Can anyone recommend other CG movies that are rendered as realistic as the CG movie
Final Fantasy the spirit within.

Very  realistic People,  motion and hair.

                            Bill

no, and the major studios understand why. the mass audience won't pay to see "realistic human characters" in movies, but they will pay to see cartoon versions of humans, cars, prehistoric mammals, ants, et al. :lol: why waste 2 years trying to render "realistic human characters", if live human actors can do the same scenes in 2 weeks or 2 months?

Yes- try

KAENA: THE PROPHECY

the spectacular Polar Express (in 3d no less)

unfortunately sold only in 2d so far >>>>

I'll second Kaena.

Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children has fairly normal looking characters, and is in all ways superior to Spirits Within.

I'll third Kaena.

 It's a very cool movie.

Oh yes! Stumbled on Kaena by accident and loved it.

Try Appleseed. Still anime, but quite cool, in that cg sort of way

Attached Link: http://www.intothematrix.com/rl_cmp/anime_osiris_gallery_1L.html

Still images at the link...

my suggestion is to go out and snag a copy of Immortal. It seemlessly mixes three live actors with 3D animated characters and backgrounds. It's a french movie, but dubbed into english, based on a Heavy Metal Story. Beats the hell out of Captain Sky! other suggestions are Mirror Mask and Casshern ( a japanese movie that blows away the Matrix movies). for short subjects seek out 3 Chris Landreth pieces: The End, Bingo The Clown, and Ryan (an animated documentary on animator Ryan Larking. this piece won some sort of Oscar thingy, I hear)

Quote - no, and the major studios understand why. the mass audience won't pay to see "realistic human characters" in movies, but they will pay to see cartoon versions of humans, cars, prehistoric mammals, ants, et al. :lol: why waste 2 years trying to render "realistic human characters", if live human actors can do the same scenes in 2 weeks or 2 months?

That's not the whole real reason why.  As much as I wanted it to be good, as much as I thought Dr. Aki Ross was hot.. the problem was story and directing.  It was.. AWFUL.  I found the bonus material much more entertaining, when they all dance to thriller.

Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children is awful too. It's actually worse than Final Fantasy, if you can believe that. Just plain terrible.

These 2 movies are good for visuals though. When I watch them, I turn the soound off and have them play in the background while I'm working.

Another one to look for is "elephants dream" It is the fisrt animated short that was done with completely open source software. Blender was the 3D app they used.

www.elephantsdream.org

I loved Spirits Within visually.  I can watch it over and over again as well as Final Flight of the Osiris.  The story of Spirits Within left a lot to be desired, and the more anime I watch the more I'm convinced that Japanese style story telling is just not compatible with American culture.  Not that our culture is better or anything, but we just think too differently to get a lot of the symbolism and metaphysical ideas they throw into what we would consider shallow action movies.

Appleseed was awesome visually as well.  The people aren't realistic looking so much as the backgrounds were.  Again, it hyptotizes me when I watch it, but don't go looking for a good story.

I need to check out some of these other ones mentioned, I've never heard of them before...

Quote - why waste 2 years trying to render "realistic human characters", if live human actors can do the same scenes in 2 weeks or 2 months?

I don't think this is the issue.  It's more of an issue of creating a universe where all of the characters fit.  That's the reason the creators of Shrek used as for not making Fiona and other human characters more photorealistic.  The other issue is that the technology is still rather new so making convincing photorealistic humans can be daunting.

On the topic of japanese anime, I have to agree with Onimusha.  While I understand and appreciate much of the symbolism and themes in anime, the relevance to the story often escapes me at times.  As a result, I find a lot of anime to be really incohesive, especially with story transitions and such.

Quote - On the topic of japanese anime, I have to agree with Onimusha.  While I understand and appreciate much of the symbolism and themes in anime, the relevance to the story often escapes me at times.  As a result, I find a lot of anime to be really incohesive, especially with story transitions and such.

I was watching Advent Children the other day and I realized that there's one little bit of Japanese characterization in CG and a lot of anime that is starting to annoy me.  It's when the character is agreeing with something, does a single brief nod and grunts an affirmative "Hmm".

I have no idea why this bugs the hell out of me but it does.  I suppose because it's an expression I simply don't see otherwise in real life.

Plotwise, I have to agree with you.  Quite often I have to stand back and go "Huh?".

Quote - Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children is awful too. It's actually worse than Final Fantasy, if you can believe that. Just plain terrible.

These 2 movies are good for visuals though. When I watch them, I turn the soound off and have them play in the background while I'm working.

You've either never played Final Fantasy 7, or didn't like it if you don't like Advent Children.

French movie called Imortel aka Immortel.  

Quote - I loved Spirits Within visually.  I can watch it over and over again as well as Final Flight of the Osiris.  The story of Spirits Within left a lot to be desired, and the more anime I watch the more I'm convinced that Japanese style story telling is just not compatible with American culture.  Not that our culture is better or anything, but we just think too differently to get a lot of the symbolism and metaphysical ideas they throw into what we would consider shallow action movies.

Appleseed was awesome visually as well.  The people aren't realistic looking so much as the backgrounds were.  Again, it hyptotizes me when I watch it, but don't go looking for a good story.

I need to check out some of these other ones mentioned, I've never heard of them before...

There's some stunning anime out there that crosses over very nicely, such as Grave of the Fireflies, an amazing piece of work that left me feeling breathless and incredibly rotten afterwards.  I strongly suggest everyone pick up a copy of this (subtitled, don't you dare get it dubbed).

Though with Spirits Within, it wasn't a cultural problem.  It was voice acting, directing, and scripting that was the problem.

Well I chalk that scripting up to the fact that the writer was japanese.  I just don't think alot of the way they express metaphysical concepts translate well.  The voice acting was actually quite good, but the dialog was so stilted and choppy, that it sounded horrible...

Quote - I was watching Advent Children the other day and I realized that there's one little bit of Japanese characterization in CG and a lot of anime that is starting to annoy me.  It's when the character is agreeing with something, does a single brief nod and grunts an affirmative "Hmm".

I have no idea why this bugs the hell out of me but it does.  I suppose because it's an expression I simply don't see otherwise in real life.

I noticed that too when I was watching it, but I had recognized that expression from seeing it in the old Godzilla movies, I always thought it was a thing from Japanese culture so they take it as normal.

 Part of the trouble with the plot I think is in the translation. I took that part when Tifa was chiding him about "dilly-dally, shilly-shally" with a grain of salt since it probably was a similar concept that might have sound better in Japanese.