Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie

Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie is a feature-length movie set in the Power Rangers universe. Directed by sci-fi veteran David Winning and Shuki Levy. It attempted to serve as a bridge between the television series Power Rangers Zeo and Power Rangers Turbo.

The Story
A sinister alien pirate named Divatox hatched a plan to release her fiance Maligore from the island Muranthias on Earth. To get to the island, she needed to kidnap a wizard named Lerigot from the planet Liaria, and use his magical key. Luckily for Lerigot, he evaded capture and fled to Earth, where he sought protection from the Power Rangers.

The Rangers were practicing for a martial arts tournament. Rocky made a wrong move and ended up throwing out his back. While visiting him at the hospital, a young friend of the Rangers named Justin discovered the Rangers' identity.

Zordon summoned the Rangers to protect Lerigot. Armed with Power Boxes, Tommy and Kat rescued Lerigot from the African wilderness, but they ended up losing him to Divatox later on. Divatox took the wizard to Muranthias along with other captives - Bulk and Skull, Jason, Kimberly, and Lerigot's wife and child.

Before taking off after Divatox, the Rangers were given new powers by Zordon and Alpha 5, which made them Turbo Rangers. They were joined by Justin, who took Rocky's place as the Blue Turbo Ranger. The Rangers sailed on a ship to Muranthias, where they faced the Putra Pods. Divatox arrived on the island along with her crew - Elgar, Rygog, and an army of Piranhatrons - and sacrificed Jason and Kimberly to Maligore's fire.

The Rangers reached the temple to find their friends turned evil by Maligore's flames. The team battled Jason, Kimberly, and the rest of Divatox's forces as Maligore arose from the fiery pit. Lerigot restored Jason and Kimberly, and the Rangers fought Maligore with their Power Weapons. The Rangers fled, and Maligore grew into a giant. The Rangers called on their Turbo Zords and formed the Turbo Megazord, with which they destroyed Maligore.

The Rangers saved the world just in time to win the martial arts competition, as an infuriated Divatox swore vengeance on the heroes.

Trivia Notes

 * Kat is the only Ranger to use her Zeo powers in the movie (though she used them briefly).
 * Due to a contract dispute, director David Winning only received co-credit with the producer, and no editing influence. [9]
 * Unlike the first movie, this movie takes place within the continuity of the television series. The first episode of Power Rangers: Turbo takes place after the movie. Because of this, the design for the movie was closer to the television show. The Ranger suits were spandex rather than the armor-like suits of the first movie, and the Megazord was filmed with the series' suitmation style rather than computer graphics.
 * Certain sets and costumes from the movie, such as the Power Chamber set and the Alpha costume, were also used in the television series, albeit with no mention of the extensive makeover they received in the interim.
 * This film shows the first instance of blood in the entire TV series; when Katherine fell into the river, her leg was busted open, causing her to bleed.
 * Steve Cardenas (Rocky) was actually injured while performing a stunt towards the end of Power Rangers: Zeo and as a result had to leave the show, requiring the exit of his character. This was written into the movie.
 * The plasma tubes in the back of the Power Chamber now display the Rangers' colors rather than the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers' suits and weapons.
 * Tommy (Jason David Frank), Rocky (Steve Cardenas), Adam (Johnny Yong Bosch), and Kimberly (Amy Jo Johnson) are the only characters to appear in both this movie and the previous movie, although only Tommy and Adam are active Rangers in both.
 * The original cut was over three hours long; it included a fight with a crocodile, a longer trek through the volcano, a mermaid, a bungee-jumping stunt for Adam, and more character development for Justin. Perhaps most controversially, Johnny Yong Bosch has claimed that there was an extended fight scene between the Zeo Rangers and Divatox's forces that resulted in the Zeo powers and zords being destroyed. None of the footage from this version has ever been released.
 * The original shooting script included a new character Mandika the Mermaid, described as having alabaster skin, black/blue hair that trails over her bare chest and a strange voice. She would have assisted the Rangers on their journey and acted as a new friend/love interest to Adam. Originally, Mandika would have saved Kimberly after she ran out of air escaping Divatox's submarine and Mandika would have taken her to Muiranthias. However, all of Mandika's scenes were cut out of the film and the actress who plays her is unknown/uncredited.
 * David Yost (Billy) was seen on the set filming scenes for the movie and his character was supposed to help co-create the Turbo powers, using the Zeo crystal. However, when Yost left the "Power Rangers Zeo" TV series (which was filming the same time as the "Turbo" movie), the crew scrambled to re-write the script and they wrote Billy out.
 * It's rumored that Haim Saban wanted Walter Jones and Thuy Trang to be involved with the film and reprise their roles as Zack and Trini, respectively. Both actors declined, because actors on the "Turbo" movie didn't have Screen Actors Guild cards and they did not want to give up theirs to work on the movie.
 * Austin St. John and Amy Jo Johnson were originally considered by the crew to become the Red and Pink Turbo Rangers, while Kat would have become the Yellow Turbo Ranger. Rumors insist Jason David Frank and Nakia Burrise wanted to leave the show and the crew thought bringing back two old Rangers would be good for the show to boost ratings. Both actors declined to return as active Power Rangers due to the show's long hours and low pay.
 * Internet rumors insist that Haim Saban intended to have the five Mighty Morphin Power Rangers assist the Turbo Rangers on Muiranthias and they would use their original, repaired Dinozords to form Megazord and help the Turbo Megazord destroy a giant-sized Maligore. When Walter Jones and Thuy Trang declined to give up their SAG cards to work on the movie, the script was changed to have Billy fix and use his Power Morpher to go with the Turbo Rangers to Muiranthias save the Liarians, Jason and Kimberly. It is unknown if plans were to have Billy repair Jason and Kimberly's Morphers as well in the finale of the "Turbo" movie. However, David Yost had left during filming, Austin St. John and Amy Jo Johnson declined to work on "Power Rangers" beyond their guest stint in the "Turbo" movie, and any plans for bringing back the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers fell through.
 * ERROR: Katherine picked up Tommy's helmet and told him "I think you're gonna need this", but a few seconds earlier, she had already picked it up.
 * Ironically, the Carranger did not have their own movie. This is like Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, where the three teams associated either didn't have their own movie (Zyuranger) or the elements in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie were not in the Super Sentai team's movie (Dairanger or Kakuranger).
 * However, Carranger did have two "Vs. movies" released.
 * Ernie makes his final onscreen appearance here, with his departure being established in Shadow Rangers (episode).

VHS Release
Before the film begins, the VHS release first featured the trailer for Anastasia and the sneak peek for Saban's film of Casper, the Friendly Ghost entitled, Casper: A Spirited Beginning

Reception
Kevin Thomas wrote a positive review in the LA Times saying the filmmakers have brought much panache and sophistication to the making of this fantasy adventure extolling the good old-fashioned virtues of spirit and courage embodied by the Power Rangers and that "Turbo" is a solid follow-up[4]. Other reviews were a mixture of positive and negative, however, the film has more of a cult following in the UK. Unlike MMPR: The Movie, which received a 39% rating, Rotten Tomatoes gave Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie a "Extremely Rotten" 18% rating instead, knowing that (like the Turbo  season did on TV with its poor ratings) the movie met largely poor reviews and caused Power Rangers not to make any more future film releases. The average rating is 3.8/10 (3 fresh, 17 rotten). Audiences seem to like the film but the fans didn't. On Rotten Tomatoes, it was also indicated that 42% of regular audiences seemed to enjoy the movie.

Scott Renshaw of rec.arts.movies.reviews gave the film a 5 out of 10 rating, saying :" You've got to hand it to Saban Entertainment, keepers of the Power Rangers franchise. In the notoriously fickle business of children's entertainment and merchandising, the Rangers have survived by changing just enough to keep their young fans interested. Costumes have been updated; new iterations of action figures have filled the shelves. Even characters have been replaced in rejuvenating line-up changes, making the Rangers akin to a super-powered Menudo. Yet the most misguided changes to date have been those in 1995's lifeless MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS: THE MOVIE, which substituted high-tech hardware for low-tech charm. TURBO: A POWER RANGERS MOVIE is still dopey kiddie fare, but it's an improvement over MMPR:TM by orders of magnitude, with a couple more changes still up its sleeve." He also noted:

" For an action film designed for children, TURBO is actually rather restrained, with more emphasis on suspenseful escapes than special effects-laden free-for-alls. There are only a couple of lengthy fight scenes, and the Rangers in their full costumed glory are saved for the climactic battle. Directors David Winning and Shuki Levy are working with some pretty limp material, but they make the most of it. They also correct the fatal flaw of the first POWER RANGERS feature by dumping the computer-generated Zords and making the final Megazord-vs.-megademon battle what it always should be: a battle of two guys in big rubber suits. TURBO is unquestionably more fun for kids than for adults, but it is put together with some care, and it's a step in the right direction. Who knows...some day the ever-evolving Rangers might morph into a movie franchise worth watching."

LAWRENCE VAN GELDER, of The New York Times, gave the film a very bad review, unlike his half-favorable review for MMPR: The Movie. " Five-year-olds who have read their Shakespeare will recognize that Turbo is a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing. "