Kimberly Ann Hart


 * For the movie version of this character, see Kimberly Hart (movie)

"Morphenomenal!"

- Kimberly

Kimberly Ann Hart was the Pink Mighty Morphin' Power Ranger and the first Pink Ninja Ranger.

Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers


Kimberly was one of the original five Power Rangers chosen by Zordon when Rita Repulsa attacked Earth following her release from containment. Her four teammates were coincidently her closest friends; Jason Lee Scott, Zack Taylor, Billy Cranston and Trini Kwan. Kimberly received the Pteradactyl Power Coin and the Pterodactyl Dinozord, thus becoming the Pink Mighty Morphin' Power Ranger. She was a capable gymnast and would later show that she also has some musical and artistic talent.

Kimberly starts the series as a typical valley girl, but with a heightened awareness for her friends. Throughout the series, she is the member of the team most likely to fire off a sarcastic or witty retort. Though as MMPR progresses, she becomes a more friendly and kind hearted person.

Skull, one of the local bullies, had a crush on her until she became involved with Tommy Oliver. However in Season 3, it is shown that Skull still had some lingering feelings for Kimberly when she was placed under a spell that made her—albeit briefly—reject Tommy.

Lord Zedd once wanted Kimberly to be his queen before marrying Rita, and ordered Goldar to capture and train her into being his queen, but the magic dust didn't work and she retained her memories as a Ranger; she then did a Rita impression to fool her captors and give Billy and Trini enough time to rescue her from her "training".

All the members of the team possessed unique fighting styles. She used a blend of gymnastic maneuvers followed by punches, elbows and kicks. She often used the environment around her as a springboard for her attacks. Kimberly was often called upon to finish off monsters with physically visible weaknesses such as the Terror Toad's second mouth once he had been weakened by losing his horn and the Snizzard’s golden apple on top of its head.

Midway through Season 3, Amy Jo Johnson requested that Kimberly was written off the show. The character was accommodated with a 10-episode story arc focused on Kimberly, leading up to her departure. Kimberly was replaced by Katherine Hillard. The veteran Ranger was targeted for elimination when Katherine (aka "Kat"), under Rita's spell, stole her power coin, granting her access to the Ninjazords. The coin being in the hands of evil also served to drain Kimberly of her life force as the Ninja Powers were linked directly to the life of the Ranger, unlike the Dinosaur-based power set. To take advantage of this, Rita launched a campaign to keep Kim overexerted in battle, knowing that, at the same time, she was focusing all of her personal time to gymnastics training for the Pan Global Glames. Her coach, the famous Gunthar Schmidt, grew increasingly impatient with Kimberly's apparent lack of dedication to her training. On one occasion, Kimberly trained late at Ernie's Gym and Juice Bar after hours and, depleted, she fell from atop the balance beam. She is discovered unconscious on the floor by Katherine which overrides the evil spell she is under. Katherine calls '911' and Kimberly is hospitalized. She recovered, but almost abandoned her gymnastics training after that, until she is encouraged to go back to it. In a turn of events, Katherine took a dramatic approach to inspiring Kimberly to pursue gymnastics again by revealing to Kimberly a scrapbook of her own athletic achievements in the sport of high diving. After hitting her head on the board, she gave up on the sport, just short of her entrance into the Olympics. Katherine lured Kimberly to a local pool where she arrived just in time to see Katherine perform a fearful, yet expert high dive for her first time in years. This, and Zordon's declaration that her recruitment as a Ranger is over, prompts Kimberly to leave in order to train full-time with Gunthar Schmidt for the Pan Global Games in Florida.

Tommy was Kimberly's boyfriend and the two shared many dates and tender moments. Unfortunately, in the subsequent series Power Rangers Zeo, Kimberly breaks up with Tommy via a "Dear John," letter because she finds someone in Florida. The letter breaks Tommy's heart and leads him into a relationship with her replacement, Katherine, who was secretly in love with Tommy while she was under Rita's spell.

