Final Fantasy VII Advent Children
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| Final Fantasy VII Advent Children | |
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| Directed by | Tetsuya Nomura Takeshi Nozue |
| Produced by | Yoshinori Kitase Shinji Hashimoto |
| Written by | Kazushige Nojima |
| Starring | Seiyu: Takahiro Sakurai Showtaro Morikubo Maaya Sakamoto Ayumi Ito English voice actors: Steve Burton Steve Staley Mena Suvari Rachael Leigh Cook |
| Music by | Nobuo Uematsu |
| Cinematography | Yasuharu Yoshizawa |
| Editing by | Keiichi Kojima |
| Distributed by | Square Enix Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (International) |
| Release date(s) |  September 14, 2005 April 24, 2006 April 25, 2006 May 3, 2006 May 24, 2006 June 9, 2006 July 3, 2006 December 6, 2006 January 30, 2007 |
| Running time | 101 min |
| Language | Japanese (Japan) English (International) German (Germany) Spanish (Spain) French (France) |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Final Fantasy VII Advent Children[1] (ファイナルファンタジーVII アドベントチルドレン Fainaru Fantajī Sebun Adobento Chirudoren?) is a 2005 computer-animated film directed by Tetsuya Nomura, co-directed by Takeshi Nozue, and written by Kazushige Nojima. It was produced by Yoshinori Kitase, and the soundtrack was composed by Nobuo Uematsu. Advent Children was the first announced title in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII series.
The film is based on the highly successful role-playing game Final Fantasy VII from 1997. It is set two years after Final Fantasy VII and one year before Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, and follows Cloud Strife as he unravels the cause of the mysterious plague "geostigma" that has beset the population.
The initial DVD and UMD release of the film in 2005 was voiced in Japanese. The English-dubbed versions were released on April 25, 2006. The film got a relatively positive reception, and received the "Maria Award" at the Festival Internacional de Cinema de Catalunya in 2005.[2] As of 2006, the DVD and UMD releases of Advent Children has sold over 2.4 million copies worldwide.[3]
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[edit] Plot
Two years after the events of Final Fantasy VII, the Planet is recovering from the devastating attack by Meteor, while the survivors of Midgar have begun to build a new city, aptly named "Edge", on the outskirts of the old metropolis. However, a strange disease known as "geostigma" has arisen. After his showdown with Sephiroth, Cloud Strife established the "Strife Delivery Service", with the aid of Tifa Lockhart, whom he has been living with in Edge. Marlene Wallace and an orphaned boy named Denzel have been entrusted to their care.
After receiving a message from Tifa, Cloud is attacked by three mysterious men who believe that he knows the location of their missing "mother". However, the battle is cut short and he escapes. Hoping to gain information on the mysterious attackers, Cloud visits Rufus Shinra, the leader of the seemingly defunct Shinra Company. Rufus attempts to enlist Cloud's help to stop the trio, but fails. After their meeting, Kadaj, leader of the men who attacked Cloud, breaks into Rufus' lodge and demands that Rufus tell him where to find his "mother". It is revealed by Kadaj that "mother" is the remains of Jenova, and is somehow connected to the cause of the geostigma. Kadaj also announces that he and his "brothers", Yazoo and Loz, are planning a new "reunion" that will culminate in an assault on the Planet itself.
Loz arrives at Aerith Gainsborough's church in an attempt to find their "mother", and is confronted by Tifa. A short battle ensues with Tifa holding the upper hand, burying Loz in a rubble. Loz's consciousness is however quickly regained and he resumes the fight. After distracting Tifa, he uses his lightning-speed powers and hits her. She is hit once more by Loz, but Marlene distracts Loz by throwing materia from Cloud's storage chest. Loz closes in on Marlene and Tifa tells her to run just before the scene changes.
Kadaj and his "brothers" begin collecting children infected with geostigma, including Denzel and the uninfected Marlene, and take them to the Forgotten City. Cloud attempts to rescue them but fails and must be rescued himself by Vincent Valentine. Vincent reveals to Cloud what the trio are seeking and that it could result in the return of Sephiroth. He also tells him that geostigma is the result of one's body working excessively to fight off an infection brought on by Jenova's lingering presence within the Lifestream. Cloud agrees to return to Edge and face Kadaj in direct battle.
