Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within | KYOTO VIDEO
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- Опубліковано 30 лип 2024
- It was destined to change the world. It was gonna be the perfect merging of video game technology and animation technology. It would revolutionize film-making as we knew it. And, by the end of August 2001, it was completely forgotten. This is the story of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and what exactly went wrong.
00:00 Prologue: Shrek vs Atlantis
05:42 What is Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within?
09:08 Final Fantasy Origins
13:30 Producing a Final Fantasy Movie
19:09 The Hollywood Hype-Machine
24:47 What Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within Does Right
28:57 What Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within Does Wrong
34:33 Conclusion: Why Did Spirits Within Fail?
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The CGI in this film was such a jump in quality that, I'm ashamed to say, I did not immediately realize those weren't actual people when I first saw the promotional material back in the day. It wasn't until the buzz about digital actors and Aki that I pieced it together. When I saw it in theaters, I was very confused by the story and didn't care about the characters and, yes, a little bummed there weren't more Final Fantasy elements in it, but it was still a thrilling experience just for the tech showcase alone. It was the last time CGI really blew me away.
Same here. It literally blew my mind when Advent Children came out too and I thought animation could not surpass realism any further than what FF displayed. To this day I still think the animation holds up so well
I swear KaiserBeamz knows how to make an intro to a video so well. Literally finds a way to go from Shrek and Atlantis to FF
I love this movie (I think I saw it twice in theaters). But seeing how Titan AE and Treasure Planet also had similar box office fates, I think maybe audiences just weren't receptive to this new kind of sci-fi, especially in animation. They all seemed to have found their audience on home video though.
The great tragedy of Atlantis the Lost Empire, it's one of my favorite animation films growing up,
Along with Disney's adaptation of Treasure Island AKA Treasure Planet.
Agreed. I still love this movie, I don't care what anyone says.
I do like Shrek, but I also feel it's *HIGHLY* over-rated and kinda screwed up the course of animated movies.
It's a shame that Disney doesn't make sci-fi animated films anymore.
Atlantis deserved so much better,
Doesn't help that people compared the movie to Nadia: Secret of Blue Water
@@Cameroo I agree. It was a refreshing change of pace from what you expected from Disney back then.
I kinda blame 'Shrek' for putting traditional animation on a downward spiral that it's never recovered from 20 years later. It wasn't the only factor behind 2D animation's demise, but it did result in what nearly every animated film would look like. Sure, 2D animation still exists on television, and the internet, but the lack of theatrical hand drawn animation still depresses me. At least I can take solace in 'Final Fantasy' proving to Hollywood that even CGI movies can fail just as hard.
YES. I am 100% in the mindset of THIS. I was afraid that I was alone in my immense hatred of Shr*k, and even CG animation as a whole, for exactly the reasons you said. It wouldn't be so bad if we still had a choice in the matter, but Hollywood being what it is, we don't even get that. And, now I'm afraid that a change to bring 2D animation back into Western cinema on any sizeable scale will never come in the foreseeable future.
@@SpyHunter89 We'll never see 2D animation, or cartoon shorts in cinemas ever again. In a few decades, we'll probably see a 'Geico Golden Collection' on Blu Ray because people don't have a problem seeing their garbage commercials on movie screens. If you showed these people A 2D animated short in front of them before a movie, they would flip out, and complain about it on Twitter from now, until 'doomsday'.
@@timothyfinn3619 Too bad 'TMNT did April & Splinter dirty.
actually watched this in theaters when i was a kid. It was fine but Advent Children was the Final Fantasy movie people wanted back in the early 2000s.
Honestly, had It Been ANY FANTASY! I’m sure most Fans and Film goers would’ve liked this film better. I especially if it had Chocobos or Familiar Summons!
I saw this in a theater with my father when it came out, since he's the only other enjoyer-of-animation in the family. We both walked out confused by the plot (which was very akin to FF7 but less defined) but VERY impressed by the realism of the animation. I remember enjoying the crew of soldiers more than anything, but he enlightened me that they're the Marines from Aliens with the serial numbers filed off.
