All right, I’m pretty much desperate to procrastinate, and this has been on my mind for a while, so what the heck. Just a warning, this is all mostly speculation. Obviously there are only a few scenes with the Konoha 12 in them, so the audience doesn’t get too much information about the alternate characters’ psyches. Furthermore, I am by no means a Naruto expert. So by all means, feel free to correct or add on to my theory. Warning, spoilers ahoy. I’m not even going to bother putting spoiler tags on the rest of this.
Basically, anyone who’s watched the movie knows that it’s one big Lotus-Eater Machine. Naruto and Sakura both receive their deepest desires: Naruto gets his family, and Sakura gets to be a special hero with parents she can be “proud” of. They then go through a bit of an It's a Wonderful Plot scenario, where they learn why they should Be Careful What You Wish For and how they should appreciate what they have in the real world.
My theory is that the alternate world didn’t just show Naruto and Sakura’s dreams. It was a Lotus-Eater Machine for everyone. In many cases, they also suffer from a case of Be Careful What You Wish For.
In some cases, the connections are very obvious. Real Hinata is a Shrinking Violet who wishes she were more assertive. Thus, Movie Hinata has a strong personality and enough confidence to sink a ship. The problem is, she’s also turned into a Clingy Jealous Girl who threatens Sakura on a regular basis. Her wish came true, but she took it so overboard that she literally scares Naruto off.
Other cases are more subtle. Chouji has often been teased for his weight, and it’s no secret that being called fat is a Berserk Button for him. So it makes sense that Movie Chouji is thin. Unlike Hinata, nobody ever calls out the difference, but they don’t really need to when the audience has working eyes. The problem is, Movie Chouji gets so obsessed with appearances that he loses his Nice Guy personality. He criticizes Sakura for not acting like a proper hero’s daughter, Shikamaru for being stupid, etc. As a result, he has a strained relationship with his closest friend.
Still other cases have a bit of Fridge Horror to them. Take Shikamaru. In the real world, he wants nothing more than to play shogi and stare at clouds all day, but because he’s a Teen Genius, people put massive amounts of responsibility on him. So what happens in the new world? He’s so stupid that he can’t even do basic arithmetic and uses himself as a human bowling ball in the house. Movie Chouji essentially acts as his minder, making sure he doesn’t hurt himself. So while Shikamaru is freed from responsibility…he also loses the intellect that he was so proud of.
Perhaps the most horrifying case is Shino’s. At first, his alter ego appears to be a gag. Real Shino loves bugs, so Movie Shino hates them. Enough said, but there’s an interesting moment that caused me to question that interpretation. Namely, when Sakura and Naruto come across him spraying pesticide on bugs. He says hello to them, and they run away. Then (at least according to some translations), he says “This is why I hate bugs.” To phrase that more explicitly, “I hate bugs because they always scare people away from me.”
That begs the question: What if real Shino hates bugs? Not consciously of course – he is an Aburame, after all, but if he blames them for his social isolation, then it would make sense for him to dislike them on some level. In which case, his clan’s abilities take on a whole new level of Body Horror. The sad thing is, even without bugs, Shino’s still ignored because he has a creepy personality. He arguably has one of the harshest It's a Wonderful Plot lessons in the whole movie.
Anyway, I think that’s enough rambling to make my case. Basically, my point is that rather than seeing all of the doppelgangners as merely “opposite” the original characters, they actually reveal everyone’s hidden desires (and the consequences of said desires). It’s possible that a lot of thought went into all of the seemingly “joke” characters. Of course, it’s also possible that I’m completely overanalyzing this and that “pervert Neji” or “clumsy Tenten” are just one-off gags, but hey, isn’t over-analysis what TV Tropes is for?
