When an egg in Angel Grove is unearthed, Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa release the creature inside, Ivan Ooze. Zordon trapped him inside thousands of years ago, so Ivan leaves to seek revenge. Ivan destroys the interior of the Command Center, almost killing Zordon, weakening and slightly diswiring Alpha 5, and causing the Power Rangers to lose their powers. The Power Rangers must go on a quest to find new Ninja powers on Phaedos, granted to them by Dulcea (played by Gabrielle Fitzpatrick). The Rangers find the powers located in a temple, along with new Zords, themed to the Ape, Frog, Wolf, Bear, Crane, and Falcon. The Zords' appearances are based on those of the Super Stealth Beast Gods from the Super Sentai series Ninja Sentai Kakuranger.
As the film begins, Angel Grove is holding a charity carnival to save the local observatory in time for the arrival of Ryan's Comet, which is set to pass by Earth in three days. Among the events is a skydiving competition, which Rocky, Adam, Billy, Aisha, Kimberly, Tommy (the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers), and Bulk and Skull are in. Though the Rangers' performances and landings impress the crowds and their young friend Fred Kelman, Bulk and Skull miss the landing field entirely and end up parachuting down into a construction site. As they leave, the crew stumbles upon a strange chamber containing a giant egg.
While rollerblading to Ernie's, the Rangers are summoned to the Command Center by their mentor Zordon and his robotic aide Alpha 5. Zordon tells them the tale of Ivan Ooze, an intergalactic tyrant that he and a team of warriors trapped inside a Hyperlock Chamber six thousand years ago, and which the construction crew has just discovered. Fearing for Ivan's return, Zordon tells the Rangers to head to the chamber and rebury it before the arrival of an enemy beyond all imagination.
As night falls on the city, the construction site stirs with life as Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa appear to release Ivan Ooze from his captivity and direct his vengeance towards Zordon. When the Rangers arrive, Ivan summons his own personal minions to fight them while he teleports to the Command Center and proceeds to destroy it. By the time the Rangers finish off the Oozemen, their powers vanish.
Returning to the Command Center, the Rangers witness the destruction left by Ivan and rush to Zordon's side. With his time-warp shattered, Zordon is rapidly aging and dying. The Rangers seek a way to save their mentor, and so Alpha tells them of a great power on the distant planet Phaedos that could save Zordon, but not without great risk. Using the last of the Command Center's power, the Rangers are teleported to Phaedos.
Up on the moon, Ivan Ooze returns to Lord Zedd;s palace and is angered by Rita for not destroying the Rangers. Annoyed at their incompetence, Ivan turns on Zedd and Rita by trapping them in a snowglobe, then gives their minions Goldar and Mordant the choice to either swear allegiance to him or be trapped with Rita and Zedd. To save their own hides, they agree to serve him. Ivan then creates an army of Tengu Warriors to find the Rangers on Phaedos and destroy them.
On Phaedos, the Rangers are attacked by the Tengu and are nearly killed, until a female warrior appears and drives them off. She orders the Rangers to leave with their lives while they can. When she is told of Ivan Ooze's escape and his attack on Zordon, she introduces herself as Dulcea, Master Warrior of Phaedos, and agrees to help the Rangers find the great power.
In Angel Grove, Ivan establishes an abandoned factory as his personal lair and begins his plan to rebuild a pair of weapons Zordon had buried long ago, the Ectomorphicon Titans, but he needs added manpower to dig them out. Disguising himself as a wizard, Ivan infiltrates the charity carnival and gives out free jars of ooze to the children. Though the kids and teenagers only see it as a fun novelty, the ooze hypnotizes adults on skin contact and turns them into Ivan's obedient slave laborers. When the Tengu return and report their failure and Dulcea's involvement to Ivan, he responds by blowing them up and ordering the adults to finish the excavation by dusk. When Fred's own father goes missing after coming into contact with a jar of ooze, Fred sets out to find him and discovers Ivan at the construction site. From his hiding place, he is able to learn of Ivan's true plans.
