I remembered some time ago when I actually wrote about why Motaro was reduced to just a cameo in Mortal Kombat (2011). Mortal Kombat 11 would probably explain why Motaro was reduced to The Unfought. This is interesting detail regarding the Kollector character:
Mortal Kombat 11's beautiful graphics can be attributed to the hard work stuntmen put into them behind the scenes through motion capture technology. Since most of the roster's body types are similar (using scales like medium male, large male, medium female, large female), it's easy for one acrobat to capture multiple characters.
However, since the Kollector has four arms, they needed two acrobats standing in close proximity to one another to pull off correctly. Ed Boon recounted the headache and hilarity which ensued in the studio, contemplating whether or not the inconvenience justifies the character's ultimately negligible role in the story.
With this in mind, it would really show how motion capture was used also with the Shokan characters. Shokans are four-armed characters with two legs. I wonder if it's just a bad decision if ever Netherrealm Studios would blend in sprites and motion capture in the game. Back then, Mortal Kombat did use some digitized sprites and stop-motion for some of the boss characters. I speculate that motion capture is more heavily used due to how fluid the dynamics can be. It would be too awkward if stop motion was still used for the bosses.
That may be the reason why Goro was just made a bonus character in Mortal Kombat X. I really wanted Goro to be in the story mode. Instead, he was reduced to a fanservice bonus. Now, I'd like to share a tidbit that may give Netherrealm Studios a better justification to exclude Motaro as an NPC. The Disney movie, Narnia, did also have its Centaurs too. They did share their difficulty of why Centaurs are anything but easy to do:
Several weeks prior to this meeting, I conducted a survey of centaurs that had appeared in past films. Examples in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Fantasia and several others were reviewed with Andrew to see what we liked and disliked from past attempts. Two things became obvious: 1) centaurs look silly when their arms have nothing to do; and 2) it is imperative that the upper half drives the actions of the lower. The first is easily solved by always giving them a shield or a sword to hold. The second will be the key issue to solve from a motion capture standpoint, since our expected plan is to capture the upper and lower halves separately. We can capture a horse, and we can capture a human, but the trick will be to make these separate captures feel like they come from one creature.
I think Netherrealm could've just given Motaro immunity to x-rays and projectiles. I think another reason why Motaro was justly left out (and I'm glad) is because of the constraints that Disney had with Narnia. I guess Netherrealm didn't want to bother trying to figure out how to make the separate captures for just one creature. I even wonder if Netherrealm already brought the horse for Motaro? If so, there's the possibility that they did film Motaro after all. Then again, what if they saw it all not qualified to be made into the final game?
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