Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie


Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie is a 1995 American superhero film. It stars the ensemble cast of Karan Ashley, Johnny Yong Bosch, Steve Cardenas, Jason David Frank, Amy Jo Johnson, and David Yost alongside the villains cast from the original series and Paul Freeman as Ivan Ooze. Much like the television season that followed the release, it used concepts from the Japanese Super Sentai series Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger, Gosei Sentai Dairanger and Ninja Sentai Kakuranger. It is the first Power Rangers production from Saban Entertainment not to feature any archived footage from Super Sentai. The film is not part of the franchise continuity as the movie takes place in an alternate timeline.
The film was released in between the second and third seasons of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

Plot

A group of teenagers from Angel Grove, California secretly serve as the Power Rangers, a team of super-powered humans who use their abilities to defend the Earth from otherworldly threats. After participating in a charity skydive for the local observatory, the Rangers are informed by their leader, Zordon, that the hyperlock chamber imprisoning Ivan Ooze, a morphological being who once ruled the Earth, has been uncovered at a local construction site. He sends the Rangers to intercept the chamber before it's opened; however, Lord Zedd, Rita Repulsa, Goldar and Mordant arrive at the construction site before them and release Ooze. The Rangers confront Ooze, who unleashes Oozemen to battle them. While the Rangers defeat the Oozemen, Ooze lays siege to their Command Center, incapacitating Zordon, the one who imprisoned him, and destroying the Rangers' powers.
The Rangers return to the Command Center, finding it destroyed and Zordon outside his time warp, slowly dying. Using the last remaining power in the Command Center, Zordon's assistant Alpha 5 sends the Rangers to the distant planet Phaedos to seek and obtain the Great Power, which can revive Zordon. Meanwhile, Ivan Ooze usurps Rita and Lord Zedd, forcing Goldar and Mordant to be his servants, before sending his Tengu warriors to Phaedos after the Rangers. After arriving on Phaedos, the Rangers battle the Tengu but they are rescued by Dulcea, the planet's Master Warrior. After hearing of Zordon's plight, she agrees to help and takes them to an ancient temple, where she awakens each Rangers' animal spirit; Aisha Campbell is the bear, Rocky DeSantos is the ape, Billy Cranston is the wolf, Kimberly Hart is the crane, Adam Park is the frog, and Tommy Oliver is the falcon. Unable to leave the temple without ageing rapidly, Dulcea transforms into an owl. The Rangers head for the Monolith housing the Great Power. They defeat a living dinosaur skeleton and then the temple's stone guardians, after which they retrieve the Great Power, restoring their Ranger suits and powers.
Back on Earth, Ooze begins selling his ooze as a children's toy, which he uses to hypnotize their parents into serving him. Ooze begins excavating his Ecto-Morphicons, twin war machines built during his reign. After seeing his father serving Ooze, Fred Kelman, a friend of the Rangers, realizes Ooze's plans. Once the Ecto-Morphicons are excavated, Ooze unleashes them on Angel Grove, ordering the parents to walk off a cliff, prompting Fred to recruit other kids to save them. The Rangers return to Earth and use their new animal Ninja Zords to destroy the first of Ivan's Ecto-Morphicons, Scorpitron. Ooze takes control of the other machine, Hornitor, and battles the Rangers, who combine their Zords to form the Ninja Megazord and later the Ninja Mega Falconzord. The Rangers lure Ooze into space and knock him into the path of Ryan's Comet, which destroys him, breaking his spell on the parents, who are reunited with their children, and freeing Zedd and Rita. The Rangers return to the Command Center to find Zordon has died, but still use the Great Power to restore the Command Center and resurrect Zordon, returning him to his time warp. A celebration is held at Angel Grove's Harbor in honor of the Power Rangers.

Cast

Voices

Production

Filming took place in and around Bombo Quarry, Sydney, and Queensland in Australia. This film was released on June 30, 1995, and grossed $66.4 million worldwide, but received mixed reviews from critics. The critics praised its action sequences and performances, but felt that the film was nothing more than a longer episode of the series with better special effects, pointing to the plot and screenplay as the main faults.

Soundtrack

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers The Movie: Original Soundtrack Album is the licensed soundtrack to the film. It was released by Fox Records and Saban Records on June 8, 1995, on audio CD and cassette.
Despite several of the songs heard in the movie being well known and older, the album featured the highest profile musical talent the series had been associated with up until that point. The music of Van Halen, They Might Be Giants, Devo, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Roxette, Dan Hartman, and Buckethead was used throughout the film. The single released to promote the soundtrack was Shampoo's "Trouble", although the commercials for the film used both this and Snap!'s hit "The Power".

