Teaser poster for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie was created by Saban Entertainment and released by 20th Century Fox in the summer of 1995. The movie stars the same actors from the 1994-1995 version of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers television series. The movie had come to DVD in 2003 by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. It has also recently aired a few times, fully restored with sharper picture and clearer sound, on the ABC Family channel, which therefore has sparked rumors of the creation of a Special Edition DVD which is planned by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. The sneak peek for the film can be seen on the VHS release of The Pagemaster. [1]
When an egg in Angel Grove is unearthed, Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa release the creature inside, Ivan Ooze. Zordon trapped him inside thousands of years ago, so Ivan leaves to seek revenge. Ivan destroys the interior of the Command Center, almost killing Zordon, weakening and slightly diswiring Alpha 5, and causing the Power Rangers to lose their powers, so the Rangers must go on a quest to find new Ninja powers on Phaedos, granted to them by Dulcea (played by Gabrielle Fitzpatrick). The Rangers find the powers located in a temple, along with new Zords, themed to the Ape, Wolf, Frog, Bear, Crane, and Falcon. The Zords come from the Sentai series Kakuranger.
The Rangers, full-scale 16:9 poster of the team posing.
After the Power Rangers participate in a charity skydive, a giant egg is unearthed at a construction site in Angel Grove. Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa investigate the egg, and release the creature inside - Ivan Ooze, whom Zordon had trapped inside the egg six thousand years ago. Once released, Ooze leaves to seek revenge on Zordon, double-crossing Zedd and Rita by trapping them in a snowglobe. He disguises himself as a carnival wizard and gives free jars of purple ooze to children. Fred Kelman, the Rangers' young friend, accepts a jar, and brings it home. Later, his father finds the jar and inspects the ooze. When he pulls some out of the jar, mysterious charges of purple electricity go through him, putting him under the control of Ivan Ooze along with all of the other parents of Angel Grove. Apparently this ooze only affects adults, as it is later seen that the children and teens are not affected and are playing with the ooze.
When the Power Rangers are busy fighting Ooze's Ooze Men, the Command Center] is left defenseless, allowing Ooze to enter and destroy it, leaving Zordon out of his time warp, dying. Due to the destruction, the Power Rangers lose their powers, and they must go on a quest to find new Ninjetti powers on the distant planet of Phaedos. When Ooze sends his Tengu Warriors after the Rangers, they are assisted by Dulcea, who bestows upon the Rangers new Ninja powers based on the six Ninja animals: the white Falcon, the red Ape, the yellow Bear, the blue Wolf, the pink Crane, and the black Frog. Dulcea directs the Rangers to find the Ninjetti Temple to find the Great Power on their own, as she will age rapidly if she takes one step off the plateau. On their way, they must battle a living dinosaur skeleton and at the temple battle four living statues. When the statues are destroyed, the Great Power is bestowed upon them and they morph into the Power Rangers again.
While the Rangers are away in Phaedos, realizing that the Great Power's potential, Ooze quickly uses this time to rush the workers to uncover the Ectomorphicon Titans at the site where the egg was uncovered. With all the parts unearthed, work to assemble the twin machines is completed at a factory. However, Fred manages to sneak into these 2 locations and discover Ooze's intentions.
When the Rangers return to Earth, they find it under attack by Ooze's Ectomorphicon Titans, and call upon their new Ninjazords to battle the Titans. They destroy Scorpitron, and then form the Ninja Megazord to battle Hornitor. During this time, Fred alerts the children of Angel Grove and makes them realize that Ooze plans to kill all of their parents. Fred leads them to the construction site where Ooze directed the adults to fall into a massive hole. When Ooze fuses with Hornitor, the Rangers form the Ninja Falcon Megazord to try and destroy him, eventually using Ryan's Comet, which happens to be passing the Earth, to destroy him. The Rangers struggle fighting Ooze, and Aisha has an idea: she hits a button next to her post, claiming that, "desperate times call for desperate measures", which causes the Megazord to knee Ooze in the groin, causing him to let go and come into contact with the Ryan's Comet, and destroying him and releasing the parents of Angel Grove from Ooze's spell. The Rangers get back to the Command Center, but Zordon has died. Tommy reminds the Rangers that with the Great Power, anything is possible. Combining their powers, the Rangers revive Zordon and restore the Command Center to running order.
