Is this movie stupid? Kinda. Is this movie awesome? Oh, Hell YES!
Street Fighter II the Animated Movie is a popcorn flick if there ever was one; only in cartoon-form. There isn’t much plot. It’s based on a fighting game, after all. And even though Street Fighter has probably the most plot of any 2D fighter ever made…that’s still not saying much.
Basically, M. Bison is the leader of Shadowlaw, a ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world. He’s gathering the best street-fighters from around the globe in order to build an unstoppable army. He has his sight’s set on the World Warrior, Ryu, but can’t seem to find the guy. So he gets the next best thing, instead: Ken Masters. There’s some stuff in there about Guile and Chun-Li trying to topple the Shadowlaw organization and what-not, but the main focus of the movie is really the relationship between Ken and Ryu.
“The Plot” is pretty much just a string of coincidences (and sequences that have nothing to do with anything) that serve to get two characters from the game to meet each other and throw down for no readily apparent reason. And Hell, it actually works.
Street Fighter II honestly feels like a 2D fighter brought to life (unlike the Jean Claude Van Damme movie, which felt like a steaming pile of excrement brought to life). All the characters from Street Fighter II are present, even Akuma, and they all wail on each other using their trademark special moves.
You don’t play a fighting game for the plot, you play it cuz you wanna fight. Subsequently, you don’t watch a movie based off a fighting game for the plot, you watch it cuz you wanna see people fight. And fight they do. All the time.
The animation is beautiful and the fight choreography is top-notch. Everything moves at a manic pace and all the characters work-in their special moves so fluidly you almost have to watch the movie 2 or 3 times just to notice them all. Every character from the game, save for Akuma, gets at least a few seconds of screen time to show off their stuff. This might leave a few fans upset, as their favorite characters wind-up shoved into the background or are given only a few minutes of screen time (like Cammy). However, even if their appearances are short, they’re screen time is filled with them doing something awesome (Blanka was particularly hardcore).
The voice-acting from ADV should also be commended. You’ll recognize many of the voice actors, like Steve Blum, from ADV’s other productions, such as Cowboy Bebop and The Big-O. A few of the voice actors play multiple characters, but their talented-enough for you not to really notice it. At least on the first couple viewings. After a few more times you might notice that Dee Jay and Balrog are voiced by “that black dude who was in Halloween H20 for a few seconds”.
The music in the AMERICAN version is fantastic, too. The Japanese version, unfortunately, thought it would be a good idea to make the score sound like a ballet. It’s almost as if they decided to get the most inappropriate music they could find. The American version, thankfully, replaces the boring soundtrack with lots of rock and roll, which suits this kind of movie much better. Even if you’re one of those “OMG Undaground Muzack 4 lyfe!” snobs who doesn’t like any of the more mainstream artists chosen for the soundtrack, all the music chosen suits the scenes they’re applied to nicely. Particularly, in the best fight of the movie; Chun-Li vs. Vega. It transitions from a creepy slasher movie-inspired score, to a melodic French pop song, and then catches you off guard with a blast of KMFDM’s “Ultra”. It makes Vega’s entrance much more alarming.
Is Street Fighter II the Animated Movie a “good” movie? Well, by Joe Average’s standards, probably not. But to anybody whose been alive for the past 16 years and has played a Street Fighter game, you’re gonna love it.
It’s worthy of a B- at the very least. I personally love the movie, but I’ll agree, it’s a brainless popcorn flick that’ll only appeal to people who are fans of the games or the fighting game genre.
Grade: B-
Dragonball Z movie 2: “The World’s Strongest”
A personal favorite of mine, in regards to the Dragonball Z movie franchise, and agreed by most to be one of the best in the series. Personally, it ranks at a VERY close second place, right behind “Tree of Might”, as my favorite in the series.
