Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Directors:

Hironobu Sakaguchi
Moto Sakakibara (co-director)

Writers:

Hironobu Sakaguchi (story)
Al Reinert (written by) ...
(more)

Release Date:

11 July 2001 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Action | Adventure | Fantasy | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

Unleash a new reality

Plot:

A female scientist makes a last stand on Earth with the help of a ragtag team of soldiers against an invasion of alien phantoms.

Plot Keywords:

Scientist | General | Quest | Spirit | Final Fantasy

Awards:

5 nominations

Cast

Ming-Na	...	Doctor Aki Ross (voice)
Alec Baldwin	...	Captain Gray Edwards (voice)
Ving Rhames	...	Ryan (voice)
Steve Buscemi	...	Neil (voice)
Peri Gilpin	...	Jane (voice)
Donald Sutherland	...	Dr. Sid (voice)
James Woods	...	General Hein (voice)
Keith David	...	Council Member #1 (voice)
Jean Simmons	...	Council Member #2 (voice)
Matt McKenzie	...	Major Elliot (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Matt Adler	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Steve Alterman	...	Additional Voices (voice)
David Arnott	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Andrea Baker	...	Additional Voices (voice) (as Andrea Taylor)
Cathy Cavadini	...	Additional Voices (voice) (as Catherine Cavadini)
Lanei Chapman	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Vicki Davis	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Judi M. Durand	...	Additional Voices (voice) (as Judi Durand)
Greg Finley	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Jack Fletcher	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Julia Fletcher	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Barbara Harris	...	Additional Voices (voice) (as Barbara Iley)
David McCharen	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Tracy Metro	...	Additional Voices (voice)
David Michie	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Richard Penn	...	Additional Voices (voice)
David Randolph	...	Additional Voices (voice)
John DeMita	...	BCR Soldier #1 / Space Station Technician #2 / Additional Voices (voice) (uncredited)
John Di Maggio	...	BFW Soldier #1 (voice) (uncredited)
Alex Fernandez	...	Space Station Technician #3 (voice) (uncredited)
David Rasner	...	Space Station Technician #1 & 4 (voice) (uncredited)
Dwight Schultz	...	Scan Technician (voice) (uncredited)
Annie Wu	...	The Little Girl / The Fifth Spirit (voice) (uncredited)

Directed by
Hironobu Sakaguchi
Moto Sakakibara		(co-director) (as Motonori Sakakibara)

Writing credits
Hironobu Sakaguchi		(story)
Al Reinert		(written by) &
Jeff Vintar		(written by)
Jack Fletcher		(additional dialogue)
Ramin Mebdy		Farsi adaptation

Produced by
Jun Aida	....	producer
Michael Hack	....	supervising producer
Daniel S. Kletzky	....	associate producer
Chris Lee	....	producer
Deirdre Morrison	....	line producer
Hironobu Sakaguchi	....	executive producer
Akio Sakai	....	producer
Katsuhiko Toyota	....	associate producer

Original Music by
Elliot Goldenthal

Cinematography by
Moto Sakakibara		(as Motonori Sakakibara)

Film Editing by
Christopher S. Capp

Casting by
Jack Fletcher

Production Design by
Mauro Borrelli

Production Management
Hiroyoshi Hamada	....	production manager
Naoko Muldowney	....	computer graphics production manager
Kaoru Hiyama Rogers	....	production manager
Terry Sasaki	....	production manager
Kenji Takemoto	....	production manager
Christopher S. Capp	....	post-production supervisor (uncredited)

Art Department
Kevin Bjorke	....	senior layout artist
Eric Brown	....	concept artist
John Fox	....	senior storyboard artist
Trevor Goring	....	storyboard artist
Tim Holtrop	....	storyboard artist
Patrick Janicke	....	conceptual designer
Thomas Roland Johnson	....	conceptual artist
Tani Kunitake	....	conceptual director
Richard Mahon	....	concept artist
Mark Moretti	....	storyboard artist
Shuko Murase	....	original character designer
Yasushi Nirasawa	....	creature designer
Christian Scheurer	....	matte painter
Pedram Goshtasbpour	....	additional storyboards (uncredited)