The movie ends with a celebration in the Angel Grove harbor, thanking the Power Rangers for saving the world, although Bulk and Skull complain that it was themselves who saved the day. Later, during the credits, Goldar takes Lord Zedd's throne and jokingly proclaims himself king, just as the newly released (and presumably ticked off) Zedd and Rita walk in on him.
NOTE: On certain broadcasts on movie channels like HBO or Starz, the words "Mighty Morphin" was removed from the title due to the fact some people didn't grow up watching Power Rangers. However, on the actual film cut (either on VHS and/or DVD formats) the words "Mighty Morphin" are shown.
The Movie Continuity
This movie takes place in an alternate timeline than the Power Rangers television show, as numerous differences appear between the two.
Aesthetic differences
Naturally, having a bigger budget, the film boasts of more detailed, 'bigger' visuals.
Some international prints, television airings (such as on HBO, ABC Family and related channels) and DVD releases omit the words "Mighty Morphin" from the film's logo, rendering the title as simply Power Rangers: The Movie. It was shown on Fox Kids between 1998 and 1999 once.
The TV shows are known for using the action scenes from the Super Sentai series in Japan, but Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie was the first Power Rangers feature to use 100% new and original material.
The Rangers' suits are made of PVC and metal plating rather than the standard spandex, and several Rangers have features in their helmets that never appeared in the series (a mountable scope on Rocky's helmet, and headlights built into Aisha's). The helmets also appear heavier and bulkier. Also, Kimberly's suit has no skirt, unlike in TV.
The Rangers' suits also feature emblems in the center of the white diamond on the chest with a picture of their respective prehistoric animals early on, and later, their Ninja animals. Although these emblems were not part of the Zyuranger outfits used in the show (and were not added even after the movie was released), they appeared in early promotional art and the Power Rangers merchandise during its early years.
Rita Repulsa, Lord Zedd and Goldar also look slightly different, but are voiced by their regular actors.
The Command Center and Zedd's Palace sets are much more detailed. The Command Center has lights built into the walls that dim and brighten, as well as a "rotating" light in the floor. The neon columns are also designed differently too, giving the Command Center a more futuristic appearance than on the show.
The city of Angel Grove looks significantly different from how it appeared in the show (of course, the show was shot in Los Angeles, and the movie was shot in Sydney).
Kimberly, Aisha and Adam do not wear Ranger-colored shirts. Instead, Adam wears black pants and a black vest, and Kimberly and Aisha wear pink and yellow shorts respectively.
Literary difference from the established continuity (Season 1 to 2)
As much as possible, the film allows the viewer to jump off the established continuity from the TV series, story-wise, so that the movie may serve as somewhat of a continuation following season 2. However, a few minor differences remain.
There are two weapons from the movie that don't appear in the series: Kimberly's "Pterodactyl Thunder Whip", and Billy's "Stega Stinger" .
The Rangers morphed in a different order than the TV show's morphing sequence.
Tommy used the morphing call "WHITE TIGER!" in the movie, instead of "TIGERZORD!"
The new character of Mordant is treated as if it had always been among the "Evil Space Aliens," and Squatt and Baboo are nowhere to be seen. The reason for this is because the explanation for Mordant's appearance, which was on the script, was dropped.
The movie makes several blatant references to death and murder (such as Fred screaming "If you don't come with me right now, our parents are going to die!"). Normally, Saban had shied away from such scripting, due to Power Rangers being a kids' show.
Literary differences after the film (season 3)
Since the film loosely continues off of season 2 of the show, but creates its own continuation, many differences occur especially as season 3 began.