In Edge, the villainous trio call forth several monsters to attack the populace, including the dragon summon "Bahamut SIN". While the other party members of Final Fantasy VII deal with Bahamut SIN, Reno and Rude attempt to take care of Yazoo and Loz until Cloud arrives. Through their teamwork, Cloud and his friends soon dispatch the monsters and Bahamut SIN. In a nearby building, Rufus reveals to Kadaj that he has been in possession of the remains of Jenova all along, tossing the box containing it from the edge of the building. Kadaj dives after the box and recovers it, although Rufus manages to damage the box, spilling some of the contents inside. Kadaj spots Cloud in hot pursuit of him, and a motorcycle chase carries them into the ruins of Midgar.
Cloud catches up to Kadaj and they slide off of the end of the unfinished highway. They then go into Aerith's church where they confront each other. Cloud comes off worse for it until a magical blast from Kadaj destroys the flowerbed and releases an outflow of seemingly Lifestream-infused water which cures Cloud's geostigma and proves to be harmful to Kadaj. Cloud pursues Kadaj, who has fled to the ruins of Shinra Headquarters in the center of Midgar. The two fight and as Cloud has Kadaj in the brink of defeat, Kadaj distracts Cloud with the box containing Jenova's remains, which Kadaj then jumps after and absorbs into his body. Cloud attempts to land a deathblow to Kadaj but is stopped and parried in midair when Kadaj transforms into Sephiroth at a blink of an eye. He reveals that once those who die from the geostigma return to the Lifestream, he will be able to control it and use the Planet as a vessel to travel space in search of a new planet.
A battle between Cloud and Sephiroth follows across Midgar. Cloud eventually gains strength and confidence from thinking of everything he holds dear which Sephiroth would destroy. The battle ends with Cloud defeating Sephiroth with an updated version of his Omnislash Limit Break. Sephiroth dissipates, leaving a severely weakened Kadaj at Cloud's mercy. Aerith's spirit begins to pour healing rain across Edge, curing everyone of their geostigma. Aerith tells Kadaj to be at rest, who believes Aerith's voice to be that of his "mother", and he is taken by the Lifestream. After that, Cloud is shot by surprise by Yazoo. He and Loz are now slowly succumbing to the healing rain as well. They both have an arm full of materia, and they prepare one final blast at Cloud, resulting in a large explosion that disintegrates them and engulfs Cloud. Cloud appears surrounded by a white light, and Aerith and Zack are heard. Zack tells Cloud that his place is not with them yet, and sends him back to Aerith's church through the Lifestream.
Cloud awakens in Aerith's old church with wounds healed, now surrounded by his friends and the citizens of Edge. He then demonstrates the healing powers of the water pooled in the church by curing the children afflicted with the geostigma. Cloud looks in the direction of his friends, and his first smile is triggered as he looks at Tifa and the others. He then turns and sees Aerith crouching by some other children. As she stands and walks to the doorway, she turns back to assure Cloud that he's all right, and then steps into a white light with Zack.
[edit] Cast
[edit] Production
[edit] Development
The idea for Advent Children came about when script writer Kazushige Nojima wrote a script that was "just a story about Cloud and Tifa and the kids".[4] Visual Works, a company that has developed CG films for Square, picked Final Fantasy VII as the theme for a presentation that they were going to create. Square's research and development department worked with them on its launch, and director Tetsuya Nomura joined the crew after producer Yoshinori Kitase called him. Advent Children was originally going to be a game sequel, but Nomura stated that it was not possible due to a number of factors. However, the development team decided to stick with the original plan and work on it as a movie production.[5]
After Square and Enix merged into Square Enix in 2003, the production of the film started. As there was little time, Nomura began by developing a textual storyboard instead of a visual storyboard. He made a timeline of the story and wrote down all the elements of the story from the beginning to the end as keywords.[4] The production team used motion capture in the film's battle scenes, but the parts that were not humanly possible had to be done by hand.[5]
[edit] Music
The soundtrack of Advent Children was composed by Nobuo Uematsu.
[edit] Promotion and release
Final Fantasy VII Advent Children was originally scheduled for a September 14, 2005 release in Japan and a September 13, 2005 release in North America, with Japan obtaining a special release of the DVD with more bonus material and collectible offers than the US release. The official website for the English version of Advent Children had a countdown clock, displaying the number of days, hours, minutes and seconds until this release date.
However, days before the release, Square Enix changed the US release date to a tentative November 2005, a move many felt indicated an attempt by Square Enix to release the film during the lucrative holiday sales times. The estimate for release was changed once again in early November to a January release, and due to the release date being pushed back several times, the timer was removed from the official North American site. When fans noted that the E3 2005 trailer had confirmed the simultaneous September release, Square Enix stated that the trailer was not the real E3 trailer and possibly a fake trailer.
