Mighty Moshin' Emo Rangers (2005 short film)

Mighty Moshin' Emo Rangers is a short film first created as a fun fan project in 2005 by creators Chris Phillips and Nick Pittom. The two never imagined how much its popularity would take off from there; leading to a TV show, tie-in merchandise, endless fan art, a Flash game, various artists doing music covers, YouTube reviews, cosplayers, this wiki, a Facebook page, a MySpace presence, YouTube channels, notability on Wikipedia, a TVTropes entry, Spotify and Soundcloud playlists, Sims game custom content, and a lifetime of fame/notoriety for the main cast.
==Plot==
When the Evil Empress lands on Earth's moon, she decides the first city she will conquer is Chelmsford. She trips the Emo Sensors, awakening the interdimensional floating head entity known to most only as Captain Emohead. Captain Emohead recruits five depressed teenagers to become part-time superheroes to stop the Empress. Meanwhile, the Empress begins hypnotizing other teens in the area to turn them into the Hoodie Patrol, her mind slaves that do her evil bidding. The Emo Rangers are given powers, and then are set loose to save Chelmsford from the Hoodies. However, Colonel Crusher shows up to deal with the Rangers. They morph for the first time in order to stand a chance against him. Not long afterward, the Evil Empress grows him giant-sized. The Rangers are told to summon their Zords to become the Emo Megazord. While Crusher initially appears to be winning the battle, the Rangers get just enough of an upperhand at one point to buy themselves time for Captain Emohead to inform them of the Emo Guitar/Sword. The Rangers activate this weapon, using its power chords as part of an energy attack they deliver as a finishing blow.
With Crusher gone, Captain Emohead celebrates with the Rangers, giving them insight into their new lives as Rangers. They return to their apartment to continue celebrating, seeing a chance to finally boost their low self-esteem.
==Cast==
===Rangers===
Designations 	Rangers	Actors
Introspective 	Ross 	Ross Fretten
Chaos Mohawk 	Luke 	Luke Markey
Weeping Tears 	Vicken 	Vicki Godby (neé Symes)
Bleeding Heart	Stef 	Stef Braithwaite
Chronic Stoner	John 	John Penn
Ross is chosen to be the Introspective Ranger, due to his constant thinking about his own mind. He proves to be a so-so leader - as effective as an emo can be. Luke has a hatred or mistrust of most things in life, and is therefore granted the Chaos Mohawk power. John is given the Chronic Stoner powers, based on his continued use of marijuana. Stef's bitterness over being dumped and humiliated in front of her entire high school allows her to become the Bleeding Heart Ranger. Vicken is a poet who is sad for unknown reasons, allowing her to become the Weeping Tears Ranger. In this short, the Rangers were given very little character development aside from their initial defining Ranger traits.
===Allies===
* Luke Cole as Captain Emohead, a really powerful interdimensional floating emo head of unknown origin.
* (Uncredited) as the voice of Emo 5, the captain's robotic assistant.
===Villains===
* Kathryn Alder as Evil Empress (voice by Laura Bradley)
* Chris Phillips as the voice of Colonel Crusher
* Chase Peel and Kyle Johnson as several Hoodie Patrollers
** Uncredited extras as additional Hoodie Patrollers
The Evil Empress is a goth-themed villain, for some unknown reason in-universe. This is a possible reference to the fact that goth and emo subcultures don't like getting confused with each other. The [[Hoodie Patrol]lers appear to be a social commentary on shy / edgy teenagers who like to hide from the world behind hoodie shirts. Supposedly, insisting on wearing one constantly can gradually rob one of the ability to appear to others as having a personality at all, becoming just another soulless automaton in the eyes of peers. Thus, it was deemed appropriate to portray the Hoodies as being like the Putty Patrol from Power Rangers - soulless automatons. Colonel Crusher is intended to be a loose Goldar parody.
==Crew==
* Chris Phillips (writer, producer, and director)
* Nick Pittom (producer, 3D designer, and animator)
* Kyle Johnson (fight stunt coordinator)
* Zach Mikel (music supervisor)
* Gale Benning (costume designer and stage manager / prop designer)
* Dominic Sinacola (sound design and mixing)
==Development==
===Inspiration===
The creators, Chris Phillips and Nick Pittom, have explained two different sources of inspiration for how they inceived the idea for the show. The first explanation given is that in November of 2004, Chris was upset due to a breakup with his girlfriend of the time. Nick told him to: "Quit being emo, you Emo Ranger!" Chris replied with: ♫"You / Mighty / Moshin' / Emo Rangers! ."♫ as a joking response. Another source of inspiration, as described by Chris from an old interview: 
"I was sitting at my computer chatting to a friend, [Patrick Willis]. Pat sent me a picture of him dressed as a ninja leaping across a recording studio, and I said: 'You look like an Emo Ranger!' 
I sat there for a few minutes, and thought: 'That sounds kind of funny!' And then, [I] just heard in my head the term 'Mighty Moshin' Emo Ranger'. The more I thought about the name, the more I was convinced there should be a show called Mighty Moshin' Emo Rangers - but there wasn't. Which was annoying, because I wanted to watch it!"
Chris and Nick, both professional video editors at the time and being inspired by this in-joke, set out to pursue their idea by using a Sony HDR-HC1 camcorder to film a low-budget Power Rangers parody. They were able to get a handful of volunteers to portray their characters. The Ranger actors, for some reason, agreed to have their characters share first names with the actors themselves.
===Costume design===
Ranger actors wore thin turtlenecks of their respective Ranger color beneath a thin layer of black spandex. They were given studded belts and tennis shoes to wear that further added to their emo essence. They wore black spandex gloves as well. The helmets were made out of papier-mache, with accessories and visors made of cardboard. Eye slits were extremely tiny, making it very hard for the actors to see through their suits. This is one reason why they have most of their fights unmorphed: to ease up the choreography issues that would otherwise ensue with trying to do blocking for mostly-blind actors. Emo Wristband Morphers and many other props were made from cardboard and aluminum.
==Production==
Main article: Mighty Moshin' Emo Rangers (series)
The entire short film was shot in a matter of days, and edited together in a few weeks' time. It was released to a YouTube channel in late 2005, and very quickly caught MTV's attention. This would lead to three more episodes being made, and to MTV ordering remixes of the short film's content (including outtakes), and to the newly-shot shorts, to make a first season for broadcast on MTV-UK. The ready demand on MTV-UK for more and more content led to MTV giving the budget necessary for a second season, which began production in 2007. However, several delays in editing and broadcast contract negotiations would lead to that season not being released until 2010 - after some of the pop culture jokes had begun to lose their relevance.
==Reception==
Exact ratings are unknown, but the short has a little shy of 1 million views on YouTube. It began as a sensation on MySpace, and rose to fame from there on MTV. General reviews have been mixed, but have called the show "amusing, stupid fun." The franchise spawned from it is one of the most popular parodies / knockoffs of Power Rangers in history.
==See also==
* Mighty Moshin' Emo Rangers: The Series
* Emo Rangers 2015 Anniversary Special
* Mighty Moshin' Emo Rangers: The Video Game
* "Day of the Dumpster": The episode of Power Rangers being most directly parodied by this short film
Category: Movies