Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Complete First Season (1993) (R2)

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Complete First Season (1993)
Buy it on Amazon.de
Release company: Foreign Media Group Germany / Company of Kids International
Screen format: Color; PAL (can be played on a region-free player)
Running Time: 1000 minutes
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1 full screen
Languages: German 2.0 stereo / English 2.0 stereo (all episodes have the original English track)
Subtitles / Closed Captions: None
Packaging: Six disc set with five wafer cases inside cardboard slipcover
Episode Listing:

Disc One: Day of the Dumpster / High Five / Teamwork / A Pressing Engagement / A Different Drum / Food Fight / Big Sisters / Switching Places / I, Eye Guy / Foul Play in the Sky
Disc Two: From Whom the Bell Trolls / Happy Birthday Zack / No Clowning Around / Power Ranger Punks / Peace, Love and Woe / Dark Warrior / Green With Evil Part 1* / Green With Evil Part 2 / Green With Evil Part 3 / Green With Evil Part 4
Disc Three: Green With Evil Part 5 / The Trouble With Shellshock / Itsy Bitsy Spider / The Spit Flower* / Life’s a Masquerade / Gung Ho! / Island of Illusion Part 1* / Island of Illusion Part 2 / Wheel of Misfortune / The Rockstar
Disc Four: Calamity Kimberly / A Star is Born / The Yolk’s On You! / The Green Candle Part 1 / The Green Candle Part 2 / Birds of a Feather / Clean-Up Club / A Bad Reflection on You / Doomsday Part 1 / Doomsday Part 2
Disc Five: A Pig Surprise / Something Fishy / Rita’s Seed of Evil / To Flea or Not to Flee / Reign of the Jellyfish / Crystal of Nightmares / Plague of the Mantis / Return of an Old Friend Part 1 / Return of an Old Friend Part 2
Disc Six: Grumble Bee / Two Heads Are Better than One / Fowl Play / Trick or Treat / Second Chance / On Fins and Needles / Enter... the Lizzinator / Football Season / Mighty Morphin’ Mutants / An Oyster Stew
* = Slightly cut from original version, check “Video and Audio” section for more details

The entire fandom knows how MMPR came to be, so I’ll just keep it short -- Egyptian producer Haim Saban saw the Sentai show “Zyuranger” and proposed a TV show to Fox suits that incorporated the fight scenes from Zyuranger with American-dubbed voices and American-produced footage mixed in. And the rest is history.

The very season that started it all -- from lucrative merchandising, two theatrical film spinoffs and numerous incarnations -- “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” is very much a product of its time. From scrunchies to babydoll dresses, the show is littered with dated trends from the ‘90s (like scrunchies and babydoll dresses), which work against it.

While some casual fans cite the first season as their favorite, and aside from the nostalgia factor, the first season is quite frankly, terrible. After a while, the show’s formula gets tiring -- for the most part, an episode consists of one or two of the Rangers being the focus of the episode and have something planned, Rita Repulsa sends down a monster to destroy it/keep it from happening, the Rangers defeat it and go on as planned. And the Rangers are just plain stereotypes -- the smart Asian girl (Trini), the handsome jock (Jason), the cool token black guy (Zack), the girly-girl shopper (Kimberly) and the smart nerd (Billy) which make the series even more predictable than it is. The so-so acting and constant continuity errors and plot holes (whatever happened to Marge after “Peace, Love and Woe”?) compound the problem.

Even with the inception of the highly-popular Green Ranger (Tommy) -- who would stay on Power Rangers longer than any other character (“Mighty Morphin”, “Zeo”, first part of “Power Rangers Turbo”, and the highly-touted return in “Power Rangers Dino Thunder”) -- the show still stayed fairly predictable for the most part. Even though the show would take giant steps in terms of acting and writing in the next two seasons, the first season still hasn’t lost that nostalgia factor that made it so much fun to begin with. I still grin from ear to ear when I hear that familiar Ron Wasserman song, laugh at the wrong moments and just go with the flow. The first season is just mindless entertainment and if viewed in that context along with a heaping of nostalgia, it can be a lot of fun.

VIDEO AND AUDIO

Presented (mostly) uncut in its original 1.33:1 televised ratio in PAL format, the episodes look good. Not amazing or reference quality, but is in very good condition considering that the show is over a decade old. It might be the PAL format allowing for more lines of resolution than NTSC, or whether the international masters were in fine shape to start with.

