Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"[[By the Power of Greyskull|It's Morphin' Time!]]"''}}

 

 

Long ago, Zordon [[Sealed Evil in a Can|sealed the evil Rita Repulsa away in a space dumpster]] on a passing asteroid (although fans have been confused because it was not specified as such), but some careless astronauts accidentally freed her. Taking up residence on the moon, she declares war on Earth. Unable to fight her himself due to being trapped in a time warp, he asks his assistant, Alpha 5, to summon five "teenagers with attitude" in order to stop Rita. He gave them the Power Coins, allowing them to morph into [[Color Coded for Your Convenience|rainbow-colored]], [[Everything's Better with Dinosaurs|dinosaur-inspired]] superheroes and proceed to teach lessons of many kinds.

Gets a bit more interesting with the introduction of the [[Heel Face Turn|villain-turned-hero]] [[Sixth Ranger|Green Ranger]] [[Breakout Character|Tommy Oliver]], which shakes up the character dynamics and introduces a new zord to shake up the mech battles. The season was supposed to end after episode 40 with a [[Grand Finale]], "Doomsday," but was so popular that they commissioned additional Japan-made fight footage to continue the season. It is largely at this point where the series started making plans for a more long-term commitment. Tommy had his powers drained from him before "Doomsday" (an adapted story where the Green Ranger's Sentai counterpart died) only for a time. Afterward, he get his powers back [[Hour of Power|with restrictions]] in an effort to further ride the popularity of the character. The Toei-filmed action footage made some efforts to reflect the plot and characterizations of Power Rangers (such as the Blue Ranger's tech-savvineess and the romantic relationship between Green and Pink) and is referred to as "[[Fan Nickname|Zyu2]]" footage in fan circles.

 

 

 

The new enemies gathering around Rita and Zedd prove to be too much for the Rangers, and their Power Coins are destroyed. Desperate, they go off in search of the legendary creator of the coins, an aloof sage named Ninjor, who forges them new Power Coins based on modern creatures and the art of ninjitsu (but still retains the old suits and weapons).

** The [[Big Bad]]: Rita (who was essentially [[The Dragon|Dragon]] to the Satanic [[Bigger Bad|Lokar]]), then [[The Man Behind the Man|Zedd]], then Rita ''and'' Zedd, then Master Vile for part of Season 3.

** [[The Dragon]] / [[The Brute]]: Goldar was the main one, but he was often [[Co-Dragons]] with someone: Scorpina in Season 1 and Rito in Season 3.

** The [[Evil Genius]]: Finster.

** The [[Tagalong Kid]]: Squatt and Baboo.

*** [[Everything's Worse with Bears]]: Aisha

*** [[Frogs and Toads]]:Adam

* [[Never Say "Die"]]: Averted in "The Green Candle Part II."

{{quote|'''Jason:''' "If I don't get to the candle in time, he'll lose his powers."

* [[Adaptation Dye Job]]: The toy version of the White Shogunzord from Season 3 was repainted as a Pink Shogunzord. This made little sense as it was shared by both the White and Pink Rangers in the show, and created inconsistencies when the pink version was used for [[Off-the-Shelf FX]] for the American-filmed Ninja Ultrazord sequence. The toy versions of the Crane Ninjazord and Lion Thunderzord were also repainted as well; the Crane Ninjazord had its red parts repainted into pink; while the toy version of the Lion Thunderzord had all the green parts (except the dome) repainted black, but these changes are not as obvious.

* [[Adaptation Expansion]]: The "Zyu2" footage, which featured all new monsters and fight sequences using the ''Zyuranger'' suits and mecha, were filmed specifically for ''Power Rangers'' and are not actually adapted footage from any ''Zyuranger'' sequel (despite the [[Fan Nickname]]).

* [[The Adjectival Superhero]]

* [[Adults Are Useless]]: Most of the adults on the show are pretty incompetent.

** Both series were fun, but far from perfect. The Hamilton comics took place in Season 2 but were written like "Season 1, but with Zedd and the Thunder Zords" (Zedd would get headaches, etc), and the Marvel comics were a strange combination of Season 3 and the movie (Rito would be present in one issue, then Mordant the next, etc). Also, neither series got the order of the morph call right.

*** To be fair, the "Season 1, but with Zedd and the Thunder Zords" bit only happened in the first issue of the initial mini-series, a letter writer called them out on it and they had admitted they had done it prior to Zedd's real introduction.

* [[Comm Links]]: The Rangers' wristwatch-like communicators.

* [[Commuting on a Bus]]: Kimberly in Season 3.

