Movie Reviews: Street Fighter II

Title: Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie

Cast:

Kojiro Shimizu as Ryu
Kenji Haga as Ken Masters
Miki Fujitani as Chun-Li
Masane Tsukayama as Guile
Daisuke Gori as E. Honda
Unsho Ishizuka as Blanka
Yukimasa Kishino as Dhalsim
Tetsuo Kaneo as Zangief
Yoko Sasaki as Cammy
Masakatsu Funaki as Fei-Long
Shozo Izuka Thunder Hawk
Ginzo Matsuo as DJ
Kaneto Shiozawa as Vega (Balrog)
Joji Nakata as Balrog (Bison)
Shigezo Sasaoka as Sagat
Takeshi Kusaka as Bison (Vega)

Directed by: Gisaburo Sugii

Country: Japan

Distributed by: Toei Animation (Japan) Metro Goldwyn Mayer (International)

Genre: Action/Adventure/Fantasy/Martial-Arts/Anime

Year of Release: 1994

Synopsis: Based on Capcom's popular and long running fighting game series, the story in this 1994 animated film focuses on the adventures of a wondering drifter named Ryu, who constantly travels around the world in search of opponents that can provide him with a challenge. The movie opens up with a fierce one on one battle between Ryu and Sagat on a dark stormy night, which most likely took place in between the events of the first and second games. In the midst of the fight, Ryu manages to defeat Sagat by severely wounding him with a devastating "Shoryuken", which ultimately leaves him with his signature chest scar. Unknown to Ryu, the fight between him and Sagat was being recorded by an android off-screen. A few years later, the infamous superhuman dictator, M. Bison, who is the leader of a terrorist organization known as Shadowlaw, is searching the globe for famous martial arts masters who can serve his purposes for world conquest. One of the ways he does this is with the use of humanoid robots that record and collect data on people's fighting prowess, power levels, and stamina. Upon learning about Sagat's defeat at the hands of Ryu, Bison grows an interest in the martial artist for his potential in serving as one of his top mercenaries. But tracking him down proves difficult since Ryu never stays in one place. And so the chase is on.

Personal Comments: As far as records go, there have been a number of theatrical films and television shows that were based off of video games. But very few have proven themselves to be worthy of praise or recognition since most game based movies and cartoons have a tendency to fall short of fans' expectations, and ultimately fall flat on their faces. Mainly because they end up being poorly written and badly handled. The history of bad video game based films has left one too many of bitter aftertastes in people's mouths, and bad memories to boot. Needless to say, there has been not one, but two theatrical live-action films based on the Street Fighter franchise; one that was released in 1994 which starred Jean Claude Van-Damme as Guile, and one that was released more recently around 2009 called "The Legend of Chun-Li". But in this review, I'd like to take this time to go over the animated feature film directed by Gisaburo Sugii, which in my opinion is a FAR superior film to both the Jean Claude Van-Damme film, and The Legend of Chun-Li. But first, I must go over the history of the source material the film is based on.

In 1987, Capcom gave us the very first Street Fighter game. But sadly, while some people played it, the game was not a major success, and it flopped at the arcades. But four years later in 1991, Capcom made the direct sequel, a game that fans would remember for years to come; Street Fighter II. In its day, Street Fighter II ruled the arcades with awesome 2D fighting game action. Ever since its release to the arcades back in the early 90s, it created a generation of fans across the globe. It was a huge success that became a classic, and it totally revolutionized the arcade fighting game genre for video games everywhere. Not to mention several different versions of the game were made; "Street Fighter II: The World Warrior", "Street Fighter II: Champion Edition", and "Street Fighter II: Turbo". And then in between 1993 and 1994, they released two final versions of the game; "Super Street Fighter II", and "Super Street Fighter II Turbo", which introduced the characters Cammy, Fei-Long, DJ, and Thunder Hawk, and even marked the first appearance of Akuma. As far back as I can remember, the Street Fighter series has always been lots of fun to play back in the old days when 2D games were still popular. In fact, I still remember quite vividly when I first came across a Street Fighter II arcade machine somewhere in the early 90s when I was on vacation in Florida. And man it was a summer I would remember for years to come. Of course it was pretty tough game for me, and I got my ass handed to me quite a bit by both the AI and more experienced players. But it was still lots of fun to play despite how inexperienced I was at those games at the time. But eventually I got better at the games the more I played them. For a lot of people (myself included), the whole fighting game craze began with Street Fighter II. And it was basically the "first person shooter" of the early to mid 90s.