The plot? Well, for a Dragonball Z movie, it actually has a pretty inspired one. Geriatric mad scientist, Dr. Kochin, uses the Dragonballs to free the evil Dr. Wheelo (pronounced “Willow” in the movie but spelled “Wheelo” on the back of the box) from his icy tomb deep in the mountains. Together, they plot to take over the world, only there’s one snag: Dr. Wheelo is nothing but a brain in a jar. Dr. Wheelo needs a body, but not just any body; he wants the strongest one in the world. You can guess what happens next. Goku and Company are brought to his fortress in the mountains to do battle with his various bio-warriors, and eventually, Dr. Wheelo-himself. If they lose, Dr. Wheelo gets Goku’s body. If they win…we get another Dragonball Z movie.
“Tree of Might” is my favorite in the series for personal reasons, but looking at “World’s Strongest” for all its merits, it really is the BEST in the series. The animation direction in this film is remarkably cinematic. Everything has a very creative and epic visual flare, as opposed to other Dragonball Z movies, which tend to be dull-looking and feel like an episode of the TV series. “World’s Strongest” feels like an actual MOVIE.
For Dragonball Z, the plot is most creative and entertaining. The TV series and the movies tend to follow the same formula of “evil alien/demon fighting Goku, transforming over and over again until it reaches its top level and then Goku has to turn to Super Saiyan 15 to beat him”. This was an early Dragonball Z film, so that means NO Super Saiyan plot-devices. Yay! The whole B-movie concept of a mad scientist with his brain inside a giant robot is very alarming considering the predictable trend of the bulk of these movies and is really most refreshing. All the characters are worked into the plot expertly and, save for maybe Krillen who kinda comes out of nowhere, nothing feels particularly forced.
Toei’s animation is gorgeous. The later movies would suffer from off-balanced animation budget (where two-thirds of the budget would be saved for the fight scenes and the remainder would be used for the “boring” stuff), but not “World’s Strongest”. The animation through-out this film is incredibly consistent and down-right pretty.
Of course, the animation shines best during the fight scenes. And let me say, this movie has my personal favorite fight in the entire franchise: Goku vs. Kishime and Ibuforiya. The battle is fast, brutal, hectic, creative and all-around CRAZY! From Kishime’s vanishing speed technique, to Ibuforiya’s ice blasts; there’s so much going on at once you almost get dizzy. And there’s one particular punch Goku throws at Kishime, you’ll know it when you see it, that I just want to congratulate the people at Toei for. EVERY time I see it I can’t help but go “OUCH!” The animation, sound, everything comes together to give an incredible feeling of power behind the blows. And there’s also plenty of fanboy-tingly moments, like Goku, Master Roshi and Krillen all shouting “Kamehameha!” at once. Great work.
And the voice-acting from Canada’s Ocean Group is once again worthy of all levels of praise. I say it often, but Scott McNeil’s Piccolo is just magnificently evil and barbaric-sounding. Saffron Henderson’s Gohan also really shines in this movie, giving the kid a tough yet cute voice that sounds childish and professional all at once. Don Brown’s Goku also deserves some kudos for striking a pitch so high while screaming “Kaiyoken!” that people often mistake it for the original Japanese voice actor (who was female).
I suppose the only real draw-back is Gohan’s musical number in the middle of the movie (they had one of these in “Dead Zone”, too). It’s really pretty annoying to listen to and very off-putting, considering how crazy-violent this movie is. It’s also kind of embarrassing when you’re telling someone how hardcore the action in the movie is, and then they have to sit through super-deformed Gohan dancing around with cartoon rulers and pencils.
This movie, at least as far as Dragonball Z movies go, gets a solid A. Whether you love Dragonball Z or are looking to get into it, this is something you should see. It’s the very best the franchise has to offer.
Grade: A
Devilman
Go Nagai’s classic comic book and anime character, Devilman, is considered one of the “sacred” franchises in Japan, not only for its revolutionary and graphic story-telling, but for being just really damn cool. So did Devilman maintain that “really damn cool” status in the transition from comic to film?
Not so much.
