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Power Rangers
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Power Rangers, a long-running American children's television series, originated from the Japanese tokusatsu Super Sentai Series. The American producers did not simply make an English dub of the original, but rather put together a "new" production with English-speaking actors spliced in with the original Japanese footage in varying ratios. Due to the very Japanese nature of many of the Super Sentai Series' stories and design, the American shows vary detail to appeal to a Western audience.
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Power Rangers, a long-running American children's television series, originated from the Japanese tokusatsu Super Sentai Series. The American producers did not simply make an English dub of the original, but rather put together a "new" production with English-speaking actors spliced in with the original Japanese footage in varying ratios. Due to the very Japanese nature of many of the Super Sentai Series' stories and design, the American shows vary detail to appeal to a Western audience. However, many of the action sequences featuring the characters in costume and the mecha (referred to as "Zords" in the English series) are typically dubbed.
Broadcasting summary
The series that began the franchise, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, began broadcasting as part of the Fox Kids group of programs that aired on the Fox network. It lasted for three seasons (from 1993 to 1996). The franchise has continued, and has consisted of 16 television seasons, 14 different series, and two theatrical films. The latest series, Power Rangers: RPM, debuted on March 7, 2009.
Saban Entertainment distributed the Power Rangers series from 1993 until the end of 2001, and Fox broadcast it until the fall of 2002. The Walt Disney Company purchased the franchise as a part of the buyout that took place in 2001. This resulted in Fox Family Worldwide becoming ABC Family Worldwide. This buyout also included Saban Entertainment becoming BVS Entertainment, from News Corporation, Fox's parent company, and Haim Saban. The show continued to air on Fox until its Fox Kids package was renamed the "FoxBox" in the United States. Since September 2002, all Power Rangers shows have aired on various Disney-owned networks (ABC Kids, Toon Disney and Jetix channels worldwide). ABC Family, another Disney-owned network, also used to air Power Rangers until it did away with its Jetix timeslot after August 31, 2006. Several ABC affiliate broadcasting groups, most notably Hearst-Argyle Television and Allbritton have declined to air most of the Power Rangers series aired since 2005 on ABC Kids, due to the lack of FCC-compliant educational and informational content in the programs.
An article in The New Zealand Herald identifies RPM as the last season of the Power Rangers run. Production manager Sally Campbell stated in an interview "...at this stage we will not be shooting another season".
Summary
The Power Rangers
A Power Ranger, a fictional individual, "morphs" from a person into a powerful superhero — generally wearing a color-coded battle suit usually made of spandex or other skin-tight material and a helmet with an opaque visor. In many cases, the helmet serves to protect his or her secret identity. In some cases, more powerful Rangers may have extra shielding on their suit to protect them from strong blows.
A morphed Ranger generally possesses superhuman strength, durability, and ability in hand-to-hand combat. Starting with the Disney-created series, unmorphed Rangers usually possess superhuman abilities such as super-speed or teleportation unrelated to their Ranger abilities.
Rangers appear to retain their original physiology beneath their suits when in morphed form: viewers have seen Rangers' helmets removed or broken on numerous occasions,
revealing his or her natural form underneath. Helmets aside, the suits are donned and removed nearly instantaneously with a glow of light or some other effect. Rangers can also be "de-morphed" involuntarily when suffering significant physical damage.
Rangers regularly operate in teams of five, with a special sixth Ranger frequently joining the team part way into the series. a core team of three will later expand to include additional Rangers. Each Ranger's suit and energy spectrum will match a specific color, with red, yellow, and blue being joined by some combination of pink, green, black, or white. Rangers may be named after their respective colors, such as Red Ranger, Blue Ranger, etc., but numbers or other names may also be used. There is usually no more than one Ranger of a given color on a team, but exceptions of this rule are generally given alternate names (in Time Force, there were two Rangers with red-colored costumes; the first was the Red Time Force Ranger, the second was the Quantum Ranger). Each team's costumes are nearly identical aside from color and helmet design (most notably the shape of the opaque visor) and perhaps a numerical designation. Any additional Rangers will regularly have additional costume modifications, usually some form of altered suit design and/or armor.
