Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie Review

You're listening to the decaf radio network of

podcast It's that killer. Releasing five episodes

in one weekend? No, that can't be right. Hello

and welcome to the 67th episode of the MWIRE

movie interview. Today we're discussing the Mighty

Morphin Power Rangers the movie. I am TF2 and

Mike and I'm joined by Steve Megatron. Hello.

Hello. How are you, sir? Exhausted. Exhausted?

How the hell could you be exhausted? Anyways...

Don't look at me. It's not my fault. I didn't

do it damn it. I'm innocent What the hell are

you talking about so now without any further

ado? We're gonna start setting the stage here

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers the movie also known

as Power Rangers the movie is a 1995 American

action film based on the Mighty Morphin Power

Rangers on Fox Kids The first series in the Power

Rangers franchise it featured the characters

and actors from the series itself and used the

Zords from the ninja Sentai Koa ranger, oh yeah,

I'm just gonna tell you guys right now any Japanese

name that I cannot pronounce you're going to

have to forgive me because when I was a kid growing

up on Power Rangers I thought it was all -american

But anyways, it was produced by Saban Entertainment

and released by 20th Century Fox on June 30th

1995 It was filmed in Sydney, Australia and ultimately

grossed $38 ,187 ,431 theatrically in the U .S.

and $66 ,430 ,194 worldwide, making it a financial

success. When did you first see Power Rangers

The Movie? Um, I first saw this pretty much right

after it came out because I bought it. I don't

know why I bought it, but I did. So you never

saw it in theaters? No. Me either. The funny

thing about this movie is I remember that when

it first came out... This is 1995, ladies and

gentlemen. There was no DVD in 1995. Nope, there

was that big -ass VHS tape. Yep. And what surprises

me the most about it is that... And I guess,

well... correct me if, and the listeners can

correct me if I'm wrong as well I remember Disney's

DVDs where they would have those white cases

that kind of look like books that kind of opened

and stuff like it looked like a book for a VHS

tape kind of like those hollowed out books you

see sometimes with buttons inside of them for

secret passages and stuff like that but I guess

other companies use that same format because

I remember getting this movie in what looked

like a Disney -style VHS case. Yep, that's what

I headed into until we got rid of our VCR. Yeah,

VCRs, what are those? We don't remember those.

Oh boy. Those were the days. Yeah, those. Wish

you hadn't said that, because now Archie Bunker

is flashing in my head. Okay, anyways, so getting

to the plot for Power Rangers. After the Power

Rangers participate in a charity skydive, a giant

egg is unearthed in Angel Grove. Lord Zed and

Ray Rapulsa investigate the egg and release the

creature inside, Ivan Ooze, whom Zordon had trapped

inside the egg 6 ,000 years ago. Once released,

Ooze leaves to seek revenge on Zordon, double

-crossing Zed and Rita by trapping them in a

snow globe. He disguises himself as a credible

wizard and gives free jars of purple ooze to

children. Fred Kelman, the ranger's 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

the Ooze only affects adults, as it is later

seen that the children and teens are not affected

and are playing with the Ooze. Eww. He's playing

with Ivan's purple? He's playing with Ivan's

purple narple. Can you say sick and disgusting?

Maybe they were playing with Megatron's purple

narple. No, they're playing Barney's. Well Megatron

likes Barney's, so... No! When the Power Rangers

are sent to fight Ooze's Ooze Men, the command

center is left defenseless, allowing Ooze to

destroy it, leaving Zordon near death. Due to

the destruction, the Power Rangers lose their

powers, and they must go on a quest to find new

Ninjeti powers on the distant planet of Phaedos.

When Ooze sends his Tengu warriors after the

Rangers, they are assisted by Delsia, who bestows

upon them 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. Dulcia directs

the rangers to find the Ninjeti 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 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 once again. The rangers return

to Earth, they find it under attack by Ooze.

Ectomorphicon Titans and call upon their new

ninja zords to battle the Titans. They destroy

Scorpotron and then form the Ninja Megazord to

battle Hornitor. I'm sorry. Those are two of

the worst zord names or villain zord names or

whatever the fuck you want to call it. I hate

those damn names. Yeah, well, unfortunately,

it's stuck. I know. During the time, the children

of Angel Grove 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 the massive hole. When Ooze fuses

with Hornitor, the Rangers form the Ninja Falcon

Megazord to try to destroy him, eventually using

Ryan's Comet, which was passing the Earth to

destroy him. The Rangers struggle fighting Ooze,

and Aisha has an idea. she hits the 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 Comet. And

destroying him, 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. The movie ends with a celebration in

Angel Grove Harbor thanking the Power Rangers

for saving the world, although Vulcan Skull complained

that it was themselves who saved the day. Later

during the credits, Goldar, oh I love this. Later

during the credits, Goldar takes Lord Zedd's

throne and proclaims himself ruler of the universe.

