Advent Children gets US release date, voice cast

Final Fantasy movie comes to America on UMD and feature-packed DVD in late April; Rachael Leigh Cook, Mena Suvari join cast.

It's been a long time coming for North American fans of Final Fantasy, but the countdown can officially begin--home versions of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is coming to the US on April 25. The computer animated film based on the Square Enix franchise was previously released in theaters and on UMD and DVD in Japan, where it has sold hundreds of thousands of copies. The 101-minute film was directed by Tetsuya Nomura and Tekeshi Nozue and written by Kazushige Nojima.

The stars of the movie's English-language cast were also revealed today. Steve Burton, who gamers may know as the voice of Cloud Strife in the Kingdom Hearts games, was a lock to reprise the role of Cloud for the movie, but two Hollywood starlets will also become very familiar to FF fans soon. Rachael Leigh Cook (Josie and the Pussycats, She's All That) and Mena Suvari (American Beauty, Six Feet Under) will voice Tifa and Aerith, respectively, in both Advent Children and the upcoming PlayStation 2 game Kingdom Hearts II.

Those who can't decide between the DVD and the PSP-friendly UMD formats may want to opt for the DVD version. The 2-disc set features a bonus DVD with a story digest, deleted scenes, a "making of" featurette, and footage from the film's debut at the 2004 Venice Film Festival, as well as peeks of upcoming Final Fantasy VII-based games.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is rated PG-13 and will retail for $26.96.

By Tim Surette -- GameSpot

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great piece of news...