My favourite animated project for Mortal Kombat, even topping the Legends movies. The defenders are made up of Raiden, Liu Kang, Kitana, Jax, Sonya, Stryker, Nightwolf and Sub Zero. Kitana and Liu Kangs flirting and relationship is so much fun to watch. Kitana also has the best outfit ever on and the voice actor for her does a great job. Towards the end Kitana sort of becomes the main character and it's awesome to see.

Turning one of gaming's most violently controversial franchises into a sanitized Saturday morning cartoon just to sell toys was a wild business move that completely ruined the series' core identity. The animated series stripped away the dark, mystical arcade vibe of ancient monks, ninjas, and magic, replacing it with a cheap G. I. Joe knockoff featuring a militarized tactical team, secret bases, and bizarre dragon-shaped jets. The network censorship was brutal-trading bone-crushing fatalities for colorful lasers and gentle shoves, which totally killed the dramatic weight of the fights. To make matters worse, the animation was incredibly cheap and robotic, constantly recycling the exact same punch sequences over empty backgrounds and using hollow, generic sound effects instead of the heavy impacts the games were known for. Even the iconic movie techno theme lost its charm because the creators exhaustively overplayed it for every minor scuffle. The lazy "monster-of-the-week" formula meant there were zero real stakes, with world-ending threats like Shao Kahn being swatted away way too easily before the commercial break. But the writing and character assassinations are honestly harder to watch than the censored action. They inexplicably removed Johnny Cage-the group's natural comedic relief-and tried to compensate by forcing cringe-worthy humor onto everyone else. Sonya Blade was turned into a whiny, immature adult burdened with screaming the awful catchphrase "Kombat Time!" before every fight. Jax went from a serious military major to a failed stand-up comic making fat jokes and literally calling Raiden "girlfriend." Raiden himself comes off like a tired camp counselor failing to relate to the youth. Nightwolf bizarrely became the team's IT guy instead of Stryker, and legendary ninjas like Sub-Zero and Scorpion were reduced to cheesy, sarcastic teenagers or generic, one-off henchmen. Even the champion, Liu Kang, acts like a goofy kid dropping terrible puns just to fit in. Ultimately, the show is just a lazy, repetitive cash grab that completely disrespects the dark universe 90s kids grew up loving in the arcades. Still, if you're a fan of the franchise, it's honestly worth watching an episode or two just to laugh at the sheer absurdity of it all. Just lower your expectations, get ready for that endless techno loop, and enjoy this weird, terrible 90s time capsule.