In an article for the website The Digital Bits, it was eventually mentioned that the delays were due to the extra time required to complete the bonus supplements. Finally, in an IGN article on February 13, 2006, it was revealed that April 25, 2006 was the new official North American release date.[6] Later the same day, on an article on 1UP.com, the release date was confirmed yet again, along with the entire English voice cast.[7] Square Enix confirmed the info on their US website, indicating that the film was on track for a certain US release.[8] The official film website was updated with the info and a new countdown timer was implemented.
A special one-time only theatrical screening of the English version of the film took place on April 3, 2006 at the ArcLight movie theatre in Los Angeles. The event was promoted via e-mail to those who subscribed to the Square Enix mailing list. The screening featured trailers of Kingdom Hearts II and Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, and was highlighted by appearances of the English language cast and the Japanese developers.
[edit] Special editions
The European, Australian, and North American DVD is a 2-disc set that includes several bonus features. Certain retailers offered a bonus disc to go with the DVD set. The disc contains a featurette on the English voice-over process, including interviews with Steve Burton (Cloud), Rachael Leigh Cook (Tifa) and Mena Suvari (Aerith). Sony later announced Final Fantasy VII Advent Children (Limited Edition Collector's Set) for release on February 20, 2007 for an MSRP of $49.95.[9] The set included more bonus material than the previous DVD releases.[10]
At the Tokyo Game Show 2006, Square Enix showed a trailer of a director's cut of the film, titled Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete for release on the Blu-ray Disc format. New scenes will be added to the film, including one where Sephiroth impales Cloud with his sword and then lifts his body up into the air. The film will also benefit from high-definition video and audio that the Blu-ray format offers. As of now, only a Japanese release has been confirmed. The cut had formerly been expected to be released in mid 2007, but Square Enix announced at the Tokyo Game Show 2007 that they would postpone the product until 2008.[11]
[edit] Tie-ins
[edit] Last Order: Final Fantasy VII
Last Order: Final Fantasy VII is an original video animation from 2005 directed by Morio Asaka, written by Kazuhiko Inukai, and animated by Madhouse. It was released with the "Ultimate Edition" of Advent Pieces: Limited in Japan and was included in the collector's edition of Advent Children in North America.[9] There is no English dub, and the OVA is subtitled.
The OVA is an anime rendition of two flashbacks that took place in the game. One details events from five years before Final Fantasy VII, revolving around the Nibelheim scenario that focused on Zack Fair, Cloud Strife, Tifa Lockhart, and Sephiroth. The other involves Zack and Cloud on the run from Shinra. The anime cuts back and forth between these two flashbacks, linked by the Turk commander Tseng's reflection on the Nibelheim events.
Last Order also forms the basis of the PSP game Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, and serves as a tie-in with the mobile phone game Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII, as several of the game's playable Turk characters appear as minor characters, with some getting spoken lines.
[edit] Reminiscence of Final Fantasy VII
Reminiscence of Final Fantasy VII is a story digest of Final Fantasy VII, as recalled by Cloud at a time set shortly after the events of Advent Children. It consists of edited scenes from the original PlayStation game and live-action shots of locations seen in the bonus ending. Between flashbacks to the original game's sequences, it relates a short story about Cloud making deliveries while taking phone calls from other members of AVALANCHE.
The basic premise is that Yuffie wants Cloud to take a day off from work, and as a way of telling him so she sends a "closed for business" sign to him by way of Barret. Cloud then calls Tifa and asks her if she can close the bar the next day while he takes a day off from running deliveries. Only the voices of Cloud, Yuffie, Cid, Vincent, and Barret can be heard during the story digest, as there are no actual animated renderings of them featured in Reminiscence. The only CGI in Reminisence is of Cloud's motorcycle parked on the side of the road as Barret gives him Yuffie's package.
[edit] On the Way to a Smile
On the Way to a Smile is a small series of stories taking place between the time of Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VII Advent Children. Written by Kazushige Nojima, half of this novella (Case of Denzel) was released in episodes on the official Japanese Advent Children website, while the novella was released in its entirety in V-Jump's Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Prologue book.
