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Naruto the Movie: Legend of the Stone of Gelel
What a captivating movie for the anime
ignoramus! Naruto, Sakura and Shikimaru are three young ninjas who are
on a quest to capture a ferret and return it to a village. Tree-flying
is simple and fun. But from there, the story expands. An ancient nomadic
tribe befriends an injured young Naruto. The legend of the Stone of
Gelel slowly emerges from quaint caravan travel stories.
A powerful Master is after an ultimate goal: to end all war forever and
bring about utopia. The film explores the moral trappings of such grand
ambitions. I found this angle the most interesting. There is also cute
humour running throughout which is a nice touch.
The disc features pop-ups which explain the basics of the genre, as well
as some key Japanese words. I appreciated these tremendously but I
imagine purists may be riled. They might also be upset by the feature
DVD’s audio tracks. The original Japanese sound comes in Dolby 2.0
whereas the English track is a very rich and impressive 5.1: let’s just
say it makes you glad to own a surround-sound system!
The animation is nice to look at but doesn’t pretend to aim for the lush
panoramas and details of Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away; rather it is
fast-paced and high on ninja interactions, predictably enough!
The second disc presents a lot of extras which I list: Creating the
World of Naruto the Movie; Write and Adapt like a Ninja; Words from
Japan; and original trailers and storyboard. The first featurette has a
lot of American voice actors rambling about their amazement: something
that failed to amaze or amuse me, but I guess others would be
interested.
This is a handsome package and fans do not need any persuasion. The
curious should watch it, especially with a friend, because only the
super-fussy would be disappointed!
DVD Special Features
Creating the World of Naruto 2
Write and Adapt Like a Ninja
Words From Japan
Production art gallery
Original storyboards
Original Japanese movie trailers
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