Ranked #940

Naruto: Shippuuden Movie 3 - Hi no Ishi wo Tsugu Mono

First of all, don’t watch this movie unless you’re interested in Naruto because it’s a movie that mainly appeals to Naruto fans. I’ll assume you’ve watched to at least episode 120, Kakashi Chronicles, of Naruto Shippuden because there are references to Kakashi’s old friend. There are also references to Asuma. Just like the previous movies, Naruto goes crazy with his rasengan and shadow clone techniques in this movie too. But this is the best Naruto movie that’s been released so far.

The main enemy of this movie is Hiruko, some ex-leaf ninja that wants to become the perfect ninja by absorbing ninja with bloodline limits. He starts out having four out of five bloodline limits, but he needs one more ninja with a bloodline limit to become the perfect ninja, and that’s Kakashi. Kakashi decides to sacrifice himself for the Leaf in order to defeat Hiruko. But guess who doesn’t want Kakashi to die? Naruto, of course. “Those that break the rules and regulations are scum. But those that abandon their comrades are worse than scum.” That’s pretty much Naruto’s reason for trying to stop Kakashi. Friends over mission.

If you’re a fan of Kakashi or Shikamaru, you might like some of the lines they say in this movie. Of course, Naruto has some good ones, as well as cheesy lines too. Many of the other characters have their lines too, but nothing that great.

There are some light comedy, some good references to Naruto Shippuden, characters going all out with their ninja techniques, and of course the animation is good. You’d be able to tell how much effort was put into the animation if you compared it to Naruto Shippuden. All of that in one package makes a good Naruto movie.

The music was great. The music of the movie soundtrack fit well with the background to fit the mood of the scene. "Dareka Ga" by Puffy, the opening song, was pretty good to listen to.

The strong point of this movie is the references they make in this movie. The involvement of many characters is also a plus in this movie. This movie is a good watch for Naruto fans.
read more

I had relatively low expectations for this movie, seeing how all the previous ones were pretty bad. They all followed the same formula, which is to say Naruto preaches his views onto some filler character causing them to change their ideals and it would always end with Naruto rasengan-ing the big baddie. It was alright the first time, but it got stale after the 2nd movie and became absolutely abysmal for the next 3. Needless to say that asides from maybe a couple cool moments, all the Naruto movies have been bad, definitely not worth a watch. But than this movie came along and sorta changed things up making it slightly more fresh and enjoyable.

The story is pretty much standard fare, a disgruntled ninja named Hiruko is hunting down ninjas with Bloodline Limits and absorbing their abilities to become the perfect ninja and start the 4th Ninja War. He soon has his eyes set on Kakashi, and the next thing you know the movie becomes a Kakashi rescue arc. Now this isn't really a bad thing since there are no filler characters and Kakashi is a pretty likable guy (unlike Sasuke) so its easy to empathize with Naruto's gung-ho attitude about the whole thing. There are no real twists to speak of, so don't go in expecting a really good plot because you won't find one. This movie caters to the fans, so people who aren't really into Naruto won't like it either.

However that's not to say that they're isn't any meaningful dialogue or characterization. Sure Naruto is the same and preaches his ideals to anyone who bothers to listen but its still pretty entertaining. There's quite of bit of cheesy lines but some of the dialogue between Naruto, Shikamaru and Kakashi is well written and delivered. Naruto actually thinks his actions out and his speech towards the end is inspiring enough for us to get behind him, ignoring all the fat in between.

Anyway the biggest reason why anyone of us would watch this is for the fights, animation and production values, since hey, this is shounen after all. The animation is MUCH better this time around compared to the last two movies. The fights are good and the Konoha 9 get plenty of screen time. If you're someone who likes the side characters, you'll probably enjoy the movie quite a bit. Though the final fight is kinda disappointing, the animation is good enough to keep it together.

The music was surprisingly good. I didn't expect much at all from Pierrot, but they did a good job in creating a solid soundtrack for the movie. There are plenty of epic orchestrated pieces that that add quite a bit to the mood, especially during the fights. There's also a lot of good typical "Naruto rock", which is to say up beat songs, which are hot-blooded enough to get the job done.

In the end, I enjoyed this movie quite a bit. If you're a Naruto fan than its worth checking out, its definitely the best out of all 6. If you don't like Naruto than this movie isn't going to change your mind. Not that they could ever make a legitimately excellent Naruto movie, but its good mindless fun. read more