Great retrospective. It took me down memory lane.
I rented this movie only a bunch of times as a teen back in the day and, looking back, it actually made a big impact on me. The themes, the ideas, the imagery, the ending music, it stuck with me and still does to this day, I haven't rewatched it since yet I even remember some of the dialogue. It kind of saddens me that people only talk about it being a flop in theaters, I couldn't even go to theaters back then, nor would it have made any diference coming from my country. All I have is the experience of watching it. Maybe I should rewatch it.
I saw it in the theater and I liked the story, but that's the kind of weirdo sci-fi fan I am. When I really think about it, it is pretty bizarre that it's titled Final Fantasy. There are some thematic things it shares with some entries in the game series, but... It's not a fantasy movie! It must have had general audiences extremely confused.
And THAT was the Biggest problem with the film! It wasn’t made with the Fantasy Genre in mind and it’s so Goddamn Jarring! Had they just decided to make Final Fantasy the Spirits Within an actual Fantasy Movie! It would’ve been so much Stronger for it!
So 20 years later to the day, this review comes up! Nice!
Omg. I just finished making dinner. I just sat down wondering what i can watch while I eat. and then a new Kyoto Video drops about a movie I remember very vividly from when I was a child and my geeky mom and stepdad were super hyped about it. We even had the bikini pinup wall scroll of Aki. I had a neat figure of the Phantom in it too.
Super nostalgic. I was in the 8th grade when this came out and was super hyped. Tracked the production in every magazine I could get my hands on. Watched in the theater day 1 and was really deflated.... Either way, I got the DVD and Blu Ray at release.
Spirits Within was fine, but maybe it flopped because fans expected an adaptation of one of FF's beloved sequels, most notably FF7 or FF8 instead of whatever Spirits Within was.
2001 there was still a lot of us old school FF 1-6 fans around that wanted something with a little more swords and sorcery, or at least a fantasy/medieval setting.
Fans of Final Fantasy could never have carried the audience for this film.
@@mopeybloke Perhaps, perhaps not. The thing about fanbases is they energize those around them. They drag parents and children and sweethearts to share something the others wouldn't have even contemplated seeing. This is why it means death to a franchise to piss all over their core fanbase..
Cinema's first theatrical tech demo.
This was such a strange nostalgic trip for me. I remember being at the premiere for Final Fantasy: The Spirits Premiere in San Francisco Sony Metreon Theater. I still have the Aki Ross Maxim Poster they were giving away. Hironobu Sakaguchi and other Square soft people were in attendance and I just remember everyone was so hyped for it. When the credits rolled, they got a standing ovation...
@@BradLad56 not sure if it was due to respect because important people being in attendance or yea people really enjoyed it lol. But I remember at the time of my reaction it being a visual and impressive spectacle.
At this point, I think SquareEnix should take Spirits Within's concept and rework it into a new game. Conceptually, it isn't bad, but the film itself couldn't live up to the ideas.
It wouldn't work as an FF game. It WOULD as a survival/mystery game......
@@SerifSansSerif
He said the concepts, not all of the films Sci-fi trimmings.
I mean, the idea of having Ghost-like entities invading a fantastical planet who’s Summons are feeding off the potential erasure of their world sounds awesome. This along with a Ragtag group of Fantasy Characters venturing around the world to try and solve this mystery would damn well be an impressive game.
Atlantis The Last Empire shares similarities with Nadia Secret of Blue Water which released 11 years before the Disney film. In fact Gainax was notified of said similarities and even the heads decided not to sue Disney for fear of the retribution that the company would use against Gainax. Understandably so Disney being as cutthroat as they are it wouldn't bode well for Gainax at all.
I remember seeing lengthy clips from this movie on tv. Again and again. Didn't go to see it as we were having a local apocalipse of sorts at the time, and haven't seen it since. In fact big branching franchises, and aspecially video game movies just turn me off. Anyhow you really have a good grasp on how the animation industry works, and I thank you for this insight. Great video!
Epic video dude!! Great work!
