MANGA UK PRESENTS: MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS: SEASONS ONE, TWO AND THREE. (1993-1995)
STARRING AUSTIN ST. JOHN, THUY TRANG, WALTER JONES, AMY JO JOHNSON, DAVID YOST, JASON DAVID FRANK, JOHNNY YONG BOSCH, KARAN ASHLEY, STEVE CARDENAS AND CATHERINE SUTHERLAND.
REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
Aw, these three seasons of this iconic kids' superhero TV series from the 'Nineties really punched me and my kids right in the feels, as my firstborn rugrat actually watched these self-same episodes when she was a nipper. She collected the plastic toys from Burger King and she positively lived for whatever days the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series came on the telly. Let's have a look now at what these first three seasons are all about, shall we?
The first season, of course, introduces the five fresh-faced youngsters themselves with the double lives and the secret identities. Initially, we have Jason, Zach, Kimberley, Billy and Trini, all good-looking healthy all-American teenagers who save the world from terrifying monsters, when they're not hanging out at the gym or the mall or wherever else American teenagers might feel obliged to hang out.
When they're being the Power Rangers, they're actually channelling the ancient power of the dinosaurs, which is quite an awesome thought. Jason is the T-Rex and Zach is the Mastodon, you know the woolly mammoth with the giant tusks? Cutesie-pie Kimberley can harness the power of the Pterydactyl, Billy is the Triceratops and Trini is the Sabre-Toothed Tiger.
Actually, in times of tremendous stress, all their dinosaurs can morph together into one gigantic kind of Super-Dinosaur or Trans-Clown-imorph. That last is only a word in THE SIMPSONS, by the way. It's a sort of enormous, scary-looking Transformer thing.
The Power Rangers code has three main rules. Firstly, they are not to be in the Power Ranger business for any personal gain. I wonder if that means that they don't get to keep their snazzy, differently-coloured outfits and the plastic dealies they hold up when they're morphing into their superhero selves?
Secondly, their identities are to be kept secret at all times. Fair enough, although the two Earthly baddies who hang around the Power Rangers like a bad smell, Bulk and Skull (one fat and one thin, clearly put in for comic relief), are always trying to ferret out the identities of the people behind the costumes.
And finally, they are never supposed to escalate a battle in which they're embroiled unless it's absolutely necessary or they are forced to by Rita Repulsa, their sworn enemy who's always trying to take over the world.
She's a ravishing Oriental intergalactic hussy whose obviously Japanese voice was dubbed into English, but not in such a way as to align the movements of her mouth with the words we're hearing, haha. The original Rita Repulsa is, to my mind, the coolest character in the show.
The Power Rangers get their orders from Zordan, a giant talking face on the wall in a sort of fortified structure housing their communications centre out in the desert. He's the Charlie to their Angels, although he resembles nothing so much as the Great and Powerful Oz, haha. A giant talking face on a wall that gives orders and bosses people around? Come off it...!
Anyway, the Power Rangers are thrown straight in at the deep end in Season One, fighting Rita Repulsa and some genuinely frightening-looking monsters right from the get-go. The battles are ferocious and martial-arts-based, but there's never really any doubt as to which side, good or evil, is gonna come out on top...!
My daughter recently had the pleasure of meeting three of the original Power Rangers from Season One (Jason, Billy and Zach), the yellow Power Ranger from Season Three and also the original Zordan. This was at MCM Comic-Con in the RDS in Ballsbridge in July 2017. They signed autographs and told lovely stories about their time on the show. Typical convention stuff, haha.
One story I found to be particularly fascinating. Apparently, the monster sequences originally formed part of another Japanese television programme and they were 'morphed' together with the Power Rangers sequences to make a fantastic new kids' TV show, namely, the MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS. Good story, that. Very interesting.
Nothing much has changed by Season Two, except of course that by now, the dreamy Tommy with his dreamy ponytail has been added. I can't even begin to imagine how many impressionable little girls would have had crushes on the handsome but totally non-threatening Tommy during the 'Nineties. Tommy's spirit-animal is the Dragon, one of the- ahem- lesser known dinosaurs, I believe, and his little outfit is green.
