Naruto Movie 1: Dai Katsugeki!! Yuki Hime Shinobu Houjou Dattebayo!

Great for anyone that likes the Naruto series, it is independent from the series so doesn't interfere with the storyline of the series in any way. It also means you can watch and enjoy it whether you have seen the naruto series or not.
It was good because it was a combiantion of seriousness and comedy so you dont get weighed down by either.
It includes the characters Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi from the actual series, and you get to see all of them kick some butt!

Well, I'm not a fan of Naruto. I didn't watch the series before the movie. I bought the movie to see if it would help me get into the series, and I can't say it did.

First off, I found the story to be slow, although this could be because of my mindframe at the time. By no means should you base choices on my review; I'm not a huge fan of this kind of anime. The quality of the story was somewhat like that of the InuYasha movies, only even slower imo.

The art was as good as any other basic anime really. I won't mark ... it down simply 'cause I disliked Naruto's character design. All else was good, and there were some decent flashback shots.

Sound worked well, but Naruto's voice sucked more than I thought it would; he sounded like a girl! Other than that, the voices were well cast and the music all worked quite well. Okay, it's not my kinda music, but considering what it is, it was good. Perfect for the genre.

The characters were fairly decent; what I saw of them. I might have liked them more had I watched the series, but the only one I disliked at all was Naruto because he was a total stalker! All the other characters were nice enough, but I wouldn't recommend anyone else watch this movie without watching some of the series first. I lacked a lot of background knowledge and so, evidently, felt nothing for anyone.

Enjoyment...well, take it for what it is. Since it's not my kind of anime, I found it slow, dull, monotonous and simply did not like it. But for those who enjoy this kind of anime, with lots of action and not a huge, complex plot: go for it.

**THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN A FEW SPOILERS**

Ahhh Naruto, I used to be the biggest fanboy of the anime. I would buy all the action figures, video games, and pretty much all the merchandise but ever since I was able to view anime in a more critical perspective I started to notice that it had so many flaws and this is also including Naruto: Shippuden. The anime has a huge amount plot holes, the pacing in it is terrible, the setting doesn't know what it wants to be, there is gigantic amounts of filler, deus ex machinas, contains many underdeveloped one dimensional characters, and the whole ... idea of being ninjas is thrown out the window with the absurd amount of power the characters obtain. So whenever I look back at all the Naruto stuff I have, all I can do is cringe. Does this movie in any way help the anime? Nope. Will this movie convince anybody to see the anime? Not at all.

Story: (3/10)

The story of Naruto Movie 1 begins with Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura watching a movie at a movie theater with Naruto starting to really like the lead actress of the movie. Kakashi then assigns them to go on a mission to escort the lead actress named Kazehana Koyuki to the land of the snow to film a new movie but at the land of snow old enemies start to rise and cause problems. From the get go I already found the story to be very predictable. Naruto and his team meet new enemies and fight them, main character of the movie gets kidnapped, the team then goes to rescue her, and finally Naruto is able to beat the main villain by using the power of not giving up and friendship. I have seen this type of thing happen all the time in the anime and the creators could of at least put a spin on it to make it seem different but that did not happen. There were many moments in the movie that didn't make any sense and were always answered by using the power of not giving up. Another problem I had with the story was how it would show modern things like a movie theater, a film studio and filming supplies, and as well as a blimp which doesn't make any sense to have in the type of setting that the anime establishes.

Art and Animation: (5/10)

The art in this movie is fine at best. The backgrounds are okay, the character designs are okay but would look off model at times, and the special attack visuals are good. The animation in the movie is good and is much better than the animation in the anime.

Sound: (4/10)

The soundtrack in the movie is very generic and forgettable with only the ending song of the movie being good. The voice actors did a fine job with the characters but no one stood out.

Characters: (3/10)

The characters are definitely the worst part of the movie. Naruto is still his stupid self that is the typical main character that is able to defeat every villain through nakama power even though he is the second weakest member of his team. Sasuke is still his not caring about anything self and he is barely in the movie with him only being in scenes whenever the group needs to fight. Sakura is still the character that does not contribute anything to the story and she is in the movie even less than Sasuke was. Koyuki, the main character, is not likable at all. All she does in the movie is be angry and whiny at what anybody says to her and suddenly changes her personality at the end of the movie. The villains in the movie are all very underdeveloped and one dimensional and this just makes them look like their whole purpose of being villains is to be villains.