For those not so acquainted with the history of Devilman, a Western audience can compare him most easily to Todd McFarlane’s Spawn, but that’s only in origin and atmosphere. The graphically disturbing situations Go Nagai dreamt up for Devilman easily trump anything Todd McFarlane could ever scribe, hardly being acquainted with the concept of “good taste”.
Basically, Akira Fudo is a shy, meek high school boy who is suddenly hurled into the dark world of Heaven and Hell when his childhood friend, Ryo, comes back into his life. It seems that due to global warming, demons buried in ice eons ago are breaking free and gradually taking over the world. The only way for humans to combat this menace is to fuse their spirits with those of Hell’s most fiendish inhabitants. Akira lucks out and finds himself possessed by the all-powerful Amon. Using Amon’s strength, Akira can transform into the mighty Devilman whenever the legions of Hell rear their ugly heads. And the demons are arriving by the boatload, as it would seem Devilman has ushered in Armageddon-itself.
That outline sound decent-enough? Well, it makes for a fantastic comic book, and an even better anime series. However, trying to turn that into a 90-minute live-action movie didn’t turn out so well.
This movie fails on numerous levels, the first and most important being that it attempts to cram FIVE volumes of story arcs (basically, the entire series) into an hour and a half. The result is the introduction and elimination of new characters at such a rapid pace you hardly care about any of them. Some of the best parts of the source material are simplified or omitted entirely, enraging pretty much any Devilman fan. And the story moves along so quickly, and so unnaturally, you’re left thinking you just watched clips from THREE movies, chopped into one.
But to be honest, even if they had three movies to tell the story I’m still not certain the director could have managed a competent film worthy of the epic scope of the comics. The CG effects are rather good; acceptable at any rate. What’s annoying is that in the middle of fight scenes, everything will turn into black and white cel-animation for a few seconds. I suppose this was the director’s idea of “cool”, but it’s honestly pretty stupid to look at. And while the story would have greatly benefited from several installments to pace it properly, I don’t think I could sit through three films utilizing that kind of direction technique.
Then, I suppose I should bring this up for any Devilman fan reading this review, the changes to the story I mentioned earlier are absolutely ridiculous. Most of Devilman’s origin has been completely hacked to pieces; instead of demons being summoned with a violent black Sabbath, Ryo uses science fiction technology to open a portal to Dimension X…I mean “Hell”. Ryo also uses what can only be described as a “Virtual Reality Helmet” to show Akira what demons are like instead of the cursed demon skull-helmet.
These changes are really unnecessary, eliminate a good portion of the supernatural element for the sake of adding ridiculous science fiction gadgets, and quite frankly, they’re just STUPID.
Also, if you recall all that stuff I mentioned earlier about Devilman being “disturbing” and frequently crossing the boundaries of “good taste”…well, you’ll find little of that in this movie. I suppose to make it appeal to a larger audience, they removed some of the more graphic sequences from the story and REALLY tamed things for the squeamish. The real Devilman is all about going over the edge and being as violent and disturbing as possible; censoring it for a wider, weaker audience is just insulting the source.
There are a few merits to the film. The casting is pretty much spot-on accurate; Akira and Ryo look identical to their comic book counterparts. When it’s not turning into a cartoon for no apparent reason, the CG effects are remarkably good. While tamer than it ever should’ve been, the movie does manage to include many of the darker sequences that were essential to the story (mostly when Armageddon arrives). And for Devilman fans, regardless of how bad the movie can get, you will feel moments of glee seeing your favorite characters come to life with big budget effects.
And on one final note, I’d like to ask any Japanese people out there one question; What do you SEE in that Bobby Sapp-guy!? What is the obsession with this dude? It can’t be for his so-called “acting”, because he has no clue what that word even means. He must be the only black person in the entire country or something.
Now, as a final grade I have to give this movie a flat-out D. There’s a chance it might impress some viewers with no knowledge of the source material, but 90% of the people who are going to seek this film out will be the fans of the franchise. And you WILL be horribly disappointed with the waste of so much potential.