The story of how the Rangers received their Ninja powers and the Ninjazords is retold entirely differently in the four-part episode "Ninja Quest". The only real similarities are that the Command Center was destroyed, the Rangers traveled to a different planet in search of new powers, and the one who gave them to them did not initially trust them.
In the movie, Zordon did not die instantly when his time warp was destroyed; rather, he began to age rapidly, and die away slowly. In Countdown to Destruction, it was revealed that the destruction of Zordon causes his instant death. note: Ivan Ooze destroys the columns around Zordon's energy tube, while in Countdown to Destruction Andros destroys Zordons energy tube executing his death.
The character of Dulcea never appears in the show, or is even referenced.
The Ninja Megazord looks very different from its Kakuranger, and naturally, the season 3 counterpart. Even the seating is somewhat changed. For example, Pink Ranger sits lower-down, front-and-center, Blue Ranger sits to the left of her, and Red Ranger sits to her right.
The Ninja Megazord, known to have a handicap of not being able to hold anything due to possessing solid fists, somehow has the ability to bear a sword, in the movie's case, the Fire Saber of the Shogun Megazord
Production Trivia
The rangers without their visors or mouthplates, as it was originally conceived to be filmed, before the producers realized that they were supposed to be there in the first place to cover up the face.
The VHS release, which is just in time for Christmas, includes the teaser trailer for Dunston Checks In before the film.
The last Fox Video VHS to feature the 1993 Fox Video logo.
LOGO GIMMICK: The 20th Century Fox logo is skinny in size, and the 1994 fanfare was electronic muffled.
According to Paul Freeman, who played Ivan Ooze, the movie was originally going to be done in the style of the TV shows before the producers changed their minds and decided to put more resources into the production.
Originally, the crew felt that the total covering of the Power Rangers' faces removed any ability to express emotion, so initial shooting took place using the actors in costume with no visors on the helmets. However, they realized that this was a mistake and realized that the Power Rangers in Morphed Mode are not supposed to show emotion, but rather were supposed to be a powerful fighting force and that their identities had to be concealed. To correct the error, the action scenes were re-shot the next month with the visors added back. However, the Ninja Ranger powers still had their eyes fully shown, unlike in the series. It is unknown what became of the original footage for the scene.
Episodes of the TV show were shot at the same time as the movie, notably in The Wedding, where the rangers went on vacation to Australia.
In the park scene where Ivan Ooze begins to peddle his slime to children, there is a boy in blue with bowl-cut hair who looks remarkably like Justin, a character introduced two years later. It is, of course, not the same actor.
The movie was the first time the Rangers used something other than their own weapons (in this case, a comet) to destroy a villain.
In the movie, the White Ranger's morpher appears on his belt in comparison to the TV series (since the White Ranger's Sentai counterpart was from a different Sentai series)
At Power Morphicon 2007, Johnny Yong Bosch stated that it was his idea to have Adam be disappointed that his new powers were drawn from the Frog.
Catherine Sutherland originally auditioned for the part of Dulcea, but was turned down because the producers felt that she was too young for the part. However, she would later be cast on the TV series' third season as Katherine and would take over the role of the Pink Ranger when actress Amy Jo Johnson left the show.
Walter Emmanuel Jones, Thuy Trang, and Austin St. John (the original Black, Yellow and Red Power Rangers, respectively) were originally set to star in the movie, but ultimately weren't included because they were let go due to their contract dispute with the TV show.
Johnny Yong Bosch actually did all of his own stunts in the movie, including the morphed fight scenes. His stuntman was injured at the time and couldn't do any work for the film, so Bosch gratefully accepted their offer to replace him. Jason David Frank also did many of his own stunts.
Each of the Power Rangers' new movie costumes weighed 40 pounds and the actors had to film sometimes as long as ten hours a day in their Power Ranger uniforms.
Due to the long hours of filming for the movie, the 40 pound Power Rangers costumes that the actors had to wear caused back pain to co-stars Amy Jo Johnson (Kimberly Ann Hart/The Pink Ranger) and Karan Ashley(Aisha Campbell/The Yellow Ranger) after filming their scenes.
