Gekijô-ban Naruto: Daikôfun! Mikazukijima no animaru panikku dattebayo! (2006)

Naruto, Kakashi, Sakura, and Rock Lee are assigned to protect Michiru, the prince of the Land of the Moon, while he travel the world. The prince purchased a tiger Sham and the whole circus, which became the team's protection.

Director:

Toshiyuki Tsuru

Writers:

Toshiyuki Tsuru (screenplay), Masashi Kishimoto (manga series)

Stars:

Junko Takeuchi, Chie Nakamura, Yôichi Masukawa

Cast

Credited cast:
Junko Takeuchi	...	Naruto Uzumaki (voice)
Chie Nakamura	...	Sakura Haruno (voice)
Yôichi Masukawa	...	Rock Lee (voice)
Kazuhiko Inoue	...	Kakashi Hatake (voice)
Akio Ôtsuka	...	Michiru Tsuki (voice)
Kyosuke Ikeda	...	Hikaru Tsuki (voice)
Rokurô Naya	...	Kakeru Tsuki (voice)
Marika Hayashi	...	Amayo (voice)
Tomomichi Nishimura	...	Principal (voice)
Kenji Hamada	...	Korega (voice)
Umeji Sasaki	...	Shabadaba (voice)
Masashi Sugawara	...	Ishidate (voice)
Haruhi Nanao	...	Karenbana (voice) (as Haruhi Terada)
Hisao Egawa	...	Kongo (voice)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Steve Blum	...	Additional Voices (voice)

Storyline

Naruto, Kakashi, Sakura, and Rock Lee are assigned to protect Michiru, the prince of the Land of the Moon, while he travel the world. The prince purchased a tiger Sham and the whole circus, which became the team's protection.

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Plot Keywords:

martial arts | ninja | based on manga | based on comic | anime | 

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Taglines:

The greatest knuckle headed ninja returns!

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Genres:

Animation | Action | Adventure

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Certificate:

TV-14

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

8 November 2008 (USA)

Also Known As:

Naruto the Movie 3: Guardians of the Crescent Moon Kingdom

Company Credits

Production Co:

Pierrot

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Connections

Followed by Gekijô ban Naruto: Shippûden - Kizuna (2008)

User Reviews

A Worthy, if Flawed, Conclusion to the Original Naruto Trilogy

Like "Stone of Gelel," this was a film I had only seen once back in the day. I was 13 when it premiered on Toonami, and I felt rather underwhelmed with it. However, upon re-watching it, I am happy to say that, while it has its issues, it's actually much better than I remembered it being.

The story is rather basic, but it's executed quite well thanks to the characters that Naruto and friends meet. Michiru and his son Hikaru are both endearing characters who go through compelling arcs of learning to become better and more caring people. Naruto's friendship with Hikaru felt very appealing and believable, even though there were a few too many scenes of them shoving their new friendship down our throats.

We get to see Kakashi Sensei and Sakura again, and joining them on the journey is Rock Lee. While it is cool to see Rock Lee, I'm rather disappointed that he didn't have much to say or do outside of the fight scenes.

We once again get top-notch animation with really interesting and beautiful settings. Most of the action scenes were pretty good. The action scene taking place at the beach wasn't anything too exciting, but the rousing climax definitely makes up for it.

The movie's biggest downfall is the villains. I'm not going to sugarcoat anything, they were pretty awful. Shabadaba (I can't believe that's actually his name) was one of the most one-dimensional bad guys I've seen in a while, and his henchmen were cardboard cut-outs with no personality. The baddies in the first two "Naruto" films weren't exactly groundbreaking, but they were still good enough to keep my interest. The ones in this film did not.

However, with great animation, an engaging character arc, and an exciting battle at the end, this is still a film that I enjoyed despite its flaws. While it's the weakest of the original "Naruto" trilogy, it's much better than I originally thought and it gets a recommendation.

RATING: B