The Rangers' color designation influences their wardrobe throughout the series: their civilian clothing often features the same color as their Ranger color. This correlation was joked about in Dino Thunder when Tommy Oliver (a former Green Ranger, White Ranger, and twice a Red Ranger) became the new Black Dino Ranger; he said that he had to go shopping because he did not own enough black-colored clothing.
Elements of a Power Rangers season
Each team of Power Rangers, with a few exceptions, obeys a general set of conventions, outlined at the beginning of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and implied, though not stated explicitly, throughout many of the other incarnations. Thus the Power Rangers may not use their Ranger powers for personal gain and or for escalating a fight, which explains why the Rangers do not simply crush the small monsters by means of their Megazord. The Power Rangers are also forbidden to disclose their identities to the general public, barring extenuating circumstances, although this rule was disregarded in Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue, Power Rangers: S.P.D. and Power Rangers: Operation Overdrive, in which they were public servants (rescue squad, police officers, etc.) Following a Spartacus-inspired scene by Angel Grove's townspeople, this rule was also disregarded at the conclusion of Power Rangers in Space and, to a lesser extent, Power Rangers: Mystic Force. The penalty for disobeying these rules, at least in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, would be the loss of their power.
The Power Rangers have a somewhat standardized arsenal: each Ranger is generally carries a weapon such as a laser gun and/or a sword. Each Ranger also has a secondary set of weapons that can often combine to form a larger weapon (usually a cannon). As the series progresses, one or more of the Rangers are also usually given a motorcycle for long-distance travel, as well as individual Zords. In many series, a Ranger is also given additional Zords or weapons. In some cases, one Ranger may receive something that other Rangers may not have; an example of this is the Battlizer given to the Red Ranger of each series since Power Rangers in Space. Although much of the arsenal can also be found in Super Sentai, there are usually at least some that are not, generally added for the express purpose of marketing toys designed and sold by Bandai America.
Power Rangers series regularly have villains of their own make which do not appear in the Sentai footage, though for budget and footage reasons episodes always include carry-overs from the Japanese source material. Less commonly, some series use only the Sentai designs and footage, though despite this some sets have to be replicated for original footage if needed. There was also one instance when to maintain the trend of the Sixth Ranger for a series where only five existed in the source footage, the Titanium Ranger was created especially for Lightspeed Rescue.
In seasons following Power Rangers in Space (1998), it became common for each team to follow a separate storyline from those of previous incarnations. In later seasons, it became a tradition for two teams of Power Rangers to team up to take on a villain. In Power Rangers: Wild Force, the tenth incarnation of Power Rangers, this is taken to the next level, as ten Red Rangers teamed up in the episode "Forever Red", and in Power Rangers: Operation Overdrive a team of former rangers from various incarnations of the series teamed up with the Overdrive Rangers to defeat an alliance formed by the son of Rita & Lord Zedd, Thrax, in the episode Once a Ranger. The only seasons thus far to not feature such a team-up are Power Rangers: Ninja Storm, due to a shift back to non-SAG talent when production moved to New Zealand, Power Rangers: Mystic Force and Power Rangers: Jungle Fury, due to budgetary reasons. This was somewhat rectified when Xander, the Green Mystic Force Ranger, and Tori, the Blue Ninja Storm Ranger, appeared in the Operation Overdrive crossover two-parter, "Once A Ranger".
Traditionally the arsenal of a Ranger team, especially the Zords, gets destroyed at the end of the season in order to destroy the final monster (often the main villain). The Rangers also tend to give up their powers, though they remain available for later team-ups (For instance, at the end of Ninja Storm, the Rangers sacrificed their powers to imprison Lothor. Once Lothor was freed, however, they were able to get their powers back in order to fight him).
Characters
Series
Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers is a ten-episode miniseries that served as an introduction to Zeo and also used footage from Kakuranger.
Colors
As in the Super Sentai series that provided the basis of the Power Rangers series, the color palette of a Power Ranger team has varied greatly over the years.
The Titanium Ranger became the first original Power Ranger developed for the English-language television series.
In Time Force, the sixth ranger, the Quantum Ranger, has a red-colored suit distinguishable from the Red Ranger's suit by its black accents and the jagged arrows.
Ninja Storm has the Crimson and Navy Rangers that wear suits of darker hues of red and blue, respectively.