I went to see this with my friend's older sister. It was my first date, and the only reason I have any positive memories of this film.
for me it looks like this is the same case as James Cameron's Avatar: a movie using the most modern technologies at the time only to tell a boring sci fi tale.
Very well put analysis, with all the context
11:37 What you said was VERY STRANGE
It is amazing how you were able to understand the spirit and philosophy of the Final Fantasy franchise, but Hajime Tabata
claims everyone in Square currently suffers "Final Fantasy Disease"
Ooh hype for this episode
We are this close on having a dedicated Kyoto Video for Shrek, Atlantis and Monkeybone
My spouse and I saw it in theaters with a friend. I remember the friend was complaining a little about the 'no references to chocobos or cloud etc' thing but spouse and I just considered it "on brand" for final fantasy to do something completely different like that. We both really enjoyed it and still watch the dvd from time to time. Oddly the villain of the story seems to be the most forgettable aspect for me. Every time I see him it's like "oh yeah! That guy".
"THIS AFTER HIS ENTIRE SQUAD WAS KILLED"
THANK YOU.
I VIVIDLY remember speaking to a friend of mine back in the day about how this scene killed the movie for me. He tried to excuse it by saying, "IDK, I can see how it would be an emotional time, sometimes people have sex at weird emotional times, you know?" NO! I DON'T KNOW!
While I understand you’re feelings on the sex after friends dying thing. It’s not actually far fetched 😂 people have done said things. There’s even a trope of it called glad to be alive sex.
I think they need to remake this but instead of a movie, expand it to a tv series. Had a lot of plot explanations and didn’t really explore the characters (like what most RPGs & JRPGs do) and somewhat add mini filler episodes that explains the technology and weaponry that they have, manifestations of the phantoms, and the politics back on the station.
I honestly wonder what would have happened if the Spirits Within was a TV show instead of a movie. Considering what you said about cramming everything in a limited format, if it had a bit more time to lay out the lore and freedom to be more Final Fantasy like I wonder if it wouldn't be looked on more fondly.
I love this movie and watch it yearly. No shame.
I remember being blown away by it's visuals but that's really it. There is nothing Final Fantasy about this film such a waste of time and money.
I remember loving the movie being blown away by the visuals and even reading a tie in book tried to watch it recently and it hasn;t aged well
My memories of this movie are a bit cloudy, mainly because I read the novelization first. It was sent to me by my editor at the time to do a review, but I didn't have a chance to see the movie first because it had already left the theaters (ahem). I remember thinking the story was fairly ambitious and wondered how it would look onscreen. When I finally saw it, I thought they nailed it...though again, the story was a bit too ambitious for what the movie was trying to do.
I also really hate how literally dark it is. GRAY everywhere.
36:09 THANK YOU! I've been saying this forever, it was a Final Fantasy movie that had ZERO Final Fantasy. In hindsight, and after seeing the massive success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, it's not THAT hard to make something good. It's a damn shame that Squaresoft spent all that technology and money to make something that had little to do with the franchise.
I saw this movie in theaters. I had a free Wednesday during the summer break so I caught a matinee on the very last day it was showing. I was alone. Only one other time in my life that has happened
Damn I love your content.
I saw it in theaters my senior year in high school, I wasn't a fan of the story or setting. I was a fan of the visuals and especially the song "The Dream Within" by Elliot Goldenthal/Lara Fabian. It was also the first movie that made me save up to make the transition from VHS to a DVD player so I could see the full quality.
I've always said Spirits Within is a good movie that had disastrous marketing. Ift hadn't been titled "Final Fantasy" it would have done much better. It was too near future sci-fi when the games had only dipped into dieselpunk with FFVII
My hot take though is that it *is* a Final Fantasy movie. It has direct ties to the settings of FFVII and FFX, with the lifestream, and the infective alien invasion
@@Shinntoku as an FF fan, I see where you're coming from, but quite honestly they are just recycled themes...
Which is why I'm looking forward to FF16, which is being helmed by the FF14: ARR crew instead of Nojima and Kitase. Love those guys, but having fresh eyes on the franchise will hopefully give new life to the stories.
