Remember that one day when you could wake up without an alarm? When you would get your favorite bowl of cereal and sit between the hours of 8 and 12? This is a blog dedicated to the greatest time of our childhood: Saturday mornings. The television programs you watched, the memories attached to them, and maybe introducing you to something you didn't realize existed. Updated every weekend.
In 1992, Mortal
Kombatushered in the age of mature gaming.
Mortal Kombat ad.
Originally intended
as an adaptation of Universal Soldierstarring 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 a generational tournament that had to be fought
to prevent our world from being invaded by sinister forces from another called Outworld (which,
through revisions and retcons, has expanded its lore significantly). 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 Kombatwas
born.
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 filmed and digitized actors
in the characters’ costumes. 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 realistic 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.
Regardless of the
naysayers, the game was a hit and spawned two sequels: Mortal Kombat IIin
1993 and Mortal Kombat 3in 1995, later updated and re-released as Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, and 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 of their own between 1994 and 1995. Hasbro
also produced a line of action figures
in the same style as their G.I. Joeline (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 second), 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 on behalf of the Realm of Earth. 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.
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.
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, while Kitana’s featured elements of her MK2 outfit.
Mortal Kombat:
Defenders of the Realm
debuted on September 21st as part of USA Network’s Action Extreme Teamprogramming
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 cartoon geared
towards kids, the violence was significantly toned down from the source
material and the gore nonexistent—although, there were some very light deaths
in some episodes. 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.
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.
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. 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, renamed Netherrealm
Studios (after one
of the realms in the franchise), and Mortal Kombatwas
released in 2011 as a soft reboot.
EPISODE GUIDE:
“Kombat Begins Again” (9/21/96) – The warriors face a pack of invading
cybernetic units while Sub-Zero tries to warn them of a threat from Scorpion.
“Sting of the Scoprion” (9/28/96) – Scorpion amasses a legion of
undead warriors and travels to the Outworld with the intent of resurrecting
Shang Tsung.
“Acid Tongue” (10/5/96) – The Reptile-led Raptors attack, resulting in
Jax’s arms being damaged. Sonya attempts to help repair them while the others
deal with Sheeva’s Shokan warriors.
“Skin Deep” (10/12/96) – Kitana’s ex-fiance Rain returns to warn of
Shao Kahn seeking a powerful scimitar, but he turns out to be a traitor and
kidnaps Kitana.
“Old Friends Never Die” (10/19/96) – Sub-Zero reunites with his friend
Smoke to find out if his friend still exists or if he was turned into a
soulless killing machine by Oniro.
“Familiar Red” (10/26/96) – Kano and the Black Dragon gang open false
portals all over, making Nightwolf’s detection system unreliable and forcing
him to rely on the magic within.
“Fall From Grace” (11/2/96) – Sonya’s overconfidence results in
Stryker being wounded, and the consideration of suspending her from the team
due to her inability to use teamwork.
“The Secret of Quan-Chi” (11/9/96) – Quan Chi uses a magic crystal to
turn the warriors against each other, leaving Nightwolf alone to stop Quan Chi
from conquering the world.
“Resurrection” (11/16/96) – Shao Khan resurrects Shang Tsung and gives
him a sphere that controls the elements, allowing him to severely weaken Raiden
and trap the warriors.
“Sword of Ilkan” (11/23/96) – Kitana’s old enemy Zara returns, holding
Jax hostage in order to force Kitana and Sonya to retrieve the other sword of
Ilkan for her.
“Amends” (11/30/96) – Former Black Dragon Kabal returns to aid the
warriors in defeating Kano and the Black Dragons’ latest scheme.
“Abandoned” (12/7/96) – Jax attempts to retire from the constant
fighting, but is entangled in Shao Khan’s latest attempt to discover the
warriors’ base.
“Overthrown” (12/14/96) – The warriors prepare for a final
confrontation with Shao Khan, but the battle is fought from all sides thanks to
old rivalries and subterfuge.
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