They've got a power and a force that you've never seen before. They've got the ablilty to morph and to even up the score. No one will ever take them down the power lies on their side
They know the fate of the world is lying in their hands. They know to only use their weapons for defense. No one will ever take them down. The power lies on their side…
Japan saw it’s sixteenth run in the Super Sentai series when Kyo-ryu Sentai Zyuranger was aired. Saban Entertainment, already having a few successful localizations under its belt, saw fit to adapt said season. Thus was born the Mighty Morphing Power Rangers. Rather than making an English dub or translation, Saban takes the Sentai footage that has morphed battles, monster battles and giant monster battles and then ads their own scenes featured Western actors, creating their own story for the show. Whilst many seasons try their best to be as original as possible, there are a few that have to stay close to the source material in order to have the sentai footage make any sense. Power Rangers Ninja Storm for example had sentai footage about ninjas. Hard to make anything other than a ninja series out of that.
From 1993 to 2001, Saban held the rights to the Power Rangers franchise and created some of the most beloved seasons of the franchise. Up to this day, many of the fans will still say that the first 6 seasons were the best, coming to a spectacular end with Power Rangers in Space. Whilst Saban still had a few seasons after this, it soon all was transferred to Disney, who definitely gave their own spin to it.
In 2010, Saban reaquired the Power Rangers franchise and immediately made plans for another season. Namely: Power Rangers Samurai, based on the morphenomenal Sentai season: Samurai Sentai Shinkenger.
The first six seasons of the franchise were better known as the Zordon Era, whilst it is debatable whether or not the seventh season is part of that era as well, the first six was where it was at.
Mighty Morphing Power Rangers started with Day of the Dumpster, where Rita Repulsa escaped from her dumpster prison on the moon. After ten thousand years she was finally free, and so it was time to take over earth. On Earth, Zordon and his robot assistant Alpha are made aware of her escape and quickly recruit five teenagers to become … the Power Rangers!
Up to that point in time, a lot of the TV shows similar to Power Rangers were animated. Well, here in the west that is as Japan had Kamen Rider and the like. So when us kids first laid eyes on this show, we were all jumping up and down as the adrenaline caused by its awesomeness was going through our veins. This show kicked all sorts of ass. And when the Green with Evil five-parter came, maybe all of us were hooked for life.
Then came Power Rangers Turbo, a season that almost cancelled the entire next season because of how awful it was to a lot of people. Luckily, by the end of the show, viewers started to return and thus was allowed one more season. In Space proved to be such a formidable season, the show was back to the forefront and new seasons were ordered. The season offered the older audience one final chance to watch the series before they would consider themselves too old to watch, thus moving on to more mature things. A lot of older viewers stayed on whilst many new ones came on board. And so the everlasting circle of life continues.
When In Space was over, it also meant the end of seasons following each other. They became more self contained so that looking at things from a season to season perspective is a lot more easier. Plus, this made the show a lot easier to write more than likely. Like with the Zordon Era, these new series had their good seasons and their bad. In the end though, it became quite clear that Power Rangers would never be the same again.
Enough with the story though, because it’s the action where it’s at. And my god is there action. First of all there’s the martial arts side of things. There are some pretty spectacular fights throughout the entire series all with talented fighters. These fighters then do some great stuntwork with wires and more. Then there’s the sentai footage that has guns, swords and more. Lastly there’s giant robots fighting giant monsters. All of this goes side by side with huge explosions that occur every five minutes. Good news for us is that these explosions are real. Bad news for the actors is that these explosions are, well, real. It’s an action extravaganza aided by the fact that some of TV’s most awesome characters are in this show. One of these characters is Tommy Oliver, who in Dino Thunder … well, just watch it to find out. Then there’s Carter from Lightspeed Resque who will straight up shoot a giant monster with his pistols.
Speaking of characters … Power Rangers is known for one thing: CHEESE. Lots and lots of cheese. This show is cheesy, over the top and borderline insane. Yet it still managed to produce some heavy and deep moments from time to time. This is portrayed very well by its actors. No matter which season you watch (Time Force not withstanding) you will find hammy actors, cheesy actors, plain bad or boring actors and more of this sort. This is not helped by the fact that a lot of dialog is on its own all what I mentioned before.
The more that the Disney brand started to get incorporated in the series, the more you started to see actors that perfectly fit the Disney style of acting, as seen in other shows like Wizards of Waverly Place.
Doesn’t take away that there are very talented people in this show like Vernon Wells, Amy Jo Johnson, Jason David Frank, Johnny Yong Bosch (who is now a fantastic voice actor for anime) and the aforementioned David De Lautour who played RJ like he was Jack Sparrow. I LOVE THIS MAN’S PERFORMANCE.
But what exactly is it about this show that really lured is in? And still does a lot of times. Look no further than the music. Starting with the classic tunes of Ron Wasserman, the show kept on having great music throughout that really helped you in getting in to the scenes. Especially the fight scenes that are sometimes helped tremendously by the score accompanying it. Most of these songs are perfectly good songs to have on CD as well. The original Go Go Power Rangers was a full song and it WAS GLORIOUS. Just listen:
And for good measure: watch this:
The bottom line is that this show is still worth watching, even today. Yeah, it’s a kids show, but it’s an awesome kids show. The music, the fights and the tight spandex … Euh … Yeah, sure … well, they are all worth watching.
