All of the “costumed” action sequences, Zord appearances, and villain scenes are directly spliced from Kyōryū. The only filming Haim Saban and Shuki Levy had to do for “our” show was the “un-morphed” scenes at school, the Angel Grove Youth Center, the Command Center, ect. There are also short martial arts sequences with the Putty Patrol that had to be created in the Saban sudios. But that still pales in comparison to the overwhelming stock of action present in each episode. In theory, this made things cheaper on all parties involved to make Mighty Morphin. Just film 5-8 minutes of stuff with a small cast, and transfer in the rest from bought overseas film stock with new voice acting. For a kids show, this is a stroke of genius, and is probably the main reason it’s still on the air today. Even the current Power Rangers Samurai has roots with Samurai Sentai Shinkenger.
For anyone who was wondering why some scenes look like a bad ’70s English overdub, I hope the above explanation helped to clear the air. Mainly because, well, it is overdubbed. But as a kid, I couldn’t have cared less. I thought this show kicked (whispering…) ass. Sure, the story line makes the viewer have to take a good amount of things at face value. But doesn’t most children’s stuff do that, even now? In the first season of Mighty Morphin, the evil Rita Repulsa (Barbara Goodson)returns to once again attempt domination of Earth. The heroic being Zordon (Robert L. Manahan) orders trusty robot associate Alpha 5 (Romy J. Sharf) to recruit a band of five “teenagers with attitude.” A group of five friends from Angel Grove, California are beamed to the Command Center and given Power Coins, which allows them to morph into a dominant fighting force. Jason (Austin St. John.), Kimberly (Amy Jo Johnson), Zack (Walter Jones), Trini (Thuy Trang), and Billy (David Yost) are given the sole responsibility of defending the Grove, and the planet, with the honor and dignity of true heroes.
This particular collection has the first 30 episodes. The best of these being the 5 part story arc “Green with Evil.” The Angel Grove Youth Center hosts a martial arts tournament, and the final two competitors left are Jason and the new kid in town Tommy (Jason David “Fearless” Frank). The explosive match ends in a draw, to the surprise of the group. The strong Tommy catches the eye of Repulsa. She dispatches a group of Puttys upon the newcomer, who all get wrecked within seconds. This is enough for her to place him under a spell, and grants him the secretive sixth Power Coin, morphing him into the evil Green Ranger. Because of his ancient powers, he intrudes undetected into the Command Center, disables Alpha and sends Zordon to another dimension. This lack of leadership makes it even harder for the Rangers to combat this new threat. The fight reaches a fever pitch when Rita also summons Scorpina (Wendee Lee), to spearhead an assault on the world!
Shout! decided to go with DVD to save them the need of complicated “up conversion” processes that have to be done with Blu-ray. This is a commonly utilized strategy by companies far and wide, big and small. So, even though it’s not in high definition, it still holds an adequate amount of quality. The show is kept in 4:3 in this collection, which, again, saves an unnecessary process of artificially transitioning to 16:9. And while we’re not given a full fledged Dolby 5.1 track, the sound is still solid, crisp, and clean. Overwhelmingly, the most disappointing thing about this offering is the lack of Special Features. There are NO extras AT ALL. A real, real shame considering everything else was done greatly.