FF7: Remake's "Kingdom Hearts-ish" ending is about fighting against fate... as was the story of FF10... some of FF8 (and time travel)... and literally the entire story of FF13.
To be fair, FF7 Advent Children redeemed the whole concept. Weirdly, I feel spirits within was more fitting for hollywood with its story and such, especially for its time of release.
Also, the quality of the animation 20 years ago is on par with video game graphics today. That's like Atari graphics compared to FF9. And it DID eventually lead to digital actors with the use of deepfakes....
The artbook for it was brill
FF's movie was breaking edge; it beat Disney and Dreamworks by being the first. That's some top tier stuff, right there. The sad part is the movie hardly made a profit, same for Atlantis but still.
I love your video. I think this movie might have been the reason why the japanese animation industry rarely uses CGI is because of this films failure. With films like Lupin the 3rd: The First coming out in recent years, we can see that we have come along way.
I first saw this movie in 2004 in kids play area on a ferry. The boat engines were so loud I couldn't hear a thing, It certainly was an experience for 8 year old me. Otherwise I like this movie, I've always had a soft spot for ambitious failures.
Kaiser beans:Bring “heterosexual relationships “ Hollywood goes to mandate…
Everyone: okaaaaaay?
Saw this in theaters and at the time, for me anyways, look awesome
9:52 Fun fact in regards to that.
In addition to tje famous/infamous ultima series being generally considered an inspiration, an even bigger one was the wizardry series, a series so loved in japan it would outlive its death in the west and basically get absorbed into japanese gaming culture as something SPECIFICALLY japanese, down to having countless japan only entries and shaping the entire dungeon crawler genre over there all the way to modern times with games such as stranger of sword city and the tokyo abyss series.
I remember reading how Aki is the only one with longish hair in the movie because of how difficult it was to animate.
First time I watched was with my friend on his laptop while we rode the school bus home.
I agree with your sentiments, but i wouldn't go so far to say that the Marvel films don't have heart, at least the ones that matter. Don't compare them to some of the trite we do get though, like the soulless Star Wars sequels from the same company. Kevin Feige ain't so squeaky clean though, lol.
Well if you are going to look at Advent Children… at least it’s dumb fun.
Gonna be awhile before I get to Advent Children. But I have a lot of things to say about that. Namely how it colored the perception of Final Fantasy VII for half a decade.
I legitimately love this movie. I saw this movie in theaters and loved it. It was in all honest to god fact, my favorite movie of that year. I still think highly of it, have watched it several times since, and it still pisses me off that no one seems to ever want to give this movie the respect and accolades it always deserved.
It's ironic that I wholeheartedly agree with that character from Life Is Strange..... since I absolutely loathe and hated Life Is Strange.
I remember it I saw this movie in theaters like 3 times it was so cool and it was not a bad movie it was a horrible Final Fantasy movie I wish they just called it the Spirits Within and left out all the Final Fantasy stuff having it tied to Final Fantasy I think hurt it the most but it's not a bad movie
after watching the hole video i agree with you 100%! its not a bad movie just not what it could have been but whats about final fantasy 7 advent children ? i love that movie did it fail too? i guess that for another video lol good work men I love your work
@@darthjaymoonstar6
If your talking about the original 2005 version. Than yeah, it was freaking bad.
The Complete movie is SO Much Better.
@@danielramsey6141 i was talking about the one in the video
I wonder what the timeline where this was a massive hit would look like.
I saw this with three friends when it came out. We were the only people in the theater. It was so disappointing and your video nailed it. It lacked the heart and soul of what I was looking for in something with the name Final Fantasy. The characters lacked chemistry, the emotional moments didn’t land, the story was rushed, and anything “Final Fantasy” had been stripped away. I got into the series with 4 (2) on the SNES and was blown away by the story. The story, characters, and fantastical setting were what brought me back to each installment. The graphics were great, but without the heart, that all means very little. Honestly, some of those same criticisms are what pushed me away from 13 - its story being relegated to data logs and SE trying to do with Lightning what they wanted to do with Aki. Great graphics are great, but tell me a good story, take me on a grand adventure. That’s what I want from a Final Fantasy property.