Enjoyment: (3/10)

The only enjoyment I got out of the movie is how the action scenes were animated.

Overall: (3/10)

Naruto Movie 1: Dai Katsugeki!! Yuki Hime Shinobu Houjou Dattebayo! is a movie that would only be found decent by the fans of the anime and anybody else looking to watch it should stay far away from it.

The first Naruto movie may not be a memorable one, but it's certainly enjoyable at the least. The story doesn't stand out to be anything that great at all. In fact it's actually quite predictable, that doesn't mean it wasn't decent though. While it is a typical Naruto story there's still some enjoyment in the action scenes and the emotional dialogue scenes. The conclusion also was in typical Naruto fashion which as always was a nice touch. The animation worked as always, and was enhanced for the movie making the environments and characters look and move around better. The sound was crisp and clean and ... the soundtrack comprised of original songs and tracks from the anime worked as well. The characters are a mix of the main protagonists from the series, some new ones as well as new antagonists as well. This is a bit disappointing though, considering the villains were made out to look fairly strong in the first encounter with our heroes but were defeated fairly easily in the next fight. I do like the concept of the Hidden Snow Village, it was kinda cool but we didn't see much of them. The story revolved around a princess, she was a typical predictable character at best. She had her moments and she was functional, but you can't help but notice the typical scenario of the rogue personality type who eventually finds the good in herself blah blah. Like i said though, she was functional and worked in the story. The main villain wasn't that interesting, after his plan was revealed there wasn't really a sense of urgency because the story doesn't do anything to make you believe he can really execute his plan. He and his allies do show off some cool Jutsu, and watching them fight with team Kakashi was pretty cool because of the unique jutsu of the snow ninja and the better animation. If the story had a bit more depth it would've made the movie as a whole better. Still, like i said, the movie did have its moments and by the end i wasn't completely dissapointed.

In all the story is nothing great, it's predictable and the story itself is nothing great. I still enjoyed it however, the snow ninja and action sequences are cool. The animation and sound are good quality as always and the ending is lighthearted and a nice touch. The conclusion is actually one of the highlights in my opinion, but anyway if you're a fan of Naruto you'll like the movie. It could've been better but i enjoyed it anyway.

7/10. Hope this helped (:

So I recently watched this movie, having completed the first Naruto series, and I would definitely say it was nothing special.

The plot seemed to have a very 'Naruto filler' feel to it and didn't grab my attention. I thought that the princess' issue with the season, Spring was pretty weak and not a good enough reason for her to hide or feel disappointed. The princess just screamed helpless heroine and it was very unoriginal. In fact, I felt no connection towards the newly introduced characters whatsoever.

However I should mention, that the strength the main character, Naruto demonstrated was very endearing. He played a good role ... in the story, though it is the same determination he has in the anime series, so for people who who are familiar with his character this will be no suprise.

The art was just a tiny bit better than in the Naruto series and the wide range of new jutsu's made the fight scenes more exciting. If your looking for an action packed anime movie regardless of plot then this film will be suitable for you.

STORY: 6
ART:7
SOUND: 6
CHARACTER:6
ENJOYMENT:7

OVERALL: 32/50 : 64% : (Good-7)

I recognize the effort put into trying to make this movie good, but while I applaud the attempt, it doesn’t quite get there for me. I think it mostly has to do with the conflicting elements this film has. It was jarring for me to see some modern features added to Naruto, which I always thought to be situated in older times. Even the clothes of some of the new characters contrast with the more traditional attire of our main characters, and it just looks uneven. The film also has a sci-fi-esque quality to it, with the Land of Snow’s emphasis on technology, and it ... feels a little out of place in the world of Naruto. The presence of the camera crew also ruins a lot of the mood for me, turning dramatic moments into something bizarre. I know the main series always combines lightheartedness with deeper and more serious themes, but the film’s silly movie premise not only manages to make these two clash, but renders them ineffective as well.

