How realistic are the animated heroes of "Final Fantasy"?

They're not exactly photo-real, but they are the best technology will allow at this point. We worked with some of the best animators in the business, and for all of them this was the holy grail of character animation. It's one thing to do dinosaurs or toys, but it's quite another to do people.

How different is "Final Fantasy" from a live-action film?

Curiously we spend a lot of time emulating the film experience for motion picture-goers. The computer would give us absolutely pristine, deep focus imagery, and you don't want that in film - you want things in the background to be a little out of focus.

Do real actors have anything to fear from their computerised counterparts?

I don't think we're going to be taking over live-action film-making at all. What we're trying to do is create this new genre. It is not traditional cel animation, and it's not live action. But we still need actors to provide the voices – and even though she's animated, our leading lady still ended up costing us millions of dollars!

Is there much competition between companies working in this field?

I don't see it as a competition in terms of us versus Pixar, because John Lasseter and our director Hironobu Sakaguchi are as different as Martin Scorsese and Robert Zemeckis. But I think you will see other directors with big visual imaginations using this technology to tell their own stories in the future.

"Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within " is released in UK cinemas on Friday 3rd August 2001.

Check out our "Final Fantasy" mini-site.