October 3, 2001

In another effort to distract viewers from the actual movie with an overwhelming number of goodies, Columbia Tristar has announced that Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within will arrive on store shelves October 23rd. After a “don’t blink or you’ll miss it” theatrical run, Final Fantasy will show up on DVD just three short months after it premiered. You could almost get whiplash from such a short theatrical to video release window.

Despite the negative reviews and box office failure, this looks like it’s going to be a pretty incredible piece of work. Any questions you may have about the film are sure to be answered by one of the multiple commentaries or documentaries. I just wish someone would give the same type of attention to films like Casablanca or Princess Mononoke.

PS2 owners may want to hold off on purchasing this edition of the movie. There is a rumor that a future edition of the movie is planned where certain scenes will be rendered in real-time allowing the viewer control over angle and perspective. However, due to the box office failure, I wouldn’t be surprised if the producers minimized any further investment in the project.

Final Fantasy is the story of a future earth at war with funky aliens. I could probably go into more detail, but I really don’t see the point. We’ll post more details on the disc as they become available.

October looks to be the month of critically panned but visually spectacular sci-fi movies. Episode I will be premiering the week before. Although I’m looking forward to giving the Final Fantasy Disc a spin, I have to admit that the disc I’m really looking forward to is Disney’s complete Davey Crockett. Can it get any better than that hat"

SPECIAL DVD FEATURES

DISC ONE

  • Two feature-length commentaries:

  • Co-director (Motonori Sakakibara), sequence supervisor (Hiroyuki Hayashida), sets & props lead artist (Tatsuro Maruyama), Phantom supervisor (Takao Noguchi)

  • Animation director (Andy Jones), editor (Chris S. Capp), staging director (Tani Kunitake)

  • Isolated score with commentary by composer Elliot Goldenthal

  • Storyboard/Playblast selects of the film with optional filmmaker commentary or subtitled factoids

  • Theatrical trailers

  • Interactive animated menus, featuring CGI introductions created by Square Pictures

  • Scene selections with motion images

  • Production notes

DISC TWO:

  • Original interactive documentary - The Making of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Dig deeper and link-out to information pods which spotlight:

  • Final Fantasy Thriller Music Video

  • Alternate opening sequence

  • Mini-movie: Aki’s Dream

  • Trailer exploration

  • Multiple workshops including:

  • Seven in-depth character files

  • Three vehicle scale comparisons (Bandit, Quatro, Black Boa)

  • Two face wraps (Aki, Dr. Sid)

  • Character morphs

  • Compositing builds

  • Matte art exploration

  • Sets and props

  • Final Fantasy Shuffler: Become the filmmaker by re-editing a pivotal scene from the film. Complete the edit and play back your final cut.

  • Interactive animated menus

  • DVD-ROM exclusive interactive film exploration

  • Includes complete screenplay

  • Virtual tour of Square Pictures

  • Screensaver

  • Weblinks

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

DVD SPECIFICATIONS

  • Digitally Mastered Audio & Video

  • 1.85:1 Widescreen Film Presentation (enhanced for 16x9 TVs)

  • Dolby Digital 5.1 (English) and Dolby Surround 2.0 (French)

  • English and French subtitles

  • Rated PG-13 for sci-fi action violence

  • Color

  • Closed-Captioned

  • 106 minutes

Jason