Turbo
Kimberly returned briefly during Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie, when she and Jason are captured by the evil pirate queen Divatox while scuba diving, Kimberly and Jason were subsequently trapped on Divatox's ship and were to be sacrificed to Divatox's fiancee Maligore, the flame of evil. Jason originally tried to escape the bilge with Kimberly, as well as their neighboring cellmates Bulk and Skull, but when her turn came to leave the ship, her shirt was stuck on one of the bolts. Despite losing some air trying to get loose, Jason helped get her unstuck and Kimberly was able to escape, though Jason would be trapped inside shortly after when Divatox discovered the flooding from the bilge. Kimberly reached the island of Muiranthias and lay exhausted on the beach from her recent escape. When she regained consciousness, she was found by the Malachians and she was quickly tied with rope to a wooden slab. The Malachians took the captured Kimberly to Maligore's temple, where she discovered Divatox, her forces and her captives had already made it there.

When the time of the sacrifice came near, Jason and Kimberly were tied together and their wrists chained to a rope that would lower them into the volcano. Before they could be lowered in, the Turbo Rangers arrived and they worked hard to prevent them from being lowered into the volcano. Despite the Rangers' best efforts to save their friends, Jason and Kimberly were ultimately lowered into the volcano by Rygog, much to the pleasure of Divatox. With the sacrifice complete, Kimberly and Jason reappeared in a burst of flames onto the volcano's edge, both under the control of Maligore and with their eyes glowing red. After snapping their handcuffs with their bare hands, the two evil ex-Rangers followed Divatox's command to destroy the intruders and they began to assault the Rangers. After briefly fighting off the Green and Yellow Turbo Rangers, Kimberly set her sights on the Pink Turbo Ranger and, despite Kat's pleas to fight the evil inside her, Kim started to attack her Pink Ranger successor. Tommy was deeply troubled by this and he intervened, even taking off his helmet in an attempt to get Kimberly to remember him. However, when Kat said they were her friends, Kimberly merely laughed remarking that she had no friends and she watched on as Tommy was attacked by Jason. While Jason began attacking Tommy, Kimberly told Kat that "pink is out" and she knocked the Pink Turbo Ranger back with a kick to the stomach.

After kicking away the Yellow Turbo Ranger during a short struggle, Kimberly saw that Jason had finally overpowered Tommy and had him held by the throat at the edge of the volcanic pit. Kimberly watched with great pleasure, urging him to throw Tommy into the pit. However, Lerigot and Lara were watching nearby and after noticing Kimberly encouraging Jason to throw Tommy "into the fire", the Liarians used their magic on Kimberly and her eyes returned to their normal color as she was cured of the evil spell. After Tommy, in an attempt to save himself, inadvertently caused Jason to fall over the edge, Kimberly ran to Tommy's side to help Jason back out of the flames, reaffirming her affiliation with Tommy and the forces of good.

After helping move the Liarians out of harm's way, Kimberly was chased away by some Piranhatrons and fought with them. After punching one Piranhatron away, Kimberly was grabbed by her arms from behind by another and she struggled to get free. She was quickly found by Jason, who had been cured of his own evil spell a few moments before, and he pulled the Piranhatron off of Kimberly before defeating the Piranhatron with a kick. Having fought off the Piranhatrons, Kimberly and Jason helped the Liarians out of the volcano and, after the Turbo Megazord had destroyed Maligore, the Rangers helped them aboard the Turbo Megazord's cockpit to leave Muiranthias. Later, Kimberly was seated next to Ernie among the spectators of the Martial Arts Competition in the film's finale. After Tommy, Adam and Jason won the martial arts match, she can be seen holding Jason's hands and cheering her friends as they're awarded the check to save the children's shelter.

An original shooting script for "Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie" was originally going to include a romance between former Power Rangers Jason Lee Scott and Kimberly Ann Hart. This would serve as a possible reason why both Kimberly's unnamed boyfriend (mentioned in her break-up letter to Tommy from "Power Rangers Zeo") and Jason's girlfriend Emily from "Zeo" were not mentioned or present for the film, and would also explain why Kimberly goes to congratulate Jason, not Tommy, after the three teens win the Martial Arts Competition. However, the romance was written out of the final film for unknown reasons, but the two remain very close and protective of one another.

In "Shift Into Turbo, Part 1", which takes place after the events of the "Turbo" film, Jason and Kimberly are seen in flashbacks of clips from the "Turbo" movie when the Turbo Rangers, except Tommy, tell Rocky of what happened during the Turbo Rangers' first mission together. Despite the flashback clips, Jason and Kimberly are not mentioned by any of the Rangers and what happened to the two ex-Rangers after Jason helped Tommy and Adam win the martial arts match, as well as any confirmation if Jason and Kimberly were truly dating, went unexplained.

