The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundmix, supervised by Cast Away's Randy Thom, is showroom material through and through because it makes full use of the heightened reality afforded by the story and the CGI. Aki's dream sequences take aural precedence over the action sequences for their hallucinogenic quality; they do more with the multi-channel environment than just ricochet bullets between the split-surround speakers, and they can exhibit bigger bass than the explosion-heavy scenes, particularly chapter 8's example. Regrettably, Elliot Goldenthal's isolated score (with discerning commentary from the composer between arrangements) is in 3.0 surround (front left, front right, non-descrete rears) instead of 5.1 as well.

The Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within Special Edition DVD doesn't seem very stacked, even though it's a two-platter deal, until you start poking around in there. With my evenings devoted to exploring the contents, the set took me from about Friday to Wednesday to devour, discounting my initial viewing of the film itself, which was frequently interrupted by my freeze-framing in appreciation. Let's start with Disc One (opening with a custom Columbia Tri-Star logo), where we first realize that the extra features, while plentiful, require an almost psychic sensibility to determine what it is you're about to witness. "Boards/Blasts" is one such supplement: who would presume that it leads to a feature-length version of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within comprised of alternating rough sketches, crude animatics, and generally unfinished bits of business? "Boards/Blast" comes with optional factoid track (a la infinifilm's trivia windows) and (optional) commentary, participants unknown, although I presume they are the same folks in the second yak-track for the real film, animation director Andy Jones, editor Chris Capp, and staging director Tani Kunitake. The information imparted by the pop-ups is of less specialized interest than the patience-testing temp cut of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.

The first disc's actual feature-length commentaries are delivered by co-director Sakakibara, sequence supervisor Hayashida, phantom supervisor Noguchi, and sets and props supervisor Maruyama; and on a separate track, Jones, Capp, and Kunitake. The former is in Japanese with English subtitles, and it's decorated with self-effacing humour and many apparently culturally specific chuckles. (The description of Aki's breastplate as an "iron bra" brings down the house.) The latter participants are more straightforward, describing the challenges we wouldn't think of--that motion capture could only record two or three people at a time, for instance, limiting character interaction. Oddly, the Japanese and American teams rarely refer to each other, as if the film were not an international co-production.

Disc Two has but two initial options: "Play Documentary" and "Highlights Menu". The documentary, automatically selected if the main menu remains idle, runs thirty-minutes and contains a multi-angle brancher that has earned the industry-wide shorthand of "White Rabbit" for coming to prominence under that name on the Matrix DVD. The 'white rabbit' pod-clicks elaborate on techniques raised in the doc, such as "face wrapping" (wherein digital flesh is painted flat before being virtually stretched like canvas around a wireframe skull). If brevity is the source of wit, this doc might have you guffawing, and it forgets to credit many of the interviewees; there needed to be greater discussion with Randy Thom and additional comments from the Japanese crew, in my humble opinion. (And yes, Aki's damn hair is discussed. "She doesn't have very many bad hair days," jokes one animator.) Note: The main menu's translucent blue border constantly surrounds the extras on Disc Two.

The highlights of the "Highlights Menu" are not the "white rabbits" compiled, but still more making-of material. Here's a rundown:

Character Files
Mixes fictitious backstory with earnest explanation of how they arrived at Aki, Gray, Dr. Sid, Hein, Ryan, Jane, and Neil, narrated by a soothing, futuristic female voice. Hein's is my favourite because he most resembles his creator; clearly, there's something Freudian going on at Square.

Vehicle Scale Comparisons
Bios for the space travellers "Bandit," "Black Boa," and "Quatro."

Final Fantasy ShufflerÔ
Re-cut the conference room debate using its finished takes, ostensibly to better appreciate an editor's job--yet an editor's job is not to put stuff in order, or at least, not solely.

Trailer Explorations
An unbilled marketing man from Square introduces three trailers for Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, with developmental insights.

"The Gray Project"
Gray as in the colour; a montage of ghostly design tests.

More Boards/Blasts
Yep.

Matte Art Explorations
A thickly accented animator talks matte paintings--now done for most movies in-computer instead of on sheets of glass--in abstract terms.

Joke Outtakes
A very old gag crudely drawn, these are quite often hilariously sick and twisted.

Compositing Builds
A curious montage of simple images being layered with particulars.

Original Opening
Very different (horror movie-esque), very cool, save computery camerawork and unfinished rendering.

and

Aki's Dream
The opening number slightly extended.

Disc Two is rounded out by an Easter egg--a funny "Thriller" homage that is definitely the product of too many late nights--plus DVD-ROM stuff: a unique script-to-screen comparison ("Interactive Film Exploration," it places the "Boards/Blasts" rendition of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within in a centre window and subtitles it with screenplay passages); a virtual tour of Square Pictures (more or less an excuse to stow the remaining Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within arcana somewhere); a link to the film's website, and a Bridget Fonda--I mean Aki--screensaver. This is a loaded SE, but it may be a bit too inside for some tastes. (It was mine, even if CGI ain't a total mystery to me.) A word of caution: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within debuts on home video at an unfortunate juncture, and its depiction of a post-apocalyptic New York City (with standing Pepsi billboards) could upset sensitive viewers.-Bill Chambers

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