The first four chapters are told indirectly through the perspective of Denzel, the young orphan featured in Advent Children. Johnny, the bumbling regular of Tifa's 7th Heaven bar from the original game, has opened up his own bar in the newly built city of Edge. One day Denzel shows up in Johnny's store to have a private meeting with Reeve Tuesti. He has requested an interview with him in the hopes that he may become part of Reeve's newly formed World Restoration Order, an army devoted to rebuilding the planet. Denzel then goes on to tell his life story, including how he became an orphan, the events leading up to his becoming afflicted with Geostigma, and how he came into the care of Tifa and Cloud. He also offers a firsthand account of the events of the fateful day when the Lifestream emerged to save the planet from Meteor. This third of the novella consists of Tifa's account of the events following Meteor's destruction, overlapping in part with Denzel's story. This half of On the Way to a Smile helps to uncover some of the mysteries surrounding the beginning of the film, including identifying its setting and offering further insight into Cloud and Tifa's respective feelings for themselves and one another. A third On the Way to a Smile story was released with the North American limited edition box set of Advent Children. It involves Barret and his struggle with having a weapon for an arm, and trying to find a new energy source for the people of the world, the story also gives insights for the rest of the AVALACHE members' lives after the events of FFVII.
[edit] Reception
The DVD release of Advent Children sold over 420,000 copies in Japan in its first week, which was 93% of all published copies at the time.[12] In 2006, Square Enix and Sony announced that the English language DVD and UMD releases combined had sold over 1.4 million units worldwide. Only 100,000 of these sales were in Europe, while the rest was sold in North America. Combined with the Japanese sales, Advent Children had sold over 2.4 million copies.[3] The film achieved number one on Amazon.com's "Top Sellers" page days before the North American DVD release.
Advent Children has generally been well-received by the media. Many critics praised the visuals, but criticized the film for its main focus on the action rather than plot and character development. Chris Carle of IGN praised the sound and the English voice acting, but criticized the lack of commentary in the DVDs extras.[13] He gave the film an overall score of nine out of ten.[14] 1UP.com's James Mielke commented on the quality and clarity of the CG visuals as "genuinely amazing". He did however criticize the film's music, and called it "a bit sappy".[15] The PlayStation Portable UMD release of the film got an 88% score at Metacritic, based on five reviews.[16] The film received the Honorary Maria Award at the Festival Internacional de Cinema de Catalunya on October 15, 2005.[2] The UK Top 40 DVDs and Videos chart placed Advent Children third for the week ending April 30, 2006. The film was also awarded for "best anime feature" at the 2007 American Anime Awards.[17]
[edit] References
- ^ Square Enix (2006). Final Fantasy VII Advent Children DVD. Square Enix North America. Retrieved on 2007-03-08.
- ^ a b 38 edition. 2005. Festival Internacional de Cinema de Catalunya. Retrieved on 2008-01-29.
- ^ a b Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children sales reach 2.4 million discs. Galbadia X (2006-06-20). Retrieved on 2008-02-25.
- ^ a b Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Reunion Files. FLAREgamer. Retrieved on 2008-01-20.
- ^ a b DPM Interview w/Tetsuya Nomura. Dengeki PlayStation. Kingdom Hearts Insider. Retrieved on 2008-01-29.
- ^ Official Final Fantasy VII Release Date News. IGN (2006-02-13). Retrieved on 2007-06-06.
- ^ FFVII Advent Children English cast and release date get!. 1UP.com (2006-02-13). Retrieved on 2007-06-06.
- ^ STEVE BURTON, RACHAEL LEIGH COOK AND MENA SUVARI LEND THEIR VOICES TO THE CG-ANIMATED ACTION-PACKED FEATURE FILM BASED ON THE BEST-SELLING PLAYSTATION GAME FINAL FANTASY VII: ADVENT CHILDREN (2006-02-13). Retrieved on 2007-06-06.
- ^ a b McCutcheon, David (2006-12-15). Further Final Fantasy VII DVDs Due. IGN. Retrieved on 2007-06-06.
- ^ Carle, Chris (2007-02-16). Double Dip Digest: Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (Limited Edition Collector's Set). IGN. Retrieved on 2008-01-17.
- ^ Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete Blu-Ray edition postponed. Newlaunches.com. Retrieved on 2007-06-06.
- ^ Final Fantasy VII Advent Children DVD Information. Advent Children.net. Retrieved on 2007-06-06.
- ^ Carle, Chris (2006-04-17). Final Fantasy VII Advent Children review. IGN. Retrieved on 2008-01-17.
- ^ Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children DVD. IGN. Retrieved on 2008-01-17.
- ^ Mielke, James (2005-09-16). Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children review. 1UP.com. Retrieved on 2008-02-25.
- ^ Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children reviews. Metacritic. Retrieved on 2008-01-29.
- ^ Carle, Chris (2007-02-24). NYCC 07: American Anime Award Winners Revealed. IGN. Retrieved on 2008-03-07.
[edit] External links
- Official English website
- Official Japanese website
- Interview with voice actors and actresses from the English release
- Final Fantasy VII Advent Children at the Internet Movie Database
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