Road to Ninja: Naruto the Movie (2012)

Although I have watched this movie last year, I can't help share my thoughts on how awesome this movie is. This is by far the best among the Naruto movies. For fans of the series, like me, this is the ultimate treat. With great action sequences, plot, new takes on the characters, and some big emotional kick, this movie has it all. For the newcomers, it's just easy to catch up with the happenings. Or if you still couldn't catch up, just ask a friend who's a fan of the anime and he'll easily fill you in. I'm 18 now but I still can't stop myself from having teary eyes over this movie and that's the reason why I really loved Road to Ninja and the whole series itself.

Best Naruto Movie ever. The others are OK, they're not great, but usually OK, but this one.... this is what I expected from the other movies also. The situation was very moving, how Naruto experiences how his life could've been different. I cried every time Naruto cried. It was beautiful. The plot is not very interesting, he has to fight another bad guy in that mirror world, but it had a few surprises (tha Akatsuki isn't evil, for example), but the connection between Minato, Kushina and Naruto.... the struggling hero, knowing how surreal the situation is, trying his best not get his hopes high, trying to push away his parents, and still, he can't do it... it is the saddest movie of all shippuuden movies, and it tells more about Naruto, than any other film. I'll watch it probably a hundred times more, and I will still cry.

First off,this movie is incredible. From the fights,the occasional comedy to the overall story, it's a masterpiece. Considering it's from the creator of the entire series anything less is unaccepted. I'll try to omit spoilers in this summary. The movie is an original story from the world of Naruto,where Naruto and his friend Sakura are transported to an alternate reality by Madara Uchiha,where everyone they know's personality is reversed or changed. Now,Naruto and Sakura have to find a way to get out of this reality before they're stuck forever. The uniqueness of this movie to all the other Naruto movies is that for fans who've followed the series since it's conception,we get to see what Naruto truly desires which is his parents who died while trying to seal the nine tails demon that's inside him albeit to save the village in the process. We also see what it would've been like if Sakura had lost her parents instead of Naruto. All in all,if you've never seen this series and can't deal with having to see it from the beginning or wanna see why it's so popular,this is it.(though I do recommend you see it with someone who can sorta fill you in) Also for those who have been long time fans of the series,you owe it to yourself to watch it. The action scenes are great,the story feels like it could've been ripped straight from one of the comic's volumes and it's just the best Naruto movie ever.

Believe it or not, I have never seen anything Naruto until today. This name though, and the image of the young guy with three stripes on either side of his face, with the yellow spiky hairstyle, and wearing an orange jogging suit has long been familiar to me as a Japanese anime character. However, for some reason or another, I never got a chance nor the interest to see any TV episode nor movie from this franchise before, until my kids convinced me to bring them to watch this film this afternoon on opening day in a local mall."Road to Ninja" tells a complicated story where Naruto and his friend Sakura are sent into a parallel mirror world by an evil wizard, where their deepest dreams come true. Sakura, who resents her parents meddling with her life, realizes that her parents have both died as heroes. Naruto who had lived his entire life as an orphan, now enjoys the loving presence of his parents, Minato and Kushima. Both Naruto and Sakura are still cognizant though that they are living in an illusion that needs to be broken. Powerful ninja battles ensue during the night of the red moon, the only night when the spell can be broken by a mysterious scroll, and Naruto had to invoke the Nine-Tailed Fox within him in an attempt to return their world back to how it used to be.Despite the fact that I did not even know a single fact about Naruto or his friends, I did not find it difficult to get into the groove of this story. I had to ask a question or two to my son beside me to set me straight on character relationships, but overall it was not too tough to get through. The story was told very well, without really requiring an in depth knowledge of the animated series. The flashbacks give us the necessary historical background in order to understand better the current situation the characters are in. The clarity of this story development is quite impressive considering this is already the ninth Naruto film!I can now see why this anime series had been so popular over the years. No wonder this particular installment had just become the highest-grossing Naruto film. I think I might just go watch the first film and really get acquainted with this popular series more.