Naruto the Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow

It's a pretty well done movie. The story is interesting and unfolds well. Being a movie, the budget is higher, so the technical section is much better.

New jutsus come out that are very good and even Sakura herself has one! I can not believe it!

"Naruto" was favorite show of mine growing up. It has great action, memorable characters, and intriguing storylines. I was 11 years old when this movie premiered on Cartoon Network. I fell in love with it and watched it multiple times. Re-watching this movie as an adult, I find that there is still a lot to like.

I found the story to be fun and interesting, and it moved along at a good pace. Princess Yukie is a very sympathetic character, and the interactions between her and Naruto as he tries to make her come to her senses provide some nice drama.

The animation is still spectacular 14 years after its release, and the direction and cinematography is hugely impressive and really lets the audience take in the gorgeous snowy scenery. They did a good job of making sure that the series' first theatrical outing doesn't feel like an extended episode.

Doto doesn't necessarily raise the bar as far as villains go, but I still thought he was decent. He has an intimidating presence, and he is as evil as they come. I thought his three henchmen were cool, although I would have liked for them to be fleshed out a bit more. I really like the concept of using Chakra armor to make them more dangerous.

This movie takes place during the time in the show when Sakura and Sasuke were Naruto's teammates. It was a treat to see Sasuke (my favorite character) in the good old days.

The action scenes are great fun and really give every character a chance to do their stuff. Anime fans will be kept on the edge of their seats. The music is terrific and really adds to the movie's feel.

Of course, the line Yukie yelled out to Naruto during the climax made me absolutely CRINGE, and it did take away from the climax just a little.

I'm very glad that this movie holds up as well as it does. It starts the "Naruto" movie franchise on a pretty strong note, and I recommend it to all anime fans.

RATING: A-

My biggest fear was that this movie would ruin the original series for me, but thankfully that didn't happen at all.

Good: This movie gets really good especially in the third act getting near the ending. I am so glad I watched it because of how much fun the movie was.

Bad: One thing I wish the movie did was give more screen time to Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi. Also, throughout a good portion of the movie, the princess was rude and a bit annoying at times.

Firstly, I feel like mentioning this movie is (thankfully) not a canon. It has only shown what we have already seen in the original series. So, our protagonists - Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi, have got a mission to protect someone. However, all that person does is urging them not to get involved directly because the ones they are dealing with are 'dangerous'. As usual, Naruto's 'never give up' attitude goes for a win and manages to impact that person. At the end of the movie, the villain has to get hit by Naruto's Rasengan. That used to be the tradition of Naruto franchise back then.

I did enjoy this movie but as I said the movie is not a canon and you won't be missing anything if you decide to skip it.

I really enjoyed this flick, however, I probably gave it a higher score than necessary mainly because unlike every Dragonball Z movie, this film actually has a rather good running time of more than an hour and a half. So it has a better developed story, good action scenes, and of course some good comedy as well. The story has our gang having to escort a bit of a spoiled actress to a realm known as the land of snow. However, as easy as this sounds it does not play out this way as a strong gang of ninjas attacks again and again. Seems our actress has a secret and it is up to Naruto and pals to defeat this ninja clad in special armor. The fights are great showcasing all the young ninjas special talents as well as their teacher and there are a couple of surprises along the way as well. The animation is to be expected just like the television show with a few nice visuals along the way. Though I may only be saying this because I love snow and living here in Alabama I haven't seen any first hand in ten years or so. The characters are their usual selves and you will probably find the actress annoying at first then feel for her then dislike her again. The bad guys are typical, nothing to special about them, in fact Gaara from the television show is more menacing and a way better bad guy than any displayed here. Still, I really enjoyed this movie and hope to see the other Naruto movies released soon.