Future
It is not known what becomes of Kimberly afterwards, though she is given mention by her former teammate Jason Lee Scott in the "Power Rangers: Wild Force" episode "Forever Red", when he dismisses Cole's statement that Tommy was the greatest Ranger ("Are you kidding me? I was the one doing all the work while he was at the Juice Bar kissing on Kimberly!"). This has led some fans to believe that, if the rejected romance between Jason and Kimberly in the "Turbo" movie were true, that Jason and Kimberly would now be a couple at this point in time, or maybe even married.

Kimberly returns in the video game Power Rangers: Super Legends, though she is not played or voiced by Amy Jo Johnson, and her character has been plucked from another timeline. Amit Bhaumik, the script-editor of Power Rangers: Wild Force, claimed in a 2005 interview that he had intended to reveal Kimberly had married Skull in a draft of Forever Red, and therefore would be the mother of future Power Rangers Samurai character Spike, but this was dropped early in editing. Bhaumik said that he would've liked to have Amy Jo Johnson come back, as well as a few other past "Power Rangers" actors, but was unable to. Whether Kimberly has ended up with her unnamed boyfriend mentioned in "Zeo", Jason or even Skull remains unexplained in any incarnation of "Power Rangers" since the character's last on-screen appearance on the show.

MMPR interactive CD-ROM

 * Kimberly's birthday was given as February 14, making her an Aquarius.
 * Kimberly's birthplace was Seattle, Washington.
 * Kimberly's favorite food was frozen yogurt; her favorite subject was theater arts.

MMPR fan club video

 * On the topic of friends, Jason remarked that they were like family; he described sparring with Tommy at the Youth Center all the time, then said the girls were both really cool, both beautiful women, but that sometimes he'd have to play the big brother role and, for instance, tell an unwanted guy that Kim had a boyfriend, even though she didn't.
 * When asked about girlfriends, Tommy was unsure, but he noted that Kimberly was "kinda special" to him.
 * Being interviewed herself, Kim sat on the steps in the hallway of Angel Grove High, holding her guitar; she wore pink clothes and no communicator.
 * Concerning fears, Kim remarked that whenever she was afraid of something, it usually made her want to do it even more; some moves in gymnastics were quite scary, she said, but if it was done in a positive way, overcoming that fear was a major rush.
 * Asked about friends, Kim said she hung out with all of the teens but that Trini was her girl best friend, and they talked about everything.
 * Kim said she loved Zack, calling him fun and a great party guy who could always entertain people.
 * Kim said that Billy was great, because he was so smart, and she would always go to him for help with homework; he was such a giving person, he always helped out.
 * Kim said Tommy was one of her best friends, and they got along so well and were really great friends; she then added that, yes, he was cute, then giggled and changed the subject.
 * With regard to the future, Kim wanted to go to college, and she was thinking about being a teacher since she loved working with little kids, but she also wanted to own a gym and coach gymnastics, as well as write; she remarked that there were so many things she wanted to do, but she knew that whatever she did, she'd do it very well.

Trivia

 * Kimberly is the only Ranger who does gymnastics. In real life, Amy Jo Johnson was a gymnast.
 * Kimberly also coined the phrase "Morphinominal!"
 * In Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, when she is using her Pterodactyl Thunder Whip, she quips "Have a nice trip, see you next fall." This phrase is also used in Dino Thunder's first episode by Conner.
 * The name Kimberly was previously used when the 1984 Super Sentai Series Choudenshi Bioman was dubbed in English, as an English name for Hikaru Katsuragi (Pink Five).
 * When she first enters Pterodactyl Dinozord, Kimberly makes a comment on her Zord having a nice stereo (even though she's never seen listening to music on it). She says the same line upon entering the Crane Ninjazord in the movie.
 * The role of Kimberly was originally meant to serve as a stereotypical "dumb blonde"-type character, though was slightly changed to a Valley-girl type when Amy Jo was cast, which also contributing her gymnastics as well.
 * Kimberly, along with Tommy, Billy, Adam, Rocky and Jason are the only Rangers to appear in more than 100 episodes. Kimberly is the only female to reach this amount.