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 Kyoryu 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. It is the first installment in Power Rangers film series. The film was released in between the second and third seasons of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, but are incompatible with season three, which provides a different explanation for the Rangers gaining their Ninja Ranger powers and Ninjazords, indicating they are set in different continuities.

"Power Rangers: The Movie" redirects here. For the 2015 fan film, see Power/Rangers. For the 2017 film, see Power Rangers (film).
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie
Theatrical release poster
Directed byBryan Spicer
Produced by
Screenplay byArne Olsen
Story by
  • John Kamps
  • Arne Olsen
Starring
Music byGraeme Revell
CinematographyPaul Murphy
Edited byWayne Wahrman
Production
company
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release date
  • June 30, 1995 (1995-06-30)
Running time
95 minutes[2]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$15 million
Box office$66.4 million[3]

Filming took place in and around Sydney and Queensland, Australia. This film was released June 30, 1995 and grossed $66.43 million worldwide,[3] 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. However, it is considered a cult classic.

Plot

The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers participate with Bulk and Skull in a charity skydive for the Angel Grove observatory, in anticipation of Ryan's Comet which is scheduled to pass by in two days. Bulk and Skull miss the target landing zone and accidentally land in a construction site where a giant egg has been unearthed. Lord Zedd, Rita Repulsa, Goldar, and Mordant arrive at the construction site and crack open the egg, releasing sorcerer Ivan Ooze, a morphological being who ruled Earth with an iron fist 6,000 years ago before he was overthrown by Zordon and a group of young warriors. The Rangers find and confront him, but Ivan unleashes some ooze monsters on them. While the Rangers battle and successfully defeat them, the fight distracts them long enough to allow Ivan to escape and he lays siege to the Rangers' Command Center and incapacitates Zordon, robbing the Rangers of their powers. As the Rangers return to the Command Center, they find it destroyed and Zordon, being outside his time portal, aging and dying.

Zordon's assistant Alpha 5 sends the Rangers to the distant planet Phaedos to obtain the Great Power and save Zordon. On the Moon, Ivan usurps Rita and Zedd, trapping them in a snow globe, and forces Goldar and Mordant to be his servants, then sends his Tengu warriors to Phaedos and begins building an army. He uses children to bring his ooze to their parents, and it hypnotizes them into becoming his workforce to dig up his Ecto-Morphicon Titans, twin war machines built during his reign. When Fred Kelman, a friend of the Rangers', discovers his father missing, he finds him working at the construction site and discovers Ivan's plans.

On Phaedos, the Rangers are almost killed by the Tengu, but are rescued by Dulcea, Phaedos' Master Warrior. She initially tells them to leave for their own safety, but after hearing of Zordon's plight, she agrees to help them and takes them to an ancient ruined temple where the Rangers will have to overcome obstacles to acquire the power of the Ninjetti. Dulcea awakens each Rangers' animal spirit: Aisha is the bear, Rocky is the ape, Billy is the wolf, Kimberly is the crane, Adam is the frog and Tommy is the falcon. The Rangers make their way to the Monolith housing the Great Power, defeating its Stone Gargoyle guardians, and retrieve the Great Power.

On Earth, Ivan's Ecto-Morphicons are completely unearthed, and he unleashes them on Angel Grove, ordering the parents to commit suicide at the construction site. Fred recruits Bulk, Skull and the other kids head to the construction site to save their parents. The Rangers return with their new animal-themed Ninja Zords and, after a difficult struggle, destroy one of Ivan's Ecto-Morphicons, Scorpitron. Ivan takes control of Hornitor and becomes a giant and battles the Rangers himself as the Rangers combine their Zords to form the Ninja Megazord and later the Ninja Falcon Megazord, while with the kids push the parents back, while Fred, with help from Bulk and Skull, sprays them with a large amount of water. The Rangers lead Ivan into space right into the path of Ryan's Comet, which destroys him. Ivan's death breaks his hypnosis spell on the parents, who are reunited with their children. The Rangers then return to the Command Center, but are distraught to find Zordon has died. Then, they figure out how to use the Great Power to restore the Command Center and resurrect Zordon, returning him to his plasma Tube. Everything returns to normal in Angel Grove as a celebration is held at the Harbor with fireworks shooting up to the sky and a message saying "Thank You Power Rangers", which offends Bulk and Skull, despite the fact that they just played a major part in saving people's lives.

In a mid-credits scene, Goldar briefly lounges in Zedd's throne, being served by Mordant, only to panic when Zedd and Rita appear, having been released after Ivan was destroyed, and not very happy over Goldar and Mordant siding with Ivan earlier.

Cast

Voices

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

Release

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 (with 33 messages) 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.[5]

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 (this time as two single-sided DVD discs) 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.[6] Shout! Factory released a standalone Blu-ray Disc on June 4, 2019.[7]

Reception

Box office

In its opening weekend, the film earned $17 million, coming in fourth behind Apollo 13, Pocahontas, and Batman Forever.[8] It ultimately grossed $66.4 million against a $15 million budget, making it a financial success.[3]

Critical response

The film holds a 37% "Rotten" rating with a 4.5 average score based on 35 reviews on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, with the site's consensus saying, "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".[9] 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.[10]

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.[11] 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 ("curious that, 6 thousand years ago, he would have had an English name"), lacked personalities, and that the scenes of monsters rampaging through the city hearkened back to the worst Japanese monster films.[12] 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.[13]

Other media

Sequel
Main article: Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie

A sequel titled Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie, was released in 1997.

Video games

Four different video game titles based on the film were released for 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.

References
  1. Petrikin, Chris (February 18, 1998). "Fox renamed that toon". Variety. Retrieved March 31, 2018.
  2. "MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS (PG) (!)". British Board of Film Classification. 1995-07-11. Retrieved 2013-03-19.
  3. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie at Box Office Mojo
  4. Gritten, David (1995-06-28). "Oberon to Ooze--It's All in a Day's Work". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-08-22.
  5. "Discovery Zone Ad- MMPR Movie (1995)". YouTube. Alphabet Inc. September 30, 2012. Retrieved August 3, 2019.
  6. "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Complete Series [25th Anniversary Limited Steelbook Edition] + Exclusive Lithograph". Shout! Factory. 2018-08-07. Retrieved May 16, 2018.
  7. "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie". Shout! Factory. 2019-06-12. Retrieved March 19, 2019.
  8. Dutka, Elaine (1995-07-06). "The Sky's the Limit at Box Office Movies: A total of about $154 million in receipts sets a five-day record. 'Apollo 13' is atop the field with $38.5 million". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-10-30.
  9. "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved October 2, 2018.
  10. Thomas, Kevin (1995-06-30). "A Dazzling Leap From TV to Big Screen for 'Rangers'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-08-22.
  11. James, Caryn (1995-06-30). "FILM REVIEW; For Power Rangers, Bikinis Are Not The Issue". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-08-07.
  12. "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie". RogerEbert.com. June 30, 1995. Retrieved 2010-08-07.
  13. Lasalle, Mick (1995-06-30). "Mighty Mindless 'Rangers'". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2010-08-25.
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