DVD Reviews
DVD Review: Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie (Uncut)
By Patrick Luce Jul 28, 2006, 14:04 GMT
Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie is the feature version of the wildly popular Capcom game phenomenon and precursor to the highly acclaimed "Street Fighter II: V” TV series, Street Fighter Alpha and Street Fighter Generations. Now, Street Fighter fans can truly thrill to the feature film exploits of such globally renowned SF characters as the ruthless terrorist leader General Bison, US Army Major Guile, Chun Li and American martial ...more
Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie returns to DVD in a new uncut, uncensored version that has enough extra action packed into it to make it worth the double dips for anime fans. It is also worth picking up if you never got around to seeing it when it was first released.
Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie is the feature film version of the wildly popular Capcom game phenomenon and precursor to the highly acclaimed "Street Fighter II: V” TV series, Street Fighter Alpha and Street Fighter Generations.
The new cut of the film includes additional “graphic – and sexy – footage” that was cut from the first U.S. release – which was actually geared to a more kid friendly audience given the success of the video game. Now fans can see the version that was meant to be released with will all the graphic violence and even some nudity (including the notorious Chun Li shower scene).
Although the film’s plot is a little hard to follow and is relatively thin to begin with, Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie follows the exploits of such globally renowned SF characters as the ruthless terrorist leader General Bison, US Army Major Guile, Chun Li and American martial arts expert Ken Masters.
In the film, Bison, the ruthless leader of the international terrorist organization Shadowlaw, who has been desperately searching for the greatest fighter on the planet for years. He finds it in Ryu, a young wanderer who never stays in one place long enough for Bison to find him.
He does get a fix on Ken Masters - an American martial arts champion who studied with Ryu as a child under the same master. Meanwhile, Major Guile of the United States Army is forced to team up with Chun Li from China in hopes of apprehending Bison and putting a stop his international ring of crime.
Like I said, the film’s plot is rather thin, and if you are not already familiar with the Street Fighter characters it is somewhat hard to follow. At times, it seems like the plot is just what the writers came up with to string the fight scenes together and make the movie longer.
Since the movie was originally released in 1995, the animation also seems a bit dated at times, and may not hold up to some anime fans’ expectations. It isn’t bad, but by today’s standards doesn’t come across as sharp.
However, the film is still filled with lots of martial arts action and some of the best fight scenes (made even better with the graphic violence added back in) to come out of 90’s anime. The new DVD release also has a great Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound mix of the film’s KMDFM soundtrack – which was another reason for the film’s popularity.
In addition, each Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie DVD contains an exclusive, all-new Street Fighter mini-comic-book from Japan’s famous Udon Comics. The DVD also features the original Japanese master with never before seen scenes and the UK unrated version.
If you are a fan of the film or of anime in general, you will want to pick up the uncut version of Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie. It is a bit dated, but still worth the double dip.
Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie is now available at Amazon. As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
