Anime fans may be really excited our very leery about the news we have for you today. Rumor has it that the popular series, ‘Naruto‘ may be getting a live action adaptation. For all the details on this, check out the news below, and sound off with your thoughts after the JUMP!
(Source: Moviepilot.com)
We’ve gotten a lot of different types of adaptions from Hollywood over the years. Book-to-film adaptions like Harry Potter and The Hunger Games, game-to-film adaptions like The Super Mario Bros Movie and Street Fighter: The Movie, and even toy-to-film adaptions like Transformers and G.I Joe! But the market Hollywood doesn’t seem to visit very often is the anime/manga-to-film adaption.
That’s because, to put it simply, most if not all live-action adaptions of anime or manga have been really, REALLY bad! For those who don’t know, “anime” is the Japanese word for animation, and that’s really what they are; Japanese cartoons meant for kids, teens or adults, depending on which one you’re talking about. A manga is basically the book or graphic novel form of that.
Like I said, Hollywood hasn’t done as much films based on anime as they have other forms of source material, because every anime-to-film adaption that’s come out has been a huge flop. Just look at films like Dragonball Evolution or The Last Airbender for a good example of a terrible movie. And yes, I’m aware that The Last Airbender is based on the American series, Avatar: The Last Airbender. But the show had so much Asian influences and themes, it’s considered by many to be a Western-born anime. And the film did it absolutely no justice.
Pretty soon, we’ll be subjected to yet another film that probably won’t make the show, or the fans proud – Naruto: The Movie.
A recently announced project by Lionsgate, the movie doesn’t have any cast or crew members yet, but Lionsgate is eyeing visual effects/animation artist Michael Gracey. The film does not yet have an official title either, but most likely, it will be called Naruto, Naruto: The Movie or My Childhood: Ruined (Part VI). I love Naruto, it and Dragon Ball Z were the first anime I ever watched. They simultaneously got me hooked on anime, manga and the entire Japanese culture!
It’s the very reason why I’m learning Japanese, so a Naruto movie should sound pretty great to me right? Sure, if it was animated like the others. I have nothing against Lionsgate, they’re a great film studio, and a live-action Naruto movie was all I dreamed about as a child. But all that dreaming ceased as soon as I watched Dragonball Evolution and The Last Airbender.
I know I talked about them already, but those movies were the absolute worst. They took everything about the shows they were based on—the relatable characters, the incredible visuals and the wonderful premise, and threw it all in the trash. Replacing them with dry and boring characters, lame CGI and the worst storytelling known to man.
So of course, I’m more than a little worried about the possibility of a live-action Naruto movie. I just really don’t want Hollywood taking something I love so much, and subjecting it to the dreaded anime-to-film curse. Still, it’s way too early to start judging the film. Right now, it’s only an idea, with not enough behind it for me to criticize.
That being said, as a fan of the show, and a poor soul who had to witness two of his other favorite shows transformed into live-action nightmares, I’ve decided to list off some things that I think the Naruto film needs to do to succeed. Now, this isn’t me saying “do all of this and then you’ll be perfect”, this list is just so the live-action Naruto movie hopefully doesn’t have to go through what all those other anime films had to go through. So, let’s begin, shall we?