Tekken: The Motion Picture (Japan 1998)

Rating: ***

A decent translation of the video game to the TV screen, firmly in the mold of "Mortal Kombat" (1995) and Bruce Lee's "Enter The Dragon" (1973). As a fighting movie, it really delivers, but it's at the expense of plot and character development. Much like "Street Fighter II" (1994), there are just too many characters to keep track of, and developing and following all of their motivations over the course of an hour is impossible. Also, in the "way silly" category there is the inclusion of a bunch of Velociraptor-like dinosaurs that can become invisible. Huh? The character design and animation is good, and the main female character (Jun Kazama) is quite a babe and fun to watch. Her voice talent (Edie Patterson) is also top notch, and nearly all of the dubbing is good, with the exception of the main male character (Kazuya Mishima) who sounds like he's trying too hard to pull off a low and menacing Batman voice. Similar to SFII, the English dub contains a hard rock soundtrack instead of the more dramatic and appropriate Japanese music score. Thankfully, the DVD offers the original Japanese audio. Average anime fun.