Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
(1-Disc Edition, 2001)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Written by Al Reinert and Jeff Vintar, based on a story by Hironobu Sakaguchi
Directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi and Motonori Sakakibara
Starring the voices of Ming-Na, Alec Baldwin, Ving Rhames, Steve Buscemi, Peri Gilpen, Donald Sutherland, and James Woods

Features:

• Two Running Audio Commentaries:
  
  • co-director Sakakibara; sequence supervisor Hiroyuki Hayashida, sets & props lead artist Tatsuro Maruyama, and Phantom supervisor Takao Noguchi
    
  • animation director Andy Jones, editor Christopher S. Capp, and staging director Tani Kunitake
    
• Isolated Score with Commentary by Composer Elliot Goldenthal
  
• Storyboard/Playblast selects with Optional Filmmaker Commentary
  
  • Also includes subtitled factoids
    

My Advice: Rent it

In the not-too-distant future, a race of alien spirits is threatening to invade the Earth. Dr. Aki Ross (Ming-Na) is trying to find out as much as she can about these creatures, especially how and why they are threatening this invasion. Her research becomes much more important to her when she becomes contaminated with some small particles of these extraterrestrials. In the process of working on her research, she teams up again with Grey Edwards (Baldwin) who leads a military group whose job it is to protect the Earth. General Hein (Woods) is also working on a way to stop this invasion, but his research becomes an obsession. Even though he knows that his methods will destroy the Earth, he still continues to insist that they are the only way to put a halt to their crisis. It is up to Dr. Ross and Edwards to stop not only this invasion, but to make sure that General Hein's experiments don't get implemented.

This movie is much better than my plot synopsis makes it sound. The script is very well conceived and the actors are more than up to the task of bringing it to life. As most everyone probably knows by now, though, there are no "real" actors on the screen; absolutely everything is computer generated. It is very good CG, as well. After you get used to the feel of the movie, it is very easy to believe that these characters on the screen are actually real people you're watching.

The DVD presentation is good, too. There the actually three commentary tracks on this DVD. The first commentary with the co-director, et al, is in Japanese, but you can turn the subtitles on and off as you like. I don't speak Japanese, so--go figure--I liked having them on. The second commetary track takes us through the film with the animation director, et al and it's in English. I couldn't help noticing that both of these commentaries cover a lot of the same material--making me almost wish they had spliced them all together into some kind of "best of" or something. The third and final commentary isolates the score for the film and composer Elliot Goldenthal talks a bit about the whys and wherefores of his work. There's really not much to say about it.

The best feature on this DVD is the Storyboard/Playblasts option. What they have done here is edited in bits of the wire-frame renderings and storyboards with commentary and little "pop up" factoids. Both the commentary and the factoids are optional and I don't recommend trying to watch them together. There is simply too much information thrown at you if you do. The problem I have with the factiods is that they flash by too fast to be read.

On the less exciting side of the special features, you have your obligatory theatrical trailers and a "photo shoot" with the star of the film, Dr. Aki Ross. What they have done is taken her character and rendered her in a bathing suit and some more suggestive clothing than she wears in the film. Don't get me wrong, all of it is completely appropriate for people of any age. All it really boils down to is a slide show of her in a bathing suit rendered a bunch of different ways. So, teenage boys, have a blast.

It is also worth pointing out that there was a double-disc set of this film (now out of print), but not having really gone through the features on it, I can't recommend one over the other. We obviously want people to get as loaded a disc as they can, so if you're a fan of the film, seek that one out. But if you don't know that you want to spend the time on it, you're safe enough picking this one up as a rental.