Now that that's out of the way, let's talk about the animated movie. Originally released in Japan on August 8th, 1994, this film's animation is credited to Toei Animation and the now defunct Group TAC. I first learned about "Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie" somewhere in between 1994 and 1995 when I was out with my mother in a local shopping mall. I first saw previews and advertisements for the movie when I looked into the pages of an anime magazine that featured artwork, snap shots, and an introduction to the film's premise. And I even saw the trailers for the movie on this particular day when I went to a game room of sorts where the trailers were being displayed on the TV screens. But I didn't actually see the movie until the summer of 1996 when I rented it for the first time from my local Hollywood video store. And well, I have to say that I was actually quite impressed with the whole thing. As I said before, most movies based on video games suck. But believe me, that's not the case with this movie. Because unlike most video game based movies, "Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie" is more true to the spirit of its source material. It had awesome animation, a decent plot and story-line that was easy to follow along, and was very loyal to the source material it was based on. In my humble opinion, "Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie" is a near perfect example of how to make an anime based on a video game franchise. Now the funny thing is a lot of people weren't aware of this movie until the live action film was released later in 1994. But believe me, the animated movie came first. And also, the title can be misleading because it's called "Street Fighter II" despite the fact that its not a sequel. There was never a film based on the original game. The only reason why it has the number 2 in the title is because its based on the video game of the same name.

The first thing I want to talk about in this review is the animation. As you may have already figured out by now, I'm a sucker for high quality artwork. And believe me when I say that the animation from this movie is just incredible. In fact, no words can clearly describe how insanely awesome it really is. It's like nothing you'd normally expect to see from a movie based on a video game. In fact, the attention to detail and fluid movement in the characters, objects, and special effects really shows how much time and effort was put into it. And judging by how well it was executed, I can already tell that the artists behind this movie have put in a great deal of heart and soul into their work to make it look so stylish and professional. Hell, watching this movie is kind of like looking into the pages of a comic-book, and watching everything come to life before your very eyes. And it really stands out even by today's standards. I can only imagine that the budget must have been pretty big for this film. Ever since the day I first saw this movie with my own two eyes, I was madly intrigued by its impressive and highly detailed artwork. In fact, Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie has since become one of my top inspirations for engaging in anime and film. And not only that, but it has greatly influenced my drawing style. Even to this day, this movie continues to inspire me in many special ways as an artist. And trust me when I say that you'll hardly ever come across anything today with this kind of quality. Seeing stuff like this is a major rarity by today's standards.

For those of you who remember the Jean Claude Van Damme movie along with the poorly executed American cartoon, you may also remember that Guile was featured as the main character in both. However, this movie does quite the opposite; rather than focusing on Guile, the stars of this movie are Ryu and Ken, which makes perfect sense since they're the main stars of the franchise and have appeared as the first and second players in just about every game they've appeared in. Of course, most of the film focuses on Ryu and his adventures throughout the globe. As all Street Fighter fans know by now, Ryu seems to be a pretty one-dimensional character whose only goal in life is to become a better fighter, and to perfect his skills in martial arts. But what the hell, Ryu is one of my favorite characters from the Street Fighter universe. Besides, I've always had a great deal of admiration and respect for Ryu for his strength, courage, determination, and dedication to his cause. In fact, Ryu in my point of view is a good example of a person who dedicates himself to what he does best. And admittedly I have a bit of Ryu in me. Not to mention I had often played as him in pretty much every game he's appeared in. And on top of that, he really kicked ass in this movie. Not only did he manage to beat Sagat at the beginning, but he also managed to beat Fei-Long in a one on one match in China as well as beating down a few Shadow Law thugs in India. Ken Masters plays a special part in this movie two although he spends most of the film pondering on whether or not he'll see Ryu again. But he does have some noteworthy moments in the film such as his short lived match against Thunder Hawk in the alley. The movie also has its moments of drama and suspense like the part towards the end where Bison reveals to Ryu that he had corrupted Ken. Ryu hesitates to fight off the brainwashed Ken after he was captured and corrupted by Bison. Obviously he didn't want to go full force against Ken since they've been friends since childhood. So he basically gets his ass kicked by the brainwashed Ken. But then, after regaining his consciousness and strength, Ken teams up with Ryu to defeat Bison. In my point of view, the final battle with Ryu, Ken, and Bison was the highlight of the entire movie. Now don't get me wrong, all the fight scenes in this movie were spectacular and well-executed. But in my opinion, the final showdown was the most groundbreaking battle in the entire film. Especially at the end where Ryu and Ken finish off Bison by blasting him with a double super charged "Hadoken".

