan could act without his usual comrades.

For Malaysians, do check out this movie in selected GSC cinemas. Bring your families and kids to watch it. It's worth your money. Rather than spend your money for movies like Pixels or Fantastic Four, Shin-chan Movie is more worthy. Feel free to leave your comments and check out Shin-chan movie's trailer below (^_^)/