There’s little in the way of print damage (only a few specks and hairs pop up), although the Sentai footage looks a bit worse than the American footage in terms of print damage, but it never becomes distracting or unwatchable. Sharpness is pretty fair, no doubt due to the low bit rate and the slight haze of the ‘90s film stock used. Colors are vibrant, but the black levels look muddy. Compression levels are fair to mediocre, but with three hours‘ worth of content on each disc it‘s miraculous it doesn‘t look even worse.

Additionally, some noise is apparent during the more action-oriented scenes in addition to blockiness (again due to the large number of episodes per disc) -- it‘s noticeable on large scale televisions but it should look fine on regular non-widescreen televisions. And the picture quality is more than good enough to replace those worn VHS tapes. Be forewarned, the episodes are the international masters and do not contain the “Next Time on Power Rangers” and that the episode titles have been painted over in German. (Each episode is split into 4 chapters.)

As per the first two seasons, the audio is in Dolby 2.0 stereo, in both a German dub and the original English track. The dialogue comes through clear and audible, but I was definitely impressed with the clarity of the music and effects, which sound more crisper than they did on TV. The subwoofer also sees a bit of action, but it‘s still pretty middling (it mainly provides a nice bass line for the music). For what it is, it sounds good, although a Dolby 5.1 remix would‘ve rocked.

* NOTE: The first pressings of the set lacked the original English audio for the episodes “Green With Evil Part 1”, “The Spit Flower” and “Island of Illusion Part 1”, yet the next pressing rectified the problem (they did do a disc exchange program for those who had a set from the first pressing). Foreign Media Group was able to obtain English copies of the episodes from Disney, but some minor cuts have been made:
GREEN WITH EVIL PART 1: A few seconds of Tommy in the web cocoon after Rita first captures him.
THE SPIT FLOWER: A few seconds of the fight between the Putties and Kim and Tommy in the Youth Center.
ISLAND OF ILLUSION PART 1: Most of the Rita scenes have been cut down, probably due to strobing effects. (This episode also has the edited Jetix opening, where Saban’s name is removed from the opening credits.)

BONUS FEATURES, MENUS, AND PACKAGING

For what they had to work with, Foreign Media Group Germany came up with a fair amount of bonus material. The most notable bonus feature is “Jason David Frank Visits Germany” (which is pretty self-explanatory) and you can hear him talking even with the German dub. Another notable bonus feature is the inclusion of “Messages from the Power Rangers” ads, but they are dubbed in German (and should you understand German, they won‘t be of any interest to English-speaking fans). The last feature included is a set of screen stills from each show. The extras can only be selected if you press the German menu option, as the English ones are bare.

Considering that Foreign Media Group did a crappy job with their first Power Ranger season set “Power Rangers Time Force” in terms of packaging (as well as a German-language only option), they have completely redeemed themselves not only with the inclusion of the original English audio, but also in packaging. Rather than a digipak for the DVDs, the six discs are housed individually in five wafer cases (the final two discs are housed in the fifth case), which slide into a glossy embossed slipcover. The slipcover itself is also classy, using the teaser poster art from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie with the five Ranger helmet silhouettes (the White Ranger helmet is removed because the White Ranger doesn’t appear in the first season).

Both the back cover of the slipcase and the wafer cases have information about the show printed on them -- the wafer cases have episode listings and descriptions, while the slipcover has a synopsis about the show and technical information printed... but they’re in German. One particularly cool touch is that on the spine of the box is printed two of the Ranger helmet silhouettes (and the following two seasons have the corresponding four divided in the same way). The following two seasons have the corresponding four other helmets on the spine, so that the collection will be a unified whole, so to speak. Again, GREAT packaging on behalf of Foreign Media Group.

CONCLUSION

In short, if you are a Power Rangers lover (and own a region-free DVD player) then the first season release of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers from Foreign Media Germany will likely hit the spot. Its okay video and quality audio coupled with some decent bonus material (and fantastic packaging) will likely hit the spot with die-hard fans of the series. The price of importing the set from Germany may be a bit expensive (you‘ll also need a region-free player or unlock the region coding on your DVD player), but if you can’t wait for Disney to release their version stateside, then this edition is well worth the investment.

