The Power Rangers

[Agent Z]

They called it Dino Fury because Dino Force was already taken, and frankly, Power Rangers historically doesn't have a great naming department.



I'm not going to be surprised if they decide to skip and never look back, like Toqger. Lupin vs. Pat constantly has thieves fighting and outmaneuvering the cops, and American parents and censors simply won't have that, even if ultimately both sides come together. America's cop culture is way too strong for that, and the show would be seen as teaching kids as being disobedient, the same way MMPR was foolishly criticized for being too violent by parent groups.

Even if they spin it away from its theme (the way Super Megaforce just completely avoided the entire pirate motif of Gokaiger), it would be incoherent with the source footage. You know what goes together like PB & J, or cookies and cream? Cops and... magicians... ("I guess they're magicians?", says a kid)

Well we had a ninja season with a cowboy Sixth Ranger so cops and magicians may not be too out of place.

We've had antihero Rangers before in this franchise (Magna Defender, Eric and the Thunder Rangers). Hell, SPD did cops and thieves teaming up years before Lupiranger vs Patoranger and five sixths of the Time Force team stole their morphers. So who knows, Hasbro might surprise us.

[Agent Z]

No, it really doesn't.

I actually don't mind "Dino Fury" as a name. Frankly, I find "Dino Force" so much more awkward, and I never liked "Dino Knights", either. Someone on RB pointed out that, "Dino Steel" wouldn't have been a bad idea, to touch on both themes (knights and dinosaurs), but from the sounds of it -- the description only mentions dinosaurs, teens and aliens -- they're going to minimalise the knight aspect.

And that's the part I've found disheartening. They've never done a knights-theme, before, and it would've been interesting. Unfortunately, Hasbro are continuing the same trend as Saban Brands were ... just keep aping MMPR and hoping for the best. They have a template ("Red Ranger with daddy issues. Aliens. Karate. Juice Bar. Clumsy people") and they're refusing to put any more work or creativity into it, than that. And it's frustrating that it's been 27 years but the show just can't grow past the MMPR tropes, without really understanding why they worked in '93 and don't work anymore.

And that's another part that's frustrating. Samurai had the primary antagonist as a Japanese demon overlord, and okay, cool. What happened next? A bunch of aliens (Megaforce), another bunch of aliens (Super Megaforce), a third bunch of aliens (Dino Charge), and then a fourth bunch of aliens (Ninja Steel). Ninja Steel's general plot was copied, almost word-for-word, from Dino Charge, and the show just seems to be lacking that creative spark, right now.

What's also frustrating is that Hasbro skipped three (3!) seasons with Orange Rangers -- trains, space-balls, and cubes -- to get to a season that didn't have one. Grrr.

For me, the problem is that it feels like the alien villains they have now just kind of blend in with each other. Even when the Saban and Disney eras did alien invasions it felt like there was still some diversity among them. Zedd and Rita was sorcerers, the Machine Empire were robotic lifeforms, Divatox was a pirate who acted more like a terrorist with her use of bombs, the villains of Lost Galaxy and In Space were the first morally complex villains and Lothor was a human leading alien forces and was a return to the more slapstick villains the series started with. The aliens of the Neo-Saban era just feel like the same thing with Ninja Steel only standing out because of the game show gimmick. At least they gave us a reprieve with Evox.

[Agent Z]

Post-Disney, the subsequent owners seem to have a ninjas or dinosaurs ONLY mentality. Or if neither are available at the moment, animals (Beast Morphers). With that in mind the cops and robbers Sentai sadly was never an option.

Probably because vehicle zord seasons tend to be controversial. Turbo was considered to be the most hated season of the Zordon Era and even the entire franchise for a time*. Lightspeed Rescue was also disliked initially before its reputation was salvaged. Operation Overdrive took Turbo's place as being the most hated season for a time.

* I've even heard the reason we never saw the Red Turbo costume in "Fighting Spirit" and "Dimensions In Danger" is because JDF hates that season and wants as little references to it in regards to Tommy's character.