I do, however, appreciate how experimental they are with some parts of this movie, even though it doesn’t work out that well and the main plot line is fairly uninspired and involves the usual story beats. It’s also interesting to experience a different location aside from the usual villages. Sakura does some fighting here, which is something I always look forward to, and Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi are their usual selves.

It’s not completely bad, but neither is it something I recommend.

Naruto is the most overhyped anime in the history. No doubt about it. It's popularity comes from the mixing of a bunch of populare ideas together with a character any kid would love. But, imagine having all the bad stuff being taken out of Naruto, and all the good qualities of the series in one great movie!

Now, enjoy the great atmosphere we all felt in the beginning of the show before it became bad, as naruto and the gang (Yay! Naruto, Saske, Sakura, Kakashi - the ultimate team) go through another action packed adventure full of surprises, with one of the best plots for ... a movie from this genre.

I won't tell you about the movie itself, so you could enjoy it entirely, but I'll say it was had a very original plot and wasvery fateful to the series itself even if you haven't seen it yet.

This review is not serious in anyway, only for fun.

So me & a couple of friends ended up watching this, as a joke, for some anime movie night after watching Time Bouken & Colorful.

The whole time watching this, we ended up making fun of it in certain scenes. One scene was when Kakashi & Nadara were doing a contest on "Who can finger who first", both of them got fingered in the end.

The movie was pretty ok. Sakura's falling for Sasuke, Naruto became a princess hunter, Sasuke's doing nothing & Kakashi's still cool reading his romance novels. The art style was nice, ... especially when they placed Rainbow Chakra, where they ran out of ideas into this movie. The music is obviously the same as the TV series, its been overused to the point that it's become a laugh track for every naruto episode.

I especially enjoyed the final battle. My excitement level is the same as if Eeyore were to have a birthday, nothing exciting. The change in terrain from an Icy cold land, to a spring grassy land looked so realistic, it's like I was there the whole time! And the final boss wasn't that great; the only thing that made it is when you add a score & total it.


Overall, it's an ok movie to watch. It's better with friends so you can make fun of it.

The first Naruto film sets the tone for the ones to follow, which is to say that it is heavy on action and worldbuilding while light on the character pathos that the series is (in)famous for. So I would say that your enjoyment of these films hinges on what aspects of the Naruto series you find most appealing. For me, the fact that these movies do not take themselves as deadly serious as the canon series does is actually a point in the movies' favor.

The Land of Snow is a great concept, and I found myself legit interested in it, even though its denizens were ... not the most compelling of characters. It just seems to fit a niche that was not explored in the actual series. We have villages in deserts, mountains, forests, and whatnot, it seems to make sense that there would be one in a snowy area. The plot is a bit strange in that it centers around Team 7 bodyguarding a movie actress - the technology in Naruto is truly bizarre, we see trains later on as well. But it is nice to see Team 7 doing normal missions, I wish we saw more of them being an actual team. This is the only of the three pre-timeskip Naruto films to include Sasuke.

Ultimately, the plot about the actress secretly being a princess is fine, not particularly engrossing but suitable enough to set up fights, which is what I personally am here for. The Snow Village goons are quite memorable as far as goons go. One of them summons an ice narwhal, while another one has a rocket-powered snowboard!

Most importantly, the fight scenes are basically the opposite of the canon series' fight scenes in that they are fast-paced, kinetic, and devoid of meaningless blather from both sides. Thank God! The fights here are great. I really liked Sasuke and Sakura's team-up, it was great to see Sakura employing some strategy here. The ending bit with the "Rainbow Rasengan" was lame, but the battles against the minions were pretty lit, not gonna lie.

In the end, the movie succeeds at fights and worldbuilding, and so I recommend it to any fan of Naruto.

The first Naruto movie, I'd say, is enjoyable. It's a fun watch. The beggining is a bit of a drag. The story is mediocre, to be fair. It's mostly cliched Naruto filler plot. However, this one is more ambitious, I suppose. The art is pretty good. Fight scenes are fast, fluid, exciting and action-packed thanks to it and it really does look pretty. That is the best part of the movie, I suppose. As I said, the story is nothing special, so if you want to watch it for that reason, you shouldn't expect a great story.

