Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
Genre: Sci-fi adventure
Producer: Square Pictures/Columbia Pictures
Director: Hironobu Sakaguchi
Rating: PG-13 by the MPAA
Medium: American/Japanese 3D animation
The Skinny: A strange dream forces an optimistic scientist to go on a mission to search for eight spirits of Earth, a planet infected with alien spirits that threaten humanity.
Think: Aliens mixed with Matrix-like philosophy
Where Found: In greater video stores/retail outlets near you courtesy of Columbia Tri-Star Home Entertainment.
Pros: Great science-fiction story only superseded by excellent animation, a whole lot of extras on both discs.
Cons: This, along with Final Flight of the Osiris, are the only productions made by Square Pictures. Oh, and this feels nothing like a Final Fantasy story at all.
My Take:
If you're looking for a Final Fantasy story full of fantasy elements, giant chickenlike creatures, magic attacks, and the familiar victory theme, you're better off checking out ADV Films' Final Fantasy Unlimited, because everything that made Final Fantasy Square Enix's biggest franchise is absent from Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. This 2001 film suffered in North America as a result of the lack of connection to the popular video game franchise as well as having very realistic looking human characters in an animated film, something America still isn't ready for even today.
It's a shame people feel this way because The Spirits Within is one of the greatest animated films ever made.
The story takes place in the year 2065. The Earth has become infested with alien spirits which began to possess everything on the planet, even people. Humanity is on the brink of extinction, so a group of scientists have gathered together to find a way to destroy the threat before it completely consumes Earth. One of those scientists, Dr. Aki Ross, is spurred on by her mentor, Dr. Sid, to reveal a plan that she saw in a strange dream to unleash the eight spirits of Gaia, which could eradicate the alien spirits without destroying the planet. A group of soldiers known as the Deep Eyes Squadron assist Aki on her mission, although there are some within the government that are leery of Aki's true intention, especially when it's revealed that Aki has a spirit within her.
Stellar animation is found throughout this The Spirits Within, and the voice talent, which includes the likes of Ming-Na, Ving Rhames, and Steve Buschemi, among others, is phenominal. Square Pictures and Sony decided to let the brilliant work speak for itself rather than publicize the actors as Dreamworks do in their animated films. It's a shame that American audiences didn't get the film a chance because, in all seriousness, it is one of the greatest animated films ever made. It's a solid science-fiction story as well as featured innovative animation techniques. It's realistic, which might have scared a lot of folks who are more used to the Pixar-quality cartoony human designs. The two discs are filled with more bonuses than the average DVD, including a feature-length documentary. Shame the movie didn't do any better, or else we could have gotten an interactive PS2 disc in a future release. Oh well. The regular DVD release is still great and a must have for every animation fan.
