Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie

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. The film stars the regular television cast of Jason David Frank, Amy Jo Johnson, David Yost, Johnny Yong Bosch, Karan Ashley and Steve Cardenas. 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 the film was released by 20th Century Fox on June 30, 1995. Much like the television season that followed the release, the film used concepts from the Japanese Super Sentai Series Ninja Sentai Kakuranger.
Despite a mixed reaction by critics, the film went on to receive a cult following thanks to the popularity of the TV series. It also grossed $38,187,431 theatrically in the U.S. and $66,433,194 worldwide, making it a financial success.
==Plot==
The Power Rangers, Adam, Kimberly, Billy, Aisha, Rocky, and Tommy, participate with Bulk and Skull in a charity sky dive for Angel Grove in anticipation of Ryan's Comet which will pass near Earth in two days. After the Rangers jump, Bulk and Skull finally work up the nerve to jump as well, landing in a downtown construction site. At the same time the construction workers uncover a giant egg where they are digging. The egg's appearance alerts Zordon, who contacts the Rangers; he explains that 6,000 years ago he tricked a shape-shifter known as Ivan Ooze by trapping him in the egg and buried it to prevent Ooze from taking over the universe. He sends them to recover the egg, but Rita Repulsa, Lord Zedd, Goldar, and Mordant release Ivan before the Rangers arrive. Ivan has several "oozelings" attack the Rangers. While the Rangers are fighting, Ivan infiltrates the Command Center and severely damages it, incapacitating Alpha and sending Zordon outside of the time-warp tube that keeps him alive. The destruction of the Command Center disables the Rangers' morphing powers, so Alpha sends them to the planet Phaedos to search for a greater power to defeat Ivan and save Zordon. Ivan double-crosses Rita and Zedd, trapping them in a snowglobe; not wanting to meet the same fate, Goldar and Mordant submit to him.
Ivan decides to recruit the parents of Angel Grove to dig up his Ectomorphicon Titans, massive Zord-like machines buried long ago. Disguising himself as a carnival wizard, Ivan gives out free jars of ooze to the children of Angel Grove, including the Rangers' young friend, Fred Kelman. The parents are hypnotized by the ooze, and they become a work force for Ivan. Fred follows the parents to uncover Ivan's plans. Meanwhile, the Rangers arrive on Phaedos and fight off an attack from Ivan's minions, the Tengoo. They then meet Dulcea, a warrior who leads the Rangers to the great power. She teaches them to harness their animal spirits and directs them to a monolith which houses the power. The Rangers uncover the power, along with new Zords to match their animal spirits. With their power restored, they return to Earth to face Ivan.
Having reactivated his Ectomorphicon machines, Ivan orders the parents to leap to their deaths at the construction site; Fred recruits their kids, along with Bulk and Skull, to help save them. The Rangers arrive and summon their Zords to stop the Ectomorphicons, and saving the kids from a monorail derailment. When the Rangers destroy one of his two machines, Ivan merges with the other becoming a massive version of himself. The Rangers form the Ninja Megazord, but are heavily outmatched in the fight. Billy suggests they drag Ivan into the path of Ryan's Comet to destroy him. They form the Ninja Falcon Megazord and trick Ivan into chasing them into space, avoiding the explosion from the comet destroying Ivan.
His destruction reverses the hypnotic effects of the ooze. The parents, who have been held back by Fred and the other kids, are saved. The Rangers return to the Command Center where they learn that Zordon had succumbed to the weakness caused by leaving the tube. Tommy suggests using their powers to revive him. They are able to do so, restoring the Command Center and his time-warp tube. During the following celebration, Bulk and Skull are offended that the Power Rangers are given credit for saving the city even though the two of them legitimately had a large part in saving lives.
Meanwhile, in Rita and Lord Zedd's Moon Base, Goldar decides to proclaim himself "King Goldar, the Ruler of the Universe," but when Rita and Lord Zedd enter the chamber, growling at their turncoat behavior, Goldar and Mordant look at each other in shock, only managing to utter "Uh-oh!".
==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
*Jason Narvy as Eugene "Skull" Skullovitch
*Paul Schrier as Farkas "Bulk" Bulkmeier
*Paul Freeman as Ivan Ooze[4]
*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
===Voices===
*Kerrigan Mahan as Goldar
*Robert L. Manahan as Zordon
*Robert Axelrod as Lord Zedd
*Barbara Goodson as Rita Repulsa
*Richard Wood as Alpha 5
*Martin G. Metcalf as Mordant
==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. Shout! Factory released a standalone Blu-ray Disc on June 4, 2019.
==Reception==
===Box office===
In its opening weekend, the film earned $13.1 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 reception===
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". 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 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.[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, 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]
==In other media==
*Four different video game titles based on the film were released for the Super NES, Sega Genesis, Game Boy, 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.
Category:1995 films
Category:20th Century Fox films
Category:Films
Category:Superhero films
Category:Films based on television series
Category:Power Rangers films
Category:Science Fiction films
Category:Saban Entertainment films
Category:Ninja films
Category:Action
Category:Films shot in Sydney
Category:1990s films
Category:Atlantic Records soundtracks
Category:Rated PG
Category:Nickelodeon films