Street Fighter Film Uses Hand-Drawn Animated Flashbacks

The upcoming Street Fighter film will use hand-drawn 2D animation for flashbacks about the histories of rivals Ryu and Ken, director Kitao Sakurai said. The film also opens with an animated sequence, according to Sakurai. The animation offers a different approach to depicting the characters’ pasts within a live-action feature. Sakurai said the flashbacks explore the emotional experiences that shaped Ryu and Ken, including their training under their teacher, Master Gouken. The film is set in 1993, according to the material released about the production. Sakurai said the creative team considered how to portray the characters when they were younger and decided that traditional animation better suited the film’s tone. He described the choice as a way to draw on the Street Fighter franchise’s connection to anime and its history of animated adaptations. The Los Angeles-based animation studio Titmouse worked on the sequences. Sakurai said every frame in the animated portions was drawn by hand. The opening sequence recounts the first World Warrior tournament and the history of rivalries in the game’s story, according to the director.