Final Fantasy  Film Follow-up

Posted: 16th December 2011 by Brian in Film
Tags: ,

Final Fantasy: The Spirits WithinHi, everyone. Well, we Podwits are nothing if not self-correcting.

In our last podcast I spoke somewhat ill of the 2001 film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, voicing my theory, based on the film’s apparent lack of relation to the vaunted Final Fantasy video game series, that Square (the production company) had produced a fairly independent science-fiction film and only slapped the Final Fantasy name on it to boost its audience appeal after, I surmised, it had focus-grouped badly.

Turns out that it was supposed to be a Final Fantasy film all along. Not only was it directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of the video game franchise, but it also shared some significant philosophical viewpoints and even visuals with a couple of the games, such as the idea of souls as the lifeforce of a planet.

So, uh, my bad. I cop to it, and hope that you will all continue to take my audible rantings for what they’re worth. Wait a minute, that didn’t come out right…

(Side note, apropos of nothing: The film’s Wikipedia entry alleges, without attribution, that Square intended for FF:TSW‘s heroine Aki Ross to be an actual honest-to-god S1m0ne. A fascinating and sadly missed opportunity if true…)