Also, this isn't the only FF property, remember, and I'm not talking Advent Children. There's legend of the crystals (or whatever it was. 2 part OVA, which covered a story post FF3 or 4) and FF unlimited.
Love the looks of Atlantis a lot more than Shrek.
I saw The Spirits Within in theaters. As a kid I was a big Final Fantasy fan. And although the story of the movie didn't blow me away or anything, I still thought it was kind of cool for its visuals and ambition.
Fast forward 20 years. Disney is now releasing high-tech CGI demos based on existing animated movies, and they THRIVE at the box office. Disney basically does one thing right that Squaresoft did wrong: they make sure their remakes of The Jungle Book and The Lion King look and sound like The Jungle Book and The Lion King.
For all its faults, I still think The Spirits Within is a respectable product of its era. The creators took a serious gamble. They made the wrong comprimises in taking the Final Fantasy elements out of the movie. I have very little appreciation for those Disney remakes on the other hand. They don't take artistic chances. Disney just found a formula that works, and they're exploring the hell out of it.
I hate to think that most of the media covering this film predicted Hollywood's interested in replacing people with Artificially Imagined actors or actors recreated Artificially.
you know where I'm going with this
I will die on this hill when I say Spirits Within was an amazing movie and *did not* deserve the hate and vitriol it got that would eventually cause Squaresoft to be so financially scared that even Enix was questioning the merger a few years later.
I was one of the few who actually saw it opening weekend and... yeah, it was OK. Just OK. I'd also toss in another explanation for its failure, tho: the CGI just wasn't quite at the point the hype wanted you to think. At no point would you mistake the characters for actual fleshy humans, no matter how hard the marketing claimed otherwise. And that sort of disparity is a red flag for a lot of people.
Obviously, if you're a techhead, you could appreciate the tech behind it. But for an average person, the pitch was "Come see CGI people that look photorealistic!" and it just wasn't there.
It starts with one thing, I don't know why...
It doesn't even matter how hard you try-
I did use to have the VHS Tape of the movie and was bored quick.
I for some reason saw this twice in the theaters. I have no idea why since I didn't like it the first time. Maybe it was the lack of fantasy and just being scifi heavy.
Maybe you just wanted to understand the movie better?
Where’s the tenchi muyo sasami clip from ? In the opening
Thank you very much for this review! Columbia's direction to take out all FF references was news to me (after 20 years, wow!) and explains a lot. On another note, your review and the comments of others here go to show that everyone's mileage varies with entertainment. I fully agree that FF:SW had seriously confusing story aspects. I remember this well from my initial theatrical experience. I also found some things emotionally unlikely such as Aki and Grey hooking up mere minutes after trauma/tragedy. Although admittedly that sort of reaction *does* happen for people, I can't imagine it is common. I also felt the overall runtime was too abrupt to handle everything.
About the soundtrack: like with the 2021 Dune movie, it's almost otherworldly. The scores of both films, if listened to without first seeing the movies, are unremarkable at best and industrial noise at worst. Nevertheless, I listened to FF:SW's soundtrack relentlessly for weeks back in 2001 and still listen to it on occasion today. Visually, the movie was a masterpiece of its time: a preview of things to come using CGI. Emotionally, it felt off-key at some points and dead on at others.
All that said, I still rewatch FF:SW from time to time and feel the visceral, desperate horror it aimed to instill (The scenes for "Winged Serpent" and "Dead Rain" anyone?). And for me, the mark of worthwhile entertainment is measured in how often I remember scenes, lines and inflections from it. Pieces of FF:SW have remained a part of me for over two decades now. As you said, they got *some* things right and I thank them for making it.
Great video. It does explain a lot of why the movie flopped and yeah, I can see where some of the points you make on the Hollywood meddling and the hubris of Square. It's a shame in a lot of ways but IMO Sqaure has never really recovered from this point and has been a shadow of it's former self trying to chase it's past nostalgia and becoming more of a one-trick pony. I get a lot more excited for the Enix side of the companies releases. Even if things like the Final Fantasy series still remain more popular as a whole. It's just my feeling about the company now though.
