POWER RANGERS Recap – Everything You Need to Know Before ONCE & ALWAYS



Our Power rangers Recap is here! The full history of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers goes back further than 30 years, to the 1970s. We walk you through every iteration of the team, and how they evolved to elite franchise status over the years. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always

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Written by Jack Piccone http://twitter.com/jackienobrakes
Hosted by Ryan Arey (http://twitter.com/ryanarey)
Edited by Harriet Lengel-Enright, Randolf Nombrado, and Brianna McLarty

#PowerRangers #Recap #OnceAndAlways

And today I’m going to explain just what exactly the Power Rangers are. Not just the Mighty Morphin, but the franchise as a whole, one that includes 20-plus teams of color-coded superheroes imported from Japan.

I’ll explain what the show was about and some major storylines that have occurred over two decades. I’ve also got some interesting trivia, like how a key part of the series can trace its origins directly to Marvel.

If you’re a little too young or a little too old, this may all be new information for you. But pretty much any 90s kid has heard of the Power Rangers. For a few years in the mid 90s they DOMINATED pop culture.

The original series helped launch the Fox Kids block of programming, spawned three theatrical movies, and ushered in a wave of copycat shows like Masked Rider and Big Bad Beetleborgs. By 2002, the franchise had made over six BILLION dollars. This was mostly revenue from Bandai-branded action figures and other Power Rangers toys.

For a while, this merch was the holy grail of toys, up there with Tickle-Me-Elmo and Cabbage Patch Dolls. The guy who wrote Jingle All the Way, a movie about two dads fighting over the last Turbo-Man toy on Christmas Eve, probably got the idea after trying to find a Red Ranger for his own kids.

Honestly, that’s probably why the show has lasted as long as it has. With its focus on creature designs, new suits, and special zords that combine together Voltron-style—Power Rangers was less an action drama than it was a giant toy commercial.

But that doesn’t make it any less interesting as a pop culture phenomenon. For one thing, the way it was produced was kind of ingenious. On a trip to Japan, producer Haim Saban became fascinated with a Japanese kids show called Super Sentai. He immediately saw the appeal of five superheroes in color-coded matching spandex suits fighting absurd-looking monsters.

Eventually, he obtained the rights to Super Sentai to make an American version of the show. To save money, he didn’t bother remaking the special effects scenes of the monsters destroying the city, or the masked heroes fighting the creatures on the ground. He and his team would use the original footage in the American show—only rewriting and remaking scenes where the young heroes had their masks off.

In between the monster brawls, Saban used American actors to film all new storylines of the heroes at their high school. Saban figured young audiences wouldn’t be interested in watching the original Japanese counterparts, either dubbed or with subtitles.

This wasn’t an original idea either. Way back in 1956, Hollywood did this by taking the 1954 Japanese film Godzilla, and adding in a bunch of scenes with American actor Raymond Burr. While all the scenes of Godzilla destroying Tokyo and stepping on tanks were kept, it barely cost the studio anything to film Burr asking Japanese scientists questions like “Hey what’s Godzilla up to?” [CLIP: Godzilla]

This process is called localization, or at least, it’s part of what the term can be used for. It worked for Godzilla, giving him a whole new audience in the West. And it worked for Super Sentai.

Super Sentai first aired in 1975. The title literally translates to “Super Squadron Series.” Part of the popular, special effects-focused tokusatsu genre, the show featured a team of five 20-somethings equipped with electronic battlesuits that gave them super strength and speed.

In 1978, Toei Company, the studio behind Super Sentai, put the show on hiatus for two years. This was because it had made a deal with Marvel to make an original live-action Spider-Man series. The show didn’t star Peter Parker but a new, original hero named Takuya Yamashiro. Yamashiro was a motorcycle racer who finds a spaceship from Planet Spider, and uses his alien powers to fight the gloriously-named Professor Monster.

