Final Fantasy: A Retrospective
Part 8 – Movies, TV and more: SquareEnix seeks to become king of all media!
Tags: Final Fantasy XII Categories: Features, PS2 Features
Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Oct 31st, 2006
Far from being solely a game publisher, SquareEnix has been attempting to become the king of all media for over 12 years now, beginning in 1994 and continuing to this day. Although most believe Square’s efforts began and very nearly ended with Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, such was not the case. In fact, thus far, SquareEnix have put no less than five Final Fantasy-themed TV shows, videos or movies out there for public consumption, to varying degrees of success. We’re sure these efforts won’t be the last.
Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals (1994 JP; 1998 US)
A direct-to-video anime feature released in Japan in 1994, it took four years for anime distributor ADV to pick up the film for US release. The anime serves as a sequel to Final Fantasy V, which holds some irony for the US market, who even as late as 1998 had not had a chance to play the game the video was based on. In fact, much of the US demand for the game to be brought over was inspired by the appeal of the anime feature.
Taking place 200 years after Final Fantasy V, the heroes of the game are now mere legends and new heroes arise to take on the threat of Deathgyunos. Mid, from the original videogame cast, makes an appearance, but for the most part the brief film has a shallow plot that is quickly resolved, which is about average for anime videos.
Several elements make the film feel a bit odd to series fans. Among them, chocobos appear featherless, in contrast to their in-game appearance. Also, one of the characters, Linaly, a female magic user, discovers her magical abilities are channeled through her Victoria’s Secret garments, rather than being cast in a more traditional way, although such eyebrow-raising content is part and parcel of anime films, which have a more adult-audience bent.
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)
Directed by Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was a feature-length computer-generated-animation film. It was the first film to attempt photo-realistic CGI human characters through computer animation. The admirable technical achievements, however, did not guarantee success, despite the built-in Final Fantasy audience.
In fact, despite a promotional partnership with Sony, who spent a lot of money promoting the film, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within nearly bankrupted Square Pictures, losing the company an estimated $124 million in production and promotional costs. The film garnered only $34 million in US box office and another $55 million in international box office, far below Square’s worst predictions. The financial losses were so high that it opened the door for Sony to buy a large stake in the company, and eventually led to Square’s merger with Enix. The only animated film to lose more money at the box office, according to imbd.com and boxofficemojo.com, was Disney’s Treasure Planet.
The storyline was more science fiction than it was fantasy, and followed the story of Aki Ross, a scientist, and Doctor Sid, to rid the world of an alien race known as Phantoms. The plot, which was equal parts Aliens and The Matrix, left even some fans of the videogame series cold, as it felt a bit too derivative for a company known for spinning far-more original yarns. Critics spent most of their time panning the film’s efforts at photorealism and comparing the main stars to Hollywood actors with similar looks, rather than focusing on the story which, taken on purely its own merits, was not all that terrible.
But it also wasn’t great, and that was the film’s downfall.
Final Fantasy Unlimited (2001)
Unlike the Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within movie, Final Fantasy Unlimited used 2D and 3D animation, rather than highly-advanced CGI graphics. Released in Japan as a TV series that was scheduled to run for 52 weeks, at a pace of one episode per week, a combination of low ratings and Square Pictures’ budget drying up after the disastrous box office reception for The Spirits Within, conspired to cut the series short at only 25 episodes.
Import video publisher ADV eventually brought the series over to the US and Great Britain in a seven-volume collection of DVDs. The story focuses on Ai and Yu, two orphans in search of parents they believe are still alive. Ai and Yu travel a hostile world, called Wonderland, using the help of a ghost train called Elizabeth.
In their travels, they find much of their world has been trashed by Chaos, a force that may be connected to Earl Tyrant, the ruler of Wonderland. Unfortunately, since the series was canceled without much warning, the storyline is never fully resolved in the 25 completed episodes. Attempts have been made to resolve the storyline in radio, audio CD, novelizations and graphic novel formats.
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (2005)
Perhaps Square’s most successful non-videogame Final Fantasy effort to date, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is everything that Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was not. The story is a direct sequel to the Final Fantasy VII videogame, taking place about two years after the events of the game. The film rightly focuses on Cloud Strife, who is living with Tifa, with whom he runs a delivery service.
Advent Children, while a CGI production, goes for a more stylized, less photorealistic look, and the story reunites all surviving cast members of the original videogame for one final battle against Sephiroth. Yet the moment most fans were waiting for comes when the movie reunites Cloud with long-lost love Aeris; however, the reunion comes in a near-death dream sequence and only effectively accomplishes the task of Aeris telling Cloud that she’s in a better place and it’s okay for him to move on in his life with Tifa.
Released on both UMD and DVD, the film was marketed as a way to get more people to buy a Sony PSP; however, since the UMD release contained fewer special features than the DVD release, it only served to underline the shortcomings of the UMD format as a target platform for movie releases. Square recently announced that in 2007, they will release an extended director’s cut of the film on Blu-Ray DVD, in 1080p format, to help highlight the advantages of Sony’s PS3-standard HD disc format for games and DVD movies. The Blu-Ray format, created by Sony, will be competing for market and mindshare with another HDTV format for DVDs, the HD-DVD.
Last Order: Final Fantasy VII (2005)
Set one year before Final Fantasy VII takes place, Last Order: Final Fantasy VII is a prequel that retells some of the flashback events from Zack’s point of view. An anime production, the film has in at least one case been bundled with Advent Children, as well as being sold separately. Last Order sets the stage for both the Crisis Core PSP game as well as the Before Crisis mobile phone game.
The story revolves around Zack’s adventures as he and Sephiroth investigate the possible failure of a mako reactor; he is also witness to Sephiroth’s fall from grace into madness, during which the FFVII villain slaughters an entire village. Zack is revealed to be Aeris’s boyfriend prior to her meeting Cloud Strife.
With no CGI animation, Last Order is a more traditional anime and generally was well-received by the fan base, although it is less well-known than Advent Children. It seems best suited to be a DVD extra in an Advent Children package, as the feature is not long enough to really merit purchase on its own.
And that, folks, is where the Final Fantasy franchise stands as we await the longed-for, much-delayed US release of Final Fantasy XII. As the first new installment in the series in nearly five years (not counting FFX-2 or the online-only FFXI), anticipation couldn’t be any higher. In the last installment of our series, we’ll take a quick glance – not quite a full preview, since we already have one of those – ahead at Final Fantasy XII and the future of the Final Fantasy franchise.
Final Fantasy: A Retrospective: Introduction
Final Fantasy: A Retrospective: Part 7 – The Mobile Trend
Final Fantasy: A Retrospective: Part 9 – Final Fantasy XII and beyond
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Tags: Final Fantasy XII
Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Oct 31st, 2006 and is filed under Features, PS2 Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