As I remember, all of the characters from the game have appeared in the movie. That's right people; everybody from the game who you can possibly imagine has appeared in the film. Even the characters from "Super Street Fighter II" were included. However, because the movie focuses mostly on Ryu and Ken, most of the other characters featured in the film were only given minor appearances; they're only featured briefly in specific scenes of the film. After that, they are never seen again for the rest of the film. Characters like Cammy, Fei-Long, DJ, Blanka, Dhalsim, and Zangief are only in the film for a short period of time before disappearing. While important characters like Sagat don't really get to do much. And to be honest, I thought that was kind of a bummer. But I'm not really too bothered by this. After all, this is a movie and not a TV series. And on the other hand, it's a good thing that the characters were all included despite what little importance they served to the grand scheme of the story. Besides, as my friend SilverZeo said, a cameo appearance is better than nothing. And that sums it up perfectly because it would be difficult to give equal attention and importance all the characters in the film. But at least they were in the movie. For most of the film, some of the other notable characters who are given the most attention besides Ryu and Ken are Chun-Li and Guile, who of course have their own personal reasons for why they're involved in the struggle against Shadowlaw. Guile wants revenge on Bison because he killed his best friend Charlie, who as everybody knows was a playable character in the Street Fighter Alpha series. And of course, Chun-Li wants revenge on Bison because he murdered her father. Of course, Guile at first acts all stubborn and selfish because he is driven with the sole desire to take out Bison by himself single handedly. But with firm and sincere words, Chun-Li eventually convinces him that it's going to take a team effort to bring Bison down. Oh yeah, and I don't want to forget about Honda, the sumo wrestler who initially competes in a match against Dhalsim in India, and soon afterwards befriends Ryu in the middle of the film. Out of all the other minor characters in the movie, Honda is probably the only one besides Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, and Guile, who received fair treatment since he gets a decent amount of attention and screentime throughout the movie until the end. Though, I do admit that Guile was essentially a waste of a character. He didn't really get to do much in the film except for having one brief fight with Bison before getting his ass handed to him. As for Chun-Li, she was treated better than Guile ever was. Because at least she got to fight against Vega, even though that was pretty much the only bit of action she's ever gotten in the whole movie.  

For those of you who don't know, some of the characters in the series have their names switched around. More specifically, the boss characters. In the United States, Balrog is the heavy-weight boxer, Vega is the narcissistic psychopath who wears a mask to cover his face and uses a pair of metal claws as his weapon of choice, and Bison is the superhuman leader of Shadowlaw. However, in Japan, their names are switched around for some odd reason. For instance, Balrog is called Bison, Vega is called Balrog, and Bison is called Vega. I apologize if that was too confusing. But if you are already aware of this, then you pretty much know what I'm talking about. Especially if you have played the English and the Japanese versions of the games respectively. Oh yeah, and it's also worth mentioning that in the Jean Claude Van Damme movie and in the American cartoon, Ryu's name was often mispronounced as "Rai-yuu". Whereas in the anime films and in the newer games, his name is pronounced the way native Japanese speakers would pronounce it. But apparently, some people never learned from this, and although Ryu does not appear anywhere in "The Legend of Chun-Li", he is mentioned, but his name is once again mispronounced.