Just a quick heads-up: I am working feverishly on my review for MMPR s1, so hopefully that will emerge sometime this weekend.

Other PR DVDs on my review slate include:

- Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie

- Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie

- Power Rangers Operation Overdrive: Volume 4 - Star of Isis

- Power Rangers Ninja Storm: Prelude to a Storm

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Complete Third Season (R2)

Buy it on Amazon.de or on eBay

Release company: Foreign Media Group Germany / Company of Kids International
Screen format: Color; PAL (can be played on a region-free player)
Running Time: 1000 minutes
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1 full screen
Languages: German 2.0 stereo / English 2.0 stereo (all episodes have the original English track)
Subtitles / Closed Captions: None
Packaging: Six disc set with five wafer cases inside cardboard slipcover

Episode Listing:

Disc One: Ninja Quest Part 1 / Ninja Quest Part 2 / Ninja Quest Part 3 / Ninja Quest Part 4 / A Brush With Destiny / Passing the Lantern / Wizard for a Day / Fourth Down and Long
Disc Two: Stop the Hate Master Part 1 / Stop the Hate Master Part 2 / Final Face-Off / The Potion Notion / I’m Dreaming of a White Ranger / A Ranger Catastrophe Part 1 / A Ranger Catastrophe Part 2
Disc Three: Changing of the Zords Part 1 / Changing of the Zords Part 2 / Changing of the Zords Part 3 / Follow That Cab! / A Different Shade of Pink Part 1 / A Different Shade of Pink Part 2 / A Different Shade of Pink Part 3 / Rita’s Pita
Disc Four: Another Brick in the Wall / A Chimp in Charge / Master Vile and the Metallic Armor Part 1 / Master Vile and the Metallic Armor Part 2 / Master Vile and the Metallic Armor Part 3 / The Sound of Dischordia / Rangers in Reverse
Disc Five: Alien Rangers of Aquitar Part 1 / Alien Rangers of Aquitar Part 2 / Climb Every Fountain / The Alien Trap / Attack of the 60’ Bulk
Disc Six: Water You Thinking? / Along Came a Spider / Sowing the Seas of Evil / Hogday Afternoon Part 1 / Hogday Afternoon Part 2

The third and final season of the phenomenally popular season, coming on the heels of the moderately successful theatrical film spinoff “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie”, sees the Rangers gaining new powers, encountering new Rangers and villains, all leading to a cliffhanger finale that leads into the spinoff series “Power Rangers Zeo”. The third season used footage from the Japanese Sentai show “Kakuranger” and “Dairanger” for the Zord sequences.

The season properly starts off with “Ninja Quest” (even though “A Friend in Need“ was actually the season three opening and moved to the season second set), a four part arc that has the Rangers losing their powers after Rita’s new brother Rito Revolto comes to Rita and Lord Zedd bearing new handsoldiers (Tengas) and a monster to defeat the Rangers. Being of course a children’s show, the Rangers get their powers back, gain some important allies and gain a new set of Zords. (SPOILER WARNING: To those who haven’t seen MMPR s3, steer clear of this following paragraph and skip to the next one.)

More plot twists unfold, as Kimberly encounters problems of her own -- as well as Rita and Zedd. Like the first two seasons, the episodes are pretty much predictable, but considering the previous two seasons, the third one seems more focused, more exciting and more funnier. The writers also have a firmer grasp on the characters -- throughout the earlier part of the season, we really get a strong dynamic between Kimberly, newcomer Katherine (who would eventually replace Kimberly as the Pink Ranger) and Tommy. And when Kimberly finally leaves the show, it doesn’t feel tacked on just because the actress herself wanted to leave the show, but that the plot has been naturally building up to it (unlike the haphazard “The Ninja Encounter” which was quickly dashed together to write out Jason, Trini and Zack after their actors left the show over pay disputes). But the remainder of the season is much more problematic; in that the writers fall back on the crutch near the end of the season to keep fresh episodes on until the premiere of “Power Rangers Zeo”. If you’ve seen the MMAR arc in the last eight episodes of the season, you know what I mean.

Some fans tend to regard season three as weaker than the first two previous seasons. Maybe because the buildup is sort of weak to such a great follow-up series, but I feel that it’s more consistent and enjoyable overall. Regardless, if you love the first two seasons, then the third season of “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” is worth adding to your collection.

