Based on the popular newspaper comic and anime TV series, Ninja Rantaro Flunks Again, comes this family friendly, live-action adaptation film called Ninja Kids!!!, directed by the one and only, Takeshi Miike (13 Assassins).
Just a little heads up, when you say the title, be sure to yell it because it does have three exclamations points. Ninja Kids!!! is about a boy named Rantaro (Seishirô Katô) who comes from a family of bad ninjas and has just been sent off to Ninja school to break the streak of unsuccessful ninjas in the family. The first half of the film shows us what life is like as a first grade ninja, what skills are to be learned and how to apply them to various situations. It introduces us to the school, the other kids, including Rantaro’s friends, the faculty that make up the school, and its ninja school competitors. In the second half, after feuding with another Ninja squad, the Ninja Kids are in charge of saving lives by competing in a race to determine if two specific people live or die.
I should start off by saying that this was the funniest live-action kid’s movie I have seen in years! Miike’s zaniness shines through after just coming off of making two serious samurai dramas, 13 Assassins and Hara-kiri: Death of a Samurai. It seems like he packaged everything that was missing from those two films and just unleashed it all on us in this one. Let’s just say it works unbelievably well. I sat watching this movie with about 35 adults and everyone seemed to love it. Now that’s a big deal with critics because this movie is chock full of snot jokes, fart jokes, and a lot of slapstick humor. In actuality, much of the humor came from the hilarious dialogue that coincided with those other jokes. I felt like I was watching The Little Rascals but instead of adorable and crazy white boys with witty dialogue, we get a group of adorable tiny Asian ninjas with clever dialogue and ridiculous looks, like extremely thick eye brows and giant poofs of hair. This is where I give my props to Yoshio Urasawa for putting together a very crafty and witty script.
Speaking of ridiculous looks, Happosai Dokutake, one of the Deans of another Ninja School and who is known as the evil leader, looks like the Asian version of Hector Hammon (the Green Lantern villain with the big head) except that he has a chin that looks like Peter Griffin’s from Family Guy, just a pair of big balls hanging underneath his mouth…it’s really funny. There are some other weird looking people throughout the film, and I clearly didn’t understand why, so just prepare to be thrown off every so often. I guess it’s because I never saw the show or read the comics, but I’m sure there is an illogical reason for their appearances.
What I truly enjoyed about this movie was the way the first half was broken down. I learned what the first classes in everyone’s Ninja career would be like if we all entered the first grade right now. We’d start off with cliff climbing, then we’d move onto Shells class, aka demolitions class, then we’d learn about the ninja sword, throwing stars and more. Most importantly, you learn that “every ninja loves Ramen Noodles!” A staple in every ninja’s diet.
Takeshi Miike did a great job filming this movie. It didn’t matter that you could tell things were clearly computer animated or that certain things didn’t make sense, he put together a hilarious family friendly movie that most will enjoy, something that has become increasingly rare these days. One other aspect that I really enjoyed was that Miike kept the anime spirit by tacking on those massive red bumps to peoples’ heads whenever they got injured. Despite how stupid and ugly it made the people look, it was so appropriate for a film based on an anime.
Overall, Ninja Kids!!! was a delight to watch. Even if does stretch itself thin at some points, it was still very clever and breathed new life into the down trodden slapstick comedy genre. Maybe I’m just really immature and twisted for liking this movie, but I know there are others out there who will enjoy this movie as much as I did. Although there are certain points where the story gets a little muddled, corny, and spirals slightly off course, I can’t really pinpoint a part I truly didn’t like, but that’s fine with me because on the whole, this movie made me appreciate the simple, and most immature, humor in life again.
Rating: A hilarious and childish ninja romp that’ll even get the hardcore cynics to smile (8/10)
Ninja Kids!!! makes its World Premiere on July 3rd at Lincoln Center and then screened again on July 9t at the Japan Society. It is co-presented by the 2011 NYAFF and Japan Cuts 2011: The NY Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema.
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