Grade: D
Dragonball Z movie 12: “Fusion Reborn”
The Dragonball Z movie series is one-step away from its conclusion, and to be honest, it’s really for the best. The Buu Saga, with all its goofiness, redundant levels of Super Saiyan and filler beyond anything you’ve ever experienced before, ranks as my least favorite of all the Dragonball Z story arcs and is one of the reasons why I quit watching the television show. And sadly, this movie culls most of its inspiration from that very story arc.
Story-wise, it goes like this: a dimwitted teenage employee in the Afterlife accidentally busts a machine collecting negative energy from souls departing to Hell. The negative energy possess him and he becomes the all-powerful, but annoyingly childlike, Janenba. Janenba wastes no time turning everything in sight into candy, and by flexing his powers over time and space, breaks down the barrier between the world of the living and the world of the dead. Gohan and Associates get in gear rather quickly to save their city from the walking dead (and a certain Nazi dictator) while Goku and Vegita take-on Janenba in the Afterworld. Things go from bad to worse when Janenba stops fooling around and transforms into his mightiest form, JanenPA. If Goku and Vegita want to win this battle they’re not only going to have to put aside their differences and fuse into a single super-being, but they’re going to have to do it RIGHT.
I’d say the worst part of the movie is Janenba. The character is, for all intents and purposes, Majin Buu colored yellow. He acts the same, he looks the same and he has the same candy-fetish. So if you loathed the Buu Saga as much as I did, you’re going to totally hate the first half of this movie.
Luckily, once the action picks up, he transforms into the royally hardcore Janenpa. The bulk of the animation budget was dedicated to the fight scene between Goku, Vegita and Janenpa, so the brawl is absolutely gorgeous to look at. What makes Janenpa so cool are his attacks utilizing his ability to warp time and space (think “The Spot” from Spider-Man only more violent). The animation never fails to accommodate this unique talent and the battle really shines as one of the best in the entire movie series.
Regretfully, since the majority of the budget went toward that fight scene, the rest of the movie has animation-quality noticeably worse than most filler episodes of the TV series. A few “artistic” devices were used to try and make this seem less obvious, like making most of the ghosts and zombies look completely flat with thick, black outlines (like the animation in Clerks: the series). Yet despite all that, the scenes not involving Janenpa are incredibly dull to the senses.
I’d also like to say that the movie had one of the most badass and also the most disappointing moments I’ve ever seen in a Dragonball Z movie. In one scene, Frieza makes a grand comeback and confronts Gohan. The two get ready to spar when Frieza commands an entire army of dead Dragonball Z villains from the TV series and the movies. It’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen and really got my hopes up. Unfortunately, this lasted maybe 5 seconds. I won’t ruin how it ends for you, but chances are you’re going to be just as painfully disappointed as I was.
The main focus of the movie, the fusion of Goku and Vegita into Gojita, is remarkably unsatisfying. To try and create “tension” they include a torturously long segment of the most childish potty humor you can imagine, and quite frankly it just isn’t funny. The appearance of Gojita at the end isn’t going to impress anyone at this point in the Dragonball timeline either, as once you’ve seen one Super Saiyan transformation you’ve quite honestly seen them all.
“Fusion Reborn” has one of the most glorious fight scenes you’ll see in any Dragonball Z movie, hands down. However, this only makes up a very small portion of the actual film. The story is just rehashed from a uniquely bad arc of the TV series, the animation when characters aren’t fighting will have you wishing you were doing Algebra homework instead and the bit with Frieza is such a rotten waste of potential you might just hurl a brick at your TV.
This gets a C-. If it weren’t for that fight scene I’d rank it quite a ways lower.
Grade: C-
Dragonball Z movie 4: “Lord Slug”
The fourth installment in Dragonball Z’s movie franchise, and regretfully, one of the most creatively bankrupt offerings, as well.
