I'll have to play it again to be sure, but the only thing I remember that was remotely close to this is that the game would sometimes slow down during magic attacks (literally slow down, even the music would be slower), at least on my discs it would. From the sounds of it, though, they're saying the actual animations are slow, as in they take to long to finish, yes?

I never noticed what Fynn is saying about Final Fantasy VII either, but again I will replay - I know Ultima was shown from several angles before it was cast, but I just assumed that was because it was Ultima, and it needed to look "cooler" somehow. On the subject of slow animation. though, feel free to take a coffee break when Super Nova is cast...