Jump to content

Power Rangers

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Geoveras (talk | contribs) at 00:57, 15 April 2009. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Power Rangers
File:Power rangers logo.jpg
Created byTed Allen
Original workMighty Morphin Power Rangers (1993)
Print publications
ComicsMighty Morphin Power Rangers
Films and television
Film(s)Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie
Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie
Television seriesSee below
Theatrical presentations
Play(s)Mighty Morphin Power Rangers World Tour Live on Stage
Games
TraditionalPower Rangers Collectible Card Game
Video game(s)Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
Power Rangers: Super Legends
Audio
Soundtrack(s)Mighty Morphin Power Rangers The Album: A Rock Adventure
Original musicPower Rangers: The Official Single
"Go Go Power Rangers"

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, they typically dub many of the action sequences featuring the characters in costume and the mecha (referred to as "Zords" in the English series).

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 as of 2009 consisted of 17 television seasons, 15 different series, and two theatrical films. The latest series, Power Rangers: RPM, debuted on March 7, 2009.

File:General PR Logo.jpg
This version of the Power Rangers logo was used entirely during the Saban Entertainment run of the franchise beginning with Power Rangers in Space.

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.[1][2][3] This resulted in Fox Family Worldwide becoming ABC Family Worldwide.[3] This buyout also included Saban Entertainment becoming BVS Entertainment, from News Corporation, Fox's parent company, and Haim Saban.[3] 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. On February 12, 2009 Toon Disney ended in the wake of Disney XD, currently ending all cable airings of Power Rangers in the United States. Several ABC affiliate broadcasting groups, most notably Hearst-Argyle Television and Allbritton, have declined to air most of the Power Rangers series since 2005 due to the lack of FCC-compliant educational and informational content in the programs.

An article in The New Zealand Herald identified 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".[4]. However, a couple weeks later, Bandai released a statement that "Disney is producing a Season 18 and Bandai America will continue to develop action figures and toys for fans and collectors of all ages."[5]

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.[6] 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.[7]

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,[8] revealing his or her natural form underneath.[9] 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.[10] More recently 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 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. A joke highlighted this correlation 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 or for escalating a fight, which explains why the Rangers do not simply crush the small monsters by means of their Megazord. Nor may the Power Rangers 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., Power Rangers: Operation Overdrive and Power Rangers: RPM, 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 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.

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. In one instance, in order 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 moves 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

Main article: List of Power Rangers characters

Television series

Ranger 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.

# Series Red Yellow Blue Pink Black Green White Other
1 Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (Season 1 & 2) ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
2 Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (Season 2 & 3)[11] ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
3 Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
4 Power Rangers: Zeo[12] ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
5 Power Rangers: Turbo[13] ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
6 Power Rangers in Space[14] ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
7 Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy[15] ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
8 Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue[16](refactored from [[[α]|Lightspeed]]) ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
9 Power Rangers: Time Force[17](refactored from [[[β]|Quantum]]) ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
10 Power Rangers: Wild Force[18] ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
11 Power Rangers: Ninja Storm[19](refactored from [[[γ]|Thunder]]) ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
12 Power Rangers: Dino Thunder[20] ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
13 Power Rangers: S.P.D.[21](refactored from [[[δ]|S.P.D.]]) ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
14 Power Rangers: Mystic Force[22](refactored from [[[ε]|Mystic Force]]) ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
15 Power Rangers: Operation Overdrive[23] ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
16 Power Rangers: Jungle Fury[24][25](refactored from [[[ζ]|Jungle Fury]]) ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
17 Power Rangers: RPM ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

Template:Ent The Titanium Ranger became the first original Power Ranger developed specifically for the English-language television series. Template:Ent 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. Template:Ent Ninja Storm has the Crimson and Navy Rangers that wear suits of darker hues of red and blue, respectively. Template:Ent S.P.D. includes nine additional rangers, a final count of fourteen rangers — the most in all the history of the Power Rangers franchise. 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. Template:Ent 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. Template:Ent 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

Main article: Masked Rider (TV series)

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 received no mention 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

Teaser poster for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie

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 Los Angeles in 2007. It celebrated fifteen years on the air at the time, from 1993.

DVD releases

As of 2009 30 USA DVD releases of Power Rangers exist, namely:

