Product Description

Naruto, Shikamaru, and Sakura are executing their mission of delivering a lost pet to a certain village. However, right in the midst of things, troops led by the mysterious knight, Temujin, attack them. In the violent battle, the three become separated. Temujin challenges Naruto to a fight and at the end of the fierce battle, both fall together from a high cliff. Furthermore, Shikamaru, having been left behind, beholds a giant moving fortress as it appears before his very eyes. In order to get a grasp on the situation, he infiltrates the fortress by himself, however once there he witnesses a frightening sight...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24307 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-12-29
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 96 minutes

Synopsis
Naruto, Shikamaru, and Sakura are executing their mission of delivering a lost pet to a certain village. However, right in the midst of things, troops led by the mysterious knight, Temujin, attack them. In the violent battle, the three become separated. Temujin challenges Naruto to a fight and at the end of the fierce battle, both fall together from a high cliff. Furthermore, Shikamaru, having been left behind, beholds a giant moving fortress as it appears before his very eyes. In order to get a grasp on the situation, he infiltrates the fortress by himself, however once there he witnesses a frightening sight...

Customer Reviews

Another Decent (fan-aimed) Naruto Movie
The hidden leaf ninjas one and only blonde knucklehead ninja is back for a second full length feature. Naruto: The Legend of the Stone of Gelel. It is apparently set after episode 160 of the TV anime series.

The story begins with Naruto, Sakura and Shikimaru on a mission to return a missing ferret to it's owner; a pretty easy mission. However, things are never that simple in Naruto. Before long the yound Ninjas are attacked by a warrior wearing some kind of knights armour. This mysterious knight is called Temujin and he serves a master who wants to bring about a utopia, and to do this, he needs the stone of Gelel. A powerful but dangerous treasure that can grants the bearer tremendous power. However, the previous clan who harboured the stone have sealed it away in hopes that it will never be used again. So, Naruto and the gang, along with Gaara and Kankuro from the sand village must protect the stone from being recovered by those who want to misuse it's power. This is a plot that, while not really original, is stil acceptabe enough for a Naruto movie and obvious cash in from the series success.

The movie has plenty of great action scenes and everything to keep a Naruto junkie happy from the funny comedic bits, to the emotional perserverence speeches that Naruto likes to give. I must say that the action scenes look superb and they are directed very well. The action alone is enough to keep you on the edge of your seat. However, some of the names for the Jutsu' are just ridiculous. For example Kankuro's 'secret black move iron maiden 2', it's a cool move, but I laughed out loud when he said that.
As can be expected from a Naruto movie/cash in, there isn't a lot of characterisation at all, and pretty much all of the new characters created for this movie are rubbish. The only character I remember is Temujin, who is a kind of replacement for Sasuke, but he's still really forgettable. Other characters are Temujin's master (can't remember his name) and some old dude who looks after the ferret.

I was a bit diappointed that this movie doesn't include many of the characters from the series. One of the highlights of the Naruto series has always been the plethora of likeable characters. Favourites such as Rock Lee, Neji Hyuga, Kakashi and Jiraiya are all absent from this movie. I understand that there may not have been enough screen time to include all these characters in the story, but even a cameo would have been nice. However, you do get to see a certain raven haired, emo ninja, but even that's in a flashback, and he doesn't have any speaking lines. However, I was ecstatic to see my favourite Naruto character, Shikimaru playing a leading role this time round.

The animation in the Naruto series has always been of a high quality, and this movie is no excepton. Accompanied with a bigger budget, this second installation looks simply gorgeous. There are also some nice CGI effects thrown in that go quite well with the traditional 2D animation. So this movie actually looks like a motion picture rather than just an overlong regular episode.

Unlike the first Naruto movie, Legend of the stone of Gelels soundtrack is completeley original. It's not bad but there are a couple of catchy tunes, escpecially the song right at the end, which is a cool Jrock song. I watched the english language dub for this movie, and as usual it was really good. I particularly love Gaara's voice actor Liam O'brien, whos portrayal of the character is brilliant in my opinion, and the voice actress for Naruto, Maile Flanigan is superb. Love it or hate it, the Naruto english dub is one of the reasons I love Naruto so much. The Japanese language is still amazing but I tend to watch anime in english.