That was the thing. I don’t think a lot of people knew Atlantis wasn’t even a musical at all since Diseny were the Kings of the Musicals!
Kyoto Video ideas -Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals,Final Fantasy: Unlimited, Final Fantasy VII Last Order OVA,Final Fantasy VII - Advent,Gunsmith Cats,New Dream Hunter Rem,Street fighter Victory,Pelican road club caroucha,Ladius,Cybernetics Guardian,Suddely Princess
Though the film was ambitious and beautiful: it wasn't what fans wanted. Instead of merging the fantastical with scifi, it became more Scifi movie than anything else; with snippets of mysticism, mana and anything fantastic involved. In short, Spirits Within just lacked what made it Final Fantasy.
"An all star cast."
I’m gonna assume that was intentional.
How does KB manage to use so much footage in his vids without being shut down for copyright violations? I use a twenty second clip from Doctor Who in a video and the whole thing gets taken down.
Yeah, but that score! I thought it was great, but I was already loving his stuff from Alien 3. Another fan favorite. HAHA!
It is great
Lara Fabian’s song was the best part about this film.
I was really looking forward to this movie since I loved Final Fantasy, but I think I was already getting nervous when I saw it would be sci-fi. Honestly, it all looks amazing, but the plot feels so by the numbers. “Oh no, the planet is dying! We must save it, but the dumb big bad military guy is trying to sabotage everything!” It just left me not feeling anything in particular. I respect the movie and the hard work that went into it, but I don’t think I really like it, you know?
Huh, very interesting. Square-Enix might make some cinematic games these days, but I'm still very wary about the game stories.
I'm still very bitter about how they're doing Kingdom Hearts...
Honestly I'm just getting back into KH after dropping off at Dream Drop Distance and I'm just *living* for Nomura's self-indulgence
Just avoid the nomura taint and youll be fine
14 has a great plot (well, starting with the expansions, cuz base game was busy puttingnout the trashfire that was 1.0)
And the writer of the first expansion (whoch is very highly regarded story wise) is the main writer of the new one (16).
Probably the only video game-to-movie adaptation that's worse is Resident Evil.
I see you've kinda got a hard-on for James Woods.
This is what happens when you try to please everyone. Those expecting a movie set in the bona-fide FF universe probably poisoned its success via word-of-mouth. And people who didn't know a thing about FF were probably wondering why the hell the film was called thus.
The flick has an inscrutable quality about it that's hard to convey. A planet blows up due to an ET civil war and its core, or "Gaia", crash-lands on Earth, where phantoms of those ETs somehow survive and start eating the souls of hapless humans, turning the planet into a sparsely populated wasteland. Pretty heady and dour stuff that goes beyond the typical Cronenberg-esque body horror and into the arguably worse spiritual horror.
Regarding the animation quality, I think it holds up remarkably well and looks even better than some high-financed stuff produced today. Some of the body movements are a little unnatural and stiff, but that's easily forgivable when there's so much other CGI candy to admire. I think mass audiences were confronted with something they didn't understand and couldn't process, so it got shoved into what we now know to be uncanny valley territory. Plus, the story was SUPER-serious as compared with joke-a-second Shrek, with Buscemi's character the only bit of comic relief. Oh, and practically everyone in the cast dies a pretty horrible death, which undoubtedly put people into a sour mood.
Gotta disagree mightily about Goldenthal. The man is a scoring genius. TSW isn't his best work, but it's still highly memorable and he married it well with the visuals.
Regarding digital actors, you should check out a movie called Looker, made in the ancient year of 1981, written & directed by the legendary Michael Crichton. It is HIGHLY prophetic and its implications are disturbing as hell. I sometimes wonder if George Lucas saw it before embarking on the prequel trilogy.
