Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Hironobu Sakaguchi Co-director: Motonori Sakakibara
Produced by	Chris Lee Akio Sakai
Screenplay by	Al Reinert Jeff Vintar
Story by	Hironobu Sakaguchi
Based on	Final Fantasy by Hironobu Sakaguchi
Starring	Ming-Na Alec Baldwin James Woods Donald Sutherland Ving Rhames Steve Buscemi Peri Gilpin
Music by	Elliot Goldenthal
Edited by	Chris S. Capp
Production company	Square Pictures
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date	July 2, 2001 (2001-07-02) (premiere) July 11, 2001 (2001-07-11) (United States)
Running time	106 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$137 million
Box office	$85.1 million

Motonori Sakakibara

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is a 2001 American computer-animated science fiction film directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of the Final Fantasy series of role-playing video games. It was the first photorealistic computer-animated feature film and remains the most expensive video game-inspired film of all time. It features the voices of Ming-Na Wen, Alec Baldwin, Donald Sutherland, James Woods, Ving Rhames, Peri Gilpin and Steve Buscemi.

The Spirits Within follows scientists Aki Ross and Doctor Sid in their efforts to free a post-apocalyptic Earth from a mysterious and deadly alien race known as the Phantoms, which has driven the remnants of humanity into "barrier cities". Aki and Sid must fight against General Hein, who wishes to use more violent means to end the conflict.

Square Pictures rendered the film using some of the most advanced processing capabilities available for film animation at the time. A render farm consisting of 960 workstations was tasked with rendering each of the film's 141,964 frames. It took a staff of 200 about four years to complete The Spirits Within. Square intended to make the character of Aki Ross into the world's first photorealistic computer-animated actress, with plans for appearances in multiple films in different roles.

The Spirits Within debuted to mixed critical reception, but was widely praised for the realism of the computer-animated characters. Due to rising costs, the film greatly exceeded its original budget towards the end of production, reaching a final cost of $137 million, of which it recovered only $85 million at the box office. The film has been called a box office bomb and is blamed for the demise of Square Pictures.