Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (also known as Power Rangers: The Movie) is a 1995 American superhero film based on the television series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. The film stars the regular television cast of Karan Ashley, Johnny Yong Bosch, Steve Cardenas, Jason David Frank, Amy Jo Johnson, and David Yost. The allies and villains are Australian and English actors. It was produced by Saban Entertainment and Toei Company. Filming took place in both Sydney and Queensland, Australia and the film was released by 20th Century Fox on June 30, 1995. Much like the television season that followed the release, the film used concepts from the Japanese Super Sentai Series Ninja Sentai Kakuranger.

Despite a mixed reaction by critics, the film went on to receive a cult following thanks to the popularity of the TV series. It also grossed $38,187,431 theatrically in the U.S. and $66,433,194 worldwide, making it a financial success.^[2]

Plot

The Power Rangers: Rocky, Adam, Billy, Aisha, Kimberly and Tommy, participate with Bulk and Skull in a charity sky dive for the Angel Grove observatory, in anticipation of Ryan's Comet which will pass by in two days. Having waited too long, Bulk and Skull accidentally land in a construction site. They avoid getting into trouble before a giant egg is unearthed from a chamber underground. The evil energy alerts Zordon; an interdimensional wizard and leader of the Power Rangers, who warns them of Ivan Ooze; a morphological being bent on the conquest of Earth, and he sends them to return the egg to its chamber, unaware that Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa have already freed him and ordered him to destroy Zordon. Ivan leaves the Rangers to face his oozelings while he lays siege to their Command Center; incapacitating Zordon and destroying it. Meanwhile, the Rangers have morphed and manage to dispatch the oozelings before suddenly losing all power. Making their way to the Command Center, they see it destroyed and Zordon outside of his time warp, now dying from rapid aging.

Zordon's robotic assistant Alpha 5 sends the Rangers to the planet Phaedos, in hopes of restoring their lost power, while Ooze usurps Rita and Zedd and traps them in a snowglobe. To avoid the same fate, their minions Goldar and Mordant agree to serve him. Ooze sends a squadron of bird-like Tengu warriors to Phaedos while he hatches a plan to unearth his Ectomorphicon Titans; massive vehicles he had constructed for his conquest that were buried near his chamber. He puts his ooze into mass production and Disguising himself as a carnival wizard, he gives out free jars of ooze to the city's children, including the Rangers' friend, Fred Kelman. When the parents come in contact with the ooze, they're hypnotized by it, and they become a work force for Ivan. When Fred discovers his own father missing, he finds him and the other parents at the construction site and discovers Ivan's plans. Meanwhile, the Rangers arrive on Phaedos and are almost killed By the Tengu until they are rescued by the planet's master warrior; Dulcea, who initially tells them to go back home. But when she hears of Zordon's plight, she agrees to help them and takes them to a ruined temple. Once there she gives them the power of the Ninjetti, showing the Rangers their animal spirits; Aisha is the bear, Billy is the wolf, Rocky is the ape, Kimberly is the crane and Tommy is the falcon. Adam is briefly disappointed in his spirit being the frog but Dulcea cheers him up. She shows them where the monolith housing the Great Power resides, but tells them that their journey has to be without her because if she went beyond the temple, she would age as rapidly as Zordon. As the Rangers quest through the jungle, they encounter an animate dinosaur-like skeleton which Tommy defeats before they find their way to the temple. Working together, they defeat the four guardians and unlock the great power; containing their own animal spirits, and their powers are restored.

On Earth, construction is completed on the machines and Ooze orders the parents to return to the dig site and leap to their dooms. Fred rushes to the rest of the kids and Bulk and Skull, celebrating at Ernie's and tells them of the situation, together they board the City's monorail and head to the construction site to save their parents. The Rangers return to Earth and call on their new zords. They defeat one of the titans, which enrages Ivan, who combines himself with the other machine. The Rangers form the Ninja Megazord while Tommy saves the monorail, whose track was damaged By Ivan. Outmatched, the Ninja Megazord is damaged; Tommy combines his zord, creating the Ninja Falcon Megazord to fight Ivan. Billy plots a course to outer space intending to lead Ivan into Ryan's comet. Ooze pins them down, but Aisha causes him to lose his grip and they fly out of the path of destruction. Back on Earth, Ivan's destruction breaks his spell on the parents who come to their senses as their kids and Bulk and Skull keep them from stepping over the cliff and Fred reunites with his dad. Returning to the Command Center, the Rangers learn to their sadness that Zordon has died. Using what they learned; that all things are possible, the teens use their new powers to restore the Command Center and resurrect Zordon, reuniting them with their mentor.

