{"id":87,"date":"2005-12-09T12:53:06","date_gmt":"2005-12-09T17:53:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=87"},"modified":"2006-01-09T07:06:41","modified_gmt":"2006-01-09T12:06:41","slug":"final-fantasy-x","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=87","title":{"rendered":"Final Fantasy X"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, if Final Fantasy X<\/a> were somehow made into a movie, who would play the various characters? <\/p>\n


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FFX was my first exposure the the franchise, and it left a big impression on me. It has a massive, richly-detailed world. I’m talking Lord of the Rings<\/i>-sized fantasy world, here. Futhermore, it is a truly unique world. This isn’t some third-generation Tolkienesque D&D ripoff. This isn’t goblins with six-shooters, or Elves in space. This is a whole new kind of world with its own ideas about magic, technology, and culture. The world of Spira has different languages, religions, sports, ethnic groups, political struggles, clothing styles, and inventions. It is full of characters that are amusing, whimsical, frightening, sad, and inspiring. <\/p>\n

The game is a technical wonder as well. Even now, years after its release, it still looks great. The voice acting is superb. The pacing is excellent. The game is a fantastic experience, and is even fairly accessable to people new to the genre. <\/p>\n

So I like it, is what I’m saying. <\/p>\n

Now, I feel no need to see a movie version of it, but as I discussed earlier<\/a>, it is often fun to muse over who might play the various parts. Here are my own suggestions, in order of confidence:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n\nJoaquin Phoenix as Seymor<\/a> – This seems like a perfect fit to me. The voice and look match almost perfectly. He would really look like Seymor – Assuming you can actually construct that gravity-defying blue hair. The hair would probably have to be CGI. <\/p>\n

The character of Seymor is actually very similar to one of his earlier roles, that of Commodus in Gladiator<\/a>. Seymor and Commodus are both rulers driven by their own warped emotional needs to do horrible things. Commodus is driven by a need for love, particularly the unobtainable love of his father. Seymor is driven by the loss of his mother as a boy. Both seem to wish to destroy the world in the name of saving it. Both make compelling and tortured villans.\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

<\/td>\n\nBruce Willis as Auron<\/a> – Another natural pick. Bruce has spent his career playing this part, in slightly different permutations, over and over. <\/p>\n

The world-weary Auron is a great source of wisdom and courage for the other heroes. It would be nice to see Bruce trade his pistol for a big-ass sword for a change.\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

<\/td>\n\nMichael Clarke Duncan as Kimari Ronso<\/a> – I assume that we would be making the seven-foot tall, blue-haired, musclebound cat-man in CGI, so we just need the right voice. MCD is is great match for the stoic and thoughtful Ronso.\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n\nJessica Alba as Lulu<\/a> – Lulu is a very dark, bitchy, goth-ish character. I didn’t care for her very much and thought she added a lot of needless friction to the team. This may make the choice of Alba a bit odd, but I think it fits. If she could actually act, I could imagine her pulling off Lulu’s condesending, arrogant, and aloof manner.\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n\nKirsten Dunst as Yuna<\/a> – This isn’t a perfect fit. Yuna is very timid with other people, and while I’m sure Dunst could play her, that’s not the sort of personality she gives off. She projects a bit too much strength to really become the shy and unsure Yuna.\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n\nEmma Watson as Rikku<\/a> – This one is a cop-out, but young stars are hard to come by. As a rule, young people are just not famous. Rikku is supposed to be like 14-ish, and coming up with someone famous at that age is hard enough, much less someone that truly looks the part. I suppose you could use an Olsen Twin as well, but I’ve never actually seen<\/i> the Olsen twins in anything, so I don’t know how well that fits.<\/p>\n

Rikku is also hard to nail down visually. In most of the game she looks like a white redhead, but when the game switches to pre-rendered hi-res cgi, she looks like a blond asian. I assume the high-res version is the more “correct” one, but that doesn’t help in nailing down someone that looks the part.\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

<\/td>\n\nI don’t have a good suggestion for Wakka. He seems to be in his mid-20’s. He’s really beefy. The picture on the left doesn’t show it, but he usually wears his hair in a single ridiculous spike that points skyward. Considering how much time he spends swimming, this seems a bit unlikely even by anime standards. He’s dark-skinned, red-haired, muscular, and speaks with a unique accent that isn’t used by anyone else in the game, even the people from his home island. <\/p>\n

Given his build, I think you’d need a professional wrestler or athlete to play him. Nobody comes to mind.<\/p>\n

UPDATE: Pat suggests Matt Damon. Yeah.\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

<\/td>\n\nAnd here we are, with no suggestions for the main character. This is terrible. Tidus is like Rikku in that he looks white in the game and very dark-skinned in the CGI cutscenes. He’s supposed to be 16 or so, but seems to be quite athletic and muscular. I can’t imagine anyone that could pull this off.<\/p>\n

Update: Pat suggests Jared Leto. Another good match.\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

Have any suggestions for Tidus or Wakka? Aren’t happy with one of the other choices? Drop a comment.<\/p>\n

UPDATE: As pat pointed out in the comments: Matt Damon for Wakka, and Jared Leto as Tidus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, if Final Fantasy X were somehow made into a movie, who would play the various characters? FFX was my first exposure the the franchise, and it left a big impression on me. It has a massive, richly-detailed world. I’m talking Lord of the Rings-sized fantasy world, here. Futhermore, it is a truly unique world. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dream-cast"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=87"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=87"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=87"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=87"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}