I was working on a farm the summer this came out and rode a bicycle 10 miles to go see it in a theater. Thanks to the aforementioned farm, I was completely cut off from internets and knew only that it was a Final Fantasy movie. Still being deeply obsessed with ffvii at the time, i was just hoping and praying that would be the subject of it. So uhhhh yah to say I was disappointed would be an understatement lol. It wasnt until finally, FINALLY, several years later I got my ffvii movie...
...and it was still a pretty big disappointment. Conclusion? Square just shouldn't make movies :p
Edit: okay well after finishing your video, maybe I should give it a rewatch. It's definitely a tragedy that they put so much effort into the damn thing only to have it flop..
"Who's only MARGINALLY less evil than the actual James Woods."
The SHADE-
Also...I know what you mean, but I would MUCH rather watch any MCU film than Spirits Within.
Yes, even that one.
'Oooh, piece of candy! Oooh, piece of candy! Oooh, piece of candy!'
@@TheHeroOfTomorrow Even with the creator of 'Final Fantasy' directing it, movies are a much different beast than games. Which explains the disconnect between his team, and Hollywood.
"People don't talk about the movie itself", not much to talk about.
"Was it good?" No.
"Was it bad?" Yes.
"I 'unno" I do.
Other than most of the audience's notions of what Final Fantasy was supposed to be, the other reason people ignored The Spirits Within was because of the very different philosophical ideas.
I saw it in the theater at the time, and was completely unsatisfied. The film's looks and the actor performances were not the issue. It was let down by the script.
atlantis is one of disney's best movies
8:43 Final Fantasy The Spirits Within. It better have! I consider myself as gen z. It was made out of spite for the sake of proving cgi films can work.
There seems to be some voices among players that if it was cool for videogames back then to have movie-like aspects back then, it is not as impressive now. There is more and more demand for games to tell their stories in the way only those can do instead of trying to emulate older medias.
A lot of anime/tv series get flak from so called filler stuff, whereas in video game stories even filler can work as world building as one deals with it personally. Few other medias allow viewer/player to interact even with the most mundane parts of imaginary worlds the way video games do, so it feels kinda wasteful in retrospect how many game developers were underestimating the potential of medium they had.
As for Final Fantasy, I think Sakaguchi was able to give series its certain kind of vibe which transcended between titles more than things like summons and moogles. Of course it is hard to say since FF is big nostalgia coctail and thus hard to evaluate in the most objective manner.
Sure, it's a bit flawed, and the CGI is now dated, but I still like the film and wild story.
Ah yes, the first Final Fantasy project that almost killed Square soft
I was a kid when i saw this in theaters here in Brazil. My father was a huge Sci-Fi fan, and i am a huge FF fan, so why not watching it? And after all, the only remarkable thing that i remember of this garbage was the teaser of Spider-Man movie before it. Yeah, that one where he traps the bad guys between the WTC. It was disappointing not seeing any Chocobo, Moogles, magic, and all that stuff.
I'm actually disappointed in the fan support for this movie, though I agree that the Hollywood machine made it worse. It reminds me of the first Pacific Rim, and how it was beaten by that stupid Adam Sandler film. I'm not saying that Spirits within was this amazing perfect movie, but it was really cool, and any FF fan I believe would have enjoyed it, and have helped a sub industry in movie making come to life. No we're stuck with Marvel movies till the end of time.
I saw it in theaters that summer...with an audience of just six people. Not an awful film, just very forgettable.
I saw it in theaters... think of Final Fantasy fans at the time, or rather the newfound mainstream FF7 fans... this wasn't FF7, so it instantly turned off many new fans Squaresoft gained. They would later get FF7: Advent Children.
It also wasn't the high fantasy story that older FF fans like myself would have expected and enjoyed.
Watching it now, Spirits Within isn't bad, but it still doesn't grasp me as "Final Fantasy," even with themes like Gaia in it.
Doesn't help as well that a good portion of the movie does indeed have exposition dumps and kind of feels like a downer... even the ending is a downer with Gray's death and the unfulfilled love between him and Aki.
Edit: And despite these issues, I still bought the DVD release in the 2000s, and more recently the 4K/ Blu-ray release (along with Advent Children and Kingsglaive) because I want these kinds of game tie-in/ spin-off projects to continue to exist.
