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.