The soundtrack was a bit underwhelming, compared to ... the anime at least. But it's still good. Characters, however, lack. Sasuke and Sakura are just one-dimensional. They barely have any personality here. I mean, Sakura isn't really a great character but I am one of those people who actually like Sasuke. They are just...kinda there. Kakashi and Naruto are relatively cool here, however. The others are pretty forgettable. So it's mediocre in that department.

They screwed up the ending a bit. Not that I cared much as the story was average.

Overall, Naruto Movie 1: Dai Katsugeki!! Yuki Hime Shinobu Houjou Dattebayo! (God, this is a long name) is alright. If you want some Naruto action, it's a decent watch. It's fun, at least. Did enjoy it.

Naruto: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow (2004)
Directed by: Tensai Okamura

Naruto, the very first anime I ever saw. I have so much nostalgia for this anime. This is my review for the first Naruto movie directed by Tensai Okamura.


Story (8/10)

The film starts out with Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura watching an action movie at a movie theater with Naruto really liking the main heroine in the movie. Their mentor, Kakashi Hatake, assigns them with a new A-ranked mission to escort and protect the main heroine actress from the movie that they were watching. Her name is Koyuki Kazehana. They need to ... protect her in the Land of Snow where enemies arrive and start to cause problems. The story was very good but very predictable if you are a huge fan of the anime like I am.

Art (10/10)

I have always loved Masashi Kishimoto's art design. His art is just absolutely amazing in my opinion. The fight scenes are executed perfectly and Tensai Okamura's direction supplements it greatly.

Sound/Music (10/10)

The soundtrack is practically the same as the anime. It is perfect and I love every instrumental and track throughout this entire movie. One of the best aspects in not just this movie but in everything Naruto.

Characters (7/10)

Naruto and Kakashi have great character development, as well as Koyuki. However, Sasuke and Sakura are very one-dimensional ish and could have had so much more development and thought put into their characters.

Enjoyment (10/10)

I have always loved Naruto as it was my very first anime. I know Naruto isn't the greatest of all-time, but I love it so much. I love the action, drama, humor, violence, and most importantly the messages it gives to audiences both young and older alike.

Overall (8/10)
Naruto Movie 1: Dai Katsugeki!! Yuki Hime Shinobu Houjou Dattebayo!, directed by Tensai Okamura, is a very predictable but entertaining film. It serves the anime justice and is a perfect example of a good anime film....

I will try to keep spoilers to a minimum, and be as vague as I can about certain plot points.

I think that this film has been taken out of context by a lot of the fanbase, and has thus been misvalued. I don't think that this film is anything groundbreaking by any means, but it is for sure and enjoyable watch that is ripped on unjustly. It is difficult to match a complex story such as Naruto's in the space of 90 minutes, especially as this is non-canon, so plot points have to be introduced and concluded in that time period. The film seems to ... be aware of that, and so hones its focus on Naruto's influence on the princess and her state of mind. The overarching theme of the plot is that there is always a way out, no matter how dire the situation may seem. Not much else really matters, and it doesn't have to.

Story:
The story itself is pretty generic. It is set after Tsunade becomes the Hokage, but before the final arc of Part 1, which I think is a pretty nice time for a filler/movie. Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi get tasked with escorting a film crew to direct their film to the Land of Snow. The first few scenes up to and including the first battle reminded me a lot of the opening act of King Kong. They have a few fights, the film's mid-story twist is that the princess is actually a real princess from the Land of Snow, who has been exiled but is been chased down as she holds the key to a treasure. Her agent was her servant when she was a child and is very passionate about saving their country from the new leader. His leadership of the country is never really explained, the only thing we know about him is that he employed a few dirty, immoral tricks to get into power.

The rest of the story is pretty predictable and nothing special happens. There are a few ninja fights, Naruto and the princess get captured, they break free thanks to Naruto's cunning wit, and a final fight happens ending in a pretty cool cinematic fight scene. One part I particularly liked was when Dotou brutally murders an entire militia. Naruto was just starting to get through to the princess, and then bam. Her resistance force, led by the man who looked after her from a young age, is completely wiped out along with any growth shred of hope she had. It's a very tragic scene, which adds a lot more understanding to the princess' psyche, especially during the aftermath, and really emphasises the overarching theme of the plot. The man also stays dead, which I didn't really expect from a film like this, but it was a nice touch, and really changed the mood of the film to a more serious tone.

