Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995)

[Darian 19]

i pray to god they discuss this movie

 

hopefully at a live show

 

next level bananas

[thestray 361]

Love the Power Rangers movie. Have seen it a hundred times. Yes, I would very much enjoy an HDTGM episode on it.

[PhillipMedoc 648]

The amazing editing/hatchet job they did to bring a sentai series to an English speaking audience is pretty crazy. I mean, dubbing over Japanese scenes, using footage from entirely separate shows, replacing the non-masked actors with Americans. It was actually clever, although the material itself was just dumb, fun kid stuff. I wish Ultraman would become a thing over here in the States; there's a whole world of sentai shows and movies that have stayed in Japan.

 

One aspect about the show that didn't occur to me until later was the colors of the Power Rangers were kinda, I dunno, I guess it's too simple to call it racism or sexism and possibly not entirely intentional, but:

 

the Blue Ranger was a male

the Pink Ranger was a female

the Black Ranger was African American

the Yellow Ranger was Asian

the White Ranger was Caucasian, the leader of the group, and the most powerful

 

Kinda cringey, but I guess that's maybe reading too much into a dumb show for kids. Still, it's this subtle stuff that pervades our pop culture and reinforces stereotypes. </nofunallowed>

[rcavanah 21]

 

 

^ great Key & Peele sketch about the aforementioned Power Rangers racism.

[sillstaw 414]

One aspect about the show that didn't occur to me until later was the colors of the Power Rangers were kinda, I dunno, I guess it's too simple to call it racism or sexism and possibly not entirely intentional, but:

 

the Blue Ranger was a male

the Pink Ranger was a female

the Black Ranger was African American

the Yellow Ranger was Asian

the White Ranger was Caucasian, the leader of the group, and the most powerful

 

I'm pretty sure at first, the leader of the group was the Red Ranger, and he was white (not Native American, which would have cinched it). I also heard (from the Nostalgia Critic) that at some point they switched the Black and Yellow rangers' actors and nationalities so the Black ranger was an Asian man and the Yellow was a black woman. Then eventually they brought in a new color or two, presumably to sell more toys, and I'm already bored of talking about this.

 

What mystifies me is that these shows have been going for so long (there are still new series being produced), and there are people out there who have been fans of this show for a long time, despite how utterly silly and frivolous the whole thing is. There are horrifyingly long Wikipedia articles about the show that treat it dead seriously, and at no point do any of the people who edited this page seem to have cared that it's a mix of recycled footage from Japanese shows and cheaply shot American stuff.

[thestray 361]

What's mystifying about it? It's colorful superheros who have robots that fight monsters from space, why would kids NOT love that?

 

I was about the right age when MMPR came out in America, and it was kinda mind blowing as a kid. While this kinda stuff had existed forever in Japan, for a kid in America seeing a live action superhero show where the heroes had dinosaur themed robots and fought monsters every week was really exciting. There was nothing else like it on American tv. It was a lot of fun. It's no worse than all the other stuff that people grew up with like TMNT, and GI Joe, and Thundercats, and Transformers and a million other things. And yeah, they edited in clips from other shows, and there was some crappy editing and effects, but there was kind of a charm to it, just like poorly dubbed old martial arts movies it just becomes part of the aesthetic.

 

As a person who is kind of a big kid who loves cartoons and such and also has a brother going on 10, I watch a lot of kids shows, and I've seen a lot of the newer iterations of Power Rangers, and if you're a person who doesn't mind utterly silly and frivolous stuff a lot of it's not so bad. It's very cheesy and aimed at young kids, but sometimes the writing isn't terrible, and there are some cool character designs.

 

It's good programming for it's intended audience.

[sillstaw 414]

What's mystifying about it? It's colorful superheros who have robots that fight monsters from space, why would kids NOT love that?

 

I guess I should've made it clearer: Why are there so many adults that love it?

[thestray 361]

 

I guess I should've made it clearer: Why are there so many adults that love it?

 

Because it's fun. Some people are geeks, myself included, with a strong inner child, and are able to enjoy frivolous things for what they are. Monsters, robots, super powers, martial arts, etc, if you're adults there's not a lot of outlets to see all that kind of stuff combined unless it's in a kid's show or an anime.

[Darian 19]

what's mystifying is that the methodology of utilizing the japanese footage to make an american show is still in practice to this day! all the power rangers tv series have been from that same mold for 20 years, it's mind blowing

[Blueman29X 72]

Aren't there a few of these movies?

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

Aren't there a few of these movies?

There are about 1.3 million of them, but I think only two of them were released theatrically though. This came out the same day as "Apollo 13" and a certain film starring everyone's favorite pasts robot.

[wyldride 285]

Best thing from the movie:

[wakefresh 689]

What's mystifying about it? It's colorful superheros who have robots that fight monsters from space, why would kids NOT love that?

 

I was about the right age when MMPR came out in America, and it was kinda mind blowing as a kid. While this kinda stuff had existed forever in Japan, for a kid in America seeing a live action superhero show where the heroes had dinosaur themed robots and fought monsters every week was really exciting. There was nothing else like it on American tv. It was a lot of fun. It's no worse than all the other stuff that people grew up with like TMNT, and GI Joe, and Thundercats, and Transformers and a million other things. And yeah, they edited in clips from other shows, and there was some crappy editing and effects, but there was kind of a charm to it, just like poorly dubbed old martial arts movies it just becomes part of the aesthetic.

