Rating: 
Summary: Creative Masterpeice
Review: An interesting view of the making of a groundbreaking movie and technological landmark for moviegoers and Final Fantasy fans alike.
Rating: 
Summary: Being fair to the Fantasy
Review: As a movie I found Final Fantasy to be an incomprehensible hodgepodge borrowed from other sci-fi films. As a technical and artistic achievement I though it was lackluster next to the quality and artistry of A Bug's Life or the animation of Tarzan and Atlantis. However, despite all these negatives, I found that the production design (the mechanical design especially) to be absolutely breathtaking. The 'mecha' alone made this film easily worth the price of admission, not to mention the outstanding holographic computer interfaces the characters used. Finally something better than touch screens! After leaving the theatre I knew I never wanted to have to endure that film again, but I positively had to posses the 'Art of' book - and maybe a few toy spaceships just to be on the safe side. Unfortunately this book disappointed me almost as much as the movie. Too many stills from the movie and not enough about the development of the designs. Sure we have, a few story boards here, a few production drawings there. However I felt that the visual storytelling was as flat footed as the plot (I'd recommend tracking down Miyazaki's storyboards for Nausicaa for a real eye opening experience), and the "concept sketches" they had were nothing of the sort (rather they were the finished designs used to direct the model builders). By contrast the wonderful Art of Star Wars series is almost entirely development and concept artwork showing the evolution and rejected ideas. And that's what I'd recommend to any interested artist or designer looking for inspirational source material!
Rating: 
Summary: VALE LA PENA PERO...
Review: Este libro es bueno, ameno y facil de leer. Eso sí, las fotos son muy chicas en algunos casos y algo oscuras, pero el diseño es agil y compensa.La parte que trata de la animación es la mejor sin llegar a ser profunda.
Rating:
Summary: A must-have for those who appreciate graphic design
Review: Even though the movie was sub-par in plot this book makes up by being filled to the brim with pictures and information about the groundbreaking special FX. "The Making of FF: The Spirits Within" contains hundreds of pictures of scenes from the movie, and conceptual designs. As a student majoring in graphic design, I found the conceptual design pictures especially intriguing. It was insightful to see how major companies work out storyboards etc for movies. The book also includes interviews with various designers involved in the movie about conceptualizing characters and of making the plot. An area that I found disappointing was the lack of detail that was devoted to the "Phantoms". The "Phantoms" sections consists of only a couple of pages which was highly disappointing since I found them one of the best points in the movie. This book is an excellent buy for anyone who enjoys special FX and is a great compliment to the DVD release of FF:The Spirits Within. (Out Oct 23 in case you forgot) :]
Rating:
Summary: Unparralled Vision and Imaginative Excellence
Review: Final Fantasy: The Spirits within, is the first CG motion picture to show realistic near human characters for the first time. The making of FF is a must have for fans of this movie, where you will be given behind the movie concept drawings, sketches, and beautiful color photo's. Personal favourite drawings are the alien and vehicle designs, and the beautiful scenic designs. Also included is the amazing imaginative script that tells the story of how the human spirit can overcome a post apocalyptic earth overrun by synister soul stealing aliens. The DVD is a long way away and this book will fill the gap to quenching your Final Fantasy thirst. A truely awesome book!
Rating:
Summary: 4.75 stars
Review: For me this is a truly awsome book, because this is what I want to do, computer graphics. The reason I dont think the book is a full 5 stars is that it leaves some parts of the creating sequence out, but it is still an awsome book.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book Documenting A Landmark Film
Review: How can a person complain about "too much making"? After all, the name of the book is: "The MAKING of Final Fantasy". I personally would have loved to read more articles on the VERY tech-y side of creating the characters skin textures, but that would have probably bored and confused general readers. I was expecting the transcription of the dialouge to occupy a chunk of the book, but luckily, it doesn't. You might need a magnifying glass to read it anyway. Excellent display of pre-production work and funny "secrets", like cameos of chocobos and The "Gooch" himself(director Hironobu Sakaguchi) in CG form! Mr. Sakaguchi also provides the foreword. The book is lite in text, but the pictures do all of the talking for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Nothing like the movie...
Review: I was eagerly awaiting the publication of the book on the making of Final Fantasy : The spirits within . I was very curious , and I could say excited,about the kind of graphic layout, photographic content and story line development that the book would document given the fact that the movie is so incredibly detailed and crafted. My expectation was that book would be as ground breaking like the movie. I was very disappointed in reading and studying the book. It is nothing like the movie at all; not the meticulous and rigurous attention to detail, or the sharpness in digital imagery that among other things makes the film such a amazing work of digital art. It does not convey the mood of the movie. This book is about process and in that sense documents it very well; from the laying out of the story boards to the more technical aspects of the making of the film. It is very well organized but there is not balace between the way the text is displayed and the fantastic digital imagetry which characterizes the movie. It seems rushed; The quality of the pictures is very poor in many instances, so dark that you can hardly see the images.They are simply too small to really appreciate all the details. The same happens with some of the beautifully rendered conceptual sketches and drawings; they are too small to study. The text and color background occupies too much space in the page at the expense of the the graphic information and pictures; that in my opinion is what makes this book such a disappointment. Many of the images of the movie are so haunting,poignant and intriguing and it is precisely that sense of awe,wonder and dreamlike illusion that is missing from the book. The book series on the making of Stars Wars are much better in the way that they achieve a balance between both image and information ,its layout and the documentation of the creative process. I would recomend this book nonetheless because it provides a fascinating view of the production process of this new film genre and still some images are incredibly gorgeous.
Rating:
Summary: Behind the scenes
Review: If you ever wanted a great behind the scenes book on the movie that is the greatest ahievement by computer animation with realistic 3d characters, check this book out. This book features full page color on every page turn. Interviews with all the creative people that made it happen, original script accompanied by all the storyboards, character designs, as well as many "how we did it information" on animation, motion capture, lighting, VFX. compostiting, and final production. Great buy for any animator.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: Let's be honest here, Whether or not you liked this movie, you have to acknowledge the unbelievable amount of talent and artistry that went into making it. It took 4 years to make this movie, and it definately didn't do as well at the box office as it should have. Granted the plot wasn't the best in the world, but this book is NOT about the plot. Its about what really made this movie impressive, the breathtaking CG. If you're a fan of art, then you will love this book. The bottom line is, this is the highest quality Computer Generated graphics ever created, Its a whole new genre for film-making. Buy this Book!!!
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