Sound Department
Christopher Barnett	....	mix stage engineer
Chris Barron	....	digital transfers (as Christopher Barron)
Tim Burby	....	digital transfers
Brian Chumney	....	digital support
John Countryman	....	digital transfers
Jeff Darby	....	sound effects editor
Edwin Dunkley	....	sound: video transfers
Tony Eckert	....	foley mixer
Sean England	....	machine room operator
David Farmer	....	sound effects editor
Sue Fox	....	dialog editor
Andrea S. Gard	....	foley editor
Jonathan Greber	....	digital transfers
Gabriel Guy	....	sound mix technician
Samuel H. Hinckley	....	adr assistant (as Sam Hinckley)
David C. Hughes	....	sound effects editor
David Hunter	....	digital support
Noah Katz	....	digital support
Dennis Leonard	....	supervising sound editor
Eric Lewis	....	assistant dialogue recording engineer
Stuart McCowan	....	assistant sound designer
Jim McKee	....	sound effects editor
Frank 'Pepe' Merel	....	foley recordist
Colin O'Neill	....	assistant sound effects editor
Gary Rizzo	....	sound re-recording mixer
Steve Romanko	....	machine room operator
Ronald G. Roumas	....	sound re-recordist
Christopher Scarabosio	....	sound effects editor
Dee Selby	....	additional sound effects assistant
Ernie Sheesley	....	dialogue recordist
Robert Shoup	....	sound effects editor
Mac Smith	....	sound design apprentice
Andrea Stelter	....	sound effects editor
Erich Stratmann	....	assistant supervising sound editor
John Taylor	....	mix stage engineer
Randy Thom	....	sound designer
Randy Thom	....	sound re-recording mixer
Dennie Thorpe	....	foley artist
James Twomey	....	sound recordist
Jana Vance	....	foley artist
Doug Winningham	....	assistant sound effects editor
Michael Kamper	....	sound effects editor (uncredited)
Andy Newell	....	sound effects editor (uncredited)

Special Effects by
Kim Jongbo	....	sequence supervisor/lead animator
Masayuki Kasuya	....	system administrator
Koji Nagashima	....	senior programmer
Shinichi Soeda	....	production software supervisor
Shawn Taras	....	special effects programmer