The only thing I don't like about Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie is that the English dubbed version suffers from somewhat poor dubbing. But to be perfectly honest, the voice acting itself is not all that bad. It could have been better, and it could have been worse. But there are some instances in which the dialogue gets kind of cheesy and ridiculous. There are some nice lines here and there. But all in all, it's rather decent voice acting overall. It's not the best, but it's fair. Besides, the fighting action in this movie makes up for that. And this movie is packed with lots of awesome and memorable fight scenes. And as I've said before, the action in this movie is well executed. From the beginning with the match between Ryu and Sagat, to the fight between Chun-Li and Vega, to the final fight against Bison towards the end, this movie is like a roller coaster that takes you for one hell of a ride and leaves you with quite an experience at the end. For me, this experience has been etched into my very soul.

It's worth mentioning that the English and Japanese versions of the movie are slightly different from each other. The main difference aside from the language that is spoken is that both versions feature completely different music. In the Japanese version, the music consists of a mix between J-pop and rock songs, some of which are instrumental, and some of which are accompanied by Japanese vocals. Some of my favorite songs from the Japanese version include; "Itoshisato Setsunasato", which plays in the final battle scene, and was also used in the trailers for the film. Other memorable songs include; "Break", "Mission", and "Good Luck". The music for the Japanese version was composed by artists Yuji Toriyama and Tetsuya Komuro, with vocals by Ryoko Shinohara. And there's lots of great background tunes as well. However, the US version of the movie features a completely different soundtrack which consists of popular rock songs from various 90s bands like Alice 'N' Chains, Silver Chair, KMFDM, and Korn. Some of the most recognizable songs from the English version include "Them Bones", which plays in the scene with Ken riding down the road in his car with his girlfriend Eliza, "Ultra" which plays during the fight between Chun-Li and Vega at the hotel, and "Blind" which plays in the film's closing credits. The background music is especially different since it consists of fast pace adrenaline flowing guitar solos and whatnot. In my humble opinion, however, neither one of the two soundtracks is superior to the other. In other words, I like them both just the same despite how different both scores are. They're both awesome to listen to, but for different reasons. As far as I know, the Japanese version soundtrack is nearly impossible to get a hold of, and is most likely only sold in Japan. Whereas the US version soundtrack is a little easier to come across since most of the songs featured in it are mainstream. Anyway, the bottom line is both soundtracks are awesome and worth owning.

I'm not sure how many people are familiar with this, but as far back as I can remember, Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie has met with a number of different versions and releases. Back in 1994 when the movie was first released in Japan, it was shown in its complete uncut and unedited form. But when it came to America the following year, an edited version of the movie was released on VHS. Not only were certain scenes cut from the film, but apparently, even some of the dialogue was watered down. For instance, in the part where Bison's plain flies over Ken's head while riding down the road in his car, Ken shouts: "You dick head!" In the edited version however, this was replaced with "Are you crazy?!" Before the final fight with Bison, Guile says "Bison, I'm gonna rip your lousy heart out you filthy bastard!" replacing "you filthy bastard!" with "you lousy creep!" Also, some of the violence was edited out as well. At the beginning of the movie, during the battle between Ryu and Sagat, Ryu's "Shoryuken" doesn't simply burn a scar on Sagat's chest, but it literally cuts his chest open, and we see blood blasting out of his wound. In the assassination in India, a Shadowlaw soldier gets brutally shot to death by his own men after completing his mission to assassinate an Indian prime minister. And in the fight between Chun-Li and Vega, we not only see the gash and claw marks on Chun-Li, but we also see Vega slurping the blood off his claws. And all of this was edited out of the VHS version. However, in recent years, the movie was released on several DVD editions that feature the film in its completely uncut and unedited state. An uncut, uncensored, unleashed DVD of the movie was released on July 18, 2006 and addresses the complaints made about the censored English versions of the film in 1995. Unlike the previous unrated version released in the US which was still censored, this release is uncut from the original Japanese version and for the first time ever (for non-Japanese releases of this movie), it contains the original Japanese soundtrack in addition to the English soundtrack (both featuring a new Dolby Digital 5.1 mix). It is a double-sided DVD, with one side containing the English dub with the English soundtrack and the other side containing the original Japanese voices with the original Japanese soundtrack with optional English subtitles. So not only is all the violence present, but all the swearing and profanity has been restored as well, meaning that the movie can now be seen in its entirety for the first time ever.

