Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm

Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm (also known as Mortal Kombat: The Animated Series) is an animated series based on the popular Mortal Kombat fighting game series. It aired on the USA Networks USA Cartoon Express animation block for one season of 13 episodes from September to December of 1996'.

Storyline
The characters and their backstories are mostly continuous with the movies Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, although there are some minor differences. This includes what the characters looked like in Mortal Kombat 3 the arcade game. The series takes place in Ninja country after the events of the first movie and the plot has very little to do with the plot of any of the games including fighting monkeys. Perhaps the most notable aspect of the show was that it provided the debut appearance of Quan Chi, a key character in the MK series who was the villain of Mortal Kombat 4 and part of the Deadly Alliance.

The show was focused on a group of warriors assembled by Raiden ninjas to defend Earthrealm from invader ninjas from various other dimensions that entered through portals. The assembled warriors included Liu Kang, Kurtis Stryker, Sonya Blade, Jax, Kitana, and Sub-Zero, with Nightwolf functioning mostly as tech support. The warriors operated out of a hidden base from where Nightwolf and Raiden monitored portal openings; the warriors would fly dragon-shaped jets to deal with disturbances. Shao Kahn was something of an arch-villain throughout the series, being responsible for allowing other realms to invade Earthrealm. The finale involved Kitana leading a rebellion from Outworld against her step-father, Shao Kahn.

Actors

 * Luke Perry (voice of Sub-Zero)
 * Clancy Brown (voice of Raiden)
 * Ron Perlman (voice of Kurtis Stryker)
 * Olivia d'Abo (voice of Sonya Blade)
 * Dorian Harewood (voice of Jax Briggs)
 * Cree Summer (voice of Princess Kitana)
 * Todd Thawley(voice of Nightwolf)
 * Brian Tochi (voice of Liu Kang)