Cinema: A Painstaking Fantasy

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So why bother to go any further? Why this quixotic crusade for perfect realism? Didn't the art world abandon that more than a century ago? Aren't there enough talented actors available? The members of the Sakaguchi team seem intent on climbing this technological Everest because it's there. But they also have a sense that CG celebs will be just as good looking as those prima donnas in Hollywood--and cheaper to work with. "The idea would be to make Mel Gibson for less than $25 million a movie," says animation director Andy Jones.

For all its stunning attention to detail, Fantasy could still fail. Movies with video-game tie-ins have a poor track record, and Sakaguchi is a first-time director on the big screen--although it was his beginner's enthusiasm that led him down the road Spielberg would not tread. If the ambitious mix of East-West, movie-game and anime-action doesn't pay off, we may still remember this as the moment true CG actors were born. With a bit of luck and better technology, maybe Sid-like versions of Hope and Connery will still be in pictures come 2065.