[OrangeRangerPete]

For me, the problem is that it feels like the alien villains they have now just kind of blend in with each other.

I find that the whole series is suffering from a bad case of sameness, right now. For me, it's a bit of a deal-breaker. Everything's just the same. They don't seem to be working from a general idea (even with incredibly varied parent series. You had dinosaurs and ninjas and spies and dinosaurs again), rather, they're working from a template, and each season hits the same story beats with only cosmetic changes. And it's the devotion to MMPR. Saban Brands did it for 8 years, and Hasbro has inherited it.

The one time they really tried to swerve was the first half of Dino Charge. And the vast majority of the fandom enjoyed the heck out of that season ... then Haim got involved, and the executives started meddling (like always), and the writers were all replaced, and the show fell back into Baby's First Superheroes and it hasn't yet recovered. I find that incredibly frustrating, as someone who's watched the show for so long.

Operation Overdrive took Turbo's place as being the most hated season for a time.

They'll never beat Super Megaforce. Sure, they had vehicle-themed zords too, but I really think that was a coincidence, since that season had far worse problems.

I wish Ninja Steel's villains had done more with the game-show gimmick. Personally, I find them the weakest villains. I can't even remember their names, and that season only aired two years ago.

[Nate Grey]

Probably because vehicle zord seasons tend to be controversial. Turbo was considered to be the most hated season of the Zordon Era and even the entire franchise for a time*. Lightspeed Rescue was also disliked initially before its reputation was salvaged. Operation Overdrive took Turbo's place as being the most hated season for a time.

* I've even heard the reason we never saw the Red Turbo costume in "Fighting Spirit" and "Dimensions In Danger" is because JDF hates that season and wants as little references to it in regards to Tommy's character.

Couldn't they sidestep that issue altogether by putting Selwyn Ward in the Red Turbo costume? Why isn't that an option? Based on a certain interview sounds like he'd be game but it looks like its not up to him.

[Agent Z]

Couldn't they sidestep that issue altogether by putting Selwyn Ward in the Red Turbo costume? Why isn't that an option? Based on a certain interview sounds like he'd be game but it looks like its not up to him.

Probably redundancy. "Dimensions In Danger" had three Red Rangers (Brody, Rocky and Wes) and a guy who could morph into a Red Ranger among his many forms.

Mind you, the Soul of the Dragon comic did reference Tommy's time as Turbo Ranger and had him take on that form and that comic had JDF as consultant. So it may not even be up to JDF either.

[Gryphon]

[Agent Z]

There was going to be a live-action adaptation of the "World of the Coinless" comic storyline but it got nixed by Hasbro.

https://www.newsarama.com/50341-insi...-timeline.html

[Cyke]

There was going to be a live-action adaptation of the "World of the Coinless" comic storyline but it got nixed by Hasbro.

https://www.newsarama.com/50341-insi...-timeline.html

(ah! the link is broken! )

I'd been thinking about the reunion one-off specials in Sentai (the 10 Years After series), with the key there being that Sentai acknowledges that their audience also grew up, too (Dekaranger was a bit more complex and bloody than their show, albeit still well within PG/PG-13 territory rather than G). But then I started fantasizing about what that would look like for an audience that is *30* years older now.

Budget be damned, I'd really love it if a live-action movie was the originals (substituting Aisha for Trini, wherein Thuy Trang would get a fitting tribute) back together, and Tommy with just the Green Ranger powers. The story being that essentially the Zeo Rangers (an excuse to bring back Kat, Tanya, Adam, and Rocky) tried to lead an army of successor rangers against a brand new foe and all were defeated/drained of their powers (echoes of Gokaiger). Tommy loses his Zeo powers and only his Green Ranger powers remain, and so he reunites the last force left on Earth -- the original Rangers who have all otherwise retired to daily, every day life.

