Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie
215px Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Bryan Spicer
Produced by	Haim Saban Shuki Levy Suzanne Todd
Screenplay by	Arne Olsen
Story by	John Kamps Arne Olsen
Starring	Karan Ashley Johnny Yong Bosch Steve Cardenas Jason David Frank Amy Jo Johnson David Yost Jason Narvy Paul Schrier Paul Freeman
Music by	Graeme Revell
Cinematography	Paul Murphy
Edited by	Wayne Wahrman
Production company	Saban Entertainment Toei Company
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release dates	June 30, 1995 (1995-06-30)
Running time	95 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$15 million
Box office	$66.4 million

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (also known as Power Rangers: The Movie) is a 1995 American superhero film based on the television series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. It stars the regular television cast of Karan Ashley, Johnny Yong Bosch, Steve Cardenas, Jason David Frank, Amy Jo Johnson, and David Yost. The allies and villains are Australian and English actors. It was produced by Saban Entertainment and Toei Company. Filming took place in both Sydney and Queensland, Australia and it was released by 20th Century Fox on June 30, 1995. Much like the television season that followed the release, it used concepts from the Japanese Super Sentai Series Ninja Sentai Kakuranger.

The film received a mixed reaction from critics, and grossed $38,187,431 theatrically in the U.S. and $66,433,194 worldwide.

Plot

The Power Rangers: Rocky, Adam, Billy, Aisha, Kimberly and Tommy, participate with Bulk and Skull in a charity sky dive for the Angel Grove observatory, in anticipation of Ryan's Comet which will pass by in two days. Having waited too long, Bulk and Skull accidentally land in a construction site. They avoid getting into trouble before a giant egg is unearthed from a chamber underground. The evil energy alerts Zordon, an interdimensional wizard and the Rangers' mentor, who warns them of Ivan Ooze: a morphological being bent on the conquest of Earth. Zordon sends the Rangers to return the egg to its chamber, unaware that Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa have already freed Ivan Ooze and ordered him to destroy Zordon. Ivan leaves the Rangers to face his Ooze men while he lays siege to their Command Center and incapacitates Zordon. Meanwhile, the Rangers morph and dispatch the Ooze men before suddenly losing their powers. Making their way to the Command Center, they find it destroyed and Zordon outside of his time warp, now dying from rapid aging.

Zordon's robotic assistant Alpha 5 sends the Rangers to the planet Phaedos in hopes of obtaining the Great Power in order to save Zordon. Ivan usurps Rita and Zedd and traps them in a snowglobe and offers their minions Goldar and Mordant the choice to join him or suffer the same fate, so they agree to serve him. Ivan sends a squadron of bird-like Tengu warriors to Phaedos while he hatches a plan to unearth his Ectomorphicon Titans: two massive machines he had constructed for his conquest that were buried near his chamber. He puts his ooze into mass production and after disguising himself as a carnival wizard, he gives out free jars of it to the city's children, including the Rangers' friend, Fred Kelman. When their parents come into contact with it, it hypnotizes them and they become Ivan's work force. When Fred discovers his father missing, he finds him and the other parents at the construction site and discovers Ivan's plans.

The Rangers arrive on Phaedos and are almost killed by the Tengu until they are rescued by Dulcea, Phaedos' Master Warrior, who initially tells the Rangers to go back home, but when she hears of Zordon's plight, she agrees to help them and takes them to a ruined temple. Once there she gives them the power of the Ninjetti, showing them their animal spirits: Rocky is the ape, Adam is the frog, Billy is the wolf, Aisha is the bear, Kimberly is the crane and Tommy is the falcon. She shows them where the monolith housing the Great Power resides, but tells them that their journey has to be without her because if she went beyond the temple, she would age as rapidly as Zordon. As the Rangers quest through the jungle, they encounter an animate dinosaur-like skeleton which Tommy defeats before they find their way to the temple. Working together, they defeat its four guardians, and unlock the Great Power within and their powers are restored.

Back on Earth, construction is completed on the machines and Ivan orders the parents to return to the construction site and leap to their dooms. Fred rushes to the rest of the kids and Bulk and Skull, partying at Ernie's and tells them of the situation. Together they board the city's monorail and head to the construction site to save their parents. The Rangers return and call on their new Zords. They defeat one of the titans, which enrages Ivan, who combines himself with the other machine. The Rangers form the Ninja Megazord while Tommy saves the monorail, whose track was damaged by Ivan. Outmatched, the Ninja Megazord is damaged; Tommy combines his Zord, creating the Ninja Falcon Megazord to fight Ivan. Billy plots a course to outer space intending to lead Ivan into Ryan's Comet. Ivan pins them down, but Aisha causes him to lose his grip and they fly out of the path of destruction. Ivan's destruction breaks his spell on the parents, who come to their senses as their kids, Bulk and Skull keep them from stepping over the cliff and Fred reunites with his dad. Returning to the Command Center, the Rangers learn to their sadness that Zordon has died. Using what they learned; that all things are possible, they use the Great Power to restore the Command Center and resurrect Zordon, reuniting them with him.

