[horstenpeter]

A beautiful fantasy came to an end on Monday as Jun Aida announced to the 125 employees of Square USA in Honolulu that the studio would officially close on March 31. According to an article in yesterday�s Honolulu Star-Bulletin, the executive producer of Final Fantasy was unable to land a studio deal for further feature production as hoped. Aida began discussions with Hollywood majors in September, but after the Sept. 11 crisis found the negotiation process moved too slowly to satisfy his parent company, Tokyo-based Square Co. Of course, if a studio deal were to come through between now and the 31st the studio -and all those jobs- would be saved.

From the Animation Magazine website. Here

A lot of things went wrong with Final Fantasy, and it may have had a sub-par plot, but I loved it and it makes me sad to see the studio go to waste. Damn it, they would have learned from their mistakes and their next feature would likely have been even better.

Oh well I think we all saw it coming.

So farewell, Square Pictures, and good luck to everyone there in finding a new place to work.

[Sedone]

Does that mean Spooge Demon's moving back to the mainland?

[Dr. Bang]

thats really sad actually, the movie should deserve more regconition. Damn you marketing! DAMN YOU!

[xXxPZxXx]

argghghgh what a waste.

I don't think they will have trouble finding employment in the field though. Even though it flopped I think people realize that it was a sort of breakthrough.

If only they actually had done a final fantasy style RPG movie. Where a long journey takes place and battles are fought. Where characters grow together and you get to see everything they go through. That is what would have made the movie work in my eyes.

Still liked the movie quite a bit just wish it would have worked out so we could see another shot at it.

-PZ-

[Binke]

The movie sucked. But it was indeed a breakthrough.

[Anthony]

I doubt that Spooge's fate is tied to Square Pictures'. Pity the movie wasn't as good as his paintings ;]

[Lunatique]

I think Square pictures had very misguided direction to began with.

1)They never should've tried to duplicate reality when they knew they couldn't do it convincingly. One look at any of the facial animation/lip sync tests and they should've stopped right then and there. Trying to make a point with "technological breakthough in 3D animation" was just not enough of a point in making a whole movie.

No 3D character could ever be as emotive as a real human actor.

They really should've done an "idealized realism" style similar to FF VIII or X.

2)They tried to please the non-gamers with a plot that was closer to american sci-fi flicks, and they failed. They should've done the epic fantasy adventure that they are so good at. xXxPZxXx was right on the money.

Oh well. The entire 3D community will only learn from this experience.

[Nilwort]

quote

Quote:

but after the Sept. 11 crisis found the negotiation process moved too slowly to satisfy his parent company, Tokyo-based Square Co

Even if the FF movie diddn't make a whole lot of money, a disaster like that certainly wouldn't of helped them at all, reality just screwed the company over...I guess a lot of things depend on luck sometimes, or lack thereof...

[aquamire]

I believe Square's CEO left the company as well because of the poor results.

Its unfortunate.. they made a lot of breakthroughs, but as Lunatique said, it was misguided.

I think I could of dealt with the facial animation if it actually had a decent script. When will they learn the cheesy one-liners just dont work well? Heh.

[Dr. Bang]

well, what a nice way to start a year eh. Enron gones bankrupt, K-mart gone bankrupt and now this.

The terrorist already have won.

[Muzman]

on top of the faces (which is pretty glaring) they needed to recognise that just because you're using motion capture actors for walks and so forth doesn't mean you can just get average ones. And once the shot gets wide enough the hands turned into inanimate lumps on the ends of their arms.
Ahh well, poor sods; costs were really high it seems and the thing was marketed like a computer game ("Come see our whizzer graphics! The rest takes care of itself!") which didn't help. It's probably got more Spooge in there than I've ever seen in a flick too. But I haven't seen that Inca thing he was working on.

[A.Buttle]

I thought they closed last year some time?

/me pours Binke a "special" bath

[horstenpeter]

I think the best part of the Final Fantasy film was the team that worked on it. I think every one of them loved what he was doing, and it simply shows in some scenes (The first one that comes into mind is the final scene with Aki: Her face against the sky, the wind blowing, the Hawk's cry and the beginning of the song "The Dream within")
The fact that this team will be torn apart is the worst part about the closure of the studio.

[Pat]

Has anyone seen any of their post-FF work? I heard there was some kinda of Matrix animation they worked on as well. (?)

-Pat

[Gimbal8]

Pat, I just read something about that in this months Official U.S. Playstation mag.

"Now here's a cool crossover if I've ever heard on: Square Picutres ... is working on a new film that's based around the movie The Matrix! It's actually part of a collection of animated shorts from several Japanese anime directors and artists that tell multiple stories about how The Matrix came into being. In fact, the Square movie has story bits that directly relate to the Matrix sequel."

It goes on to say that it is called Animatrix, that Yoshiaki Kawajiri (Ninja Scroll and Vampire Hunter D) has a film in there.

Well, I'll keep an eye out for it.

[Krauze]

they had to hire a good writer. extra 100 000 bucks would be just a drop in the big budget FF had. simple as that. FF was just another sci-fi movie...yes, with wonderful visuals.

[ken]

well, obviously this isn't a bag-ff thread. it's truly sad they're going, because i think they would have learnt some big lessons from ff, and made their next film truly great across the board. i mean, the heritage is all there: final fantasy (1) was supposed to be square's last video game before going bankrupt. instead it became one the most successful video game franchises today.

what i find hard to digest is how they got so much wrong. the big leap they're taking is doing a fully digital realistic movie - why take any more risks, abandoning almost everything that made the final fantasy series a hit (besides gfx).

oh well. doubtless in ten years time square pictures will be seen as pioneers. martyrs, but pioneers.

-Ken

[Vesper]

The problem, I think, with the FF movie is that people expected to see their FF, not a new one... The movie was great technically and it was a true to the FF theme. (It's called Final Fantasy for a reason— they aren't continuations of the same story! I was told by 2 different ticket-tearing guys that it was! Inconceivable, isn’t it! I mean, they worked there… The other problem was the pacing... (Most) Americans need something happening every moment and get bored on character development. Plus, most people forget that it is a movie— you can't fit a 50+ game (like most FF games) in 2 hrs –you’re working on a different scale...

If you can't tell, I loved the movie, and it pains me to see the termination of such a bold production company... Do you think Pixar would make a better adult-level film? Their still busy being Disney's lackeys!

[Gimbal8]

I really enjoyed the movie as well. I had so many people tell me before I saw it how disapointed they were and that the 'graphics were awesome but the story sucked'.

I liked the story. It was much better then most of the crap I usually sit through at a movie theater. And I was happier then you can possibly imagine that it WASN'T based the FF games...which I don't really care for.

Different strokes for differnt folks I guess.

[Sedone]

I've been listening to The Dream Within on repeat for the past five hours. What a good song, and I love the ending to Final Fantasy.

[horstenpeter]

Yeah I love that song. When I'm in the right mood it almost makes me cry, and I have to turn it off because I can't stand the beauty.

Actually I read on AWN that they were doing special effects work for the Matrix sequel. I wonder whether that would not be a way to stay afloat, doing contracted special effects work. Could even help fund development on another movie.