During the following fireworks celebration, the Rangers congratulate Fred for his courage. When a message thanking the Power Rangers is lit, Bulk and Skull are offended, though the two of them legitimately had a very large part in saving lives. In a mid-credits scene Goldar sits on Zedd's throne calling himself "King Goldar, the ruler of the universe" before Zedd and Rita enter, growling at their turncoat behavior. Goldar and Mordant look at each other and nervously proclaim "Uh-oh!" before the screen goes dark.

Cast

• Jason David Frank as Tommy Oliver, The White Ranger
• Amy Jo Johnson as Kimberly Hart, The Pink Ranger
• David Yost as Billy Cranston, The Blue Ranger
• Steve Cardenas as Rocky DeSantos, The Red Ranger
• Karan Ashley as Aisha Campbell, The Yellow Ranger
• Johnny Yong Bosch as Adam Park, The Black Ranger
• Paul Schrier as Farkas "Bulk" Bulkmeier
• Jason Narvy as Eugene "Skull" Skullovitch
• Paul Freeman as Ivan Ooze^[3]
• Gabrielle Fitzpatrick as Dulcea
• Nicholas Bell as Zordon
• Peta-Maree Rixon as Alpha 5
• Jean Paul Bell as Mordant
• Kerry Casey as Goldar
• Mark Ginther as Lord Zedd
• Julia Cortez as Rita Repulsa
• Jamie Croft as Fred Kelman
• Paul Goddard and Robert Simper as Construction Workers
• Kerrigan Mahan as Goldar's voice
• Robert L. Manahan as Zordon's voice
• Robert Axelrod as Zedd's voice
• Barbara Goodson as Rita's voice
• Richard Wood as Alpha 5's voice

Music

Adaptations in other media

• Five different video game titles based on the movie were released for the Super NES, Sega Genesis, Game Boy, Sega CD and Game Gear.
• Marvel Comics released a comic book adaptation and a photo comic book adaptation of the movie which was dated September 1995. The comic book was printed with two different covers — one featuring fully morphed rangers and the other featuring them in their Ninjetti uniforms.

Release

In its opening weekend, the film came in fourth with $13,104,788 behind Apollo 13 and holdovers Pocahontas and Batman Forever.^[4] The film ultimately grossed $66,433,194 against a $15 million budget, making it a financial success.^[2]

Critical reception

The film holds a 50% "Rotten" rating on the review aggregator website on Rotten Tomatoes based on 22 reviews, though there is no summarized consensus given for the film.^[5] Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times thought the film was characterized by "a barrage of spectacular special effects, a slew of fantastic monsters, a ferociously funny villain — and, most important, a refreshing lack of pretentiousness". Thomas lauded director Bryan Spicer for raising the quality of production values for a feature film adaptation of the TV series, while maintaining a likeable "comic-book look and sense of wonder" and wholesome high school characters parents would approve of.^[6] Caryn James of The New York Times thought that storywise, the film resembles multiple episodes of the television series stringed together with slightly better special effects, and that the result was loud, headache-inducing and boring for adults, but that children would enjoy it. James further stated that too much of the film's running time is spent showing the heroes without their powers.^[7] Roger Ebert gave the film a very low half a star out of a possible four stars, saying that the film is "as close as you can get to absolute nothing and still have a product to project on the screen" comparing it to synthetic foods in brightly marketed packaging with no nutritional content. Ebert felt that the characters (with the exception of Ivan Ooze) lacked personalities, and that the scenes of monsters rampaging through the city hearkened back to the worst Japanese monster films.^[8] Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle found the fights "only adequately choreographed", called the battle in the climax "a complete disaster", stating that it made no sense in timing, that protagonists were not very intelligent, and the actors playing them unremarkable.^[9]

Home media

The film was released on VHS and LaserDisc in late 1995, and then on DVD in 2003 by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. Bonus features included a theatrical trailer and a "Making Of" featurette. The film is sometimes bundled with Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie as a double feature.

For reasons not specified, DVD releases of the film, as well as many airings on television and video-streaming sites, present the film with a small title change, omitting the "Mighty Morphin" portion of the title in the opening credits and changing it to simply "Power Rangers: The Movie."

The DVD (as well as 1997's Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie) was re-released with different packaging in 2011.

References

External links

• Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie at the Internet Movie Database