Visual Effects by
Ivy Agregan	....	CG production manager: lighting
Robin Akin	....	character animator
Takahiko Akiyama	....	visual effects art director
Mayumi Arakaki	....	visual effects coordinator
Yasuko Asakura	....	visual effects
Lisa Atkinson	....	development consultant
Remo Balcells	....	visual effects supervisor
Peter Baustaedter	....	visual effects
Jeffrey Benoit	....	visual effects
Robert Bourgeault	....	modeler
Robert Bourgeault	....	texture artist
Jon Bowen	....	senior compositor
Scot Brew	....	production software engineer
Troy Brooks	....	production systems supervisor
Bela Brozsek	....	digital artist
Claudia Candia	....	texture painter
Daniel R. Casey	....	digital texture supervisor
Daniel R. Casey	....	lead artist
Andy Chen	....	visual effects
Benjamin Cheung	....	character technical director
Francisco Cortina	....	senior character artist
Paolo Costabel	....	technical director
Karl Coyner	....	CG artist
Cary Cremidas	....	photography plates
Tim Crosbie	....	senior compositor
James H. Dargie	....	CG artist
Matthew Davies	....	visual effects
Mark Andrew De La Garza	....	lighting artist: Square USA
Tim de Pala	....	visual effects coordinator
Christina DeSilva	....	production coordinator
Simon Dye	....	compositor
Angela M. Eliasz	....	lead lighting artist
Petronella Evers	....	visual effects
Michael Fadollone	....	visual effects
Jack Fletcher	....	motion capture director
Michael Sean Foley	....	lighting artist
Haskell Friedman	....	senior lighting artist
Michael Fu	....	rendering technical support
Steven Galle	....	visual effects
Sergio Garcia Abad	....	visual effects CG artist
Kelly Hartigan Goldstein	....	character animator
Matthew Hackett	....	lead character animator
Jerry Hall	....	digital compositor
Udai Haraguchi	....	motion capture engineer
Andy Harbeck	....	lead artist
Toby Haruno	....	lead character animator: Square Pictures
Tom Hendrickson	....	visual effects coordinator (as Thomas Hendrickson)
George Ho	....	lighting artist
Dave R. Howe	....	visual effects
Bret Hughes	....	rendering technical director
Kenneth Ibrahim	....	digital artist: Square Pictures
Bruce Jurgens	....	CG supervisor
Kory Juul	....	compositor
Matt Karnes	....	motion capture engineer
Miku Kayama	....	lead compositor
Muqeem Khan	....	visual effects
Jae Hong Kim	....	digital artist
Lisa Kim	....	digital artist: visual effects & props
Takumi Kimura	....	sequence supervisor
Michael Kitchen	....	character animator
Spencer Knapp	....	visual effects
Mach Tony Kobayashi	....	visual effects
Roger Kupelian	....	digital matte painter
Ryan Leasher	....	lighting artist
Derek Ledbetter	....	credits
Erik Lee	....	CG animator: Square USA
Hae-Jeon Lee	....	visual effects
Greg Lev	....	lead lighting artist
Rosa Lin	....	visual effects
Stephen Lunn	....	lead compositor
Richard Mahon	....	digital matte painter
Evans Mark	....	digital artist: photon element
Jeffrey Martin	....	visual effects
Will McCoy	....	digital compositor
Gustav Melich	....	lead visual effects artist
Stan Miskiewicz	....	lighter
John Monos	....	lead lighting artist
Rene Morel	....	character modeller/texturer
Hiroshi Mori	....	texture artist
Hiroshi Mori	....	visual effects
Bo Mosley	....	lead artist: SquareUSA
Adam Moura	....	compositor: SquareUSA
Gary Mundell	....	CG supervisor
Meghan Nishimizu	....	computer graphics manager
Kevin Ochs	....	character technical director
Chris Paizis	....	visual effects manager (as Christopher Paizis)
Ron Perry	....	motion capture set designer
Claude Precourt	....	sequence supervisor
Steve Preeg	....	visual effects
Alex Sandor Rabb	....	visual effects
Jay Randall	....	lead animator
Geoff Richardson	....	digital compositor
Robert Rioux	....	set modeling supervisor
Frank Ritlop	....	lighting artist
Michael Rivero	....	visual effects
Ron Roberts	....	senior compositor
James Rogers	....	compositing supervisor
Jake Rowell	....	digital artist
Josh Saeta	....	digital compositor
Kay Sasatomi	....	CG production manager
Jeff Schu	....	character animator
Andrew Schwartz	....	digital compositor
Remington Scott	....	motion capture director
David Seager	....	lighting supervisor: Square USA
Kerry Shea	....	visual effects post production manager
Kerry Shea	....	visual effects production manager
Tomoko Shin	....	digital compositor
Robert Shrider	....	visual effects
Shinichi Soeda	....	Production Software Supervisor
Sharmishtha Sohoni	....	digital compositor
Neville Spiteri	....	visual effects
Eric Sterner	....	CG artist
Jeff Stern	....	lead lighting artist
Cameron Stevning	....	computer graphics producer
Kat Szuminska	....	senior compositor
David Tanner	....	lead visual effects artist
Suan Ching Tan	....	modeler and texture artist
Don Taylor	....	lighter
Chikako Terashita	....	systems administrator
Joanne Thiel	....	visual effects
Semin Tho	....	CG artist
Linda Tremblay	....	digital compositor
Paul Van Camp	....	digital artist
Garcia Veronique	....	character artist
Carlos A. Vidal	....	digital artist: Square
Taku Wakisaka	....	motion capture engineer
Christopher Walsh	....	lead character animator
Kelly Walsh	....	rendering technical director: Square USA (as Kelly Cowles)
Eric Weiss	....	senior character animator
Michael Withem	....	CG artist
David J. Witters	....	visual effects animator
Yukiko Yamanaka	....	system administrator
Teru Yoshida	....	sequence supervisor
Masahito Yoshioka	....	creature effects
Laurent Ben-Mimoun	....	digital matte painter (uncredited)
Carlos Cabral	....	character technical director (uncredited)
Pedram Goshtasbpour	....	pre-production animator (uncredited)
Rick O'Connor	....	pre-viz animatics (uncredited)
Steve J. Sanchez	....	digital compositor (uncredited)
David Seager	....	sequence supervisor: Square USA (uncredited)
Randy Vellacott	....	digital compositor (uncredited)

