Naruto the Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow

Naruto The Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow (劇場版 NARUTO 大活劇! 雪姫忍法帖だってばよ!!, Gekijōban Naruto Daikatsugeki! Yukihime Ninpōchō dattebayo!!, lit. Great Action Scene! Snow Princess' Book of Ninja Arts) is a 2004 Japanese animated film directed by Tensai Okamura and written by Katsuyuki Sumisawa based on the popular anime and manga series Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto. It was released in Japan on August 21, 2004. The popularity of the series has spawned several sequels, beginning with Naruto the Movie 2. The ending song is called Home Sweet Home and is sung by Yuki. The English adaptation replaced this song with "Never Give Up" by Jeremy Sweet due to licensing restrictions.

An original video animation, Konoha Annual Sports Festival (木ノ葉運動会 Konoha Undōkai), was included with the Japanese release of the film. The ten minute opening short revolves around Naruto's inability to use the bathroom while participating in a sports tournament. It is notable because virtually every character, living or dead, in the Naruto universe makes an appearance in it (most of them standing in a restroom-queue). The dead fourth Hokage also makes an appearance in the shot.

Plot

The film opens with Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha watching a film starring Yukie Fujikaze, in a local cinema. Kakashi Hatake has summoned them to watch it as preparation for their next mission: to prevent Yukie, who plays Princess Gale in the films, from being captured during production of her latest film. Yukie is later revealed to be Koyuki Kazahana, a princess from an island known as the Land of Snow. Doto Kazahana, who is revealed to be Koyuki's uncle, was responsible for the murder of her father Sosetsu in a coup d'etat. During the shooting of the film, Doto's henchmen, wearing Chakra armor, attempt to capture the princess, but Team 7 manages to delay the princess from being captured. Doto eventually captures Koyuki and kills her bodyguards, who reveal themselves in an attempt to protect and restore her rightful place as the ruler of the Land of Snow. Naruto enters the ship to rescue the princess, only to be captured and forced to wear a chakra-draining device that digs into his belly. Doto forces Koyuki to hand over a crystal necklace her father had given her when she was young, believing it to be a key that can unlock the hidden treasure her father had left behind before chaining and imprisoning Koyuki and Naruto.

Sakura, Sasuke and Kakashi manage to infiltrate the fortress while Naruto and Koyuki manage to escape from captivity. They confront Doto but he manages to capture the crystal necklace and escapes with Koyuki. Naruto proceeds to follow Doto while the remaining members of Team 7 confront Doto's henchmen. Kakashi manages to defeat Doto's henchman Nadare Roga, while Sakura and Sasuke manage to defeat the other two henchmen Fubuki Kakuyoku and Mizore Fuyukuma. Meanwhile, Doto discovers the hidden treasure to transform the island into the Land of Spring using a heat generator. Naruto confronts him in a duel, but gets brutally outmatched while Sasuke uses his Chidori to weaken Doto Soon after, Naruto releases his energy and uses his Rasengan, blasting Doto and activating a mirror to transform the land. At the end of the film, Koyuki decides to reclaim her rightful place of royalty and even mentions personally with Team 7 that even in the life of royalty, her acting career will not end. It is shown she is holding a script, as Kakashi points out that she is "perfect" for it. It is generally thought to be the script for a Make-Out series book, as Kakashi is a huge fan of it, showing the way he reacts when he sees the script.

Cast

Role	Japanese actor	American actor
Naruto Uzumaki	Junko Takeuchi	Maile Flanagan
Sasuke Uchiha	Noriaki Sugiyama	Yuri Lowenthal
Sakura Haruno	Chie Nakamura	Kate Higgins
Kakashi Hatake	Kazuhiko Inoue	Dave Wittenberg
Soutetsu Kazahana	Hidehiko Ishizuka	Cam Clarke
Koyuki Kazahana/Yukie Fujikaze/Princess Fuun (Gale)	Yuko Kaida	Kari Wahlgren
Nadare Rouga	Hirotaka Suzuoki	Liam O'Brien
Sandayu Asama	Ikuo Nishikawa	Daran Norris
Fubuki Kakuyoku	Jun Karasawa	Cindy Robinson
Mizore Fuyukuma	Holly Kaneko	Kyle Hebert
Doto Kazahana	Tsutomu Isobe	Lex Lang
Director Makino	Chikao Ōtsuka	Michael McConnohie
Assistant Director	Akimitsu Takase	Sam Riegel
Omiji/Tsukekuro		Crispin Freeman
Ken/Buriken	Yutaka Nakano	Doug Stone
Hidero	Kan Tanaka	Jamieson Price

Releases

The film was originally released in Japan on August 21, 2004. It was later released on DVD on April 28, 2005. The film was released in the United States as a one-day showing on June 6, 2007. Instead of the OVA included with the Japanese release, the American release included a short featurette entitled "World of Naruto", as well as a behind the scenes featurette afterwards with interviews with the main English cast and select members of the main Japanese cast. The OVA will, however, appear in the North American DVD release. The DVD was released on September 4, 2007. The film premiered on Cartoon Network on September 8, 2007. The film also played at Cineplex Odeon and Empire Theatres cinemas in Canada, distributed via Bell TV to play the film at all cinemas at the same time. The film aired at the Great British Museum in London on July 28, 2007 for a single showing. The film was also slated for one-day showings in Australia on October 14.

On November 13, 2007, a three-disc Deluxe Edition of the film was released. It has many extras and features that the standard DVD, released a few months earlier, did not include. It includes the ten-minute short "Konoha Annual Sports Festival" that was originally shown with the Japanese release of the film, the complete soundtrack to the movie, documentaries of the American voice recording of the movie, movie art postcards, and more.