I didn't say just Final Fantasy removed and it would have faded away. I said if it was made by a different company than Square without the Final Fantasy branding. Actually it's practically faded away into obscurity already. When is the last time you heard someone say, "Man I really want to watch that shitty final fantasy movie."
Even then, that still doesn't negate the point I made in regards to its cg rendering quality. If anything, being made my a company that isn't Square may have also then boosted its popularity as it then wouldn't have had any pre existing notions that follow from either being a FF or Square products. Much like how the Tak game series has its success and following largely initiated because its inception wasn't produced by a known video game powerhouse.
"Nobody" says "Man I really want to watch that shitty final fantasy movie." because that's a loaded question. Those that have any form of appreciation for the movie don't see it as 'shitty' and will actually watch it. Furthermore, while I don't know for certain how curriculum goes for animation majors anymore particularly at school's outside my interest, but at least from the courses my brother took for his degree just a few years back, they had a case study pertaining to FF:SW because of its utilization of complete cgi rendering to imitate human actors, and how the audience reacted to that. As the first to do this, it has set a historical mark that I'm sure continues to be of interest to study for more than those outside your realm of interest. If anything, I'd say the movie was released 'too soon' and had Square waited a few more years to release the movie (despite already taking 4 to make) and maybe had a few animation tweaks to go with it, I think the movie would have then had a better reception.
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