Fullmetal Fantasy (found "Fullmetal Alchemist" live-action short film; 2005)

The poster for Fullmetal Fantasy.

Status: Found

Date found: 25 Oct 2020

Found by: Axiefae

Fullmetal Fantasy is a short live-action Fullmetal Alchemist film made by Vic Mignogna, the dub voice actor of Edward Elric. The film is notable for only being shown at conventions before legal issues caused it to be ported to concert DVDs.

Development

At Kawaii Con 2009, Vic mentioned a fan coming up to him and asking for a photoshoot with him in their red coat, a core part of his character's outfit. After doing said photoshoot, the idea of cosplay and doing something with it stayed in his mind, leading him to come up with the idea of making a short film as he had a college degree in film. Upon bringing it up to other FMA voice actors, they all wanted to be in the film in cosplay as well, which Vic allowed. Sometime early in 2005, a whole day was used to film the movie in Houston, Texas, with the resulting project being funded entirely by Vic. During Metrocon 2007, Vic mentioned that Hiromu Arakawa, the creator of Fullmetal Alchemist, supposedly approved of the film.

Plot

"Have you ever imagined what it would be like to be a real anime character? Vic Mignogna, Edward Elric of Fullmetal Alchemist, has created an original live-action short film featuring many of your favorite FMA voice actors. Fullmetal Fantasy is a special presentation you won't want to miss!" -Advertisements for the short.^[1]

Vic himself described the film as coming from the question, "What if a grown man could turn into an anime character?" Taken from the summary given on Wikibin:

"In the film, Mignogna (whose character is simply credited as "The Fan") receives a reproduction of the State Alchemists' silver pocket watch one day, and wakes up the next to discover that the world is becoming more and more like the world of Fullmetal Alchemist, with himself transforming into Edward and other members of the cast appearing all around the city, with Scar appearing at the end disguised as the postal worker who delivers the watch."

Cast

Actor	Character Played in Fullmetal Fantasy	Character Played in Fullmetal Alchemist Anime
Christine Austin	Envy	None, physical stand-in for Wendy Powell
Norma Bocanegra	Nurse	None
Jonathan Brands	Scar	None, physical-stand in for Dameon Clarke
Luci Christian	Psiren	Psiren
Aaron Dismuke	Alphonse Elric (voice)	Alphonse Elric
Caitlin Glass	Winry Rockbell	Winry Rockbell
David Henkin	Louis Alex Armstrong	None, physical stand-in for Christopher Sabat
Jeff Johnson	Greed	None, physical stand-in for Chris Patton
Mike McFarland	Doctor	Jean Havoc
Vic Mignogna	Fanboy	Edward Elric
Monica Rial	Lira/Dante	Lira/Dante
Tiffany Salinas	Lust	None, physical stand-in for Laura Bailey
David Steward	Young Ed	None, physical stand-in for Vic Mignogna
Kevin Tumlinson	Gluttony	None, physical stand-in for Chris Cason
Miguel Rail	Wrath	None, physical stand-in for Luci Christian

Aaron voiced over a life-size replica of Alphonse loaned to the crew, unable to physically be in the film as he was only 12 at the time. Only one main actor wasn't in the film at all, Travis Willingham, who plays Roy Mustang as he was out of town at the time, however, he had expressed interest in the film (supposedly yelling "So wanted to be in that!" when presented with the finished project) and rumors of another film with him in it exist, though they're very likely untrue.

Sometime in late 2020, the cast listing on IMDB was updated, adding actors for the roles of Wrath and Gluttony.

Distribution

The movie first aired at AnimeCentral (ACEN) Friday, May 13th, 2005,^[2] and was shown again at Project A-kon in June, though the exact date is unknown. It was also shown at Kawaii Con 2009/2012, the latter on April 9th, SAC Anime Winter 2014 on Saturday, January 4th, and Anime Blues Con in Memphis, Tennessee. It's also possible it was screened at the Brownsville Otaku Anime Society in Brownsville, Texas and Toronto's Anime North in 2005.^[3] It was intended to be played at other conventions, including one named AnimeOasis, but due to legal complications from FUNimation, he could no longer play it. However, it ended up getting a very limited release at Anime Blues Con and possibly others, being released as part of a concert DVD. However, even with this, the film has never been uploaded online in full. On July 2nd, 2019, a minute and 25-second long clip was uploaded to Youtube, however since then, then channel had been deleted. The Wayback Machine archived the video's page, but not the actual video itself.

On October 25th, 2020, Lost Media Wiki user Axiefae uploaded the film in its entirety to Mega.nz and The Internet Archive, making it the first full upload of the film and cementing its discovery as no longer lost media. They had also uploaded it on YouTube, but about a month afterwards the video was copyright claimed. Thankfully, a YouTube user by the name of STS-asriel reuploaded it, albiet with a different song playing over the credits to avoid copyright claims. but unfortunately, it was also claimed by Vic Mignogna himself, but they have since reuploaded the video onto their channel.