Track list

  1. The Power Rangers Orchestra – "Go Go Power Rangers"
  2. Red Hot Chili Peppers – "Higher Ground"
  3. Shampoo – "Trouble"
  4. Devo – "Are You Ready?!"
  5. Snap! – "The Power" produced by Snap!
  6. Fun Tomas – "Kung Fu Dancing"
  7. Van Halen – "Dreams"
  8. Dan Hartman – "Free Ride"
  9. They Might Be Giants – "Sensurround"
  10. Power Jet – "Ayeyaiyai"
  11. Graeme Revell – "Firebird"
  12. Aaron Waters (The Mighty Raw) – "Cross My Line"

Additional artists

The Power Rangers Orchestra consisted of Eric Martin of Mr. Big, renowned studio guitarist Tim Pierce, John Pierce of Pablo Cruise on bass, singer-pianist Kim Bullard, and Matt Sorum of Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver on drums. The solo on the track "Firebird" is performed by Buckethead.

Music

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers The Movie: Original Motion Picture Score is the soundtrack of the score to the movie, released by Varèse Sarabande on June 6, 1995, on Audio CD and Compact Cassette. This release features most of the film score by composer Graeme Revell, except for the track called "Firebird" which he performed along with guitarists Carl Verheyen and Buckethead; this was included in the film's previous soundtrack. The score was performed by the West Australian Symphony Orchestra with orchestrator Tim Simonec conducting.

Track list

  1. "Prologue"
  2. "Ivan Ooze"
  3. "The Great Power/Ninja Power"
  4. "The Tengu's Attack"
  5. "Zordon is Dying"
  6. "The Rangers on Phaedos"
  7. "Dulcea to the Rescue"
  8. "Journey to the Plateau"
  9. "Summoning the Ninjetti/Ninja Ranger"
  10. "Jurassic Ride"
  11. "The Monolith"
  12. "Battle With the Gatekeepers"
  13. "Metamorphicons Confront the Rangers"
  14. "The Megazord Battle"
  15. "Leap to Our Doom"
  16. "Power Rangers Triumph"
  17. "Freddy to the Rescue"
  18. "Zordon is Saved"

Soundtrack credits

  • Produced by Graeme Revell
  • Executive Producer: Robert Townson
  • Music Orchestrated and Conducted by Tim Simonec
  • Additional Orchestrations by Ken Kugler, Larry Kenton and Mark Gasbarro
  • Performed by the West Australian Symphony Orchestra
  • Music Scoring Mixer: Dan Wallin
  • Assisted by Malcolm Luker
  • Music Editor: Josh Winget

Release

Theatrical

The film was released on June 30, 1995, by 20th Century Fox.

Marketing

Family entertainment center chain Discovery Zone promoted the release of the film by giving away Power Rangers Wrist Activators to customers who bought a Discovery Zone Summer Power Pass. Discovery Zone also gave away one of six Power Rangers Movie Challenge cards for free during each visit. This promotion lasted the entire summer.

Home media

The film was released on VHS and LaserDisc in late 1995 and then as a double feature with 1997's Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie on a double-sided DVD in 2001 by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. Bonus features included a theatrical trailer and a "Making Of" featurette. The film was then released separately on a single-sided DVD in 2003.
The film was re-released with different packaging on DVD in 2011. The film was then re-released in 2017 in a bundled set with Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie to coincide with the reboot film Power Rangers.
On May 9, 2018, it was announced that Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie would be released on Blu-ray for the first time by Shout! Factory as an extra disc included in their 25th anniversary DVD SteelBook box set of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers TV series. Shout! Factory released a stand-alone Blu-ray Disc on June 4, 2019.

Reception

Box office

In its opening weekend, the film earned $17 million, coming in fourth behind Apollo 13, Pocahontas, and Batman Forever. It ultimately grossed $66.4 million against a $15 million budget, making it a financial success.

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 30% of 40 critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 4.3/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "For better and for worse -- too often the latter -- Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie captures the thoroughly strange aesthetic of the television series that inspired it." Metacritic gave the film a weighted average score of 40 out of 100, based on reviews from 21 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.
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 likable "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 story-wise, it resembles multiple episodes of the television series strung 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" and stating that it made no sense in timing, that protagonists were not very intelligent, and the actors playing them unremarkable.

Other media

Video games

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (video game) based on the film was released for four different platforms the Super NES, Sega Genesis, Game Boy, and Game Gear.

Comic books

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.

Sequels

The film was followed by Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always.