VIDEO AND AUDIO

Presented uncut in its original 1.33:1 televised ratio in PAL format, the episodes look excellent. Not amazing enough to be reference quality -- far from that -- but they are in very good condition considering that the show is over a decade old. It might be the PAL format allowing for more lines of resolution than NTSC, or whether the international masters were in great shape to start with. There’s little in the way of print damage (at worst there are a couple of specks in each episode and one brief vertical line in the opening scene of “Wizard for a Day”). Unsurprisingly the Sentai footage looks a bit worse than the American footage in terms of print damage, but it never becomes unwatchable or distracting.

The sharpness is usually good to fair, no doubt due to the varying bitrates and the film stock used. Colors are vibrant, but the black levels look a bit muddy. Compression levels are a lot better than the first two seasons (there are only 7-8 episodes per disc this time around, and 5 on the final two), and blocking isn’t really noticeable. There’s a fair bit of noise during the more action-oriented scenes, but it’s not as noticeable as the first two seasons were. In any case, they look better than they did on TV and the picture quality is more than good enough to replace the VHS tapes. (Each episode is split into 4 chapters.)

As per the first two seasons, the audio is in Dolby 2.0 stereo, in both a German dub and the original English track. The dialogue comes through clear and audible (there‘s one brief second in which the English track is electronically garbled in “The Potion Notion” at the beginning but the rest of the episode is clear as a bell). I was definitely impressed with the clarity of the music and effects, which sounds more detailed and crisper than they did on TV. The subwoofer also sees a bit of action, but it‘s still pretty middling (it mainly provides a nice bass line for the music). For what it is, it sounds good, although a Dolby 5.1 remix would‘ve rocked.

BONUS FEATURES, MENUS, AND PACKAGING

Compared to the previous two seasons, season three is left barebones. Company of Kids International was unable to obtain bonus material from Disney to use for the season three release. This release, the lone bonus features are two trailers -- one for the Germany Jetix lineup and one for Company of Kids International. None of the discs have preloaded trailers, although there’s an opening for Foreign Media Group and Company of Kids International that can be skipped with the next chapter button.

The menus are thoughtfully well-designed. After being prompted to choose between German and English menu options, the main menu is in the same style of the box art, with a moving preview of the first season’s opening placed at the left corner of the screen and a moving Ninja coin on the right. The menu provides a play-all option, episode selection and trailer show (which are the two aforementioned Jetix and COK trailers). If you choose to select an individual episode, you’re taken to a submenu with the episode titles listed below, with a moving preview of each episode on the right side of the screen. The biggest annoyance of the episode selection for this season is that you can’t select the episode by selecting the episode title, but by clicking on the moving preview of the episode you want to view. (Please note that there is some slight episode rearranging, as “I’m Dreaming of a White Ranger” is placed after “Final Face-Off” on disc two.)

Like the first two seasons, season three is packaged in an attractively embossed cardboard slipcover, which holds five slim wafer cases that house the six discs (discs five and six are housed in the fifth case). Like with the first two seasons, season three also has two Rangers pictured on the spine, styled in the way of the teaser poster for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie. No insert of any kind is included with the box set; all of the episode info is printed on the backs of the wafer DVD cases... in German.

CONCLUSION

In short, if you are a Power Rangers lover (and own a region-free DVD player or manage to unlock the region setting on your DVD player) then the third and final season release of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers from Foreign Media Germany will likely hit the spot. Its lack of bonus material is compensated by good audiovisual quality and the quality of episodes themselves. The price of importing the set from Germany may be a bit expensive, but if you can’t wait for Disney to release their version stateside, then this edition is well worth the investment.

Just a brief intro

Hi to everyone who has the (mis)fortune to be reading my blog. This is a blog devoted solely for DVD reviews of my childhood show, "Power Rangers". So... if you came for a generic DVD review blog, then make haste and click away from this blog ASAP.

Ahem, over the years, Power Rangers changed and mutated into something I just grew out of, but my love for the golden-era show (1993-1998) still remains.

As the blog stands, I will be providing various reviews of Power Rangers DVDs (although some those highly anticipated season box sets will be R2) out of order. I hope to have the German release of "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Season 3" box set in two weeks, and so that will most likely be the first DVD review among many others, I hope.