WARNING: This article contains spoilers for media throughout the Power Rangers franchise as well as several mentions of discomforting material. Reader discretion is advised.
When the world’s at stake, there will always be heroes who rise to the occasion.
There is plenty of hype surrounding bigger superhero releases with the MCU concluding Phase Four late last year and commencing Phase Five with Ant Man & The Wasp: Quantumania back in February, DC gearing up for a reboot of their cinematic universe with James Gunn at the helm, and Spider-Man: Across the Spider Verse set to release later this year.
The small screen hasn’t slouched on the superhero front either.
Streaming services have their hands full with gritty comic adaptations The Boys and Invincible set to debut a fourth season and second season respectively on Amazon Prime within the next year, the light-hearted action-comedy animated series Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur releasing new episodes on Disney+ on a regular basis, and DC projects being shopped around to several streaming services after being rejected from HBO Max.
However, another series has recently stepped back into the spotlight thanks to its new home on Netflix: Power Rangers.
Since Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers’ debut in 1993, Saban’s Westernization of the Super Sentai franchise has launched nearly 30 seasons of television and hundreds of pieces of tie-in media. The original series followed five – later six – “teenagers with attitude” who were given powers related to extinct animals in order to fight the evil Rita Repulsa and her ever-growing army of monsters. While there have been many Ranger teams since, the original Rangers have become synonymous with and iconic to the greater franchise.
It’s no surprise, then, that Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: Once & Always taps into that nostalgia for the 30th anniversary of the franchise.
Released exclusively on Netflix on April 19th, Once & Always reunites members of the original Mighty Morphin’ ranger teams for the first time in 30 years for a showdown with a familiar foe: Rita Repulsa.
From the get-go, this feels very much like nostalgia bait.
Dedicated Power Rangers fans may recall that Rita hasn’t been seen in person since Mystic Force, where she – albeit in a purified state that she gained at the end of In Space – was the source of the good magic that powered that season’s Rangers. Given that Dino Fury resurrected fellow purified villain Lord Zedd in his villainous state, it seems there’s a desire to play into the original villainous appeal from the higher-ups.
On top of this, the special feels very unfortunately timed.
The passing of Jason David Frank – the actor who portrayed Tommy Oliver, the series’ original Green Ranger – and subsequent revelations regarding how both Saban and Hasbro treated him poorly behind the scenes are still relatively fresh topics in the realm of entertainment, especially as Frank’s final film The Legend of the White Dragon is set to debut later this year. The special does pay tribute to Frank, but it feels ultimately hollow given the aforementioned revelations.
Nostalgic nitpicks and unfortunate timing aside, the special is a solid, if somewhat unremarkable, send-up to the original Angel Grove teens.
As mentioned prior, the special has several former Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers reunite to fight the returning Rita Repulsa (voiced by her original voice actress Barbara Goodson), who has taken on a robotic form and powered up her magic to a point where she can now outright kill others. She demonstrates this with a blast intended for Billy Cranston, the original Blue Ranger (played by a returning David Yost), which is intercepted by Trini Kwan, the original Yellow Ranger (voiced with archival audio from her late actress Thuy Trang). Trini is vaporized in the blast, and the Rangers are left to grieve.
A year later, Zack, the original Black Ranger (played by a returning Walter Jones), has moved in with Trini’s orphaned daughter Minh (played by Charlie Kersh) and is still uncertain about letting her take up the mantle of the Yellow Mighty Morphin’ Ranger. This all begins to change when Rita snatches three of the Rangers at a reunion with plans to use their energy to travel back in time and prevent them from ever becoming Power Rangers. Thus, Billy, Zack and Minh and returning Rangers Rocky DeSantos, the second Red Ranger (played by a returning Steve Cardenas), and Katherine “Kat” Hillard, the second Pink Ranger (played by a returning Catherine Sutherland), unite to defeat Rita once and for all.
The story of Once & Always does a solid job at building upon where we last left the original Mighty Morphin’ team and paying tribute to one of its fallen members. Beyond the fan-service and memorial though, there’s not much to it. It’s definitely serviceable for a Power Rangers story but feels a bit lackluster for an anniversary special. While the stakes are slightly higher than most Mighty Morphin’ episodes, we’ve seen the time travel plot line done much better and with a bit more of an edge in Power Rangers Time Force. Nothing here sticks out as particularly bad, but on that same token, little sticks out as truly memorable beyond a few callbacks and Minh finally being able to use her mother’s Morpher.
Another key aspect of Power Rangers is the fight scenes where the characters – and by extension, their actors – demonstrate their unique, often martial arts heavy, fighting styles. While the series heavily used footage from Zyuranger, its original Super Sentai counterpart, the unique nature of the special means the footage here is original and coordinated primarily by more recent Ranger staff members. For what it’s worth, the fights here are well done and feel adequate for the special. The loss of several original cast members can be felt, though, and some of the charm and heart behind them followed suit. The years of advancements seen in more recent Ranger series are on full display and unintentionally leave the original “teenagers with attitude” feeling more dated than before.
Last but not least are the characters themselves. Though most of the original team appears here, it’s Billy, Zack and especially newcomer Minh who get the spotlight because their original actors couldn’t return. The returning cast does an excellent job at portraying their original roles, but I wish we got a little more time with some of them given we haven’t seen some of these characters on screen in well over a decade. In addition, Alpha 9 (played by a returning Richard Horvitz) sent out a distress call across the world to all Ranger Teams, yet we only ever see members of the Mighty Morphin’ team. Though understandable due to most of these cast members moving onto other roles, it feels like there could have been some more representation outside of just the figures used for Rita’s time machine. That said, what we have is a solid cast that, save for Minh, definitely feels like adults wanting to be teenagers again.
Overall, Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: Once & Always provides a serviceable, if a bit lacking, send-up to one of the most iconic series of the 90s. The story is fine, the fights are fine, the characters are alright, and overall the special’s not much to write home about. For longtime Ranger fans or those nostalgic about the first whom Zordon considered worthy of great power, I can easily recommend it. Otherwise, this anniversary special gets an 7/10 from me for being something solid but nothing super special.
Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: Once & Always is currently streaming exclusively on Netflix.
Photo credit // Netflix