In order for the purple tongue to match the purple body, Paul Freeman had drank black currant juice, held it in his mouth and spit it out before each take.
Mariska Hargitay originally replaced Gabrielle Fitzpatrick during filming and several weeks' of Hargitay's filming had taken place at the Chinese Gardens at Darling Harbour. When the crew thought that Hargitay didn't seem right for the role after filming her scenes, she was fired and Fitzpatrick got the part back.
Except for some occasions, such as the moments when they are in costume with their helmets removed, stunt men were actually in the Power Rangers uniforms when they were morphed instead of the actors. The following stunt men and women played as the Power Rangers, but were not credited with doubling the actors: Hien Nguyen (White Ranger), Sophia Crawford (Pink Ranger), David Wald (Blue Ranger), Bridget Riley (Yellow Ranger), Danny Stallcup (Black Ranger) and Stuart Quan (Red Ranger). During filming, the stunt men were nicknamed "Ranger Actors" by the crew.
The Temple of the Great Power set was the largest set constructed for the movie. The set, which included a functional waterfall, pool and the huge door that reveals the Great Power pyramid, took up an entire sound stage at the Warner Roadshow Movie World Studios on the Gold Coast of Queensland, Australia.
The set for the ancient ruins of the Ninjetti Temple, also referred to as Dulcea's Palace, was built eight feet off the ground and was so large that it took up the combined space of both the Command Center set and the set of Lord Zedd's palace.
Several of the sets, including Lord Zedd's throne room (a.k.a. the Chamber of Command) and Dulcea's Palace, were made up of aluminum foil over constructed wood framings.
The Power Rangers' Command Center set used for this film was built in the Commemorative Pavilion at the Showgrounds in Sydney, Australia.
In an original script, the Rangers were supposed to fight giant Rat Monsters that Ivan Ooze created. Because the suits didn't work well enough and looked "too low budget" for the movie, the Rat Monsters were instead replaced by the Ooze Creatures that Ivan creates in the film. However, the Rat creature suits didn't go to waste either. Instead, they would later appear in the "Return of the Green Ranger" storyline of the Power Rangers television series.
This marks the first time that blood is seen in "Power Rangers". When a stone gargoyle comes to life and slashes at Tommy with his blades, he cuts through his outfit and you can faintly see two red bloody cuts on Tommy's chest, albeit dry cut. Tommy's cuts are barely seen because the crew didn't want to show the bloody cuts fully, having parents already upset enough at the violence shown on the television series.
The theme music Go Go Power Rangers, although having the same lyrics and musical notes, was played using electrical and heavy metal instruments, with rock star-like singing, whereas the series' theme song is more orchestral.
When this movie was shown in the UK, "The Wedding" three part episode had not aired yet and therefore spoiled Zedd and Rita's wedding.
The movie spawned three tie-in videogames, one for the Sega Genesis, one for the Sega Game Gear, and one for the Super Nintendo. The Genesis version mostly follows the plot of the movie, but as the levels only encompass the parts where the Rangers had their morphing powers, levels about the episodes where Rocky, Adam and Aisha joined the team were included to fill out the game. The Super Nintendo version has almost no connection to the movie whatsoever other than Ivan Ooze as the final boss. The Game Gear version of the game has about as little connection to the movie as the Super Nintendo version
The reason why Billy stopped wearing glasses was because the actor David Yost requested to Haim Saban that he prefered not wearing them and the fake lenses started to mess with his eyesight which eventually cross-overed to the TV series.
The official cover of the Movie's main soundtrack, featuring songs that appeared in the film except Ron Wasserman's "Cross My Line", which is used as a bonus track to end the CD.
The score for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie was composed by Graeme Revell. Composition mainly took place at the West Australian Symphony Orchestra and the score is conducted by Tim Simonec ( who often conducts music for films, TV shows, and video games done by award-winning composer Michael Giacchino). The Original Motion Motion Picture score album has 15 tracks while the main soundtrack - with songs by The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Devo, Van Halen, and others- have only 12 song tracks and both albums are also available.