9/10
If you get the chance to watch a season, do so. But if I might make a suggestion, don’t neglect the Sentai series just because they are from Japan. Why not get an early start on Samurai and watch Shinkenger? Just a thought
They know the fate of the world is lying in their hands. They know to only use their weapons for defense. No one will ever take them down. The power lies on their side…
Japan saw it’s sixteenth run in the Super Sentai series when Kyo-ryu Sentai Zyuranger was aired. Saban Entertainment, already having a few successful localizations under its belt, saw fit to adapt said season. Thus was born the Mighty Morphing Power Rangers. Rather than making an English dub or translation, Saban takes the Sentai footage that has morphed battles, monster battles and giant monster battles and then ads their own scenes featured Western actors, creating their own story for the show. Whilst many seasons try their best to be as original as possible, there are a few that have to stay close to the source material in order to have the sentai footage make any sense. Power Rangers Ninja Storm for example had sentai footage about ninjas. Hard to make anything other than a ninja series out of that.
From 1993 to 2001, Saban held the rights to the Power Rangers franchise and created some of the most beloved seasons of the franchise. Up to this day, many of the fans will still say that the first 6 seasons were the best, coming to a spectacular end with Power Rangers in Space. Whilst Saban still had a few seasons after this, it soon all was transferred to Disney, who definitely gave their own spin to it.
In 2010, Saban reaquired the Power Rangers franchise and immediately made plans for another season. Namely: Power Rangers Samurai, based on the morphenomenal Sentai season: Samurai Sentai Shinkenger.
The first six seasons of the franchise were better known as the Zordon Era, whilst it is debatable whether or not the seventh season is part of that era as well, the first six was where it was at.
Mighty Morphing Power Rangers started with Day of the Dumpster, where Rita Repulsa escaped from her dumpster prison on the moon. After ten thousand years she was finally free, and so it was time to take over earth. On Earth, Zordon and his robot assistant Alpha are made aware of her escape and quickly recruit five teenagers to become … the Power Rangers!
Up to that point in time, a lot of the TV shows similar to Power Rangers were animated. Well, here in the west that is as Japan had Kamen Rider and the like. So when us kids first laid eyes on this show, we were all jumping up and down as the adrenaline caused by its awesomeness was going through our veins. This show kicked all sorts of ass. And when the Green with Evil five-parter came, maybe all of us were hooked for life.
Then came Power Rangers Turbo, a season that almost cancelled the entire next season because of how awful it was to a lot of people. Luckily, by the end of the show, viewers started to return and thus was allowed one more season. In Space proved to be such a formidable season, the show was back to the forefront and new seasons were ordered. The season offered the older audience one final chance to watch the series before they would consider themselves too old to watch, thus moving on to more mature things. A lot of older viewers stayed on whilst many new ones came on board. And so the everlasting circle of life continues.
When In Space was over, it also meant the end of seasons following each other. They became more self contained so that looking at things from a season to season perspective is a lot more easier. Plus, this made the show a lot easier to write more than likely. Like with the Zordon Era, these new series had their good seasons and their bad. In the end though, it became quite clear that Power Rangers would never be the same again.
Enough with the story though, because it’s the action where it’s at. And my god is there action. First of all there’s the martial arts side of things. There are some pretty spectacular fights throughout the entire series all with talented fighters. These fighters then do some great stuntwork with wires and more. Then there’s the sentai footage that has guns, swords and more. Lastly there’s giant robots fighting giant monsters. All of this goes side by side with huge explosions that occur every five minutes. Good news for us is that these explosions are real. Bad news for the actors is that these explosions are, well, real. It’s an action extravaganza aided by the fact that some of TV’s most awesome characters are in this show. One of these characters is Tommy Oliver, who in Dino Thunder … well, just watch it to find out. Then there’s Carter from Lightspeed Resque who will straight up shoot a giant monster with his pistols.
Speaking of characters … Power Rangers is known for one thing: CHEESE. Lots and lots of cheese. This show is cheesy, over the top and borderline insane. Yet it still managed to produce some heavy and deep moments from time to time. This is portrayed very well by its actors. No matter which season you watch (Time Force not withstanding) you will find hammy actors, cheesy actors, plain bad or boring actors and more of this sort. This is not helped by the fact that a lot of dialog is on its own all what I mentioned before.
The more that the Disney brand started to get incorporated in the series, the more you started to see actors that perfectly fit the Disney style of acting, as seen in other shows like Wizards of Waverly Place.
Doesn’t take away that there are very talented people in this show like Vernon Wells, Amy Jo Johnson, Jason David Frank, Johnny Yong Bosch (who is now a fantastic voice actor for anime) and the aforementioned David De Lautour who played RJ like he was Jack Sparrow. I LOVE THIS MAN’S PERFORMANCE.
But what exactly is it about this show that really lured is in? And still does a lot of times. Look no further than the music. Starting with the classic tunes of Ron Wasserman, the show kept on having great music throughout that really helped you in getting in to the scenes. Especially the fight scenes that are sometimes helped tremendously by the score accompanying it. Most of these songs are perfectly good songs to have on CD as well. The original Go Go Power Rangers was a full song and it WAS GLORIOUS. Just listen:
And for good measure: watch this:
The bottom line is that this show is still worth watching, even today. Yeah, it’s a kids show, but it’s an awesome kids show. The music, the fights and the tight spandex … Euh … Yeah, sure … well, they are all worth watching.
9/10
If you get the chance to watch a season, do so. But if I might make a suggestion, don’t neglect the Sentai series just because they are from Japan. Why not get an early start on Samurai and watch Shinkenger? Just a thought
No comments:
Post a Comment