This science fiction film revolutionized animation cinema: its failure in the cinema forced this company to merge in order not to disappear

News culture This science fiction film revolutionized animation cinema: its failure in the cinema forced this company to merge in order not to disappear

The 2001 science fiction film “Final Fantasy: Creatures of the Mind” marked a turning point in animation cinema. Directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of the “Final Fantasy” video game series, this feature film was characterized by its technical sophistication. In fact, motion capture was used for the first time to create realistic computer-generated charactersA gigantic effort was made: 150 digital artists and 200 animators worked tirelessly for four years! The result was visually impressive for the time and set new standards in the animation and film industry in general.

See Final Fantasy VII Rebirth on Amazon

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A bitter failure with a fatal outcome!

Despite this technological advancement, the film failed to convince the general public or critics, resulting in a dismal failure at the box office… With a whopping production budget of $130 million and additional marketing costs of $30 million, the film only grossed $85 million.. At Rotten tomatoesthe film only manages an average of 44/100!

Despite absolutely incredible animation and exciting action, this film has nothing to do with its source material and is ultimately very disappointing – Cinema crazy

The reviews were mixed, Highlighting the weaknesses in the characterization of the often superficial characters and the lack of a captivating story. Final Fantasy: Creatures of the Mind is set in the year 2065 on an Earth ravaged by ethereal aliens called Phantoms. The heroine, Doctor Aki Ross, is a scientist haunted by mysterious visions. Aided by her mentor Dr. Sid and a band of soldiers, she attempts to gather eight minds to create a force capable of destroying the Phantoms and saving humanity. Unfortunately, this commercial failure had a dramatic impact on the production studio.

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Merge to survive… A film that changed everything

The failure of Final Fantasy: Creatures of the Mind threatened the existence of Square Pictures, the cinematic arm of Square, the company behind the famous franchise. To avoid bankruptcy, the studio accelerated the merger process with its rival Enix in 2003, giving birth to Square Enix! This merger made it possible to stabilize the company’s finances and continue producing video games. Although Final Fantasy: Creatures of the Mind was not as successful as expected, it still paved the way for new animation techniques and showed the potential of motion capture in cinema. This will then be used in numerous projects such as “Spider-Man”, “Star Wars” and even “Planet of the Apes”!