Attention Anime fans...in case you missed it, or more likely thought it was something else, there was a disc released that I'm sure many of you will be interested in. 'Street Fighter II - The Animated Movie' should not be confused with either Saturday morning cartoons or that other recent exercise in exploitation starring the "muscles from Brussels". This is the real Street Fighter. The one in the video game that pisses off people like Bob Dole. Perhaps not quite as graphic as the video game but certainly stronger than some of the "PG-13" fluff recently passed off as "martial arts". There are half a dozen of the best fights I have ever seen in an animated film, a pounding alternative rock soundtrack, buxom babes (is it weird to say that about cartoons?) and even a dash of profanity. Definitely not for the Disney crowd. There is a large red label on the front of the jacket that says "UNRATED--For Mature Audiences Only". Frankly, I think a little immaturity is called for here.
'Street Fighter II' turned out to be a good enough movie that I found myself wishing for a better transfer. There a a few scenes that are supposed to be either at night or in the dark. I'm not sure if the look of the image is conceptual on the part of the animators or the result of the element used for the transfer but these scenes are difficult to make out, basically shadows moving against a dark background. The normally lit scenes do look pretty good, however, and that's most of the movie. The transfer is letterboxed with a ratio of about 1.75:1. The framing mostly looks good, though a few scenes appear to still have a bit trimmed off the sides. 'Street Fighter II' is a Japanese production, though it appears intended for the American market. The dubbing matches the lip movements fairly close and all the titles and animated graphics on-screen are in english. The animation, while not quite up to the standards of, say, 'Akira', is better than much of the Japanese animation out there.
The soundtrack of 'Street Fighter II' is also what I would consider above average for the genre. Besides relatively well dubbed dialog, the effects and foley sounds are also well done. In some of the fight scenes, one can almost forget it's animation. The Dolby mix is not particularly spectacular, but there are some good directional effects and effective use of the surround channel.
'Street Fighter II' runs 96 minutes and the disc contains 24 chapters. The side break is as good as you will find. All in all, well worth the $29.95 sticker price.
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