Release
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 160 theaters in the United States as a one-day showing on June 6, 2007, courtesy of Fathom Events.[2][3] Fifty theaters in Canada would see a one-day showing on June 23, 2007.[4] Madman Entertainment did a special one-day theater release in Australia on October 14, 2007.[5] In 2007, the film was shown at the Fantasia Festival and in the British Museum.[6][7] The film grossed $11,141,307 in the box offices.[8]
The film uses most of the voice actors from the original television series with Junko Takeuchi returning as the role of the protagonist, Naruto Uzumaki. In contrast to the TV series, Takeuchi found this incarnation of the character to be more challenging to portray. She noticed multiple scenes where she had to yell such as when Naruto runs away from a train while holding Yukie. However, she felt that Naruto continued standing out as a character despite his young age such as when often talks about his ideals of not giving up to achieve his missions which contrast to her early skeptical views on him. Kakashi Hatake's voice actor Kazuhiko Inoue noted that he often assisted Takeuchi during recording of the movie in a similar manner to his character whose primary role is to support his students. As a result of the film being first recorded in Japanese, the actors expressed pressure and honor in delivering such roles.[9]
The DVD release debuted at rank 25 on Nielsen Videoscan.[10]
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 Satellite TV to play the film at all cinemas at the same time.
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.