Upon its release, "Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie" has proven to be a moderate success with fans. And not only that, but it has also proven that it "is" possible to make good cartoons and films out of video game franchises. Though a lot of people may deny this completely, I still believe that any video game franchise can be made into a good film or TV show as long as the right directions are approached. But the problem that has plagued the late 80s throughout the heart of the 90s is that films and shows that were based off of video games were poorly executed due to the lack of good writing and good direction. And that's the thing; if the production doesn't have a good script and if it is not executed well, then chances are, the product will fail to exceed the expectations of the fans, and doesn't do well in the business despite being published to the outside world. But where most game based movies and shows have failed, "Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie" has succeeded. Even though it doesn't gain the recognition it deserves as an anime cult classic, I still rate this movie highly for its influences, its value and merit, and for the impact that its had on me. Because even to this very day, there's a lot that we can learn from this movie about what it means to make a good productions out of best-selling video game franchises. And this is possible for countless other titles imaginable. All it takes is a good script, good writing, and a believable plot and storyline. But of course, from the way things are now, I'm not so sure people in the entertainment industry will learn from their mistakes anytime soon. But hey, we can always hope and pray for a brighter future despite how hopeless things seem at this time. Anyway, the bottom line is, "Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie" was and still is a good example of a great game based movie that has done well in the last number of years since its release.

Overall: Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie is yet another one of those films which I continue to look up to as a great source of inspiration. Not only has it caught my attention, but it totally blew me away with its awesome animation, great fight scenes, lots of memorable moments, and its well-written plot and storyline. It's not exactly perfect as it does have a few errors and plotholes. The story does have some issues here and there, and I do see how it could have been more detailed and in-depth. Especially where characterizations are concerned. And yes, the English dialogue sucks. But all in all, the execution was rather decent. Besides, this movie has really made an impact on the fan-base and on the franchise in general. Even now, its influences are still felt to this day. In the end, this is a fantastic film that's very faithful to the source material. And believe me, this movie has influenced me tremendously since the first time I saw it. Another good example of a video game based production that has done well is the 1993 DIC cartoon "Sonic the Hedgehog" which most fans refer to as "Sonic SatAM". As far as I'm concerned, Sonic SatAM has met with great success and praise despite its untimely cancellation in December of 1994. In my point of view, it's in the same league with this movie in terms of being a great example of something that was well-executed, and has deeply impacted fans everywhere. Where the Street Fighter franchise is concerned, there's probably never going to be another video game based movie or TV show that will top this movie. And nothing has impressed me that much ever since. But like I said before, we can always pray. In conclusion to this review, I want to say that "Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie" is now a classic anime film that has earned its reputation as one of the few video game based movies that has succeeded in what it was supposed to do. Again, it's not perfect, but its still an overall enjoyable and satisfying film. In fact, I think it's much better than the live-action Jean Claude Van-Damme movie. No offense to Van-Damme though. Anyway, for its awesome animation, blood pumping action scenes, dramatic character interaction, solid soundtracks, and overall epic atmosphere, this movie has left me with an experience that still remains fresh in my mind to this very day. And it's a great classic to own despite its flaws. Years later, it's a fun action packed film from beginning to end. I would definitely recommend this movie to you if you're into hardcore anime. Especially if you're a longtime Street Fighter fan like me. Trust me, this movie is definitely worth a watch. All in all, I'll give this movie 4 ½ stars.

Back to Review Series: MDT Review Series