* [[Having a Gay Old Time]]: So, Rita destroying the Earth is part of her "coming out party?" Kids, [[Space Whale Aesop|don't make fun of homosexuals, or they will send monsters down from the heavens to ravage the Earth.]]

** Or debutantes, depending on your context.

* [[He's Back]]

* [[Heroic BSOD]]: After losing the Megazord in "Green With Evil, Part 4," the Rangers go through this. Only Jason wants to keep fighting.

* [[I Know Madden Kombat]]: Kimberly, who used gymnastics in her fighting style.

* [[Implacable Man]]: The MegaTigerzord in its debut episode; as it casually walks up to the [[Monster of the Week]] and smacks it and its clones around.

** The Dragonzord Battle Mode was sometimes referred to as the Dragonzord Fighting Mode or the MegaDragonzord (which was also the name of the rarely used Dino Megazord/Dragonzord combination).

** The Power Weapons had different names in the episode "Different Drum": Might Mace, Dino Daggers, Battle Bow and Cosmic Cannon (though the Power Sword retained its usual name).

{{quote|'''Alpha''': "Aye-yi-yi-yi-yi!"

'''Zack''': "Alpha, Billy's trying to concentrate." }}

* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]: Mainly used for the [[Monsters of the Week]]. The Lizzinator was [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]], Fang and Vampirus were both [[Peter Lorre]], and Dischordia was [[Ethel Merman]]. Octophantom and Globbor kind of sounded like Bobcat Goldthwait but that may have been unintentional.

** Ninjor's voice was based on [[Dudley Do-Right]], despite most people thinking it's [[Looney Tunes|Marvin the Martian]] he's spoofing.

** Rita's default voice appears to be a constant, shrill scream of some sort.

* [[Nothing Is the Same Anymore]]: While MMPR had a few [[Wham! Episode|Wham Episodes]] the main premise remained the same for about the first 130 episodes with the most of them being stand alone with the Rangers fighting the [[Monster of the Week]] with the occasional 2 or 3 episode stories where the Rangers faced a challenge, however by the end the Rangers always succeeded and left with more powers and weapons than they had before, which pretty much reduced the [[Big Bad]] to [[Harmless Villain]] status. However that changed around the midway point of season 3 with the 3 part Episode Changing of the Zords. While the Rangers did eventually win and get the Shogunzords, Lord Zedd and Rita still had the Pink Rangers powers, the Falconzord, Ninjor trapped in a bottle, plus they came as close to killing a Ranger as they ever would. After that the show became more arc driven with only occasional stand alone episodes and the Rangers playing defense for the remaining 25 episodes of the series.

* [[Oculothorax]]: Eye Guy's core form is one.

* [[Off-the-Shelf FX]]: Rita's shrunken banishment at the start of Season 2, as well as the Ninja and Shogun Ultrazords in Season 3, were all done using toys... with predictable results.

* [[Oh Crap]]: Rito in "Ninja Quest Part IV," seconds before the Ninja MegaFalconzord slams its finishing attack fists into him.

* [[Real Life Writes the Plot]]: The actors playing Jason, Trini, and Zack all left partway through the second season due to contract disputes, and [[Amy Jo Johnson]] left in the third season to focus on expanding her career. As a result, storylines featuring their characters' [[Passing the Torch]] to their replacements were written.

** Another notable example happened in Season 2. The actors were stuck in Australia because of script and scheduling problems with the movie (which was being filmed in Australia at the time). But the TV episode schedule caught up to them. So the crew filmed several episodes where the Rangers, as students, holiday in Australia, using a historical village just outside of Sydney to portray colonial Angel Grove for a time-travelling adventure.

* [[Reasonable Authority Figure]]: Zordon. And Principal Caplan, most of the time.

* [[Red Herring]]: Richie (Trini's potential love interest) and Curtis (Zack's cousin), two minor characters from Season 2, were both likely candidates to become the White Ranger.

** Daggers (close enough) were used in Season 2's "Bloom of Doom", as Trini tossing her daggers at a 90 degree angle saved Kimberly from being permanently trapped in an alternate dimension.

** Tommy does this in Season 3 with Saba when trying to free Kimberly from Lord Zedd's life-draining machine, destroying Zedd's staff in the process.

* [[Tinman Typist]]: Alpha 5.

* [[Title Drop]]: "''FOOD FIIIIGHT!''"

* [[Tuckerization]]: Two examples:

** Tommy Oliver, named after series writer and voice actor [[Tony Oliver]].

* [[Two-Teacher School]]

* [[Unintentional Period Piece]]