As they stand around the campfire, Dulcea teaches the Rangers about Ninjetti, the Great Power that makes all things possible, and the hidden temple where it resides. She cannot travel with them to seek it because she would age and perish like Zordon currently is, so Dulcea instead gives the Rangers new powers based on the six Ninjetti animals: the red Ape, the black Frog, the blue Wolf, the yellow Bear, the pink Crane, and the white Falcon. On their way, they must battle a living dinosaur skeleton and contend with the four Gatekeepers of the temple before the Great Power is bestowed upon them, allowing them to morph into the Power Rangers again and return to Earth.
Back on Earth, the Ectomorphicon Titans are fully rebuilt. After commanding the adults to go leap to their doom at the construction site, Ivan brings his creations to life and orders them to destroy Angel Grove as he and Goldar watch from the observatory. Fred, having followed Ivan, runs to Ernie's and rallies the other kids and Bulk and Skull to help him rescue the adults, and they all take the Monorail to the construction site.
When the Rangers return to Earth, they call upon their new Ninjazords to battle the Titans. They destroy the first of the Titans, Scorpitron, and corner its partner Hornitor. Angry, Ivan fuses with Hornitor to increase its power, takes the observatory out of the ground to use as a lance, and destroys the monorail track as he marches forward to battle. The Rangers form the Ninja Megazord to try and destroy him, while Tommy is briefly forced to protect the kids by helping the monorail avoid falling off the broken track. He soon rejoins the battle to form the Ninja MegaFalconzord. At the construction site, Fred orders the kids to put all their strength in holding back the hypnotized adults from jumping, while Bulk and Skull help him use a cherry picker with a firehose to push them back further.
Now flight-capable, the Rangers lure Ivan off of Earth and into space, where they intend to lure him into the path of Ryan's Comet. Ivan proves hard to shake off and the Rangers are unable to break free from his grip as the comet draws near, but the Rangers throw Ivan off their Megazord with a knee to his groin (courtesy of Aisha) and quickly leave as Ivan crashes into the comet. With Ivan's death, the adults are also freed from his hypnosis and reunited with their children.
The Rangers return to the Command Center, but Zordon has already died. Tommy reminds the Rangers that anything is possible with the Great Power, and so they combine their powers to revive Zordon and restore the Command Center to running order.
The movie ends with a celebration for the Power Rangers at Angel Grove harbor. As the Rangers enjoy a much-deserved victory party and fireworks, they take time to thank Fred for his role in saving the parents and comment that he could make a great Ranger himself one day, which Fred looks forward to. When a message thanking the Power Rangers is lit, Bulk and Skull are offended, though the two of them legitimately had a very large part in saving lives. Back on the moon, Goldar has proclaimed himself to be the new ruler of the universe, but his reign becomes short-lived when Zedd and Rita return, both now very angry at him and Mordant.
Paul Goddard and Robert Simper as Construction Workers
Notes
Continuity
This movie takes place in an alternate timeline than the Power Rangers television show, as numerous differences appear between the two.
Naturally, having a bigger budget, the film boasts of more detailed, 'bigger' visuals.
Some international prints, television airings (such as on HBO, ABC Family and related channels) and DVD releases omit the words "Mighty Morphin" from the film's logo, rendering the title as simply Power Rangers: The Movie. It was shown on Fox Kids between 1998 and 1999 once.
The TV shows are known for using the action scenes from the Super Sentai series in Japan, but Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie was the first Power Rangers feature to use 100% new and original material.
The TV show characters Caplan and Appleby do not appear in the movie, nor are they alluded to at any point. However, Angel Grove High School (their place of employment) is mentioned during the skydiving event.
The allies and villains are portrayed by Australian and English actors.
Kimberly, Aisha and Adam do not wear Ranger-colored shirts in their civilian forms. Instead, Adam wears black pants and a black vest, and Kimberly and Aisha wear pink and yellow shorts respectively. Five of the rangers have white as their secondary color.
The Rangers' suits are made of PVC and metal plating rather than the standard spandex, and several Rangers have features in their helmets that never appeared in the series (a mountable scope on Rocky's helmet, and headlights built into Aisha's). The helmets also appear heavier and bulkier. Also, Kimberly's suit has no skirt, unlike on TV. This may have been because a metal-PVC skirt would have been unwieldly and difficult to maneuver in, and a skirt made of a more flexible material may have aesthetically conflicted with the rest of the suit.
