Release: May 16, 2019
Focus: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
One of the biggest bombs of all time based on one of the biggest game franchises of all time. The Critic sees if there's any redeemable value to the CG weird-fest Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.
We remembered these tropes so you don't have to:
- Animal Gender-Bender: The Critic starts the episode wanting to bring back Ms. Kitty and Mr. Rooster from the "Swan Princess" review as virtual actors (which is what the characters of Spirits Within were advertised as), while also swapping their genders, but Malcom points out that there are no female roosters.
- Gainax Ending: Right after the Critic learns his lesson that virtual actors can't truly replace live talent, it turns out that Tamara, Malcolm, and the Critic himself are virtual actors played by Ms. Rooster, Mr. Kitty, and Chester, respectively.
- Nominal Importance: In order to get rid of Ms. Rooster and Mr. Kitty (who were presently glitched and frozen) after negotiating with them, the Critic (lacking the budget to animate them leaving) has them disappear Behind the Black, with the Handwave that they had been taken away by "an off-camera alien". Tamara asks for the alien's name, but the Critic ignores her.
- Overly Long Gag: The Critic's mocking of the line "Where is the PROOF?" goes on for quite a bit, culminating in the team winning the "Most Annoyingly Drawn Out Joke" award for the lengthy build up to the "Where is the TOOTH?" variation.
- Running Gag: Voice clips of Sterling Archer occasionally play accompanying scenes featuring Gray Edwards.
- Shout-Out:
- Seeing that Aki Ross has been pushed as one of the earliest Virtual Celebrities, the Critic jokes somehow this makes her eligible to be cast in The Incredibles, The Polar Express, Bad Santa, The Cat in the Hat and Inside Out. Though he notes that at least in the world of music such characters have been more successful, such as Gorillaz and Hatsune Miku, he still thinks the concept is about as silly as casting Gollum as Leonardo, Shrek as Superman's upper lip, Moff Tarkin as Jar Jar Binks, and Thanos as Sonic the Hedgehog (which he actually likes, considering his infamously realistic appearance in early promotional material).
- The Critic also points out that the concept of characters playing other characters is not new, at least in child-oriented media, specifically showing Mickey And The Beanstalk, The Muppet Christmas Carol and Bugs Bunny as Superman, and even then, not only are such roles usually Played for Laughs, but the characters don't deviate much from their established personalities.
- While noting that the concept of acting entails the fact that there is usually some dissonance between the performer and his/her role, the Critic makes an exception for Jack Nicholson and Jeff Goldblum, actors known for being as quirky in real life as most of their most iconic roles.
- Seeing the ruins of New York City, the Critic wonders if the Powerpuff Girls had been playing tag again.
- Take That!:
- The Critic jokes that the film's reception was so poor that for years the idea of Virtual Celebrities has been dropped harder than a possible sequel for S1m0ne.
- The opening scene of Aki dreaming about a wasteland is compared to the contents of Jared Leto's brain.
- Tooth Fairy: A somewhat off-putting male example played by Jim appears during the Overly Long Gag, just so the Critic can eventually cry out "Where is the TOOTH?"
- Turned Against Their Masters: At the review's end, Ms. Rooster and Mr. Kitty reveal that they killed the original Tamara and Malcolm after making them record everything they could possibly say, and have since been portraying virtual actors of them.
- Virtual Celebrity: The Critic begins the review with a discussion on this, with a special note on Aki Ross being one early (and failed) attempt at pushing such a celebrity.