Stunts
Colin C.L. Fong	....	stunt coordinator

Camera and Electrical Department
Kevin Bjorke	....	lighting supervisor

Animation Department
Andy Jones	....	animation director
Alice V. Kaiserian	....	lead animator
Yoshinori Kanada	....	layout artist
Yoshihiro Kitano	....	layout artist
Ben Rush	....	lead character animator: "Gray Edwards"
Roy Sato	....	senior animator

Casting Department
Barbara Harris	....	ADR voice casting

Editorial Department
Gary Burritt	....	negative cutter (as Gary Burrit)
Michael Hatzer	....	color timer
Heather Elisa Hill	....	editorial department manager
Patrick Day Kennedy	....	assistant editor
William M. Steinberg	....	first assistant editor
Peter McEvoy	....	digital cinema producer (uncredited)

Music Department
Dirk Brossé	....	conductor
Dirk Brossé	....	orchestrator
Robert Elhai	....	orchestrator
Matthias Gohl	....	music producer
Elliot Goldenthal	....	music producer
Elliot Goldenthal	....	orchestrator
Joel Iwataki	....	music recording engineer
Joel Iwataki	....	music score mixer
Lawrence Manchester	....	music recording engineer
Richard Martinez	....	electronic music producer
Richard Martinez	....	score programmer
Curtis Roush	....	supervising music editor
Dick Rudolph	....	music supervisor (as Richard Rudolph)
Elliot Goldenthal	....	music arranger (uncredited)

Other crew
Motohisa Adachi	....	senior programmer
Gerard Banel	....	senior programmer
Troy Boren	....	marketing department
Jay Carina	....	sequence technical director
Li-Han Chen	....	senior programmer
Francesco Chiarini	....	pre-production
Per Christensen	....	senior programmer
Jack Fletcher	....	voice director
Megan Fouts	....	client services
Andy Hsu	....	marketing department
Toshi Kato	....	senior programmer
Shiro Kawai	....	senior programmer
Nicholas Lam	....	production assistant
Mike Lane	....	client services
Jack Liao	....	senior programmer
Andrea Maiolo	....	layout technical assistant
Catherine Mitsunaga	....	rendering technical associate
Eva Napolean	....	client services
Gordon Ng	....	client services
Mari Nishikawa	....	marketing department
Hitoshi Nishimura	....	senior programmer
Patricia Pawlak	....	cloth simulation artist
Cheryl Rye	....	cloth simulation artist
Eric Salituro	....	technical director
John Torrijos	....	video services (as John 'J.T.' Torrijos)

Thanks
Jack Liao	....	in memory of
Aya Sakaguchi	....	special thanks
Eiko Sakaguchi	....	special thanks