The Rangers' suits also feature emblems in the center of the white diamond on the chest with a picture of their respective prehistoric animals early on, and later, their Ninja animals. Although these emblems were not part of the Zyurangers' outfits used in the show (and were not added even after the movie was released), they appeared in early promotional art and the Power Rangers merchandise during its early years.
The Command Center and Zedd's Palace sets are much more detailed. The Command Center has lights built into the walls that dim and brighten, as well as a "rotating" light in the floor. The neon columns are also designed differently too, giving the Command Center a more futuristic appearance than on the show.
The city of Angel Grove looks significantly different from how it appeared in the show (of course, the show was shot in Los Angeles, but the movie was shot in Sydney).
Alpha 5 looks quite different than on the show (resembling his body from the second movie and the Turbo TV series), but Richard Steven Horvitz still provides his voice. Alpha's "eyes" (red dots that flash, connect and separate while he is talking and not talking) would later be seen used with Alpha 6 in Once A Ranger.
Literary differences from the established continuity (seasons 1 to 2)
As much as possible, the film allows the viewer to jump off the established continuity from the TV series, story-wise, so that the movie may serve as somewhat of a continuation following season 2. However, a few minor differences remain.
There are two weapons from the movie that do not appear in the series: Kimberly's "Pterodactyl Thunder Whip", and Billy's "Stega Stinger".
The Rangers morphed in a different order than the TV show's morphing sequence.
Tommy used the morphing call "WHITE TIGER!" in the movie, instead of "TIGERZORD!", and his Power Coin initially features the Savage Tiger design packaged with the Deluxe White Tigerzord toy instead of the tiger claw design. Despite this, the white ranger shield still features the tiger claw emblem prior to being replaced with the Falcon emblem.
The new character of Mordant is treated as if it had always been among the "Evil Space Aliens," and Squatt, Scorpina and Baboo are nowhere to be seen. The reason for this is because the explanation for Mordant's appearance, which was on the script, was dropped.
The movie makes several blatant references to death and murder (such as Fred screaming "If you don't come with me right now, our parents are going to die!"). Normally, Saban had shied away from such scripting, due to Power Rangers being a kids' show.
Literary differences after the film (season 3)
Since the film loosely continues from season 2 of the show, but creates its own continuation, many differences occur especially as season 3 began.
The story of how the Rangers received their Ninja powers and the Ninjazords is retold entirely differently in the four-part episode "Ninja Quest". The only real similarities are that the Command Center was destroyed (although Zordon's life was never in danger) and the one who gave them to them did not initially trust them.
In the movie, Zordon did not die instantly when his time warp was destroyed; rather, he began to age rapidly, and die away slowly. In Countdown to Destruction, it was revealed that the destruction of Zordon's tube with him in it causes his instant death. In the movie, Ivan Ooze destroys the columns around Zordon's energy tube, while in Countdown to Destruction, Andros destroys Zordon's energy tube causing his death. It's also of note that in the movie Zordon was still referred to as being in a time warp while in Power Rangers: Turbo, Larigo released him from the time warp, meaning that he may have been in a containment tube rather than a time warp in Countdown to Destruction.
The new female character of Dulcea never appears in the show, or is even referenced. In season 3, she was replaced by Ninjor, who is male.
The Ninja Megazord looks very different from its Kakuranger, and naturally, the season 3 counterpart. The Zords' original design had solid, unmovable fists, wheras the movie design kept the Wolf Zord's jaw for a left hand and gained a movable right hand in order to grip its Power Sword, which was actually the Fire Saber of the Shogun Megazord. The combination with the Falconzord was also changed from "Ninja Megafalconzord" to "Ninja Falcon Megazord." Even the seating is somewhat changed. For example, Pink Ranger sits lower-down, front-and-center, Blue Ranger sits to the left of her, and Red Ranger sits to her right.
Production Notes
The VHS release, which was just in time for Christmas, included the teaser trailer for Dunston Checks In before the film.
This was the last Fox Video VHS to feature the 1993 Fox Video logo.
According to Paul Freeman, who played Ivan Ooze, the movie was originally going to be done in the style of the TV shows before the producers changed their minds and decided to put more resources into the production.
The rangers without their visors or mouthplates, as it was originally conceived to be filmed, before the producers realized that they were supposed to be there in the first place to cover up the face.
