Sunday, August 30, 2026

My Review of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995)

 


Written by John Kamps And Arne Olsen
Directed by Bryan Spicer

Ivan Ooze: "Taking over the world is one thing. Finding good help to run it for you, that's the killer."

What can I say? I fancied a nostalgia trip and this was something that I've not watched in a long time. I forgot how unbelievably cheesy this movie was and nope, that's not a criticism.

I was obsessed with this show as a kid, specifically the first few seasons. I'm not necessarily sure when I dipped out of it but this era in particular still had two of my favourite characters as Rangers and I did like the others who replaced some of the original cast.

Let's look at the Rangers - there's Tommy Oliver/White Ranger (Jason David Frank), Billy Cranston/Blue Ranger (David Yost), Kimberly Hart/Pink Ranger (Amy Jo Johnson), Rocky DeSantos/Red Ranger (Steve Cardenas), Aisha Campbell/Yellow Ranger (Karan Ashley) and Adam Park/Black Ranger (Johnny Yong Bosch). Theyre a likable bunch of friends and current heroes of Angel Grove.

The movie opened with our heroes taking s skydive with bullies Bulk (Paul Schrier) and Skull (Jason Narvy). Needless to say, the latter two didn't stick the landing and ended up on a construction site. The same site that would attract show villains Rita Repulsa (Julia Cortez) and Lord Zedd (Mark Gitner).

However if you were expecting Rita and Zedd to be the main baddies of this one, you might be disappointed. Instead they're trapped in a snow globe when they foolishly released and underestimated Ivan Ooze (Paul Freeman). It didn't take much for Ivan to literally steal the show from those two or to get both Goldar (Kerry Casey) and Mordant (Jean Paul Bell) in line.

I'll give Ooze his dues. He moved very fast as a villain. He gave the Rangers a run for their money and he quickly neutralised both Alpha 5 (Peta-Marie Rixon) and Zordon (Nicholas Bell). This also meant cutting the Rangers off their power source as well.

There's a fun journey with the powerless rangers on Phaedos as they met with Dulcea (Gabrielle Fitzpatrick). During that time, they fought off bird creatures, got cool ninja costumes, were assigned new animals and got their powers back. Those scenes are the best within the movie itself.

Of course there was also returning to Earth and defeating Ivan Ooze. It's the usual fun, bombastic way that you'd have seen per episode and it's rather fitting defeat. There's also a nice subplot with a young boy named Fred (Jamie Croft) that added a further human element as his teaming up with Bulk and Skull also saved lives.

- The animals assigned were ape (Rocky), wolf (Billy), crane (Kimberly), frog (Adam), bear (Aisha) and falcon (Tommy). Dulcea turned into an owl at one point.
-  There's a mid credit where Rita and Zedd got out of their snow globe prison.
- Standout music: Red Hot Chilli Peppers Higher Ground.
- Chronology: Ivan Ooze was trapped for 6000 years. Not as long as Rita once was but still a rather long time.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, it's certainly as cheesy as I remember it to be and I wouldn't have it any other way. A fun nostalgia trip with a very fun and very purple themed baddie.

Rating: 7 out of 10 

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