Boruto: Naruto the Movie, released on Aug. 7 in Japan and Oct. 10 in the United States, is the 11th Naruto movie to be released in the past 11 years. Unlike any of the previous Naruto movies, this animated film focuses on the children of all shows’ major characters. Masashi Kishimoto, the creator and animator of the manga comic and anime, developed this story line to show how the characters have grown and introduce audiences into a new group of heroes.

The movie takes place after the fourth great ninja war. Naruto, show’s protagonist, has become the leader, known as the Hokage, of his village. He has settled down, marrying a childhood friend and fellow shinobi Hinata. He has two children, Boruto and Himawari. Similar to how Naruto was a child, Boruto is headstrong and impatient; however, unlike his father, Boruto possesses much more natural talent. Despite this, Boruto is more than willing to take short cuts as he wishes to surpass his father no matter what it takes.

Boruto grows to resent his father because the Hokage has become exceedingly busy and has little time for his family. This causes him to turn to his father’s long time rival and friend, Sasuke. He begs Sasuke to train him so that he can defeat his father in battle. Sasuke agrees to train the young ninja, seeing the potential in the child to be the only ninja who could surpass Naruto.

Boruto begins to train for the upcoming Chunin Exams, a series of tests designed to test and nurture young ninja’s abilities, so that he may impress his father. He is successful as he invokes great admiration from his father as a result of winning every round of the exams. Naruto expresses great pride in his son, that is until he discovers that Boruto was cheating on the Exams, using an illegal ninja tool which gave him an unfair advantage. Naruto disqualifies his son and strips him of his ninja rank, which drives Boruto to further resent his father.

This quarrel is interrupted as two mysterious figures appear at the Exams and proceed to destroy the arena. They reveal that they are after the power of the Nine-Tailed Fox that Naruto contains within him. In order to prevent anyone from being harmed, Naruto allows himself to be taken.

In order to save his father, Boruto and Sasuke travel to another dimension. They find Naruto chained up, having his power extracted from him. After freeing Naruto, Sasuke and Boruto join him in fighting his captors. After an extensive battle, Boruto emerges victorious because of the power his father loaned him. Upon their return home, Boruto has become a local celebrity.

Boruto is one of the best Naruto movie to date. Unlike its predecessors, it does not feel rushed or weighed down by plot holes. The movie tells a cohesive story with compelling characters in its hour and a half run time. Throughout the movie you will be rooting for Boruto to earn his father’s appreciation while simultaneously being intrigued by the development of all of your favorite characters from the original series.