The treasure turns out to be... Spring. Turns out the old king created a device using Rainbow chakra to end Winter. This does raise up a lot of questions, but none of much importance, and the poetic meaning behind the rapid change in scenery (and the artwork itself), is enough to make me not care about nitpicking this final twist.

Art:
The art itself is pretty much standard Naruto for its time but with a better budget, so the characters are drawn better, and the animations look a lot cleaner. I particularly liked the black Ice Style jutsu used by the main villain, and Naruto's Rasengan is also a beauty. The scenery is grey for nearly the entirety of the film, until the very end, where vibrant colours are everywhere. It illustrates the main theme of the film very well, and is a welcomed addition by the director.

The use of 3D models with a 2D background is very difficult to get right, but the train scene seems to make it work without any complaints. The standard film techniques like slow motion and the use of distance shots are used pretty well, and overall this is a pretty well done visual piece for its time.

Sound:
Not too much to be said here. The soundtrack just uses the old Naruto soundtracks which we all know and love. It's used appropriately, and I don't have any problems with it. It would have been nice to have an original soundtrack for the film, but when you have a pretty solid one at disposal, I guess there isn't much point in wasting time, money and effort in creating a brand new one.

Characters:
A major criticism of this film is that Team 7 excluding Naruto and the antagonists aren't really utilised that well. I do not really think that Team 7's usage being more than it already is would make the film any better, outside of fanservice. In fact, I'm glad that Sakura (a criminally underrated character in the fanbase) was given things to do and seemed almost as useful as Sasuke throughout the film. They are all given a couple of times to shine, but this film isn't about them - it's about Naruto and the princess.

The antagonists aren't fleshed out either, but they don't need to be. The first three we face are just mercenaries. They don't need a backstory, as we already know all we need to know about them - they've been hired to track down the princess. It's pretty common in the ninja world; our protagonists are hired ninja too. You could argue Dotou could have been fleshed out a bit more than the "he's a bit of a dick" thing the film told us about, but again, I don't think it is necessary. The film is about staying strong in the face of difficult situations. Dotou just needed to be powerful and evil enough to be a horrible dictator, but not powerful enough such that a fully motivated end of part 1 kid Naruto to defeat. Naruto at this point is pretty comfortably Jonin-level anyway, having defeated Gaara and learned the Rasengan, so it's not as if that's anything unbelievable.

Naruto is supposed to be the voice of reason throughout the film with his powerful optimism, which he uses to try to win over the princess, who is depressed and has lost all hope. The film is centred around these two characters. The princess is actually really relatable and realistic. Her growth over the course of the film isn't rushed either, and it's pretty entertaining watching her develop, regress, and then finally be convinced by Naruto. It doesn't feel unnatural, and is heartwarming to see. This is "the power of friendship" done right.

Enjoyment:
I watched this with my 10-year old sister while babysitting her. We both enjoyed it quite a lot. It isn't anything groundbreaking, but it is not a bad watch by any means, and we enjoyed it enough. There weren't any scenes that I didn't like, and there were quite a few scenes I really liked. Naruto's speeches doesn't ever feel out of place, and besides the final twist which doesn't really have any bad consequences, there's not a lot of nitpicking to be done.

The movie is pretty good for where it is set in the movie. it is set right after the "Search for tsunade" arc ends. it is a good side story from the show after that arc.

It is a fairly decent movie but it is very repititive and has a meh plot.

The new main character in this movie is VERY formulaic and not that good imo. She is pretty similiar to tsunade in the show.

The villian is also very formulaic and boring, but he has strong chakra armor which is a new element.

The land of snow is very beautiful and a good place for it to ... be set in.

I like that the naruto music is used again here and they didnt make a new soundtrack for this.