Originally, the crew felt that the total covering of the Power Rangers' faces removed any ability to express emotion, so initial shooting took place using the actors in costume with no visors on the helmets. However, they realized that this was a mistake and realized that the Power Rangers in Morphed Mode are not supposed to show emotion, but rather were supposed to be a powerful fighting force and that their identities had to be concealed. To correct the error, the action scenes were re-shot the next month with the visors added back. However, the Ninja Ranger powers still had their eyes fully shown, unlike in the series. It's unknown what became of the original footage for the scene.
Episodes of the TV show were shot at the same time as the movie, notably in The Wedding, where the Rangers went on vacation to Australia while Alpha turns evil.
In the park scene where Ivan Ooze begins to distribute his ooze to kids, there is a boy in blue with bowl-cut hair who looks remarkably like Justin Stewart, a character introduced two years later. It's not the same actor, of course.
The movie was the first time the Rangers used something other than their own weapons (in this case, a comet) to destroy a villain.
In the movie, the White Ranger's morpher appears on his belt in comparison to the TV series (since the White Ranger's Sentai counterpart was from a different Sentai series)
At Power Morphicon 2007, Johnny Yong Bosch stated that it was his idea to have Adam be disappointed that his new powers were drawn from the Frog. He soon regains faith when Dulcea kisses his forehead and remarks, "Yes, a frog. Like to the one you kiss to get a handsome prince."
Catherine Sutherland originally auditioned for the part of Dulcea, but was turned down because the producers felt that she was too young for the part. However, she would later be cast on the TV series' third season as Katherine and would take over the role of the Pink Ranger when actress Amy Jo Johnson left the show.
Walter Jones, Thuy Trang, and Austin St. John (the original Black, Yellow and Red Power Rangers, respectively) were originally set to star in the movie, but ultimately were not included because they were let go due to their contract dispute with the TV show.
Johnny Yong Bosch actually did all of his own stunts in the movie, including the morphed fight scenes. His stuntman was injured at the time and unable to do any work for the film, so Bosch gratefully accepted their offer to replace him. Jason David Frank also did many of his own stunts.
Each of the Power Rangers' new movie costumes weighed 40 pounds and the actors had to film sometimes as long as ten hours a day in their Power Ranger uniforms.
Due to the long hours of filming for the movie, the 40 pound Power Rangers costumes that the actors had to wear caused back pain to co-stars Amy Jo Johnson (Kimberly Ann Hart/The Pink Ranger) and Karan Ashley (Aisha Campbell/The Yellow Ranger) after filming their scenes.
In order for the purple tongue to match the purple body, Paul Freeman drank black currant juice, held it in his mouth and spit it out before each take.
Mariska Hargitay originally replaced Gabrielle Fitzpatrick during filming and several weeks of Hargitay's filming had taken place at the Chinese Gardens at Darling Harbour. When the crew thought that Hargitay seemed wrong for the role after filming her scenes, she was fired and Fitzpatrick got the part back.
Except for some occasions, such as the moments when they are in costume with their helmets removed, it was actually stunt men were in the Power Rangers uniforms when they were morphed instead of the actors, as in the series. The following stunt men and women doubled for the Power Rangers, but were not credited with doubling the actors: Hien Nguyen (White Ranger), Sophia Crawford (Pink Ranger), David Wald (Blue Ranger), Bridget Riley (Yellow Ranger), Danny Stallcup (Black Ranger) and Stuart Quan (Red Ranger). During filming, the stunt men were nicknamed "Ranger Actors" by the crew.
The Temple of the Great Power set was the largest set constructed for the movie. The set, which included a functional waterfall, pool and the huge door that reveals the Great Power pyramid, took up an entire sound stage at the Warner Roadshow Movie World Studios on the Gold Coast of Queensland, Australia.
The set for the ancient ruins of the Ninjetti Temple, also referred to as Dulcea's Palace, was built eight feet off the ground and was so large that it took up the combined space of both the Command Center set and the set of Lord Zedd's palace.
Several of the sets, including Lord Zedd's throne room (a.k.a. the Chamber of Command) and Dulcea's Palace, were made up of aluminum foil over constructed wood frames.
The Power Rangers' Command Center set used for this film was built in the Commemorative Pavilion at the Showgrounds in Sydney, Australia.