Spider-Man also has a spaceship called the Marveller that can transform into a giant robot mech called the Leopardon. When Super Sentai came back on the air in 1979, it borrowed this idea of the superheroes using giant transforming robots when they’re in a pinch.

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46 thoughts on “POWER RANGERS Recap – Everything You Need to Know Before ONCE & ALWAYS”

  1. Am I the only person who thought that the gritty Power Rangers reboot film had a lot of promise and was actually a good foundation to base other "alt universe" Power Ranger movies on? The only things that they really needed to address were the horrendously over-designed suits/zords and toning down on the Krispy Kreme product placement. It's really sad (to me) that they re-rebooted the franchise in the Once and Always film because a straight up sequel could be REALLY interesting. Especially since they'd teased a new green ranger in the post credit scene. Hopefully the next silver screen appearance of the Rangers will be a follow-up to 2017 with more in-costume Ranger action and simpler suits.

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  2. Grew up in Hong Kong and at one time I recall we had both the Japanese and American versions being shown within the same year. It was hella confusing and I wanted to figure out who’s the copy cat. I figured out after seeing Japanese words in some footage of the American version.
    Now my kids seem to like it regardless of how ridiculous the story is.

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  3. Just a quick correction, they haven't adapted a recent Sentai in years. The last one was Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger > Super Megaforce

    After that they skipped over Go Busters and went straight for Kyoryuger for Dino Charge. then skipped Toqger to go for Nininger into Ninja Steel, then went back to Go Busters for Beast Morphers before skipping over Zyuohger, Kyuranger and Lupinranger vs Patranger and picking Ryusoulger for Dino Fury and now they're going back to Kyuranger for Cosmic Fury (though apparently keeping the Ryusoulger suits for some reason)

    yeah idk what Hasbro is smoking.

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  4. The worst part of them firing 3 of the original rangers is that they eventually came out with a comic series about them. So they fired them to avoid paying more and then profited off of firing them by spinning their characters off into another ranger series.

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  5. So much nostalgia! I used to run home every day after elementary school to watch powers rangers so that I could talk about it the next day with my friends. Watched from Mighty Morphin to In Space. After that it was all about Pokemon for me.

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  6. I was born in 1999 so I got to experience the tale end of the 90s fads and my aunt worked at a home video store so I was able to watch tons of the classic power rangers on VHS, I used to be addicted to the franchise as a kid Dino Thunder is still my favorite

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  7. I am confused, meaning all the fighting scenes in suits were just taken from the japanese show. This was limited to only mighty morphon power rangers right.

    This was not true for jungle fury or spd or rpm or dino thunder or ninja storm. Because so many times the actor would stand with the rangers in suit and the background does not change that much

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  8. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was my childhood! Although I dropped off heavy after Power Rangers in Space, I have to say Mystic force will always hold a weird nostalgic place in my heart.

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  9. Two things to add, I guess, as a kid who watched the OG Power Rangers and learned some stuff:
    1. The original Yellow Ranger – Trini (Thuy Tranh?) – died in a car crash saving the life of her passenger (that's why she was replaced) on a freeway near the shooting locations between seasons.
    2. Billy's actor David Yost, ultimately left the show due to some intense bullying. He was in the closet as a gay man and only very few people knew. The crew apparently used this to tease and torture him. He left the original series due to this but still does fan stuff and I think is even in Once and Always.

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  10. Theory: the weird guy that makes monsters for Rita has some stereotypically Jewish features. He makes monsters out of clay. The rangers are fighting golems… How did I not realize this 25 years ago?

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  11. I'm just about to watch now and forever. Thank you for bringing back the memories of the first 2 og seasons and bringing us up to speed on the various reincarnations since. Well done!

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  12. The first at least 7 minutes of this video start off WAYYYYY too basic, explaining what power rangers is, which anyone clicking on this video already knows. The title and thumbnail made it look like we would be getting caught up on all the backstory and lore over the seasons since we grew up.

    Reply

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