Lord
All Mighty
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That isn't where I would end it. I would end it with Team Kakashi going their separate ways to prepare for the final part of the exams. The Hokage wouldn't have died yet. You can have all that bonding in the exams. In fact, the do. Surviving the forest is a deal and half. It brings them closer, shows the dangers of the ninja world even more and always for interaction with their fellow ninjas.
If the adapt Chunnin exams, yeah, i think they should separate the story into 2 films separated by the training. But for the first film in the series, you would leave the main plotline (the exams) incomplete. Also, the chunnin exams should probably be shot back to back, would be a risky project to take on.
You can't make a big film series like this, and avoid the arc. It just doesn't work imo. It is like starting Star Wars without Vader, LotR without Sauron or Harry Potter without Voldemort.
You're not avoiding the arc, you're eaving it for later, just like not every superhero film starts with the main nemesis, or with the most famous storyline. Also, Vader, Sauron and Voldemort are present from the beginning of their film series, up until the end, while Orochimaru appears a while after we are already familiar with the main characters, and while having a major presence, he's later disposed of as a way to show Sasuke's progress, and is pretty much absent for the rest of the story, not realy being the biggest threat of the story or even the main villain's henchman. He's brought to back in the final arc, sure, but it was pretty much pointless and he gets stuck in the big moon plan illusion. Starting with Orochimaru makes it seem like he's going to be the final villain, while starting with someone else, then having Orochimaru for a while, at the first time bigger villains are foreshadowed, shows that he's a big player, but probably not the biggest villain of the story.
An hour is plenty of time to establish the world, the main characters and handle their "training" before the exams. Then an hour plus dedicated to them? Plenty of of time. You do not adapt word for word, and I wouldn't do that with Naruto if I could.
I never said the manga should be adapted word for word.
If you handle it like Harry Potter, then I am on the right track. They streamlined the heck out of it. Zabuza is a subplot, and doesn't require screentime.
They took the main stories and streamlined, but they didn't pick and choose the most important books, otherwise, the first 4 books would have merged in 2 films. Did we need to see Quirrel for example? Nobody ever mentions him again, but Philosopher's stone was still a good story and worth adapting. Hell, we didn't need to spend an entire year following the mystery behind Peter Petigrew, you could have just found a way to go straight to Voldemort's resurrection, but the story simply was good enough to deserve that time.
Zabuza arc was also one of the best ones in Naruto, would be a giant waste to not do it, as it's the right introduction to the ninja missions, the idea of the seven swordsmen, the Sharingan, Kakashi's methods, etc. By the end of Zabuza arc you have a clear ending and the public is left with some ideas to think about regarding Haku's sacrifice and Zabuza's tears.
Also, streamlining still emans you have to leave certain things to let the plot breathe a bit, it's can't be just plot plot plot.
Naruto would be a five, maybe six film series. You don't need to adapt everything. A lot of Naruto is repetitive from a storyline perspective. You need to concentrate on what is important.
Anyway, we both know how the other thinks Part I should be aproached on the big screen, but how would you take Part II? What should be the big end game? Kaguya? Madara? Tobi? Obito + Madara? Orochimaru? Pain? Nagato as Pain? Sasuke?