 

As a person who is kind of a big kid who loves cartoons and such and also has a brother going on 10, I watch a lot of kids shows, and I've seen a lot of the newer iterations of Power Rangers, and if you're a person who doesn't mind utterly silly and frivolous stuff a lot of it's not so bad. It's very cheesy and aimed at young kids, but sometimes the writing isn't terrible, and there are some cool character designs.

 

It's good programming for it's intended audience.

 

My brother loved this show as well, and I think as a result, got really into anime when he was a teenager. This came on during the heyday of Fox programming. In one afternoon, you had Tiny Toons, Animanics, Batman and Mighty Morphing Power Rangers. That's two hours of solid programming after school before the news comes on. Genius.

[wakefresh 689]

 

I'm pretty sure at first, the leader of the group was the Red Ranger, and he was white (not Native American, which would have cinched it). I also heard (from the Nostalgia Critic) that at some point they switched the Black and Yellow rangers' actors and nationalities so the Black ranger was an Asian man and the Yellow was a black woman. Then eventually they brought in a new color or two, presumably to sell more toys, and I'm already bored of talking about this.

 

What mystifies me is that these shows have been going for so long (there are still new series being produced), and there are people out there who have been fans of this show for a long time, despite how utterly silly and frivolous the whole thing is. There are horrifyingly long Wikipedia articles about the show that treat it dead seriously, and at no point do any of the people who edited this page seem to have cared that it's a mix of recycled footage from Japanese shows and cheaply shot American stuff.

 

Cat and Beard was correct though. The first couple of seasons on the show was exactly as he described -- the Red Ranger was an outlier in not fitting with an obvious pattern.

 

And I thought that the original Red Ranger was a Spanish dude.

[wakefresh 689]

The Pink Ranger, Amy Jo Johnson, is a white version of Stacy Dash. Those two will forever be able to play teenagers or people in their 20s. When Johnson was in Felicity as a college freshman, she was like 44 years old.

[Lando 2019]

 

I'm pretty sure at first, the leader of the group was the Red Ranger, and he was white (not Native American, which would have cinched it). I also heard (from the Nostalgia Critic) that at some point they switched the Black and Yellow rangers' actors and nationalities so the Black ranger was an Asian man and the Yellow was a black woman. Then eventually they brought in a new color or two, presumably to sell more toys, and I'm already bored of talking about this.

 

What mystifies me is that these shows have been going for so long (there are still new series being produced), and there are people out there who have been fans of this show for a long time, despite how utterly silly and frivolous the whole thing is. There are horrifyingly long Wikipedia articles about the show that treat it dead seriously, and at no point do any of the people who edited this page seem to have cared that it's a mix of recycled footage from Japanese shows and cheaply shot American stuff.

 

I think that the red ranger WAS Native American, but in like a Johnny Depp as Tonto kind of way and the Green ranger was the one that came in later, but became the white ranger and I think he had an Irish last name.

 

Sadly I know this and I was 14 when the show was on, but I had a mega crush on Amy Jo Johnson so that justifies knowing so much about it right?

[Lando 2019]

Nope, I was off: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Ranger

 

I thought they had an episode where the Red ranger had to meditate on his ancestors or something like that.

[seanotron 2307]

The Pink Ranger, Amy Jo Johnson, is a white version of Stacy Dash. Those two will forever be able to play teenagers or people in their 20s. When Johnson was in Felicity as a college freshman, she was like 44 years old.

 

She's only 42 now, so she was probably closer to 29ish when she did Felicity, but you're right. This is a recent picture of her, and she honestly looks almost exactly the same as she did then.

 

[wakefresh 689]

 

She's only 42 now, so she was probably closer to 29ish when she did Felicity, but you're right. This is a recent picture of her, and she honestly looks almost exactly the same as she did then.

 

 

At the most, she looks 35 in that picture. She has real good genes.

[wakefresh 689]

 

I think that the red ranger WAS Native American, but in like a Johnny Depp as Tonto kind of way and the Green ranger was the one that came in later, but became the white ranger and I think he had an Irish last name.

 

Sadly I know this and I was 14 when the show was on, but I had a mega crush on Amy Jo Johnson so that justifies knowing so much about it right?

 

Hey, man, she's attractive. And you probably thought that she was 17 or 18 at the time. Little did you know, she was in her late 30s.

[PhillipMedoc 648]

Sadly I know this and I was 14 when the show was on, but I had a mega crush on Amy Jo Johnson so that justifies knowing so much about it right?

Yes it does. I was around 16 or so when I watched this, half-ironically but mostly stoned, and Amy Jo was one of the reasons.

 

I watched a random episode on Netflix over the weekend, and it struck me how her character was portrayed in such a lame "I'm just a girl!" kinda way. Like a monster will attack the city, she'll roll her eyes and be like "I was going to go shopping!"

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

So which Power Ranger was the one that recently murdered some folks? Was it one of the actual Rangers, or was it some kid sidekick character or something?

[Blueman29X 72]

So which Power Ranger was the one that recently murdered some folks? Was it one of the actual Rangers, or was it some kid sidekick character or something?

Wait, what?!

[wakefresh 689]

So which Power Ranger was the one that recently murdered some folks? Was it one of the actual Rangers, or was it some kid sidekick character or something?

 

It wasn't one of the Power Rangers, it was someone who was on the show for a couple of episodes, if that.

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

 

It wasn't one of the Power Rangers, it was someone who was on the show for a couple of episodes, if that.

Oh man, just an extra? I thought maybe we were dealing with a Chris Benoit situation where they went back and totally wrote him out of history or something. This story just got a lot less sexy...