So...They're Making A Naruto Movie

Naruto is often one considered to be one of the anime that got a lot of people into anime, being called one of "The Big 3" that acts as a gateway anime for a lot of people (The other two being One Piece and Bleach) and that is exactly what it was for me. I watched plenty of anime beforehand, but this was the one that made me realise there was an entire art form behind this, it was the first anime i watched the subbed version of and made me appreciate the medium a lot more. Over the years my love of it died down as i became more attached to another anime and Shippuden just wasn't that good i felt. But nevertheless, Naruto is always going to hold a special place in my heart and is always going to be one of my favourite anime because of it. So with this news of a live action Naruto movie in the works, i have a fair bit to say about it. According to Variety The movie will be released by Lionsgate, directed by first time director Michael Gracey and will be produced by Avi Arad's company Arad Productions.

I am against this, i am absolutely against this, and not just because i'm a fan who hates the corporate Hollywood system, but because there isn't a single piece of information released so far to give me confidence. Now granted these are still very early days so a lot could change my views on this, the movie could be awesome, but as of right now I have no faith, and here is why. First of all, Hollywood's attempts at making live action anime movies in the past all SUCK films like Dragonball Evolution and The Last Airbender (Because yes i consider that an anime because fuck you) are some of the worst films I have ever seen, even if i had never seen the original source materials i would still hate them. And this is a combination of two things: The people involved not understanding/respecting the source material and the fact that anime is so ridiculous and over the top sometimes that it just doesn't work in live action. Naruto is a story about a world of ninjas who can summon giant talking frogs, control the elements and are basically able to use magic, it's not a story that can be adapted into live action for mainstream audiences can take seriously. Even though anime has jumped in popularity in the past few years and Naruto being one of the most popular itself, it's still a niche medium, they're not household names and not everyone watches anime, because it's still very silly and the Japanese culture can sometimes...conflict with western ideologies, let's put it that way.

Which is another point to bring up, even though the characters themselves aren't necessarily Japanese, the show has heavily Asian philosophies and cultures in them, the Hidden Leaf Village is very Japanese, the Hidden Sand Village more middle-eastern, etc, but Hollywood is probably going to butcher it and Americanise it to make a mass appeal, which is bullshit because changing the culture changes the entire tone and style of the series, and if you can't capture that then how can you be expected to make a faithful adaptation? Then there's the matter of taking a 700 chapter manga/640 episode anime and turning it into a 2 hour movie. Even the first story arc in the show took 19 episodes, not to mention the majority of characters are 12 years old and are supposed to get involved in serious action. And they better bring the score from the anime, because that score is badass.

Then there's the crew behind this, have a first time director and giving them this big a project, that's a big risk, but my bigger problem is with Lionsgate. Yes they've released a bunch of good indie flicks and other small films, but when it comes to the big releases, the mainstream films, their films range from absolute garbage to pretty good. But even when it comes to adapting a single book they cut out half the material and wash it down for mass appeal, this is taking a continuous franchise and adapting maybe 5% of that into a movie. Basically it's impossible, even if they were to make this into a franchise, they're taking the challenge of establishing this world, making it believable for new audiences, the origin of our main characters, give them fully developed story arcs while also making sure you have enough set up for a sequel, throw in a fair amount of creative and clever action sequences, respect the themes and style of the source material while also creating enough to make yours feel unique and do all that within 2 hours...yeah that doesn't sound very promising there does it?

-Danny