Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie (1994)

Best movie of this year hands down!

the audience applauded

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

I haven't played a Street Fighter game in twenty years, so I didn't approach "The Animated Movie" expecting spot-on character treatments, backstories, etc. The story on this thing's fairly nonsensical, everyone's either a mercenary or government op. But it does benefit from great production values; this looks damn good. And no one comes to this expecting anything deep, I mean it's full of 'roided out physiques squaring off against each other. It's whether or not the movie delivers on the fight scenes, which are top-notch (especially the tense Vega/Chun Li face-off). I imagine that, were I a more devoted fan of the games, I would've given a rip about the story. But again, fights and quality animation are the focus. My only gripe with the U.S. version are the songs, none of which fit (Korn, seriously?).Scratch that, I've got one more gripe. Internet lore tells of an extended Chun Li shower scene, the juicy parts of which were missing here. Manga Entertainment apparently forgot that "sex and violence" is a package deal. You put that T&A back where it belongs! Are we really pretending teens aren't this movie's target audience? 6/10

If you ever played Street Fighter II, then you know the basic premise of the movie, M. Bison's Organisation 'Shadowlaw' (or Shadaloo in some versions,) is taking over the world, and only our street fighter protagonists can save it.Every single playable character was on the movie, so whoever your favourite is, whether Chun-Li to Zangief, they are there. Although a few characters have very small parts, they appear in a way which shows them off, mostly in making them spar with each other, every character fights and shows their special moves at least once. (Go Spinning Bird Kick!)The animation is fantastic, to say the least. Not only very smooth, the timing with the dub is exceptionally well, and the fight scenes, which the movie is full of, puts you on the edge of your seat.The music is a very defining part of the movie. In the original Japanese version, the music score is powerful, it compliments the action happening on scene, and gives the move an extra tug to the heart. In the Western version, they scrapped the whole score and added different songs. There are instrumentals which sets the scene very well and particularly in the fight scene of Chun-Li vs Vega, KMFDM's 'Ultra' gives it the extra boost. The film's characters grows on you, you fall for the protagonists when they rise and fall, and you despise the antagonist's ways. or you the other way because you're just that person that wants the bad guys to win.The film is a great film to watch with friends, although afterwards, some people might insist in reenacting some of the fight scenes, which I don't recommend. A great film for a great game, with some great scenes.I recommend it, and watch a little of the credits. Something might be coming to Ryu's way. What are you waiting for? Watch it!

People would like to think that the Anime Film version of Street Fighter II - The Fighting Game is far more true to its origins than the live Hollywood version starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. Well, we have every character from the Super-edition present, many of them perform their signature moves such as Hadoken etc., Blanka and Charlie are not the same person and they stuck to the original character back-stories.Is it more true to its origins? Yes. Is it a better movie? Nope.Here's why. Although the Anime had a lot more fight-scenes and on average they were quite impressive, the movie has no plot to speak of. The anime reeks of fan-service, starting with bit-appearances by Fei Long, Cammie, DeeJay, Dhalsim, Zangief, Blanka and T.Hawk and truth-be-told Sagat didn't get to do anything cool either. Plus, the film contains a shower-scene with Chun-Li where the director made a point of showing off her "womanhood" as often as possible.By comparison, the Hollywood film at least had a plot and was rather funny. This film has that "anime-magic" about it, but is really nothing more than a theatrical "TV-special".

. . . for an anime based on a video game (a fighting game, no less.) So how does this anime succeed in sticking 16 (technically 17) characters into a single feature where its live action counterpart failed? Simple: most characters are no more than a backdrop participating in a fight in whatever location the film needs them in.This gives the main characters (mostly Ryu) more room for more development and lengthier, flashier fights. The character exploration of Ryu and Ken, their history together, proved a nice touch, and Capcom wisely choose not to pursue it too much; afterall, this anime is about Street Fights not Street Dramas. I've always liked Ryu and Ken's rivalry which does not interfere with their friendship that Capcom established, especially the link via Ryu's headband; the two won't hold back when battling one another, but at the same time there's a line neither will cross.Which brings me to the villain, M. Bison (or Vega, depending on where you live), and his posse. Somehow I liked Bison better in the original incarnation of Street Fighter 2 where he was just a guy (with pupils) before they started getting carried away with his 'Psycho Power' and, in the Zero series, the 'Psycho drive' (whee!). It's not enough to have a mean guy as the villain, nope, we absolutely must have the son of Satan. No matter how hard I try to suspend my disbelief, I'll always see Bison as a scrawny guy in a red suit (with pupils) who happens to have a few cool abilities . . . oh yeah, and Akuma can kick the crap out of him any day of the week.The arcade Street Fighter 2 and its numerous variants never really gives much glimpse into the character's personalities, and as a result we have to rely on their back stories (for those who care enough to read into them) and the snippets of between-bout dialogue for such traits. With that in mind, all of the characters are portrayed accurately (surprise surprise). Come to think of it, how did the live action film manage to screw them up when 95% of the personality is left up for interpretation of the gamer? I loved the fights in this anime, the fluid and flawless animation. It was actually one of the first anime's that I ever caught a glimpse of, and then years later revisited to find the battles still hold up against some of the more recent animations I've seen. The animators paid careful attention to weight, balance, centers of gravity, and momentum which I greatly appreciated. I've seen one too many animations with battles involving characters anchored to their place with arms and legs mechanically jabbing at their opponent in alternation with one another. Not to mention the camera follows some creative angles in narrating – in particular, one sequence follows Vega (Balrog) as Chun Li nearly knocks him to the ground, and it follows him as he straightens back up to come face to face with her.Though I'm not particularly a fan of anime, I did like and appreciate Capcom's efforts in Street Fighter 2: the animated movie. I feel anime definitely suits fighting games that originate from Japan (surprise, surprise), and I'm dismayed that none of the SNK fighting-game based animes (Art of Fighting, Samurai Showodown, Fatal Fury) really compare. Then again, Street Fighter was the leader, so I guess it's only appropriate that its anime would rank above its SNK competition.