S.P.D. includes nine additional rangers, a final count of fourteen rangers — the most in all of the Power Rangers franchise history. Both the Omega Ranger (who wears a White suit) and the Shadow Ranger (who wears a primarily Black suit) are regular characters, whereas the Kat Ranger (who wears a primarily Orange suit) and the Nova Ranger (who wears a Silver suit) are only seen for one episode each. The S.P.D. A-Squad wear the same colors as the main team.
Mystic Force has two allies who do not fall under the basic color schemes. The Solaris Knight wears gold armor over navy blue spandex and the Wolf Warrior wears dark red armor.
Jungle Fury has the Violet Wolf Ranger who wears a violet suit. The Shark Ranger (cyan), the Bat Ranger (black), and the Elephant Ranger (green) join Lightspeed Rescue's Titanium Ranger and S.P.D.'s A-Squad as characters with no basis in the Super Sentai footage.
Spin-off
Masked Rider, a spin-off of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, represents an American adaptation of the tokusatsu series Kamen Rider BLACK RX, one of the many series of the popular Kamen Rider Series. Saban produced and aired it in 1995.
The main title character of Masked Rider featured in a three-part Mighty Morphin Power Rangers episode (A Friend in Need) before his own series started. The Rangers themselves were never mentioned in the television run of Masked Rider, however, as Saban reformatted the series to sever links with Power Rangers, given that their popularity had been gradually beginning to slide following the first films. However, the Rangers were featured in the home video release of the Masked Rider story Super Gold, in the form of narrated clips from A Friend in Need, and also made a guest appearance in Masked Rider's short-lived comic book adaptation.
Motion pictures
The Power Rangers series have also generated two theatrical films, both distributed by 20th Century Fox. As of 2007, Fox's home entertainment division, long after Fox's parent company News Corporation and Haim Saban sold Fox Family (currently ABC Family), including Saban Entertainment and the Power Rangers franchise, to the Walt Disney Company, still maintains worldwide home entertainment rights to these two Power Rangers films.
Power Morphicon
The Power Morphicon, the first Power Rangers Convention, took place in 2007. It celebrated fifteen years on the air at the time, from 1993.
Guests who attended included:
- Austin St. John, who portrayed Jason Lee Scott
- Steve Cardenas, who portrayed Rocky DeSantos
- Walter Jones, who portrayed Zack Taylor
- Johnny Yong Bosch, who portrayed Adam Park
- Paul Schrier and Jason Narvy, who portrayed Bulk and Skull
- Daniel Southworth, who portrayed Eric Myers
- Emma Lahana, who portrayed Kira Ford
- Matt Austin, who portrayed Bridge Carson
- Richard Brancatisano, who portrayed Xander Bly
- James Maclurcan, who portrayed Mackenzie Hartford
- Samuell Benta, who portrayed Will Aston
Some of the panels included:
- "Forever Red", interviewing Red Rangers St. John, Cardenas, Southworth, and Maclurcan * "Unsung Heroes", where Jones, Bosch, Schrier, Narvy, Austin, Brancatisano, and Benta were interviewed
- "Where Are They Now", where St. John, Cardenas, Bosch, Narvy, and Tony Oliver were interviewed
- "Bulk and Skull", where Schrier and Narvy were interviewed
- "Origins of Red", where St. John alone was interviewed
Deborah Estelle Phillips and Kevin Kleinberg, of the Time Force season, showed up as well.
DVD releases
As of 2009 30 USA DVD releases of Power Rangers exist, namely:
- Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, 1995; 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
- Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie, 1997; 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
- Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie/Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie, 1995, 1997; 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (DVD compilation set of both movies.)
- The Best of the Power Rangers: The Ultimate Rangers, 2003; BVHE (DVD compilation of episodes from five different seasons of Power Rangers. The episodes include Forever Red and White Light [Tommy's reintroduction as the White Power Ranger])
- Power Rangers: Ninja Storm Volumes 1–5, 2003; BVHE
- Power Rangers: Dino Thunder Volumes 1–5, 2004; BVHE
- Power Rangers: S.P.D. Volumes 1–5, 2005; BVHE
- Power Rangers: Mystic Force Volumes 1–3 and 'Dark Wish', 2006; BVHE
- Power Rangers: Operation Overdrive Volumes 1–5, 2007; BVHE (First time in the US an entire season has been released.)