The newly released Zedd and Rita walk in, and

Goldar and Morton look at each other and say,

uh -oh. All right, so we kind of, I kind of basically

just read the plot word for word. We didn't really

discuss a lot of it, but there are several things

about this film that I really don't like. Um,

apparently they... I don't know. It doesn't have

really that great of a reason why he was not

used. Yeah, I know. What did you think of the

movie? I mean, what are your overall impressions?

It's... And I know there weren't that many Power

Rangers movies, but I would say this is my favorite

one, and I would say because of the cast that

they used and the villain, and it had a particularly

dark theme to it. Yeah. Not to mention that...

I liked the... Like, for instance, everything

was shinier in this than the actual show. Yeah,

the suits were The suits were like metal or not

metal, but they were like really hard plastic

and they were actually more uniform suits They

looked better overall. I mean there was no mistaking,

you know That they were a lot stronger than you

know, they previously were Right, I don't know

it's just everything about this movie Between

the music in it the fact that they had a lot

of a lot better production value compared to

the actual TV show I would say that It's It's

you know, it's got pretty much everything that

you'd want to watch on it anyway, I mean In terms

of a Power Rangers movie, it's got a lot of action

got a lot of the normal stuff But you know, there's

just a lot more added than what they've used

in the TV show. Yeah. It's one of those things

where this was the first... This was the first

fully Power Rangers thing where it's all new

and original footage. There was no using of the

other Japanese series as far as I know this was

all their their own footage But yeah, who's your

favorite character because getting into the characters

here, we've got obviously the Power Rangers Tommy

Rocky Adam Billy Asian Kimberly Who's your favorite

Ranger? Yeah, yeah mine too I like Adam and and

and rocky just because of the way that they team

up with each other Billy's okay Aisha's okay

And I'm not trying to sound deadpan about it,

but I just I don't know I I always like I've

always liked Tommy and I've yeah Some really

really well not really strange allies, but you

get a lot of so you get Zordon Dulcea alpha 5

Vulcan skull and Fred Kelman And it's funny because

later in Power Rangers zeo in the TV series in

this movie they quip about uh... you know they

quote about fred become a ranger you know for

you know fred kellman the silver ranger or whatever

it is it was no fred kellman the gold ranger

will later in zeo a gold ranger actually showed

up and i thought at the time like all is that

going to be fred uh... of course villains you

get uh... repulsed lords and gold are more more

than work and i would have fun it was not news

who's was really it was a nice villain yeah but

i mean as far as like you know is like you know

we we always as you know voice actors and writers

who they like you know voicing or writing as

far as that goes and everybody uh... that their

answer is always the villains Because the villains

have so much you can do with them. I mean, heroes,

they have to be heroic. That's it. You have a

favorite ally or a favorite villain? My favorite

villains... Ooze was one of those ones that you

hated to like. But for main villains, I liked

Lord Zedd. I always had this fascination with

the character. Yeah, just because he was such

a badass and the deep voice and the inside out

skeleton body Yeah, they made it look a heck

of a lot more sinister in this than they ever

did in the TV show It looked like almost like

blood dripping skin and then with you know real

chrome Yep, that plastic crap Yeah, let's crack

this egg Let's move on to the good the bad and

the ugly um a lot of this stuff a lot of this

film is just I Laugh halfway through this film

because it's so fun all the one -liners But I

mean they're not like cheesy one -liners that

they're fairly good like when I was doing research

for interviewing Johnny Young Bosch over at this

week in geek for the update interview for Johnny

I I told him off air that I basically watched

this movie before I talked with him and I basically

watched the movie and picked out every scene

he had and just memorized his lines or his actions

or whatever and there's a lot of good comedy

in here. Oh yeah. There just is. What was one

of your favorite scenes? I would have to say

yeah my only real complaint about angel groves

is like you can like in the movie specifically

like I know that the parents come in later and

I know Fred's parents around in the beginning

like at the charity thing There's a bunch of

people around but like when they're skating around

and higher ground is playing in the background

and all that stuff And they're like oh, let's

go get something to eat or whatever you kind

of see people in the background But it's like

angel grows a fairly empty friggin city if they

can skate through the entire thing and of course

they cut through the construction site which

they're gonna be people there, but I Don't know

I would have to say my favorite scene Wasn't

really when they got the powers, but the fight

they had to do to get the powers. I can see that.

I mean, you know, getting the new powers is great

and all. I loved what they did with the Ninja

Falcon Zord. That was so awesome. After Tommy

got damaged, had to go away and repair himself

and he came back. And Adam's like, oh, Tommy,

I can't hold on. It's tongue -tied. I can't hold

on. It's like, Adam, disengage. I got this. And

they corner one of the ectomorphicons down a

dead -end street. And all of a sudden, the damn

Falcon closes its wings, comes up, and all these

missiles come out. Oh, man, I love that imagery.

That was just awesome. Actually, I think that

the f - Ninja Falcon Zord was the only Zord I

ever had as a kid. Really? Yep. I never had any

of the action figures. I never had any of the

other Zords. After this movie came out, and I

saw that I was like, Mom, I want that. There's

a lot of trivia for this movie. I'm not going

to go through all of it, but getting into some

trivia here. Apparently, Walter Jones, Thuy Trang,

and Austin St. John, the original Black, Yellow,

and Red Power Rangers, 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. Which is kind of sad

and of course Austin would have came back with

Amy Jo Johnson as Kimberly in the sequel film.