But that's just the excuse to get the band back together. It's not a single battle, but rather a quest. What friendships continued and which ones disintegrated over time? Was Jason really honest about his feelings towards Tommy when he took over as leader? How about Billy when he was twice-rejected by fate from becoming a Zeo Ranger? Can Tommy juggle the weight of both saving the world *and* rescue his wife Kat? Can they still work together, and how rusty are they? What tensions would they have now that would have been impossible when they were youth, and vice versa? What can their friendship survive? And can they stand together against a threat so unlike Rita and so powerful that it beat the combined might of all their successors for one last hurrah? They're not just fighting a new threat far beyond anything they could have dreamt in 1993, but now they're fighting for the legacy they've left behind, one that was forged from their own high school friendship.

This movie would still have to be all-ages *enough* that would still appeal to kids but engage parents that grew up with the show. After all, that's two ends of a toy-buying spectrum right there.

[Agent Z]

(ah! the link is broken! )

I'd been thinking about the reunion one-off specials in Sentai (the 10 Years After series), with the key there being that Sentai acknowledges that their audience also grew up, too (Dekaranger was a bit more complex and bloody than their show, albeit still well within PG/PG-13 territory rather than G). But then I started fantasizing about what that would look like for an audience that is *30* years older now.

Budget be damned, I'd really love it if a live-action movie was the originals (substituting Aisha for Trini, wherein Thuy Trang would get a fitting tribute) back together, and Tommy with just the Green Ranger powers. The story being that essentially the Zeo Rangers (an excuse to bring back Kat, Tanya, Adam, and Rocky) tried to lead an army of successor rangers against a brand new foe and all were defeated/drained of their powers (echoes of Gokaiger). Tommy loses his Zeo powers and only his Green Ranger powers remain, and so he reunites the last force left on Earth -- the original Rangers who have all otherwise retired to daily, every day life.

But that's just the excuse to get the band back together. It's not a single battle, but rather a quest. What friendships continued and which ones disintegrated over time? Was Jason really honest about his feelings towards Tommy when he took over as leader? How about Billy when he was twice-rejected by fate from becoming a Zeo Ranger? Can Tommy juggle the weight of both saving the world *and* rescue his wife Kat? Can they still work together, and how rusty are they? What tensions would they have now that would have been impossible when they were youth, and vice versa? What can their friendship survive? And can they stand together against a threat so unlike Rita and so powerful that it beat the combined might of all their successors for one last hurrah? They're not just fighting a new threat far beyond anything they could have dreamt in 1993, but now they're fighting for the legacy they've left behind, one that was forged from their own high school friendship.

This movie would still have to be all-ages *enough* that would still appeal to kids but engage parents that grew up with the show. After all, that's two ends of a toy-buying spectrum right there.

I like your idea. The plot of Forever Red - Machine Empire remnants using Serpentera - could have also made for a good Zeo reunion.

[Agent Z]

Hasbro's partnership with Toei has ended

https://www.theilluminerdi.com/2020/...power-rangers/

[Frontier]

Hasbro's partnership with Toei has ended

https://www.theilluminerdi.com/2020/...power-rangers/

Huh. I guess the comics have explored moving the Rangers property away from just being based around Super Sentai, but I'm really curious to see what the fallout of this is.

[Nate Grey]

Someone else will probably step in and buy them. I got a funny feeling it'll be Disney. Again.

[Agent Z]

Illuminerdi have scheduled a livestream on Youtube for this coming Saturday to give more details.

[Cyke]

The news got me to watch some clips on YouTube where Sentai and PR footage are compared side-by-side. I get the need for PR to replace/refilm some scenes for violence/brutality issues (since Japanese fight scenes tend to be more graphic), but in some cases PR would substitute some fights that were just as graphic as the source footage, making me wonder if this was wasted money.

Same with the amount of original PR fight scenes, where all the explosions and wire work and editing defeats the purpose of using Sentai footage as a cost cutting measure.

A cartoon is essentially a way to cut out the middle man of Sentai source material altogether, but even if they stuck to live action, the amount of original PR battle footage supplanting Sentai footage similarly means that Sentai isn't needed anymore. And logically that would be a sound business decision.

(I say this as someone who's generally more of a Sentai fan than PR these days)