Production Companies

• Chris Lee Productions
• Square Company
• Square USA

Distributors

• Columbia Pictures (2001) (USA) (theatrical)
• Cascade Film (2001) (Russia) (theatrical)
• Columbia TriStar Films (2001) (France) (theatrical)
• Columbia TriStar Films (2001) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Columbia TriStar Films de Argentina (2001) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• Columbia TriStar Films de España (2001) (Spain) (theatrical)
• Falcon (2001) (Czech Republic) (theatrical)
• Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment (2002) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (2002) (Netherlands) (VHS)
• Columbia TriStar (200?) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Columbia TriStar (200?) (Brazil) (VHS)
• DVD Service (200?) (Russia) (DVD)
• Fox (2006) (Japan) (TV)
• GAGA (2001) (Japan) (all media)
• Irib Studio (2004) (Iran) (TV)
• LK-TEL (2002) (Argentina) (DVD)
• LK-TEL (2008) (Argentina) (DVD) (Blu-ray)
• RTL Entertainment (2005) (Netherlands) (TV) (first national airing) (RTL5)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2002) (USA) (DVD)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2004) (USA) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Abbey Road Studios  music recorded at
• Bandai Co. Ltd.  partner of Square Pictures
• Global Music Service  music copyist
• London Symphony Orchestra, The (LSO)  orchestra
• London Voices  choir
• Screen Music Studios (SMS)  dialogue recording facilities
• Skywalker Sound  post-production sound services
• Sony Classical  soundtrack
• Sony Music Soundtrax  soundtrack

Also Known As:

Fainaru fantaji (Japan)
Final Fantasy (USA) (working title)
Final Fantasy: The Movie (USA) (working title)
Gaia: Final Fantasy (USA) (original script title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for sci-fi action violence.

Runtime:

106 min

Country:

USA | Japan

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS (8 channels)

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Nova Scotia/Ontario) | USA:PG-13 (certificate #37629) | Malaysia:U | Japan:PG-12 | South Korea:All | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Brazil:Livre | Finland:K-11 | France:U | Germany:12 | Netherlands:12 | Norway:11 | Singapore:PG | Spain:7 | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | UK:PG

Company:

Chris Lee Productions

Trivia:

After shooting and initial animation wrapped, completed scenes were fed to Square Pictures' custom and (more or less) homemade "render farm" computer network (which consisted of 960 individual Pentium III-933MHz workstations) and processed into single frames. During this rendering process, the raw animation had the textures and extremely fine detail added by the network cluster. Each frame has twice the resolution of a high-definition TV signal and contains 10 megabytes of data.

Goofs:

Continuity: After Aki removes the phantom particles from Gray, she picks up a canister that's hovering in the air, when she originally placed it on the table further away.

Quotes:

Alarm voice: Proceed to the nearest evacuation facility, Proceed to the nearest evacuation facility.
Neil: I think we should proceed to the nearest evacuation facility.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Benchwarmers (2006)

Soundtrack:

The Dream Within

Good Film

I don't know why nearly all the critics bashed this film. I thought it was great! The main reasons people have dogged it is because they don't follow the plot and they don't think the animation looks real enough.

I did not have any problem following the plot. The second word in "Final Fantasy" is a description of the type of movie this is. It deals with the supernatural. The spirits, or "essences" of earth are gathered to fight the alien gaia, as the arms and weapons used against the alien spirits are ineffective and in fact destructive.

This movie introduced me to the concept of the gaia, which I believe is a great metaphor for understanding how all life on earth shares a common spirit. I don't truly believe there is a gaia, and you don't need to either to enjoy this film. But perhaps some found that this conflicted too much with their beliefs.

Now as far as the animation, this is the most realistic portrayal of human characters to date generated by a computer. If you watch some anime films, where there is a lot of action, they will show a frame for a long time with only the mouths moving. People enjoy these animations. Then why is this movie criticized so heavily for not looking real enough? It's rather ironic. You should watch this movie expecting an animation, not a full-feature film with real actors.

One explanation for this reaction is that, like figures in a wax museum, characters that look too real but are not creep us out because they remind us of dead people. But perhaps this is fitting for this movie, because the soul of the earth is sick and life on the planet is reaching its end.

In any case, I enjoyed this movie, and I liked the message. If you like animation and enjoy a good fantasy story, you will like this movie.