I always get fuzzy feelings whenever I watch an early episode of Power Rangers. It all used to seem so epic and high octane when I was a young kid, but now it looks so cheesy and cheap. I catch myself somewhere directly in the middle of these two perspectives whenever I watch any Power Rangers episode, and that's truly the best way to enjoy it. I can't ignore the fact that on a number of levels, the show isn't very good. However, I also can't ignore how charming it can be on the whole. For material that exists mostly to sell toys, there is a surprising amount of heart put into the first few Power Rangers seasons.
"Ahh! After ten thousand years, I'm free! It's time to conquer Earth..."
"Alpha, Rita's escaped. Recruit a team of teenagers with attitude!"
I feel like summarizing Day of the Dumpster is like teaching grown adults their ABCs. You know it already, so can we move on? I'll make it brief for consistency's sake. On the moon (which doesn't look like the moon at all), two astronauts discover a giant urn with a glowing red jewel on top of it. While speaking far too much dialogue, the astronauts accidentally unlock the urn and unleash a hoard of monsters led by the evil Rita Repulsa. Her minions include Goldar, her right-hand warrior general; Finster, her monster maker; Squat, an oafish troll, and Baboo, a vampire monkey. Rita makes her intentions clear immediately; she wants to take over Earth. Don't worry about why.
Meanwhile in Angel Grove, California, at a rather happenin' place called the Juice Bar (and gym, apparently), we meet our future rangers. Jason, a patient and strong karate teacher; Zack, a cocky but warm-hearted hip-hop dancer; Billy, an awkward, geeky brainiac; Trini, a girl who's quiet and calm, and Kimberly, a peppy gymnast. Despite how different they are, they're all close friends who stand up for each other against the likes of dimwitted bullies in the form Bulk, the overweight leader, and Skull, Bulk's hopelessly devoted, neo-Nazi sidekick. When an earthquake hits the city, the teens are teleported to the mysterious command center, where a giant head in a tube named Zordon and a robot named Alpha 5 have called upon them to defend the Earth against the likes of Rita and her henchmen.
The teens are naturally skeptical, so they leave the command center and proceed to walk through the desert. Their minds are changed when they are ambushed by Putties, foot soldiers made from clay by Finster and sent by Rita to kill them before they have the chance to use the powers Zordon bestowed upon them. When they've nearly been beat, Jason leads the team to morph for the very first time into the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. They use their dinosaur-themed powers against Goldar and nearly take him down with their Mighty Megazord.
So that's a hell of a lot of introduction for only one episode, and I've gotta say, it's pretty well-paced. Yes, maybe it would have been better if the Megazord had been introduced in the second episode, but maybe the writers weren't afforded the luxury. This was a brand new concept in so many ways that maybe they had to get all the major stuff introduced as soon as possible. But still, we have a really clear introduction of the main villain, the mentor, the rangers, the powers... everything works in perfect harmony. This is one of the few Season 1 episodes where nothing feels like filler; there's a definite story that follows the classic "hero's journey" to an absolute tee, and does it as successfully as it can.
Knowing all I do about the production, I find the process of mixing footage from a Japanese action show with American footage absolutely fascinating. I'm always on the alert for the footage change, and when it happens, I usually geek out. Look how ridiculously different it looks! I won't get into too much Super Sentai comparisons in this blog because I believe that Power Rangers is a different show and should be judged on its own merits. Still, I'm always entertained by the very notion of editing together two shows that shouldn't go together at all, but somehow it goes together really well.
Dubbing the original actress for Rita must have been a major hindrance for the writing team, and while they pull it off as well as they can, it does limit what Rita can do in the show. It can be pretty hilarious to see the lip movement just barely matching, so I give it points for being entertaining. Trini's Japanese counterpart was a Boy named Boi. That's all that needs to be said, and that's the only time I'll say it. As an adult, it's very obvious. The Pink Ranger has a skirt but the Yellow doesn't? When I was a kid, I assumed it was just because Kim had a more girly personality. And to enjoy Power Rangers, you do need to employ some kid logic, and that'll just have to be good enough. Besides that and Rita's odd dubbing, I love the footage from Zyuranger and the designs of just about every entity. The Command Center is made to feel like a grand place even though it's just a bunch of blinking Christmas lights, Rita's palace looks like a steampunk fortune teller's house, and the Rangers' suits and zords are, to this very day, my very favorite of all time. The rangers' interactions are corny, but they're playing it straight. They're not speaking down to their audience, and despite being written as stereotypes, I believe them as friends.
It's so interesting to go back to Power Rangers' roots after all the fandom has been through. It's been over twenty years, and it's almost shocking to see how simple and without nuance the original show is. But there's just something about the way all the elements work in harmony with each other that's just too earnest and charming to dismiss. At this point, there were no plans for the show to last any more than 40 episodes; a time-filler, a toy commercial, a show that would air for a few months and be forgotten just as quickly. It's crazy to think that nearly 800 episodes later (YOU READ THAT CORRECTLY) the show would still be going strong, and even crazier to think that it all started with this harmless, silly, yet pretty special little episode.
Mighty Morpin' scale:
10/10
Power Rangers scale:
8/10
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