If you have never seen Naruto before, I strongly recommend you buy series 1 as it's less than £15 (at the time of writing this), and the series is way better. I'd say this movie is for the dedicated fans only as it is no where near the best Naruto DVD release, but it is still a worthy addition to your collection.

Butt Kicking Good!
Naruto seems to be a little bit of an idiot, but a loveable one.
In this movie, the second in the series: Naruto and friends stumble into the middle of a diabolical, genocidal plot while they are under hire to track down a missing pet.
As with any Japanese animee it's beautifully animated with all the cheeseyesq (in a good way) music and sound effects.
Another great example of a heart-warming tale where the insanely, squeaky-clean good-guys come up against the insanely candy-stealing, puppy-shooting bad-guys where both sorts have fantastical butt-kicking ninja-powers. Along with: unachievable hair styles, cool "come and get it" attitudes. Where the boys have far too much eye makeup (by any standard) and where the girls are heavily chested and seem to enjoy a moderate amount of S&M. Excellent!!

One For The Fans
If you're familiar with anime then you know the Naruto franchise and are aware of just how popular it is. In Japan the series has reached nearly 300 episodes, has more than 40 manga volumes, a multitude of video games, and features a plethora of OVA specials and feature films. VIZ has been handling the franchise quite nicely and recently it has released the plucky little ninja's second animated feature.

Legend of the Stone of Gelel may be new to us but considering it originally came out in Japan about three years ago it does feel a little behind the times in some regards. Then again the fact that it's still at a point beyond where VIZ's release of the show is I suppose that's not entirely the case. If anything this film feels a little too advanced for where we are with the series. How can Naruto use two Rasengan with two types of chakra? Why are Gaara and Kankuro friendly with the Leaf ninja? Other questions surface as the film goes on but if you take the more advanced stuff with a grain of salt such as we did with the first movie it's not so bad.

Still, no matter how you slice it this is one for fans of the show and it's not self-contained whatsoever. If you were looking at this release as a way to springboard into the franchise you're going to be left wanting. However, fans of Naruto will undoubtedly be more than eager to gobble this adventure up.

The film begins with a mysterious army attacking a group of ninja from the Village of Sand. Kankuro and Gaara appear just in time to dole out their fair share of pain but it's a short-lived effort as the enemy's technology is far superior than their jutsu at the moment. What is this strange force? Who is in control? Why are they attacking? Naturally the answers are sprinkled throughout the rest of the film and from there we're taken to Naruto, Sakura, and Shikimaru who are out on a mission.

Rather than safeguarding a person of importance or rescuing someone the trio of Leaf ninja is trying to catch a ferret. Once they catch the little weasel they are ambushed by the same group of armored monsters that attacked Gaara and Kankuro. The three use their skills to get through the battle but during the fray a blonde stranger arrives to confront Naruto. This guy is different than the others and he possesses strong abilities that give Naruto a run for his money. Eventually the cliff can't support their battle and the two are lost to the river below.

Naruto and his enemy wake up in a caravan of travelers and from there the story takes over though I'll keep details brief. Basically the blonde and his leader are attempting to end all wars by creating a Utopia and in order to do that they need objects known as the Stones of Gelel. As the tale continues the caravan is dragged into the happenings and Naruto and company go along for the ride. Some predictable twists are in store as well as some fine battles but there are many questions left unanswered in the end. Things tend to just happen forcibly for little reason and in the end the plot proves to be entertaining but not deep by any means.

The film does a fine job of pushing Naruto, Sakura, and Shikimaru into the mix but that's the thing; they feel forced into action. The plot is very flawed and there are several holes in the story but the characters introduced here are flawed as well. Obvious betrayal and flawed logic pepper Legend of the Stone of Gelel but those involved seem oblivious to what's going on. The problem here is that we're given a glimpse at the twists before they happen so as viewers we're never surprised. It kind of takes you out of the story for a bit as you tend to know everything that's going on before it happens.

In the end Naruto the Movie: Legend of the Stone of Gelel is basically just an extended episode from the show but without the sense of drama. A predictable plot, flawed character development, and things that just are for no apparent reason are the problems you'll find with this film. It's entertaining in the sense that there's a lot of action and some laughs in between but if you're looking for a deep Naruto story you're going to be disappointed. I felt that the film was enjoyable enough to recommend to fans but even that recommendation is a light one.