During the following fireworks celebration, the Rangers congratulate Fred for his bravery. When a message thanking the rangers is lit, Bulk and Skull are offended, though they legitimately had a very large part in saving lives. In a mid-credits scene Goldar sits on Zedd's throne calling himself "King Goldar, the ruler of the universe" before Zedd and Rita enter, growling at their turncoat behavior. Goldar and Mordant look at each other and nervously proclaim "Uh-oh!" and the credits roll.

Cast

• Karan Ashley as Aisha Campbell, The Yellow Ranger
• Johnny Yong Bosch as Adam Park, The Black Ranger
• Steve Cardenas as Rocky DeSantos, The Red Ranger
• Jason David Frank as Tommy Oliver, The White Ranger
• Amy Jo Johnson as Kimberly Hart, The Pink Ranger
• David Yost as Billy Cranston, The Blue Ranger
• Paul Schrier as Farkas "Bulk" Bulkmeier
• Jason Narvy as Eugene "Skull" Skullovitch
• Paul Freeman as Ivan Ooze
• Gabrielle Fitzpatrick as Dulcea
• Nicholas Bell as Zordon
• Peta-Maree Rixon as Alpha 5
• Jean Paul Bell as Mordant
• Kerry Casey as Goldar
• Mark Ginther as Lord Zedd
• Julia Cortez as Rita Repulsa
• Jamie Croft as Fred Kelman
• Paul Goddard and Robert Simper as Construction workers
• Kerrigan Mahan as Goldar's voice
• Robert L. Manahan as Zordon's voice
• Robert Axelrod as Zedd's voice
• Barbara Goodson as Rita's voice
• Richard Wood as Alpha 5's voice

Music

See also: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers The Movie: Original Soundtrack Album and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers The Movie: Original Motion Picture Score

Adaptations in other media

• Five different video game titles based on the film were released for the Super NES, Sega Genesis, Game Boy, Sega CD and Game Gear.
• Marvel Comics released a comic book adaptation and a photo comic book adaptation of the film in September 1995. The comic book was printed with two different covers: one featuring fully morphed Rangers and the other featuring them in their Ninjetti uniforms.

Release

In its opening weekend, the film came in fourth with $13,104,788 behind Apollo 13 and holdovers Pocahontas and Batman Forever. It ultimately grossed $66,433,194 against a $15 million budget, making it a financial success.

Critical reception

The film holds a 50% "Rotten" rating on the review aggregator website on Rotten Tomatoes based on 22 reviews, though there is no summarized consensus given for it. Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times thought it was characterized by "a barrage of spectacular special effects, a slew of fantastic monsters, a ferociously funny villain — and, most important, a refreshing lack of pretentiousness". Thomas lauded director Bryan Spicer for raising the quality of production values for a feature film adaptation of the TV series, while maintaining a likeable "comic-book look and sense of wonder" and wholesome high school characters parents would approve of. Caryn James of The New York Times thought that storywise, it resembles multiple episodes of the television series stringed together with slightly better special effects, and that the result was loud, headache-inducing and boring for adults, but that children would enjoy it. James further stated that too much of its running time is spent showing the Rangers without their powers. Roger Ebert gave it only half a star out of a possible four stars, saying that it is "as close as you can get to absolute nothing and still have a product to project on the screen," comparing it to synthetic foods in brightly marketed packaging with no nutritional content. He felt that the characters, with the exception of Ivan Ooze, lacked personalities, and that the scenes of monsters rampaging through the city hearkened back to the worst Japanese monster films. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle found the fights "only adequately choreographed", called the battle in the climax "a complete disaster", stating that it made no sense in timing, that protagonists were not very intelligent, and the actors playing them unremarkable.

Home media

The film was released on VHS and LaserDisc in late 1995, and then on DVD in 2003 by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. Bonus features included a theatrical trailer and a "Making Of" featurette. It is sometimes bundled with 1997's Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie as a double feature.

The film, along with Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie, was re-released with different packaging on DVD in 2011.

External links

• Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie at IMDb