Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
Short description
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is set in the mid-twenty-first century, after an impact from space has left Earth overrun by phantom-like alien beings that kill on contact and have wiped out much of humanity. Dr. Aki Ross, a scientist, works with her mentor Dr. Sid to gather eight spirits that could form a force capable of protecting the planet. A military unit, the Deep Eyes Squadron under Captain Gray Edwards, escorts and supports her, while General Hein pursues a more aggressive solution that carries its own danger. Aki's efforts set her against those who favour an all-out strike.
The film is an animated science fiction work directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi with Motonori Sakakibara, and was released in 2001. It was Sakaguchi's first feature as director; his only later directing credit listed is Pokémon the Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back - Evolution in 2019. The screenplay is by Al Reinert, Jeff Vintar and Jack Fletcher, and the voice cast includes Ming-Na Wen as Aki Ross, Donald Sutherland as Dr. Sid, Alec Baldwin as Gray Edwards, Ving Rhames, Steve Buscemi and Peri Gilpin.
Made on a budget of 137 million USD, the film took about 85 million USD worldwide, a result well below its cost. On IMDb it holds 6.4/10 from 86,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.2/10 from 1,660 votes, placing audience response in the middle range. A critics' rating of 6/10 from 144 reviews is close to those audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Shortly after the film's release, Aki Ross became the first computer-generated character to be featured in Maxim magazine's 'Hot 100'.
- Rendering was performed on a specially designed render farm consisting of 960 workstations with Pentium III 933 MHz processors. The render farm was created by Square Pictures, located in Hawaii.
- By the end of the film’s production, the planned budget had been exceeded.
- The film is based on the "Final Fantasy" series of video games (1987 – present, Square Enix).
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