First thing first I prefer that you watch this movie right after the 101 ep.
Just to let you know there are little spoilers in the STORY part of the review.

mine opinion:
This movie is a better filler of NARUTO. You usually watched a naruto filler to make yourself laugh a little, but this movie gave us more. You weren't just here to have a little laugh. They also gave us a reasonable story that could cause you to shed some tears.
STORY
From the beginning, it was more miserable but then it turned into quite an interesting story. As always, Naruto reversed the opinion of the main ... character or the person who quickly despairs. We saw the flea side of the princess with that and it really put me in a good mood. Soon after, the princess began to fall in love with him as he saved her from running away from the fear of dying. Like the princess fell in love with naruto, I fell in love with the movie myself and shed quite a few tears.
ART
When you usually watch naruto you don't get quite good art or graphics. But this movie was something different. From my perspective, the art itself was better.
CHARECTERS
Like I said this movie is a better filler. So there was not enough time to get to know the characters more accurately. They still did quite a good job on that but I wasn't satisfied.
Overall, this film was neither bad nor perfect. In the end, it really is your choice if you want to watch. If you’re a big naruto fan like me, don’t hold back and go watch it. HAVE A BEAUTIFUL DAY AND KEEP ON BELIEVING LIKE NARUTO. Sayōnara

<Potential Spoilers>
As of writing, this is the only Naruto movie I’ve watched.

It’s a shame because I truly enjoyed the movie and want to watch more Naruto movies. Despite the fact that the events of the movie are never mentioned in the anime and the driving conflict was boring. The film is saved by its amazing animation that is comparable to modern-day animation, along with the return of Naruto’s iconic soundtrack and the return as well as the introduction of memorable characters.

The narrative follows Naruto’s team protecting a film crew from any potential threats to their livelihood. However, the lead actor of the film has a ... much more important role in the land they are present in. The narrative itself seems generic when reading a plot summary, but despite this generic storyline, the film is a lot more enjoyable than you would think. While it isn’t as enjoyable as half the arcs that are present in the Naruto show, it’s still something I can watch and enjoy.

The animation is surprisingly good considering the film was released in 2004, I’m unsure if I watched a reanimated version of the film. But regardless, the animation was brilliant, following all the necessary requirements for what is considered good animation. Consistent anatomy of characters, realistic movement, and consistent art style.

The soundtrack or Naruto is iconic, anyone who’s a fan of the series can instantly recognize it. So the return of this iconic soundtrack is brilliant. The music can easily make a scene intense, or sad, or disturbing. Voice acting had a decent performance, I could only watch the English dub so I'm sure the performance of the voice actors in the sub was better.

The return of characters like Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi and seeing them work as a team is nice to see. Considering that won’t be seen for the remainder of the show. However, the main villain was just boring especially when compared to other Naruto villains. And Yukie serving a greater role than what was originally presented I saw coming from a mile away.

While there are flaws present in the film, that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy an anime film with amazing animation, soundtrack, and characters.

Overall, I rank this 7/10

This is the first Naruto movie and still the best of all that were made. It has an atmosphere much closer to that of its earlier episodes, when the show was still fresh and interesting. As far as movies go, you can of course expect far better production values and flashier battles. Yet it has something more than just an excuse for a parade of special attacks. It is by all means nothing more than a filler mission but it had a smart concept that went beyond the simple plot of “Let’s go save some petty village for money”.

The basic plot is about our heroes ... escorting an actress while she is being part of a film. Along the way, ghosts and a sinister plot come along to spice up the seemingly dull objective. So in a way it is like the first arc of the tv-series, which begins as simply escorting an old guy back home before the whole thing escalates to a nation-wide conflict. The twist of having movie-making in the story is also a nice catch, since not only this way it is an in-joke to the tv series itself getting its own movie for the first time, but also because the actress is in reality pretending to be “just” an actress. These things are very interesting to find in an otherwise short filler mission and it is definitely eons better than those dreadful tv filler arcs.

You don’t need to have watched any of the series to understand what is going on with the plot; it is quite simple and doesn’t delve too much into anyone important character’s past. At least not in a canon way. Supposed Kakashi knows the leader of the enemy ninjas and he is inferior to him or something but you won’t see that guy again so no worries.

Despite the twist with the movie, the overall story is still the typical Naruto fare: Some person is all emo, tragic childhood, greedy adversaries, people fighting in duels, Naruto end the battle with a Rasengan. It could be far more memorable and interesting if more time was invested into getting to know better the princess and the people of Snow Country but as usual you can’t find all that in the duration of a film. Plus, a lot of time is spent on completely irrelevant events called BATTLES! Seriously, this is an action movie and there is a lot of it but because you don’t care much about the characters you end up not caring about the action. And it’s not that exciting compared to the major battles of the main story so you can’t even like it as guilty pleasure too much.