- Power Rangers: Jungle Fury Volumes 1 & 2, 2008; BVHE
Internationally, however, there have been additional DVD releases (such as Lightspeed Rescue, Time Force and Wild Force in Germany) and as free DVDs attached to the Jetix magazine, published in the UK. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 1, Season 2, and Season 3 Power Rangers Zeo, and Power Rangers Turbo have been released in Germany as well. Additionally, Ninja Storm, Dino Thunder, S.P.D., Mystic Force, and Operation Overdrive saw complete boxset releases in the UK. In France, Mighty Morphin Season 1 and Season 2 have been released in their entirety in 5 episode DVD volumes, and the first 25 episodes of Season 3 were released in May 2008. In Italy, Mighty Morphin, Zeo, Dino Thunder and S.P.D. have been released in their entirety. Zeo and S.P.D. were made available as commercial DVDs, while Mighty Morphin and Dino Thunder were issued as bi-weekly volumes at newsstands.
iTunes
Power Rangers episodes have become available on the iTunes Store. So far, part of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and all of Power Rangers: S.P.D. are available, and the first 26 episodes of Power Rangers: Mystic Force are as well. Also, Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie is the only Power Rangers movie currently available on iTunes.
Disney Xtreme Digital
Power Rangers is one of several shows made available for free online streaming, on Disney.com's official video streaming website . This scheme allows any U.S.-based web-user to watch entire episodes up to two weeks after broadcast. Episodes are even sometimes released via the website before airing on TV. However, most of the episodes have not yet begun streaming on the website and only sneak peeks and teaser trailers are available.
International airings
Power Rangers has always had success in foreign markets and still airs in many countries today, except for New Zealand where the series is being filmed today.
- Australia: Airs on Channel Seven and FOX8
- Brazil: Airs on Jetix Brazil and Rede Globo
- Bulgaria: Airs on Jetix
- Canada: Airs on Family
- Czech Republic: MMPR aired on Supermax 1995-1999, aired on Prima TV 1997-2000, aired on Nova TV 1999-2003 ; Airs now on Jetix (Operation Overdrive/Mystic Force)
- Chile: Airs on Jetix
- France: Airs on TF1 and Jetix France
- Germany: Airs on Jetix Germany, Super RTL and RTL
- Greece: Airs on Jetix Hellas
- India: Airs on Jetix
- Indonesia: Airs on Indosiar, previously on RCTI
- Israel: Airs on Channel 2, Kids Channel, Now Airs on Jetix
- Italy: Airs on Italia 1 and Jetix Italia
- Japan: All Power Rangers shows and movies are dubbed into Japanese for television and video. The voice actors are often pulled from past Super Sentai casts, which also leads to the English-dubbed action sequences being "re-dubbed" or "restored" back to Japanese as well.
- Latin America: Airs on Jetix
- Malaysia: Airs on RTM, initially sponsored by Litt Tak, the distributor of Bandai toys in Malaysia
- Mexico: Airs on Jetix and Canal 5
- Middle East: Airs on MBC 3
- Philippines: Airs on ABS-CBN (Mighty Morphin, Zeo, Turbo, Wild Force, Ninja Storm, Dino Thunder, S.P.D., Mystic Force); Studio 23 (Zeo) and Hero (Ninja Storm, Dino Thunder and S.P.D.). The series is dubbed in Filipino. Cartoon Network (Philippines) (Wild Force, Ninja Storm, Dino Thunder, S.P.D. and Mystic Force, Operation Overdrive is now on air) The series is dubbed in English.
- Poland: Airs on Jetix Polish, Polsat and TV4
- Portugal: Airs on SIC
- Singapore: Airs on MediaCorp TV 12 Central
- South Africa: Airs on M-Net & K-All Day
- South Korea: Airs on JEI TV. Bandai of Korea dubs the original Super Sentai series from Japanese into Korean and airs it as "Power Rangers," and has so far had Dino Thunder, S.P.D., Magic Force, Treasure Force and Wild Spirit.
- Spain: Aired on Tele 5, Antena 3, Canal Megatrix, FoxKids Spain and now on Jetix Spain.
- UK: Airs on Jetix UK and CITV
- Zimbabwe: Airs on ZBC and Star Kidz and Kidz.Net
See also
External links
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- Power Rangers Universe Wikia
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