Naruto the Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow

Naruto the Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow (劇場版 NARUTO 大活劇! 雪姫忍法帖だってばよ!! Gekijōban Naruto Daikatsugeki! Yukihime Ninpōchō dattebayo!!^?, lit. Great Action Scene! Snow Princess' Book of Ninja Arts) is a 2004 Japanese animated action-adventure film directed by Tensai Okamura and written by Katsuyuki Sumisawa based on the popular anime and manga series Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto. It was released in Japan on August 21, 2004. The popularity of the series has spawned several sequels, beginning with Naruto the Movie 2. The movie takes place after episode 101. The ending song is called Home Sweet Home and is sung by Yuki. The English adaptation replaced this song with "Never Give Up" by Jeremy Sweet due to licensing restrictions.
An original video animation, Konoha Annual Sports Festival (木ノ葉運動会 Konoha Undōkai), was included with the Japanese release of the film. The ten-minute opening short revolves around Naruto's inability to use the bathroom while participating in a sports tournament. It is notable because virtually every character, living or dead, in the Naruto universe makes an appearance in it (most of them standing in a restroom-queue). Minato Namikaze also makes an appearance in the shot.

Plot

The film opens with Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha watching a film starring Yukie Fujikaze, in a local cinema. Kakashi Hatake has summoned them to watch it as preparation for their next mission: to prevent Yukie, who plays Princess Gale in the films, from being captured during production of her latest film. Yukie is later revealed to be Koyuki Kazahana, a princess from an island known as the Land of Snow. Doto Kazahana, who is revealed to be Koyuki's uncle, was responsible for the murder of her father Sosetsu in a coup d'etat. During the shooting of the film, Doto's henchmen, wearing Chakra armor, attempt to capture the princess, but Team 7 manages to delay the princess from being captured. Doto eventually captures Koyuki and kills her bodyguards, who reveal themselves in an attempt to protect and restore her rightful place as the ruler of the Land of Snow. Naruto enters the ship to rescue the princess, only to be captured and forced to wear a chakra-draining device. Doto forces Koyuki to hand over a crystal necklace her father had given her when she was young, thinking that this is a key that can unlock the hidden treasure Sosetsu had left behind before detaining both Koyuki and Naruto.
Sakura, Sasuke and Kakashi infiltrate the fortress while Naruto and Koyuki escape from captivity. They confront Doto but he manages to capture the crystal necklace and flees with Koyuki. Naruto proceeds to follow Doto while the remaining members of Team 7 confront Doto's henchmen. Kakashi gets his revenge by defeating Doto's henchman Nadare Roga, while Sakura and Sasuke defeat the other two henchmen Fubuki Kakuyoku and Mizore Fuyukuma. Meanwhile, Doto discovers the hidden treasure to transform the island into the Land of Spring using a heat generator. Naruto confronts him in a duel, but gets overpowered while Sasuke uses his Chidori to weaken Doto's armour. Soon after, Naruto releases his energy and uses his new Seven Colored Chakra Rasengan, killing Doto and activating a mirror to transform the land. At the end of the film, Koyuki decides to reclaim her rightful place of royalty and even mentions personally with Team 7 that even in the life of royalty, her acting career will not end.

Cast

Role	Japanese actor	American actor
Naruto Uzumaki	Junko Takeuchi	Maile Flanagan
Sasuke Uchiha	Noriaki Sugiyama	Yuri Lowenthal
Sakura Haruno	Chie Nakamura	Kate Higgins
Kakashi Hatake	Kazuhiko Inoue	Dave Wittenberg
Soutetsu Kazahana	Hidehiko Ishizuka	Cam Clarke
Koyuki Kazahana/Yukie Fujikaze/Princess Fuun (Princess Gale in the English dub)	Yuhko Kaida	Kari Wahlgren
Nadare Rouga	Hirotaka Suzuoki	Liam O'Brien
Sandayu Asama	Ikuo Nishikawa	Daran Norris
Fubuki Kakuyoku	Jun Karasawa	Cindy Robinson
Mizore Fuyukuma	Holly Kaneko	Kyle Hebert
Doto Kazahana	Tsutomu Isobe	Lex Lang
Director Makino	Chikao Ōtsuka	Michael McConnohie
Assistant Director	Akimitsu Takase	Sam Riegel
Omiji/Tsukekuro		Crispin Freeman
Ken/Buriken	Yutaka Nakano	Doug Stone
Hidero	Kan Tanaka	Jamieson Price

Releases

The film was originally released in Japan on August 21, 2004. It was later released on DVD on April 28, 2005. The film was released in 160 theaters in the United States as a one-day showing on June 6, 2007.^[1][2] Fifty threaters in Canada would see a one-day showing on June 23, 2007.^[3] Madman Entertainment did a special one-day theater release in Australia on October 14, 2007.^[4] In 2007, the film was shown at the Fantasia Festival and in the British Museum.^[5][6]
The DVD release debuted at rank 25 on Nielsen Videoscan.^[7]

Instead of the OVA included with the Japanese release, the American release included a short featurette entitled "World of Naruto", as well as a behind the scenes featurette afterwards with interviews with the main English cast and select members of the main Japanese cast. The OVA will, however, appear in the North American DVD release. The DVD was released on September 4, 2007. The film premiered on Cartoon Network on September 8, 2007. The film also played at Cineplex Odeon and Empire Theatres cinemas in Canada, distributed via Bell TV to play the film at all cinemas at the same time.
On November 13, 2007, a three-disc Deluxe Edition of the film was released. It has many extras and features that the standard DVD, released a few months earlier, did not include. It includes the ten-minute short "Konoha Annual Sports Festival" that was originally shown with the Japanese release of the film, the complete soundtrack to the movie, documentaries of the American voice recording of the movie, movie art postcards, and more.

References

1. Jump up ^ "Naruto Movie to Premiere in Theaters". Anime News Network. 21 March 2007. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
2. Jump up ^ "Naruto Movie Tickets, Theater List Now Open to Public". Anime News Network. 04 May 2007. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
3. Jump up ^ "First Naruto Movie Adds 17 More Theaters to Canada Run". Anime News Network. 30 May 2007. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
4. Jump up ^ "Madman Naruto Ninja". Anime News Network. 10 September 2007. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
5. Jump up ^ "Montreal Fest Shows Ghost in the Shell, Naruto, Tekkon". Anime News Network. 28 June 2007. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
6. Jump up ^ "British Museum Hosts Ghibli, Ghost in the Shell, More". Anime News Network. 06 July 2013. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
7. Jump up ^ "Naruto Movie Debuted at #25 on Nielsen's VideoScan 100". Anime News Network. 25 September 2007. Retrieved 26 August 2013.