Rita Repulsa is still knocking around, only this time she's being bossed around by her own superior, the terrifying Lord Zedd, an amazing-looking creature who has a golden codpiece to carefully contain his junk and a sort of sceptre thing with a giant letter Z on the top. That'd come in handy for identification purposes if he was ever lost and wandering around the high street in his dressing-gown and slippers. You'd know him a mile off if he was waving that yoke around like a mad thing.
Anyway, the fearsome Lord Zedd wants to take over the world too, just like Rita Repulsa, and he apparently left our Reets in charge of his worldly business interests while he was away on unspecified business of his own in the darkest reaches of the Universe. Sounds pretty shady to me, does that.
Anyway, he's not very impressed with the way she's been minding the shop in his absence. Well, the world's not his yet, for a start, is it, and whose fault's that, then? Well, Rita's, of course.
Lord Zedd hates the Power Rangers, a veritable thorn in his side, just as much as Rita does, calling them 'those pitiful teenage do-gooders,' which is a bit harsh. They're no more than mildly annoying, surely? Nothing that a good bug-spray wouldn't fix, haha. Anyway, you can be sure that he'll stop at nothing to prevent them from preventing him from taking over the world, if you get me.
Sigh. All these megalomaniacs ever seem to want to do is to take over the world. Me personally, I can't see the attraction. Can you imagine all the administration and paperwork you'd end up having to do, and everyone in the whole world would be bringing their complaints to you to solve. Humph. I have better things to do, I'm sure, than being an unpaid janitor for the whole of Earth. It sounds like a frickin' nightmare.
Sadly, by Season Three, the brilliant original Rita Repulsa, that Oriental intergalactic hussy, has been replaced by someone who's not nearly so vampy or campy as the original. Her dialogue's been more Americanized now too, and she refers to the ferocious Lord Zedd, who's also still around, as Zedster, Zeddy Baby and Zeddy-Poos, phrases that the original Rita would have been too classy for, haha. The new Rita also has pointy boobs, you know those dreadful pointy boob-cones that early Madonna used to sport? They're truly twin abominations, haha.
Adam, Aisha and Rocky have all been added to the Power Rangers line-up by now, by the way, and Season Three starts off with Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa awaiting the creation of a brand-new monster which they are hopeful will see off those damned pesky Power Rangers, for good this time. We await the arrival of this wonderful new monster with bated breath...
The Power Rangers, who've had lovely new computer chips installed in their smart little plastic communicator dealies, now have more to worry about than Lord Zedd and his pointy-bosomed underling, and how to pee when you're to all intents and purposes wearing a onesie. I mean, d'you take the whole thing off at once or what? How flippin' time-consuming would that be? Anyway, here's what their new problem is.
Alpha is an adorable sort of Star Wars-y robot based in the Power Rangers' communication centre in the desert. He's currently deeply worried about his home planet Edinoi in a galaxy far, far away, in which strange doings have lately been a-transpiring. Will the Power Rangers be kind enough to pop out there and see what's going on? Try f***ing stopping them, haha.
Lord Zedd's tendency towards megalomania has considerably worsened by this stage. He says hilarious mad things like: 'Bring the creature to me! I want to rule the Earth by sundown...!' Sounds to me like someone's come down with a distinct case of the Caligulas, heh-heh-heh. I wonder if you can get a cream from the chemist for that...?
Oh, and Tommy the pony-tailed Power Ranger, who's still super-dreamy, by the way, has some advice in this season for anyone interested in taking up any of the martial arts. It's quite good advice as well, methinks.
'Martial arts starts with the strongest muscle in your body... your BRAIN...'
Good on ya, Tommy-Boy. May your ponytail always be thick and luscious.
Good on ya, Tommy-Boy. May your ponytail always be thick and luscious.
MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS (SEASONS 1-3) are available to buy now from Manga UK.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA HARRIS.
Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO
You can contact Sandra at:
http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com
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