Special thanks to RetroJunk user Forgotten sin for the pictures used in the article.
Mortal Kombat: The Journey Begins (1994)
Directed by: Joesph Francis
Starring: Jeff Glen Bennet, Jennifer Hale, Jim Cummings, Ron Feinberg, Randy Hamilton
Rated PG for Pretty Gay.
Before the adekuate Mortal Kombat film in 1995, before the cheap-ass sekuel Mortal Kombat: Annihilation made two years later, there was...something else. A prophecy, if you will, from the same year as the first one that was kreated to forewarn us of what was to kome our way later in the year. This obskure gem was known as the dreaded MK: The Journey Begins which is more of a kurse rather than a prekuel.
'Freeze, asshole! Cool World Police, poorly drawn department!'
I mean it. This piece of animated shit makes Mortal Kombat II look like the Prince Of Persia movie. I don't even NEED to review this movie. You kan just look at some of these piktures and you kan pretty much judge for yourself how bad this kartoon really is. And if you ever read the deskription of this kartoon on Wikipedia before watching it, it actually sounds pretty kool:
Mortal Kombat: The Journey Begins is an animated film that was released by Threshold Entertainment in 1995 as a tie-in to the feature film that debuted the same year, and featured not only 2D cel animation, but also motion capture and CGI to tell the origins behind all of the first game's main characters.
Now that's sounds like a kick-ass film! Kombining hand-drawn animation with CGI and motion kapture sounds aktually interesting, but once I saw it, it was, well....let's find out.
'If this is the Titanic I'm on, I don't wanna see no rapping dog.'
WHAT'S THE FILM ABOUT?
A 54-minute prekuel that first starts off with one of the first scenes of the first movie renakted in animation, then our heroes are told by Raiden (sadly not played by Christopher Lamber) the bakstory of the main villians of the first movie.
WHAT'S GOOD ABOUT IT?
Jim Cummings, one of my favorite voice aktors, plays Shang Tsung, the main villian. Cummings is well known for voice-over roles such as Darkwing Duck, and Dr. Robotnik from Sonic SATAM. He has the perfect quality for playing the bad guy in most kartoons, ranging from the big bad brute to the kold-hearted plotter. His performance as Shang Tsung is the only good thing about this krap.
Boy, talk about the cold shoulder.
WHAT'S BAD ABOUT IT?
Everything else.
All of the animation tekniques used here are all awful. The hand-drawn animation looks jerky and sloppy, much like Titanic: The Animated Movie. In fakt, you kan look at a picture from this movie and the Titanic cartoon and it looks like they were made by the same people.
As for the CGI, that's only used as bakgrounds and the motion-kapture. While the CGI bakgrounds aren't much to bitch about, the motion-kapture is just atrocious. It looks blocky, and to be honest, unfinished.
Sonya Blade's new brutality attack: UNNECESSARY CLOSE-UP!!!
It's like I'm watching the making of this movie and this pikture is just what it looks like before addtional shading are put on. This teknique is used mostly for flashbacks and fight scenes, and as you would've guessed, the fighting just plain sucks. It's slow and kinda awkward.
Another thing about that's awful about this film is that's it's 100% BORING. It's just Raiden giving bakstory to our heroes while their walking and talking. Walking and talking, walking and talking, walking and talking. It's like the most boring museum tour you've ever been on.
To be fair, this prekuel might've worked a bit better as a short komic book. There's just not enough substance for a 60-minute-or-less kartoon. Just 5 pages of this nonsense would've been less torturing, and if that doesn't work, you kan always burn it in the fire.
'YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE!'
Boy, windy day today.
Dude, is that orange guy wearing a cap? What is he, Steven Spielberg on steroids?
Oh no! Not another crash dummy!
BOTTOM LINE:
This kartoon just sucks. Poor animation in all departments, little-to-no substance in terms of story, and it's just boring. But on the bright side, it was short and didn't take up much of my time and chances are I'll forget about it in the future. Still, avoid it at all kosts.
OVERALL SKORE:
0.5/5
See ya!
Coming up next: 'AAALLLLLVVVIIINNN!!!!!'

I remember buying this VHS when a local rental store was shutting down. At the time, I thought this movie was awesome, watched it many times. I also really like the first live action movie a lot and I take it seriously.

that orange dude looked like steven seagal lol

it even had behind the scenes of the mk movie

I can't remember in which channel I happened to watch this turd one off Sunday morning back in the day. But,damn,the CGI here would've looked bad in 1985. Not one of Jennifer 'Cortana' Hale's career heights...

Some features of the 90's need to stay where they belong. Using the word gay to describe something we all hate is one of those things. Other than that, fun article.

Man, this looks even worse than 'MK: Defenders of the Realm'...And I spent 1.50 for the complete series and I still think it wasn't worth it

Thanks for the credit on my pics this time. Good article.

Dear god that CGI looks horrible. The handdrawn stuff doesn't look much better. Hopefully art schools use this movie as a 'What Not To Do' for aspiring young cartoon makers.

When I first saw your article I though it was about this behind-the-scenes TV special showing the making of MK I-III (the video games)that I caught one Sunday morning way back when. But this...this is much worse.

i remember seeing this playing at one of my visits to the waiting room at a dentist office a very long time ago. at least half of the kids in there were watching it, but i was more attached to my sister's gameboy. another great review, i'll have to take a look at this black sheep of a movie. and sonya has a man-jaw in that third pic D:

so it was a prequel to the live action movie, but the characters look nothing like the actors or their costumes and all look like their game counterparts? yeah that makes sense. lol
but yes kudos on the use of 'k' everywhere, très funny.

This article is hilarious and smart. I like the captions under the pictures they are funny. This thing is crap!!

Wow!! I actually had this VHS when I was a child!! I was such a huge MK fan (anything martial arts) & was so excited when my uncle brought me this. Couldn't wait to pop it in and watch, just to cut it off half way through disappointed. Never could watch the rest of it, this couldn't entertain an 11 yr old super fan that even collected the comic books, toys, trading cards, costumes, & every game on every system!!SMH

I like how you replaced all th c's with k's just like they did with the title of the game.