The soundtracks are currently on the Power Ranger Planet website at the "Music Planet section"
The song "Firebird" which Revell composed in the film for the Tenga Warriors is in the official soundtrack and not the score album.
Track Listing
The "Music from and Inspired by the Motion Picture" album
"Go Go Power Rangers"- The Power Rangers Orchestra
"Higher Ground" - The Red Hot Chili Peppers
"Trouble"- Shampoo
"Are You Ready?!" - Devo
"The Power" - Snap
"Kung Fu Dance"- Fun Thomas and Carl Douglas
"Dreams"- Van Halen
"Free Ride"- Dan Hartman
"SenSurround"- They Might Be Giants
"AiYiYiYi"- PowerJet (Alpha's song)
"Firebird (the Tengu Warriors theme)"- Graeme Revell (Note: This song does not appear on the score album)
The score for MMPR the Movie took place at the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, making this the first film this symphony group has ever done a movie score on. features most of the film score by composer Revell, except for the track called Firebird which he performed along with Carl Verheyen and Buckethead; this was included in the film's previous soundtrack.
Ninja Megazord, movie version. This concept art of the Megazord is similar from the show's version.
Most resent Power Rangers fans seem to like the film. However, the film met a whole lot of mixed reviews. The movie earned a 39% percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It was also announced by Rotten Tomatoes that the film met mostly negative reviews, similar to what Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie did in 1997 when that film also met extremely negative to poor reviews due to Turbo's poor to a dismal reaction and ratings. Fans (and regular audiences) gave the movie mostly positive-to-favorable-to mixed feelings.
However, fans mainly praised the film for the 3D concept of the Power Rangers' suits (which used PVC leather and not spandex used in the show and their respective Sentai footage) but didn't like the movie's concept on some other reasoning why the movie looked so gaudy. Though, the film's soundtrack, costume design, and concept was highly praised except for Paul Freeman's performance as the wicked and vile Ivan Ooze, whose performance was ignored.
The movie showed mainly a lot of negative disgust toward only critics. For example: One critic on Answers.com gave MMPR a 1-star rating and wrote: " Despite the larger budget, the film remains true to the style of the show, which often recalls Japanese monster movies in its depictions of battling giant monsters through obvious special effects. The fast-paced fantasy action attracted a good portion of its intended youthful audience, while not becoming quite as much of a sensation as the TV series; some adults attacked the film for its reliance on violence (though of a bloodless, cartoon variety) and its status as a blatant promotional tool for the best-selling Power Ranger toys." Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide wrote this giving the movie a 1 star rating. Brett Weiss, of All Game Guide, stated: " For an adult, the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers are easy to dislike, dismiss, and discard as just another lousy children's fad. As seen through the eyes of a child, the Power Rangers are a larger-than-life team of superheroes who battle the bad guys in an exciting and entertaining manner. Whether you fall on one of these ends of the spectrum or somewhere in between, you'll still find Mighty Morphin Power Rangers to be a disappointment."
On certain online retelling sites like Amazon.com, several online critics gave the film 5/5 to 4/5 star ratings while browsing the film's DVD release on Sept. 2, 2003.
MMPR:The Movie, as of fans' standards, is considered the most successful Power Rangers side-project in other form of PR-based media and is considered the most successful Power Rangers movie of all time.
15th Anniversary
It was common on August 27-29 that at PowerMorphicon 2010 had marked the 15th anniversary of MMPR the movie.
Release Date
The movie's release date was June 30, 1995, in which it was 15+ years ago.
Box Office performance and Recognition
Upon its opening weekend, the film opened at #4 with $13,104,788, behind Apollo 13, Pocahontas' s third weekend, and Batman Forever as third. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, on Box Office Mojo, is currently ranked at #47 in the "Superhero" genre. The film's budget was $15,000,000, making this the most expensive Power Ranger project ever made and ever recognized.
It is also the most highest grossing Power Ranger movie of all time.
