Final Fantasy VII Advent Children (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 CGI film directed by Tetsuya Nomura and Takeshi Nozue and produced by Yoshinori Kitase and Shinji Hashimoto. It was written by Kazushige Nojima and the music 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 1997 console role-playing game Final Fantasy VII. It is set two years after the events of the game, and follows Cloud Strife as he unravels the cause of a mysterious plague called "Geostigma" that has beset the population.

Advent Children received mixed reviews from critics, attaining an approval rating of 40% on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. In 2005, the film received the "Maria Award" at the Festival Internacional de Cinema de Catalunya, and at the 2007 American Anime Awards it was awarded "best anime feature". As of 2006, the DVD and UMD releases of Advent Children have sold over 10.5 million copies worldwide.

Two years after the events of Final Fantasy VII, the survivors of Midgar have begun to build a new city, Edge, on the outskirts of the old metropolis. A strange disease known as "Geostigma" has arisen. After Cloud's showdown with Sephiroth, he has been living with Tifa in Edge. Marlene and an orphaned boy named Denzel have been entrusted to their care. After receiving a message from Tifa, Cloud is attacked by three men, Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo, who believe that he has hidden their "mother". The leader, Kadaj, ends the battle as he discovers that Cloud does not have their "mother". Cloud responds to a message from Tifa, who tells him that the Turks have a job for him. At the meeting place, Cloud discovers that Rufus Shinra is still alive. Rufus attempts to enlist Cloud's help to stop the trio, but fails. Kadaj arrives and demands that Rufus tell him where to find his "mother". It is revealed that his "mother" is Jenova's remains, and is somehow connected to the cause of the Geostigma. The trio are planning a new "reunion" that will culminate in an assault on the Planet.

Loz arrives at Aerith's church in an attempt to find Jenova's remains, and is confronted by Tifa. After battling Tifa, he receives instructions on his cell phone to capture Marlene. Kadaj and the gang 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 is quickly defeated, and is then rescued by Vincent Valentine, who reveals to Cloud what the trio is seeking and that it could result in the return of Sephiroth. Cloud agrees to return to Edge and face Kadaj in battle. In Edge, the trio call forth several monsters to attack the populace, including the summon "Bahamut SIN". While Cloud's companions deal with Bahamut SIN, Reno and Rude try to take care of Yazoo and Loz until Cloud arrives. Cloud and his friends are able to dispatch the monsters and Bahamut SIN.

In a nearby building, Rufus reveals to Kadaj that he has been in possession of Jenova's remains all along. He throws the box containing it from the edge of the building. Kadaj dives after the remains and recovers it, but Rufus shoots the box and damages it. Kadaj spots Cloud in pursuit of him, and is followed to the ruins of Midgar. They battle each other in Aerith's church. Kadaj destroys the flowerbed, which releases an outflow of Lifestream-infused water that cures Cloud's Geostigma. Kadaj flees to the ruins of Shinra Headquarters, where they continue their fight. He distracts Cloud with the box containing Jenova's remains, which he absorbs into his body and transforms into Sephiroth. 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 for him to rule. Cloud defeats Sephiroth, who dissipates, leaving a weakened Kadaj at Cloud's mercy. Aerith begins to pour healing rain across Edge, curing the people of their Geostigma. She tells Kadaj to be at rest, who believes her voice to be that of his "mother", and he is taken by the Lifestream. Cloud is then shot by Yazoo in the back, who is also succumbing to the healing rain. He and Loz prepare one final blast at Cloud, resulting in a large explosion that disintegrates them and engulfs Cloud.

Afterward, 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. Cloud awakens in a pool of Lifestream-infused water in Aerith's church, surrounded by his friends and the citizens of Edge. After curing the Geostigma-infected children, he turns and sees Aerith crouching by some children. As she stands and walks to the doorway, she turns back to assure Cloud that she is all right, and steps into a white light with Zack.

Cast

Production

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". 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.[1] 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.[2]

According to Nomura in the DVD commentary, the original movie was only supposed to be 20 minutes. The details of the original story is that it featured someone requesting a message to be sent to Cloud. The message is then relayed to Cloud through several children and, when the message finally reaches Cloud, it is revealed who the messenger is. Although Nomura insisted that he very much liked the original script, as it became the foundation for the theme of the final result of the movie, he decided to make the project more grand in scope because early word of this movie generated so much interest that a demand for the film to be feature length eventually became so great that Nomura complied.

After Square and Enix merged to Square Enix in 2003, the production of the film started. As there was little time, Nomura began 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. The creators of the film had no prior knowledge of how to make a movie, and it was based on their knowledge of in-game movies. They used motion capture in the film's battle scenes, but the parts that were not humanly possible had to be done by hand.[2]

Music

The soundtrack of Advent Children was composed by Nobuo Uematsu and arranged by Kenichiro Fukui (keyboard), Keiji Kawamori (synthesizer), and Tsuyoshi Sekito (guitar).

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.[3] Later the same day, on an article on 1UP.com, the release date was confirmed yet again, along with the entire English voice cast.[4] Square Enix confirmed the info on their US website, indicating that the film was on track for a certain US release.[5] 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.

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.[6] The set included more bonus material than the previous DVD releases.[7]

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. The film will also benefit from high-definition video and audio that the Blu-ray format offers. It will also come with a playable demo of Final Fantasy XIII. 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.[8]

At the 2008 Square Enix DKΣ3713 Party, it was announced that Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete would be released in March 2009 in Japan,[9] but it was delayed soon after and was released on April 16, 2009. A separate bundle will be sold that includes a demo of Final Fantasy XIII. Both editions will include the first HD trailers of Final Fantasy Versus XIII and Final Fantasy Agito XIII. It has also been reported that the film will feature a 20-minute long extra movie on the disc which is an anime version of the "Case of Denzel" chapter featured in the On the Way to a Smile novella.[9] Advent Children Complete will be released in North America on June 2nd 2009 [10] and on June 10th in Europe.

Tie-ins

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.[6] 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 PlayStation Portable 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.

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 she sends a "closed for business" sign to him through 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.

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 Avalanche members' lives after the events of Final Fantasy VII.

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.[11] 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 and Australia. Combined with the Japanese sales, Advent Children had sold over 2.4 million copies.[citation needed] The film achieved number one on Amazon.com's "Top Sellers" page days before the North American DVD release.

Advent Children has received mixed reviews by critics. Many critics[who?] 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.[12] He gave the film an overall score of nine out of ten.[13] 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".[14] Advent Children attained a 40% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes,[15] while 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.[17] The film was also awarded for "best anime feature" at the 2007 American Anime Awards.[18]

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