{"id":44561,"date":"2025-02-20T12:31:08","date_gmt":"2025-02-20T03:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=44561"},"modified":"2025-02-21T10:41:04","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T01:41:04","slug":"final-fantasy-film-that-almost-ruined-square-enix-financially-to-be-re-screened-as-a-turning-point-in-japanese-cg-animation-at-film-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-film-that-almost-ruined-square-enix-financially-to-be-re-screened-as-a-turning-point-in-japanese-cg-animation-at-film-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Final Fantasy film that almost ruined Square Enix financially to be re-screened as \u201ca turning point in Japanese CG animation\u201d at film festival\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within <\/strong>from 2001 will be getting an official re-screening at the NIIAFF 2025 (Niigata International Animation Film Festival), held from March 15 to 20 (source: <a href=\"https:\/\/eiga.com\/news\/20250219\/19\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Eiga.com<\/a>). The film is being positioned as a \u201cTurning point in Japanese CG animation\u201d by the festival.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within - Official\u00ae Trailer 2 [HD]\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xaI7ZPA9I1c?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Directed by Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi himself, The Spirits Within is a 3D animated sci-fi film adaptation of Final Fantasy. It was co-produced by Square and Columbia Pictures. Although it\u2019s known for being the first photorealistic CG-animated feature film, which used the most cutting edge technology at the time, it is somewhat infamous for damaging Square financially and leading to the closure of Square Pictures.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within not only ran over budget, costing Square and co-producer Columbia Pictures a total of $137 million USD, but it ended up being a complete box office failure too. It grossed only $85 million, with its screenings being discontinued prematurely both in the US and Japan due to poor attendance. In Japan,* it was badly affected by the lack of a dubbed version and overshadowed by the massive release of Studio Ghibli\u2019s Spirited Away.&nbsp;*(<strong>2025\/02\/20, 13:38 JST: Edited error<\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1184\" height=\"646\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1184px) 100vw, 1184px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250220-44561-header.jpg\" alt=\"Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within\" class=\"wp-image-44563\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250220-44561-header.jpg 1184w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250220-44561-header-380x207.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250220-44561-header-768x419.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>As a result, Square recorded huge financial losses and was forced to withdraw from the film industry, closing Square Pictures and cancelling the Final Fantasy: Unlimited TV anime series halfway through. The company was ultimately driven to seeking <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2001\/biz\/news\/sony-circles-square-1117853986\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">capital injection from Sony<\/a> and other companies.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite its unfortunate history, it\u2019s nice to see Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within recognized for both the artistic and technological innovations it made. The film will be screened at the NIIAFF 2025 from March 15 to 20 as part of the \u201cTurning points in Japanese CG animation\u201d category.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within to get a re-screening at the NIIAFF 2025, positioned as a \u201cTurning point in Japanese CG animation.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":44566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[36,17],"class_list":["post-44561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-final-fantasy","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Final Fantasy film that almost ruined Square Enix financially to be re-screened as \u201ca turning point in Japanese CG animation\u201d at film festival\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within to get a re-screening at the NIIAFF 2025, positioned as a \u201cTurning point in Japanese CG animation.&quot;\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-film-that-almost-ruined-square-enix-financially-to-be-re-screened-as-a-turning-point-in-japanese-cg-animation-at-film-festival\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Final Fantasy film that almost ruined Square Enix financially to be re-screened as \u201ca turning point in Japanese CG animation\u201d at film festival\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within to get a re-screening at the NIIAFF 2025, positioned as a \u201cTurning point in Japanese CG animation.&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-film-that-almost-ruined-square-enix-financially-to-be-re-screened-as-a-turning-point-in-japanese-cg-animation-at-film-festival\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-02-20T03:31:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-02-21T01:41:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250320-44561-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1092\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"604\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Final Fantasy film that almost ruined Square Enix financially to be re-screened as \u201ca turning point in Japanese CG animation\u201d at film festival\u00a0 - 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Currently devoted to growing Automaton West to the size of its Japanese sister-site, while making sure to keep news concise and developer stories deep and stimulating.","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/amber-vjestica\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44561"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44608,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44561\/revisions\/44608"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}