Naruto the Movie 3 Guardians of the Crescent Moon   Starring (voice): Junko Takeuchi, Chie Nakamura and Kazuhiko Inoue Manga Entertainment RRP: £17.99 MANG5112 Certificate: 12 Available 28 December 2009

Naruto Uzumaki, Kakashi Hatake, Sakura Haruno and Rock Lee are all assigned to protect the prince of the Land of the Moon, Michiru, on his journey home. Michiru, being a very wealthy man, is able to buy anything his heart desires and along the way he buys a circus. This materialistic world view is mirrored in his son Hikaru. The team, circus and clients all board ship for the final leg of their journey home. On arrival Michiru is horrified to discover that his father, the King, has been deposed and the noble Shabadaba has taken control of the country. When he orders the new arrivals killed only the intervention of Koega, one of the king’s loyal soldiers, saves the day...

Naruto The Movie 3: Guardians of the Crescent Moon (2007 - 1 hr, 35 min, 01 sec) is an anime film based on the popular anime show and manga. The film was directed by Toshiyuki Tsuru.

Anyone who has read my increasingly negative reviews of the recent batch of DVDs in the Naruto series will be as surprised as I was to discover that this film is actually enjoyable. The animation is sharp and clean with a quality that is a million mile away from what the show can achieve. Add to this that the balance of narrative vs mindless fighting is better balanced and we finally have a Naruto film with a credible plot.

Partially the success of the film rests on the fact that Naruto and his gang are almost secondary characters in this drama, the real hero of the piece is Hikaru, a child born to wealth and privilege, who believes that anything can be bought. This coming of age tale sees him move from spoilt brat to a more thoughtful individual who understands that you cannot put a price on friendship and loyalty.

Of course like all Naruto there are fights and gags aplenty, this time the gags have been reeled in a little to reflect the deeper meaning of the show and the focus on the child/parent relationships, but the fights are even better. Usually when Naruto split clones himself for a fight the best the TV show can offer is ten or twenty Naruto’s here when he does it we have hundreds. This is how Naruto show be shown.

Disappointingly, the film only comes with audio options for either an English or Japanese 2.0 track with optional subtitle. Both audio tracks do the show justice, so it comes down to a matter of personal preference.

The disc does have a number of extras beginning with The Story of Naruto: Growing up a Ninja (22 min, 44 sec) which looks at the themes of the movie; it does touch on the TV series but only in passing, with contributions from the English dub team. Teamwork: The Art of Group Recording (7 min, 07 sec) takes a look at different styles of dub recording concentrating on group recordings. Last up of the real extras is Shooting for the Moon: A Conversation With The Naruto Movie 3 Producers (10 min, 42 sec) with contributions from the Japanese team, in Japanese with English subs. The disc is wrapped up with trailers for other Naruto shows.

To be honest I was expecting little from this film, but the team have really pulled a rabbit out producing not only good Naruto but also generally a good film. If you want to be reminded of why Naruto was so successful you could do worse than pick up the third movie.

7

Charles Packer