The One Thing The Naruto Movie Needs To Do To Succeed

WHELP! ITS HAPPENING! Naruto is getting a big live action Hollywood adaptation from Lionsgate. The success or failure of this movie is going to have a huge impact on the future of the anime industry, but more on that in another article. This movie has several challenges it’ll need to overcome in order to be a global success. You’re going to need an aesthetic that’s faithful to the source material so visually the film looks unique enough to stand out among previous franchise blockbuster fair, but also not too weird and stylized that it turns people away and….oh

Character shots from the Naruto stage musical in Japan. Yes, that's a real thing.

Well ok, looks like that job is all done for them.

There are many other challenges like finding a balance between the funny moments for kids and the darker moments, and Oh no wait Avengers and Harry Potter already showed us how to do that. Um… they’re also going to find a way to make the more visually flamboyant Jutsu work and....oh you know Dr.Strange did that really well.

Wow, looks like the Naruto movie is primed for success in terms of finding an audience, and being visually believable. So then why am I worried enough to feel the need to write this?

Well, it's clear they want to start a franchise to rival Harry Potter with this, so in this spectacle driven, blockbuster landscape we currently live in, I'm afraid they'll make this first film bigger than it needs to be, the way they’re going to try and smash the first two Artemis Fowl books together. The big battles from the second Fowl book will provide for lots of 3D CG spectacle to wow the world wide audience, but it sounds VERY expensive and Artemis Fowl is nowhere near as popular as the Harry Potter books were before they got their movies. So instead of making a cheap, tight 90 minute film based on the first book, I fear they’ll spend too much, not enough will go to see it, and we’ll end up with another Percy Jackson or Vampire’s assistant, and those movies weren’t even that expensive.

So, if they really want to make Naruto into a franchise, they need to start as small, and as cheap as possible. So the film doesn’t have to do crazy numbers to establish a beachhead, in an increasingly crowded blockbuster industry. And thankfully the material for that is baked right into the source material, ready to go.

Its pretty simple. You take the first half hour to establish the world and characters with Naruto learning that he’s the host of the Nine Tailed Fox, and Kakashi’s first test for Team 7. Don’t bother with Konohamaru. Introduce him in the 2nd one if you want to, but not here. Don’t do the thing where Naruto tries to impersonate Sasuke to make out with Sakura. Then you take another 90 minutes max, to adapt the Bridge Arc. It’s simple, small scale, and personal in a way that if done right, will make audiences around the world fall in love with these characters and get them to come back for the inevitably more expensive sequels.

Now Lionsgate. Don’t Screw It Up!