Internationally, additional DVD releases have occurred (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.[30][31][32][33][34] Additionally, Ninja Storm, Dino Thunder, S.P.D., Mystic Force, and Operation Overdrive saw complete boxset releases in the UK.[35][36][37][38][39] 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.[40] In Italy, Mighty Morphin, Zeo, Dino Thunder and S.P.D. have appeared 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. As of 2009, 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 Disney Xtreme Digital. 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 filming takes place as of 2009.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Haim Saban". Saban. Retrieved 2009-02-23.
  2. ^ "News Corp. and Haim Saban Reach Agreement to Sell Fox Family Worldwide to Disney for $5.3 Billion". saban. July 23, 2001. Retrieved 2009-02-23.
  3. ^ a b c "Disney buys Fox Family for $3B". CNNfn. www.money.cnn.com. 2001-07-23. Retrieved 2007-09-21.
  4. ^ "'Power Rangers' defeated". The New Zealand Herald. March 6, 2009. Retrieved 2009-03-07.
  5. ^ "Power Rangers Continues On". 2009-03-20. Retrieved 2009-03-21.
  6. ^ "Day of the Dumpster". Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. Season 1. Episode 1. 1993-08-28. FOX. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ Power Rangers: Dino Thunder, Power Rangers: S.P.D., Power Rangers: Operation Overdrive, Power Rangers: Jungle Fury
  8. ^ Tommy Oliver removed his White Ranger helmet in the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers episode "White Light"; Leo Corbett, the Red Ranger in Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy, had his visor smashed in "Journey's End".
  9. ^ Exceptions to this rule include: Justin, the Blue Turbo Ranger, was in his early teens, but had the body of an adult when morphed; Anubis "Doggie" Cruger, the S.P.D. Shadow Ranger, has a muzzle that seems to disappear beneath the helmet; and Daggeron, the Solaris Knight, transforms into his Ancient Mystic Mode while in the process of morphing.
  10. ^ This modus operandi applied from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers through to Power Rangers: Wild Force.
  11. ^ "Power Rangers | Teams | Mighty Morphin". Retrieved 2007-06-09.
  12. ^ "Power Rangers | Teams | Zeo". Retrieved 2007-06-09.
  13. ^ "Power Rangers | Teams | Turbo". Retrieved 2007-06-09.
  14. ^ "Power Rangers | Teams | Space". Retrieved 2007-06-09.
  15. ^ "Power Rangers | Teams | Lost Galaxy". Retrieved 2007-06-09.
  16. ^ "Power Rangers | Teams | Lightspeed Rescue". Retrieved 2007-06-09.
  17. ^ "Power Rangers | Teams | Time Force". Retrieved 2007-06-09.
  18. ^ "Power Rangers | Teams | Wild Force". Retrieved 2007-06-09.
  19. ^ "Power Rangers | Teams | Ninja Storm". Retrieved 2007-06-09.
  20. ^ "Power Rangers | Teams | Dino Thunder". Retrieved 2007-06-09.
  21. ^ "Power Rangers | Teams | S.P.D." Retrieved 2007-06-09.
  22. ^ "Power Rangers | Teams | Mystic Force". Retrieved 2007-06-09.
  23. ^ "Power Rangers | Teams | Operation Overdrive". Retrieved 2007-06-09.
  24. ^ "Power Rangers Jungle Fury Press Release". Retrieved 2008-03-04.
  25. ^ "Power Rangers | Teams | Jungle Fury". Retrieved 2008-11-04.
  26. ^ "Power Rangers: Operation Overdrive - First 2 Volumes of 'Complete Series' DVDs Planned @ TVShowsOnDVD.com". Retrieved 2007-06-24.
  27. ^ "Power Rangers: Operation Overdrive - Box Art, Date, Price & Extras for Volume 3: Blue Sapphire DVD @ TVShowsOnDVD.com". Retrieved 2007-08-25.
  28. ^ "Power Rangers: Operation Overdrive - Finish the Adventure in February: Final Two Volumes Kick Into Overdrive @ TVShowsOnDVD.com". Retrieved 2007-11-10.
  29. ^ "Power Rangers Jungle Fury - Disney Announces Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 DVDs for Jungle Fury @ TVShowsOnDVD.com". 2008-09-13. Retrieved 2008-09-13.
  30. ^ "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 1 @ Amazon.de". Retrieved 2008-02-13.
  31. ^ "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 2 @ Amazon.de". Retrieved 2008-02-13.
  32. ^ "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 3 @ Amazon.de". Retrieved 2008-02-13.
  33. ^ "Power Rangers Zeo @ Amazon.de". Retrieved 2008-05-31.
  34. ^ "Power Rangers Turbo - Season 5 @ Alphamusic.de". Retrieved 2008-08-01.
  35. ^ "Power Rangers Ninja Storm @ Amazon.co.uk". Retrieved 2008-08-01.
  36. ^ "Power Rangers Dino Thunder @ Amazon.co.uk". Retrieved 2008-08-01.
  37. ^ "Power Rangers S.P.D. @ Amazon.co.uk". Retrieved 2008-08-01.
  38. ^ "Power Rangers Mystic Force @ Amazon.co.uk". Retrieved 2008-08-01.
  39. ^ "Power Rangers Operation Overdrive @ Amazon.co.uk". Retrieved 2008-08-01.
  40. ^ "Power Rangers Mighty Morphin' - Volume 28 @ lcj-editions.com". Retrieved 2008-08-01.
  41. ^ "파워레인저". Retrieved 2007-08-05.
  42. ^ "파워레인저 S.P.D." Retrieved 2007-08-05.
  43. ^ ":: 파워레인저 매직포스 ::". Retrieved 2007-08-05.

Power Rangers on OpenStreetMap

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Power_Rangers&oldid=283903099"