I haven't seen the full film, but from a lot of the shots shown here it just looks like an eyesore. Everything is a gray brown mess. Characters and backgrounds are just gray brown blobs that blend together with nothing separating them. Often times backgrounds appear to be fully in focus 24:26 making this even worse.
Lighting often appears flat and dull, or poorly executed. I mean just look at 26:02. The most well lit parts of the scene are the floor and a wall! The eye is drawn to higher light values, and the character's faces, which we should be paying attention to, are dark dull messes. Compare to something like 39:28. There are two bright elements in the background framing the characters, but other than that the background is nearly black. The characters stand out really well and it's easy to read and follow and visually pleasing.
I don't think I've seen a single backlight in any of these shots. That's critical to separating the subject from the background and highlighting their silhouette. Edit okay guess I've seen a few now that I'm further, but honestly they may have been accidental.
I think a lot of people, especially in the early days of cg, make the mistake of thinking if you just make each individual object realistically modelled and textured, and then plop them together in a scene and throw a few lights on, that it will look great. Maybe that's how real life is made but it's not how movies are made, and it doesn't make a good image. This project could've really benefitted from bringing in some people with Hollywood film making experience to help them with what they were missing. Elements like three point lighting, and elements like chromatic aberration that don't exist in "real life" but are critical to making an image photo realistic, as in appearing how it would appear captured in camera. You also mentioned they brought in a lot of new people since the experienced ones were working on the next game, so it could've just been that a lot of the artists were inexperienced.
I think that could be a big part of your "can't put my finger on why I can't get into this" feeling. It's hard to spot if you're not familiar with it, but still feels wrong.
Also Final Fantasy has always been a weird title, and outside of children who played the games at the time it didn't have a lot of name recognition in the states either. Finally, tech hype often flops, see VR headsets.
Good video, just found your channel and liking it a lot.
Still dont see what the bog deal about digital actors was even supposed to be
Ita been done before in other media (Osamu Tesuka and Masami Kurumada and their star system in their mangas, in kurumadas case it aparently extending to anime
As i heard mentioned thar all adaptations of his work re used the same voice actors for the same *stars*)
And would be done later in gaming too (such as in the D trillogy, which all feature a blonde woman named laura as the protag, but she is not the same character between the games, and most of the cast of the second game *not named D... Forget what its calles* returning in D2 *actually the thirs game in the series* as new people.
Honestly if they didn't name it final fantasy it would have fared way better
I agree. This film wasn't that bad but it had nothing to do with final fantasy al all. It's like taking a tomato and calling it a apple or something. You expect all sweetness, but then you take a bite and the suversion makes you react with a gag and/or puke.
So.... Advent Children is next or I've got it all wrong?
Not for a little while, but it's definitely coming sometime down the line.
@@KaiserBeamz Yeay! And what's NEXT?)
P.S. You're SO great, KB^^
Hope you get the chance to check Out FFVII: Advent Children later on down the line, for me, It's a Better Final Fantasy Movie then this one.
No disrespect to Elliot Goldenthal, but couldn't they get Nobuo Uematsu to score this movie?
He was busy making the soundtracks to FF8 and FF9. Those would definitely have some of his best music pieces. And FF10 would sorta be his last full time project.
@@danielramsey6141 I definitely understand that. And I agree VIII and IX have some of his best work. I just wish we could have got to see his music in a feature length movie for the big screen.
The only flop so bad it closed two studios. I enjoyed like I enjoyed titan A.E. I’m starting to see a pattern. Let’s not even go in to treasure planet.
Yeah. It was definitely a weird time to be alive.
Titan AE was great. So underappreciated.
I wonder if it wasn’t called final fantasy how much money it could have made. In all sense and purpose James Cameron did the exact same thing with Avatar ( tech demo with a shitty sci-fi plot) and that movie made more money than anything. It probably mostly stemmed from what you brought up having sakaguchi direct it was a mistake, they should have hired a big Hollywood director to be attached to the project.