Yukihime is focused upon and fleshed out on a decent level, which I liked a lot, but all the other Snow characters are left completely one-dimensional and are thus boring. This matters a lot when it comes to the enemy ninjas who are less than caricatures. Even as far as the heroes are concerned, only Naruto was actually necessary to the story, as he was there to “melt the ice” from the actresses’ heart. Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi were just dragged along just because they are in the same team and the movie needed more people to fill in the fights. Ok, maybe Kakashi’s past mission in the same place has a little to do with it but it is mentioned only in passing and means nothing in overall.

And thus you get a film based on two people who are not given enough time to become memorable for their interaction and lots of cameos that are there just to do some flashy but shallow fighting. It would of course be too much to expect more from a filler movie but in theory it would make it far more enjoyable if there was more interaction and less fighting. Although this is supposed to be aimed at kids who probably only expect to see emo kids fighting so I am not so sure if that would work either with that sort of target audience.

Anyhow, I liked the movie to the most part and disliked how the secondary cast was “just there”. I also loath the ending which had some sort of magic gismo melting the ice, like this is a fairy tale or something. Not bad in overall but far from great and lacks replay value.

I definitely enjoyed this movie.

First and foremost, I just wanted to point out what a huge budget they had for it! Considering it was made in 2004, the animation is up to par with some of the newer anime animations that are out now in 2018! It truly was incredibly appealing to watch.

The story line was alright for me, I definitely think it could've been better. Sometimes I felt like some things were done too quickly, or not thoroughly enough, but in the end, everything pretty much made sense. It was also fun to watch the fight scenes too! The character developments were meh. It ... was like there, but wasn't. More things could have happened and such.

All in all, it was a cool movie to watch. It was something simple, quick, and enjoyable.

I really didn't enjoy this movie. Then again I really don't like Naruto to begin with. It's really for the most part boring. The humor is flat, the story is idiotic, the villains are all stereotypical, straight-forward, power hungry morons and the overall feeling just isn't there. I guess the artwork was a step up from the series if not too colorful and I guess the music fit the scenes, but other than that there really wasn't much to it. I'm already not a fan of the characters because I find them all to be annoying, right from that obnoxious little shit Naruto to the ... whiny Sakura. The actress really wasn't much better. She was weakly developed and the cast and crew were boring. Honestly, I would say avoid this if you're looking for something more, but if you aren't demanding and you hate logic than this is for you.

It's Frozen meets Peter Jackson's King Kong meets The Last Samurai so if you like any combination of those movies you'll probably enjoy this.

Props to Sasuke for doing something nice for Naruto. Sakura finally does something in a fight. The art and fight choreography were way better than anything that I've seen in the show (through season four) and refreshing when doing a rewatch of Naruto. The sound design felt a little more off compared to the series where at times the character dialogue seemed to be quieter than the rest of the movie, but it may be a byproduct of watching on Netflix.

I think ... the best part of this movie is it implies the Hollywood of the Naruto universe regularly hires PMCs to coup other nations for the sake of a good film.

I think for all the people who got into anime because of Naruto, the English title of this movie has become shorthand for "super non-canon adventure in a new town with new characters that are never seen or heard from again." This came out before Naruto as a series had very much filler, so this was like an introduction to filler for a whole generation of anime watchers. So how does it hold up?

It's... okay. It doesn't do anything especially bad, it's just another mission for Team 7 to go on. I think in that sense it's actually really neat to see all of Team ... 7 working together on missions like this because in the manga canon they really only go on the one away mission before the series of events that leads to Sasuke defecting. There's was a short anime filler between the Tsunade arc and the Sasuke Retrieval arc where they went on an away mission but that was it. These Naruto part 1 movies are all we've really got to showcase how these 4 used to work as a team together before they could all summon kaiju and blow up mountains with DBZ energy blasts. In that sense I think it's an alright movie.

I think in the grand scheme of Naruto filler, most of which I despise and which nearly ruined the series for me, this one is just below being average, but above being intolerable. 6/10