Even though they weren't really there too long.

Let's see, this is a very good... interesting

point here Mariska Hagerte who most people will

know her as Olivia Benson on Law and Order Special

Victims Unit was originally replaced Gabrielle

Fitzpatrick during filming because Fitzpatrick

was diagnosed with an ovarian cyst which had

to be removed immediately in an operation starting

in November 94 several weeks of Hagerte's filming

had taken place at the Chinese Gardens at Darlington

Harbor or at Darling Harbor, when the crew thought

that Hagerté didn't seem right for the role.

After filming her scene, she was fired and Fitzpatrick

got the part back in January 95 after she had

recovered from her operation. Wow, that's crazy.

Oh, I see here, some other good trivia here.

Several of the sets, including Lord Zedd's throne

room, aka the chamber of command, and Delcea's

palace were made up of aluminum foil over constructed

wood framings. Hmm, interesting. Let's see, ah,

here we go. Catherine Sutherland originally auditioned

for the part of Delcea, but was turned down because

the producers felt she was too young for the

part. However, she would later be cast in the

TV series third season as Catherine and would

take over the role of the Pink Ranger when the

actress Amy Jo Johnson left the show. This is

very interesting to me, and I know Johnny does

a lot of stuff. as far as his own stunts, but

apparently Johnny Young 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. To further the differences between

the show and the movie, Tommy's call to morph

here is White Tiger instead of Tiger Zord. as

it was in the show. I don't know. The character

of Delcea was actually supposed to have small,

green, antler -type, alien pet names Snoggle.

Snoggle spoke in an alien language only to Delcea

and was supposed to add comic relief to the film.

And Snoggle often was annoying too and picked

on... Kimberly was cut out because the character...

This was cut out because the character was deemed

unnecessary by the crew and the scenes filmed

with Snuggle had taken place when Mariska Hagerty

had recast Gabrielle Fitzpatrick. Yeah, I'm glad

they didn't go in that direction. That would

have been horrible. Yeah, that would have really

been horrible. Actor Paul Freeman... Has gray

eyes and the gray eyes but in the movie he wears

brown lens who who was who he had portrayed Ivan

ooze There was another one that I saw in here

In spite mordant is version of squat babu and

squat because babu wears Pince nez and squat

is fat and you get a new and to get a new villain

bore There was no in here where It says something

about Paul Freeman had drank like black. I don't

know some sort of black juice Like every take

to match his to make his tongue purple to match

the rest of the ooze suit Yeah So getting into

the reception at the box office and stuff like

that the film was met by critics with mixed and

negative reception Despite a strong box office

performance, the movie received very mixed and

negative reaction by critics, although fan's

reaction was generally more positive, and in

a sense developed a cult following. to each their

own. Very true. Getting into the IGN replacement

crew, which the choices are, don't watch this

even if it's free, worth a watch if free on TV,

worth adding to your Netflix list, or this one

is a must add to your DVD collection. Well, since

I have the DVD, I guess we all know my vote.

Yes, I would say... I don't have the DVD and

I was quite fond of it when I was younger. I

would say probably own the DVD. But if you don't

own it, at least give it a try on Facebook. Yeah,

wrong place. Get with it, Steve. No, put it on

Netflix. And as I said, yes, it is on DVD. It's

a single disc edition, but there are several

bonus features. There's a making of feature at

It says that they're the original theatrical

trailers on here, but it's actually not the only

other thing that's listed is Some of the things

that I actually hate listed as bonus features

which are specifications like the audios You

know the audio stuff the subtitles and all that

stuff. So there's really only one feature on

here, which is the Making of feature it which

is kind of cool. I think there might be music

videos I don't remember I didn't really look

at the bonus features before we recorded this

so I watched the the one thing the the making

of feature it but So the other thing we kind

of glossed over was the soundtrack for this I

love the soundtrack for this movie of the soundtrack,

but I kind of know what you're talking about.

Well, you got Red Hot Chili Peppers hired around

during the whole skate scene when they're skating

through Angel Grove. When they're fighting the

Ooze Men, you've got Devo's Are You Ready? And

really, those are the only two songs, honestly,

out of the soundtrack that I like, because the

rest of it is like weird girl teeny pop thing.

Fucking shampoo is in this with oh we're in trouble

or what I oh god. I hate I hate that fucking

song I hate that damn song So yeah, um, so my

final words for this is You know, like I said

if you're a Power Rangers fan, you'll like this

But if not It's probably a skip for you. So what

about you? I do like it. I would give it the

Netflix watch at least. I was a fan of the franchise

back in the day. If you liked Power Rangers back

then, or even if you didn't, I would say just

give it a shot. Yes. So that's going to do it

for us. Thank you for joining us here on MWIRE.

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Thank you for listening, until next time.