The plot of the movie is one of the most rehashed and recycled plots in all the Dragonball Z mythos; “Evil alien comes to Earth, wants stuff, fights Goku, transforms to more powerful mode, Goku goes Super Saiyan, The End.” Well, to be more specific…
The geriatric space-tyrant, Lord Slug, has come to Earth in order to terra-form it into a new home world. Upon arrival he discovers the Dragonballs and quickly uses them to regain his youth, and the full-power that comes with it. After wrecking a good portion of the planet, Goku, Piccolo and the rest decide they’ve had enough and show-up to deal with the baddy. The fight’s not as easy as they’d suspect, as Lord Slug is in reality the last of a race of Super Nameks, which means he’s plenty tough.
“Lord Slug” hasn’t got much going for it in any department. The story is just plain boring. The previous installment, “Tree of Might”, had already given us a similar bad guy in Turles, and Lord Slug just feels like more of the same. Additionally, his legion of minions has to be the most uninspired in the series (save for maybe Metamacha, whose energy-sucking babies are rather cool) and thus, none of the precursor battles leading up to the showdown with Lord Slug are particularly enthralling.
To make matters worse, the fight-choreography for this movie is just plain BLAND. When compared to the clever, brutal and fast-paced fights from the previous installments, the battles in “Lord Slug” are just rather…boring. The final battle with the title villain feels especially uninspired, as all his attacks are nothing we hadn’t seen already from Goku’s encounters with Piccolo in Dragonball.
And, last but not least, Super Saiyan level ½ is utterly pointless. Just like Super Saiyan level 1 only with pink hair. It didn’t feel at all exciting or impressive and is certainly not the way one should be introduced to the Super Saiyan concept (nothing beats that first transformation during the Frieza saga).
There were some points of interest, though. The environment for Goku’s initial battle with Lord Slug was interesting, as it takes place in the ruins of a city. I don’t know why, but I found it entertaining to watch Goku and Piccolo get tossed through department stores and super markets. Also, although it’s sadly too brief, we get to see Chi Chi kick a little ass for a change at the very beginning of the flick. She’s supposed to be one of the most powerful women in the world, but you rarely get to see her throw down. While short (she only knocks out two baddies), it’s most refreshing.
“Lord Slug” also marks the first of the movies to be dubbed by the new Funimation cast, as opposed to the Ocean Group, who had been dubbing the movies up to this point. The Funimation crew had been dubbing the TV series for quite some time before they’d gotten to this movie, so all the new actors have settled into their characters quite comfortably, which means there’s no real awkward adjustment period. While it does take some getting used to, most of the actors are rather good and take the Ocean Group’s baton admirably. Sean Schemmel’s Goku is a personal favorite, and I’d say he’s about equal to Don Brown’s rendition (Ian Corlett will always be my favorite, however). Christopher Sabat does a nice job as Piccolo, and while a far cry from Scott McNeil’s take on the character, he’s still a good casting choice never-the-less. Lord Slug-himself has a voice much better than the actual character; the actor managing an impressive “grizzled old man” voice that sounds more menacing than it does goofy.
No, the major problem with the Funimation dub is not the voices, but rather, it’s the music. While the Ocean Group dub had maintained the original music (for the movies, not the TV series), Funimation made the choice to replace it with their own, bland Kasio Keyboard-quality slop. It does manage to grow on you after a while, but that’s mostly through developing a tolerance and not an appreciation. To make matters worse, they cram in excess amounts of licensed pop rock from bands like Disturbed. While, occasionally, this music does add some pep to the fight scenes, Funimation figured it would be best to run the music over dialogue scenes, montage scenes…and…well, over EVERYTHING. If you want to hear if King Kai is saying something important or not, you first have to drown out “Stupified” as the people at Funimation hadn’t quite mastered the art of volume-control.
“Lord Slug” is a shamefully skippable installment to the franchise, and really not the best way to get acquainted with the new cast. It gets a C-. It’s not as bad as some of the later installments in the series, but the story and fight scenes are so forgettable, well, it’s just a waste of time.
Grade: C-