As he puts it: "Tim Burton, James Cameron-I like all the moviemakers that everyone else likes." Aki Ross is a strong-willed, but vulnerable heroine. In fact, Sakaguchi's inspirations are endless. All the while, through her dreams-shown in a highly stylistic manner in the film-Aki must discover the true path to achieve Earth's restoration.īut beneath its spiritual theme and awe-inspiring CG, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is a conventional sci-fi action film, which pays homage to classic sci-fi magazines, as well as films such as Aliens and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. From this point, Aki and her crew must stop the Phantom invasion and prevent General Hein from destroying Earth. Meanwhile, the maniacal General Hein (James Woods) believes that the only way to rid Earth of the alien presence is to fire an ultra-powerful space cannon, destroying the Phantoms and Earth's remaining habitats with it. Sid (Donald Sutherland) may have found a way to stop the alien menace known as Phantoms and have enlisted the help of the Deep Eyes Squad, a special-ops military unit headed by Captain Gray Edwards (Alec Baldwin). A group of American scientists, headed by the film's lead character, Aki Ross (voiced by Ming Na), and Dr. An invading race of aliens, who are able to extract human souls and leave the bodies lifeless, have sprung forth from the meteor and are depleting the remaining human habitats. A race of aliens invades the earth.įinal Fantasy: The Spirits Within is set in the mid-21st century, when a large meteor has crashed on Earth, leaving much of the planet in ruins. In Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, Sakaguchi and the team at Square Pictures have created a cutting-edge visual masterpiece, which at times is so exquisitely detailed that it compels the audience to remind themselves that the onscreen characters are only a collection of polygons and hand-drawn textures. But finally, it seems that Sakaguchi has found a medium that is able to cater to his grandiose methods of storytelling. The creator of Final Fantasy has cultivated his notions of far-away lands and epic characters through a series of game releases, but even the remarkably beautiful Final Fantasy X has faced various technological roadblocks. She even showed up in Maxim’s “Hot 100” issue (at #87), sporting a purple bikini and standing next to a sidebar that could be graciously called “of its time.” But it was never meant to be, and Ross now lives on in this film and an internal Animatrix demonstration video.Technology has generally walked a few steps behind Hironobu Sakaguchi's vision. Voiced by super-cool Ming-Na Wen, Ross starred in The Spirits Within and was poised to be a recurring virtual star in other Square projects. Had Aki Ross gone as far as intended, she would have been way ahead of her time. But back in 2001, 20 years ago, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was having a go at both. And we’ve come to a point where “virtual stars” are all the rage on YouTube. Nowadays, just about anyone with time and good software can render a believable-looking human. The Spirits Within almost gave us our first virtual star. Not only that, there’s an orchestral remix of her song “Touch It.” You can hear it here. As you might expect, her attacks are music based. The appearance was part of a campaign for her Dangerous Woman album in 2016. So it makes sense she’d eventually end up in a Final Fantasy game: Brave Exvius, to be exact, where she appears as “Dangerous Ariana.” While it didn’t become part of the Final Fantasy series, it has gained a fan following over the years.Īriana Grande is a Final Fantasy character.Īriana Grande hasn’t been shy about her love of all things Japanese ( regardless of whether she spells them right). The story takes on religion, several schools of philosophy, and concepts like reincarnation and higher dimensions. The story revolves around Fei Fong Wong, an amnesiac possessed of hidden depths and power. Tetsuya Takahashi and Kaori Tanaka presented their pitch for the upcoming seventh game in the popular series, but Square ended up releasing it as its own title. But it was almost - literally - a different game entirely. So much so, in fact, that it’s got its own series of new games underway, starting with last year’s Final Fantasy VII Remake. But if you’re an enjoyer, stick these oddities in your memory for later - either for trivia night, or just because they’re wild.įF VII is one of the best remembered and most loved installments in the series. If you’re a die-hard Final Fantasy fan, you’ve got all this knowledge in your back pocket for parties. It’s a time for celebration… and what better way to celebrate than to remember how weird these series are? July 19 was a big day for Final Fantasy fans: a double anniversary! Game IV celebrated its 30th anniversary, and X turned 20, both on the same day.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |