 This article is about an episode in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
|
Food Fight is the sixth episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
Plot
The Youth Center is hosting the Cultural Food Festival to raise money for playground equipment. Rita Repulsa who is very sick at the moment, sends the ravenous Pudgy Pig to eat everything in sight. Things get only worse when the monster eats the Rangers' weapons. Now the Power Rangers have to find a way to get their weapons back and destroy the Pudgy Pig before he consumes the world's food supply.
Synopsis
The Angel Grove Youth Center is hosting the Cultural Food Festival, with all the profits going to fund construction of playground equipment at the local preschool and day care center. Everything seems to go well, until Bulk and Skull turn it into a food fight.
Witnessing the chaos through her telescope, an ill Rita comes up with an idea. She orders Finster to create a ravenous pig monster. Finster complains that he did create one, but it isn't his best work, but Rita overrules him. The Pudgy Pig is sent down to Earth and immediately begins its mission to consume the entire food supply on the planet.
At the Youth Center, the Ranger teens try to stop the madness created by Bulk and Skull, with little success. Only Mr. Caplan's shouting ends the madness. He orders Jason to clean up the mess before leaving, presumably to dry out his wet toupee. As the people exit, the Rangers' communicators go off, indicating Zordon needs them at the Command Center.
After teleporting to the Command Center, Zordon debriefs them on the Pudgy Pig's actions. The Rangers morph to the monster's location and attempt to battle it, but the monster swallows their Power Weapons and sends them spinning in a vortex which lands them in Angel Grove Park.
While the Rangers were caught in the vortex, the pig made his way to the Youth Center terrifying the people there and eating everything he can get his hands on. However when he passes by a table labeled "HOT" he tosses the stuff aside. After vanishing, the Rangers arrive only to find the place more of a mess than before. Trini notices that the food at the "HOT" booth was untouched, which leads the group to speculate that spicy foods are the monster's weakness.
They morph and teleport to the food packing plant where they lure the pig with food, and then trick him into eating a spicy radish, which makes the pig vomit almost everything it consumed, including the Power Weapons. The pig is eventually destroyed by the Power Blaster, which makes Rita extremely angry at Finster.
The Rangers return to the still messy Youth Center where they receive a congratulatory call form Zordon. Alpha, who earlier volunteered to help with the food festival, teleports three trays of hero sandwiches to the Rangers. Mr. Caplan enters and apologizes to the teens for falsely accusing them of starting the food fight. He also happily reports that despite the insanity caused by both Bulk and Skull and Rita, they almost have enough money to pay for the playground equipment. Trini offers him a sandwich but charges him $20. Since he never had lunch, he relents and pays up. Ignoring Billy's warning, he takes bite of a sandwich which had a spicy radish dangling from it. He reacts to it and demands water. Kimberly hands a pitcher of water. He drinks it but most of it ended up on his head, and made his toupee fall off. He admits that it was "a little hot...but not bad!" They all laugh.
Cast
- Austin St. John as Jason Lee Scott (Mighty Morphin Red Ranger 1)
- Walter Jones as Zack Taylor (Mighty Morphin Black Ranger 1)
- David Yost as Billy Cranston (Mighty Morphin Blue Ranger)
- Thuy Trang as Trini Kwan (Mighty Morphin Yellow Ranger 1)
- Amy Jo Johnson as Kimberly Ann Hart (Mighty Morphin Pink Ranger 1)
- Paul Schrier as Farkas "Bulk" Bulkmeier
- Jason Narvy as Eugene "Skull" Skullovitch
- Richard Genelle as Ernie
- Henry Cannon as Mr. Caplan
- David Fielding as Zordon
- Romy J. Sharf as Alpha 5
- Richard Steven Horvitz as Alpha 5 (voice) (as Richard Wood)
- Machiko Soga as Rita Repulsa
- Barbara Goodson as Rita Repulsa (voice)
- Takashi Sakamoto as Goldar (suit)
- Kerrigan Mahan as Goldar (voice) (as Ryan O'Flannigan)
- Takako Iiboshi as Finster (suit)
- Robert Axelrod as Finster (voice)
- Minoru Watanabe as Squatt (suit)
- Michael J. Sorich as Squatt (voice)
- Hideaki Kusaka as Baboo (suit)
- Dave Mallow as Baboo (voice) and Pudgy Pig (voice) (as Colin Phillips)
- Stella Angelova as Sharkie
- Erik Betts as Black Punk
VHS Releases
- Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Food Fight
- Power Rangers Power Playback: Classic Ranger Edition- Blue Ranger Adventure
Notes
- This is the first episode not to feature any Zord footage.
- While this episode was the sixth in production order, it was the second episode aired.
- In the background of the food fair, a sharp viewer can see:
- Bulk and Skull chatting up the two hula girls just before the scene first cuts to Rita's palace.
- Jason reacting with extreme stoicism as the food fight reacts.
- A tall man in a blue shirt and glasses standing in the middle of the fight, then slowly creeping to safety before the first fight scene ends.
- Bulk going "oops!" innocently to the camera (before continuing to rampage).
- Pudgy Pig would reappear as an illusion in "Island of Illusion, Part 1" and is recreated by Rita in "A Pig Surprise".
- By order of airdate, Pudgy Pig is the first monster seen in original footage (though by production order, he is the second).
- The story of how the Rangers defeated Pudgy Pig will be retold by Kimberly and Billy (the only two Rangers in that episode who were in this one) in an interview on television, during the Season 2 episode "Lights, Camera, Action".
- This battle is also mentioned by Zack in "The Mutiny".
- First appearance of Angel Grove Park.
- In Zyuranger, the "vortex" that Pudgy Pig created was actually made by Gnome, a friend of Barza. Also, there was a shot of Rita attempting to throw her wand down to Earth in order to make Pudgy Pig grow, but she was too weak to throw it. Finally, the Zyuranger episode was a focus episode for Boi, Trini's counterpart. This explains why Trini was the one who threw the spicy radish since this episode didn't focus on just one Ranger.
- The first half of the fight with the Pudgy Pig would be recycled in "A Pig Surprise" but with the monster swallowing the Rangers' weapons edited out.
- The Pudgy Pig costume in the American footage is different to the Zyuranger equivalent as the original may have sustained damages that were beyond repair.
- There was a novella based on this episode ("It's Morphin Time!").
- This is the first episode where the Rangers morph twice within one episode.
- The female punk named Sharkie from "Teamwork" reappears alongside Bulk and Skull in this episode. She was meant to be a recurring character according to the scripts (which is the only source that reveals her name) but for unknown reasons was cut out, making this episode her final appearance. In addition to her, a black punk also appears with the duo trying to attack Trini and Billy before tripping over a table and landing facefirst into a bucket of sauce. He, like Sharkie, does not appear again in the series nor is his name ever given in any source.
- It is often erroneously reported that Walter Jones lost the middle finger on his left hand in an onset accident whilst filming this episode. In fact, Jones lost it as a child.
Errors
- Mr Caplan declares the food festival over, orders a clean-up, and everyone departs - but then the festival's still going on when Pudgy Pig shows up.
See Also
- Ep. 8: Fear! The Abrupt Eater - Super Sentai counterpart in Zyuranger. See comparison page. (fight footage and story)