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| Mortal Kombat ad. |
Originally intended as an adaptation
of Universal Soldier starring
Jean-Claude Van Damme
from Midway Games, Ed Boon, John Tobias, John Vogel and Dan Forden turned to
Chinese mythology and kung-fu movies for inspiration when the licensing deal
fell through. They came up with the concept of six realms created by Elder Gods
and a tournament held to maintain the freedom of one of the realms. Visiting
pinball designer Steve
Ritchie, upon noticing someone had written “combat” with a “K” on their
idea board, suggested they call the game “Mortal Kombat.” The name stuck, and Mortal Kombat was born.
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| The Kombatants: Johnny Cage, Kano, Sub-Zero, Sonya Blade, Raiden, Liu Kang and Scorpion. |
What made the game different from
the other prominent fighting game at the time, Street
Fighter, was the fact that
instead of using animated character sprites, they used motion capture to place
actual actors into the game. That, and the fact that the game was the goriest
at the time-- from the amount of blood spilled during combat to the fatal
finishing moves dubbed “Fatalities” (although, compared to the characters the
gore seemed a bit cartoony at times). The brutality shown in the game led to
several controversies and public outrage, ultimately resulting in the creation
of the Electronics Software Ratings
Board which provides age ratings for all video game releases.
The game was a hit, and spawned two
sequels: Mortal Kombat II in 1993 and Mortal Kombat 3 in 1995, which was later updated and re-released as Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3; all of which were eventually ported
to home systems. Midway produced a series
of comics tying into the official story of the arcade games, while Malibu Comics secured
the license and published several
series between 1994 and 1995. Hasbro
also produced a line of action figures
in the same style as their G.I. Joe line (in fact reusing some of those molds). In 1995, the
popularity of the games reached the notice of Hollywood and a movie deal was
struck.
Mortal Kombat was directed by Paul W.S. Anderson from a script
by Kevin Droney and produced
by Threshold Entertainment
for New
Line Cinema. It followed the basic plot of the first game (while adding
bits from the first sequel), where chosen warrior and former Shaolin monk Liu
Kang (Robin Shou), action
star Johnny Cage
(Linden Ashby) and Special
Forces officer Sonya Blade (Bridgette
Wilson) end up on a ship bound for an island to engage in sorcerer Shang
Tsung’s (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa)
Mortal Kombat tournament. As it was the 10th tournament, if Tsung’s
forces won the dimension known as Outworld would lay claim to Earth under the
rule of its despotic emperor, Shao Kahn (Frank
Welker). Overseeing and guiding Earth’s champions was Raiden (Christopher Lambert), the god of
thunder and Earthrealm’s protector. Opening in August, the film spent three
weeks at number one and earned $122 million worldwide. Several months prior,
Threshold released a direct-to-video animated prequel called The Journey Begins, also
written by Droney, which offered background on the film’s main characters and
featured a 15-minute documentary about the movie. It was released to VHS and
Laserdisc by Turner
Home Entertainment and featured the characters in their MK2 outfits.
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| The Defenders of the Realm in their secret base. |
Based on the film’s success, Threshold and New Line Television
commissioned Film Roman Productions to
create an animated series set in the movie’s continuity, although it also
incorporated elements from both versions of MK3.
The series focused on Raiden (Clancy Brown) assembling a group of warriors to
defend Earthrealm from invaders that entered through portals from other
dimensions. They would detect the openings in their hidden base and fly out in
dragon-shaped jets to kombat the threats.
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| Nightwolf, Liu Kang, Sub-Zero, Kitana, Jax and Sonya. |
Carried over from the movie were main characters Liu Kang (Brian Tochi)
and Sonya Blade (Olivia d’Abo), as well as Blade’s partner Jax (Dorian
Harewood), who had bionic arms; Lin Kuei ninja Sub-Zero
(Luke Perry), who possessed ice powers; and Kitana (Cree Summer), long-lived
princess of Outworld who used deadly Japanese war fans. Joining them from MK3 was Stryker (Ron Perlman), leader of
an NYPD Special
Riot Control division, and Nightwolf (Todd Thawley), a Native American shaman
and historian who could tap into spiritual energy. Nightwolf, although
occasionally joining in battles, served as the team’s tech support. All of the
characters’ designs were taken from the MK3
games, except for Kitana who featured elements of her MK2 outfit.
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| Shao Khan towers over Shang Tsung. |
Shao Khan (John Vernon) remained the
primary antagonist, allowing the other realms to invade Earthrealm while only
actually appearing in four episodes. Other Kombatants made appearances
throughout the show’s run, including the undead warrior Scorpion (Perlman);
Kitana’s ex-fiancé Rain (Rino Romano) who served the
Emperor; Sub-Zero’s fellow ninja and friend, Smoke (Jeremy Ratchford); Lin Kuei
cyborgs Cyrax and Sektor
(Harewood); Sonya’s arch-nemesis Kano (Michael Des Barres); and the four-armed
Sheeva (Dawnn Lewis). Film
villain and first game boss Shang Tsung (Neil Ross) also made several
appearances. The series was notable for being the debut of sorcerer Quan Chi (Nick Chinlund) who went on to
become the villain in Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat 4 in
1997.
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| Rain hasn't learned that "no" means "no." |
Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the
Realm debuted on September 21st as part of USA Network’s Action Extreme Team programming
block. It was developed and primarily written by Sean Catherine Derek, with
additional scripts from Steve
Granat, Cydne Clark and Mark Hoffmeier. The music was composed
by Jonathan Sloate. Some
episodes were inspired by the games, but largely the series treaded its own
path with original stories and content. Because of its being a Saturday morning
cartoon, the violence was significantly toned down from the source material and
the gore none-existent. Although some deaths were shown in episodes, their
depictions were made as light as possible. As a result, the series was widely
panned by both critics and fans of the games, feeling that neutering the very
thing that made MK a success was a
recipe for disaster. The series only lasted a single season of 13 episodes
before it was quickly cancelled.
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| Shao Khan with the Orb of Power. |
As with the other entries in the Extreme Team—Wing Commander Academy, Savage Dragon, and Street Fighter—Mortal Kombat took part in “The Warrior King” crossover event on November 16. Developed by Will Meugniot, the titular barbarian (Michael Dorn) crossed between dimensions to find and acquire the Orb of Power, which could control the weather of any planet. While The Warrior King was seen in all four shows (albeit in an unspeaking silhouette cameo here), their respective characters didn’t cross over. It was coordinated so that each episode would air on the same day, resulting in each series being shown outside of their regular timeslots. However, the event received little to no promotion, and outside of the rearranged schedule there was no indication that there was anything special about that day.
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| One of the DVD covers. |
In the United States, several episodes only saw individual release on VHS.
All but one episode was released across three volumes in the United Kingdom
while Australia saw all episodes across six volumes. The complete series was
released on DVD in
Russia and Brazil, each containing a language track specific to that country.
Defenders of the Realm would
become the franchise’s last attempt at a cartoon. In 1997, MK returned to theaters with the widely-panned Annihilation, followed
by a new short-lived live-action series called Konquest. The next
time MK would be successfully adapted
into a program would be in the 2010 web-series Legacy, which so far
had two short seasons. In the meantime, new entries in the franchise continued
to be produced for arcades and later for home systems. The franchise, whose
popularity became diluted through the introduction of clones and even more
violent games trying to emulate its violence and gain its audience, got a
much-needed reinvigoration when Midway was purchased by Warner
Bros. Interactive and 2011’s Mortal Kombat was
released.
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