In one of the early drafts of the script, the Rangers were supposed to fight giant Rat Monsters that Ivan Ooze created. Because the suits did not work well enough and looked "too low budget" for the movie, the Rat Monsters were instead replaced by the Ooze Creatures that Ivan creates in the film. However, the Rat creature suits didn't go to waste either. Instead, they would later appear in the "Return of the Green Ranger" storyline of the Power Rangers television series.
This marks the first time that blood is seen in Power Rangers. When a stone gargoyle comes to life and slashes at Tommy with his blades, he cuts through his outfit and you can faintly see two red bloody cuts on Tommy's chest, albeit dry cut. Tommy's cuts are barely seen because the crew did not want to show the bloody cuts fully, having parents already upset enough at the violence shown on the television series.
The theme music Go Go Power Rangers, although having the same lyrics and musical notes, was played using electrical and heavy metal instruments, with rock star-like singing, whereas the series' theme song is more orchestral.
When this movie was shown in the UK, It was before the three part episode The Wedding had aired and therefore spoiled Rita's return (although she and Zedd work together in the movie, it isn't established if they are married like their TV counterparts or have simply joined forces).
The reason why Billy stopped wearing glasses was because the actor David Yost requested to Haim Saban that he preferred not wearing them and the fake lenses started to mess with his eyesight. This eventually crossed-over to the TV series.
During the Megazord scene, the Megazord had a head while combining, but when Kimberly joined in, the head was missing (due to the crane zord being the head).
Originally, it was intended that the Rangers would return from Phaedos to the Command Center to find Zordon dead. They would then restore Zordon and the Command Center BEFORE going off to save Angel Grove from Ivan (hence Adam saying "Hang on Zordon!" and Rocky adding "We're on our way!" before they teleport away from the Monolith). This running order was swapped in post production, although a picture of the helmetless rangers preparing to teleport out of the restored Command Center was shown on the back of the VHS box and in the liner notes of the film's original soundtrack while the actual scene is shown in the sneak peek of the movie on the VHS release of The Pagemaster. The scenes in the restored Command Center were simply filmed before the destruction sequences.
The irony here is that this Power Ranger movie features characters and arsenal whose Super Sentai counterparts were not featured in their own movie. The most visible are the Zyurangers, who had no movie of their own (they did appear in Super Sentai World, but not on their own and never unmorphed), but KibaRanger (Dairanger) and Super Kakure Daishogun (Kakuranger) did not appear in their respective teams' movies.
The film met a whole lot of mixed reviews. The movie earned a 50% percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It was also announced by Rotten Tomatoes that the film met mostly negative reviews, similar to what Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie did in 1997 when that film also met extremely negative to poor reviews due to the series's poor to dismal reaction and ratings.
The movie received many negative reviews from critics. For example: One critic on Answers.com gave MMPR a 1-star rating and wrote: " Despite the larger budget, the film remains true to the style of the show, which often recalls Japanese monster movies in its depictions of battling giant monsters through obvious special effects. The fast-paced fantasy action attracted a good portion of its intended youthful audience, while not becoming quite as much of a sensation as the TV series; some adults attacked the film for its reliance on violence (though of a bloodless, cartoon variety) and its status as a blatant promotional tool for the best-selling Power Ranger toys. Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide wrote this giving the movie a 1 star rating. Brett Weiss, of All Game Guide, stated: "For an adult, the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers are easy to dislike, dismiss, and discard as just another lousy children's fad. As seen through the eyes of a child, the Power Rangers are a larger-than-life team of superheroes who battle the bad guys in an exciting and entertaining manner. Whether you fall on one of these ends of the spectrum or somewhere in between, you'll still find Mighty Morphin Power Rangers to be a disappointment."
On certain online retelling sites like Amazon.com, several online critics gave the film 5/5 to 4/5 star ratings while browsing the film's DVD release on Sept. 2, 2003.
Upon its opening weekend, the film opened at #4 with $13,104,788, behind Apollo 13, Pocahontas' s third weekend, and Batman Foreveras third. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, on Box Office Mojo, is currently ranked at #47 in the "Superhero" genre. The film's budget was $15,000,000, making this the most expensive Power Ranger project ever made and ever recognized. It is also the most highest grossing Power Ranger movie of all time.
This article is about a/an independent-continuity film entry in the Power Rangers franchise.
