Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within Review

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Release Date: 26^th July 2001 – Australia

Production Companies

Chris Lee Productions

Square Pictures

Distribution

Sony Pictures Australia

Genre: Animation

Rating: M

Runtime: 106 minutes

Budget: $137,000,000

Box Office Gross: $85,131,830
(Worldwide)

Plot Summary

The year is 2065 AD. The 

Earth is infested with alien 

spirits, and mankind faces 

total extinction. Led by a 

strange dream and guided 

by his mentor, Dr. Sid, 

scientist Aki Ross struggles 

to collect the eight spirits 

in the hope of creating a 

force powerful enough to 

destroy the alien presence 

and pure enough to protect 

the planet. With the aid of 

the Deep Eyes Squadron, 

Aki must save the Earth 

form its darkest hate and 

unleash the spirits within.

Voice Cast

Ming-Na – Aki Ross

Donald Sutherland – Dr. Sid

Alec Baldwin – Gray Edwards

James Woods – General Hein

Ving Rhames – Ryan Whittaker

Steve Buscemi – Neil Fleming

Peri Gilpin – Jane Proudfoot

Crew
Based on Video Game Series
"Final Fantasy/Story/
Executive Producer/
Director - Hironobu Sakaguchi
Co-Director - Motonori Sakakibara
Writers - Al Reinert & Jeff Vintar
Additional Dialogue - Jack Fletcher
Supervising Producer - Michael Hack
Producers - Jun Aida, Chris
Lee & Akio Sakai
Story Editor - Bruce B.L. Jargens
Farsi Adaptation - Ramin Mebdy
Production Designer - Mauro Borrelli
Conceptual Director - Tani Kunitake
Conceptual Designer - Patrick Janicke
Original Character Designer - Shuko Murase
Creature Supervisor - Takao Noguchi
Cinematography - Motonori Sakakibara
Lead Character Animators - Matthew Hackett &
Christopher Walsh
Senior Character Animator - Eric Weiss
Character Supervisor - Taiji Okusawa
Animation Director - Andrew R. Jones
Motion Capture Directors - Jack Fletcher
& Remington Scott
Sequence Supervisors - Eiji Fujii,
Hiroyuki Hayashida, Kenichi Isaka,
Takumi Kimura & Claude PrecourtLightning Supervisor: Square USA - David Seager
Composting Supervisor - James Rogers
Layout Supervisor - Takashi Kubota
Visual Effects Supervisor - Remo Balcells
Sound Designer/Re-Recording Mixer/
Supervising Sound Editor (Uncredited) - Randy Thom
Film Editor - Christopher S. Capp
Music - Elliot Goldenthal

Review

The CGI animation of 'FINAL FANTASY: THE SPIRITS WITHIN' looks beautifully realistic in its characters and may compare to the animation of James Cameron's film 'Avatar'. The movie doesn't feel like the 'Final Fantasy' video game series, it only has the title of Final Fantasy and its not meeting the expectations of loyal video game fans. The other good thing that I list besides the CGI are the decent voice acting, especially James Woods who gives a dark and serious performance as the evil general who wasn't even funny than his other voice acting role as Hades in Disney's 'Hercules'. 

It was really a smart idea to make a modern computerized animated feature that is mature, not aimed for children and doesn't include anything childish like cute characters or sidekicks. 'THE SPIRITS WITHIN' may be an artistic success, but it lacks the basic principles that we need for a eligible video game adaptation and it's just ended up as a forgotten average film.

Star rating: (3/5) Average

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