"Hey, dirtbag! Leave him alone."
Due to my Day of the Dumpster review feeling a bit overstuffed, I decided to continue some general thoughts on this one. How do you talk about the first season of Power Rangers and not talk about the kick-ass theme song?! 80s and 90s kids shows got many, many things wrong when it came to their stories and characters, at least in terms of holding up to adult standards. But man, did they get their theme songs right, and for me, Power Rangers is near the top of the list for having the best kid's show theme of all time. Actually, screw it, it's one of the best theme songs of all time period! It's simple, catchy, and wonderfully energetic, which is exactly what the show needed to give it an edge that might be missing from the low-budget civilian scenes. The background music follows suit as well, with Ron Wasserman delivering sold music that always suits the tone of the scenes; the Bulk and Skull theme is priceless, Rita's music has a mischievous flair, and the command center's ambiance is full of Importance. Say what you will about about the dialogue and the jumbled story structure, early Power Rangers sounds great.
Now, onto the episode at hand. In a nutshell, High Five is a fun episode. It is in some ways a "part two" to Day of the Dumpster, with the introduction of the communicators and the rangers being able to self-teleport being established for the first time. Looking back at just how big a part teleporting played in the first six seasons, it's amazing to see its inception. The story is about Trini and her fear of heights, which is nice to see since Power Rangers was supposed to be marketed to boys. It's great that the show believes in focusing on the girls as much as the guys despite this being so early on. There's little in the Sentai footage to suggest that this had to be a Yellow Ranger focus; in fact, it seems like it should have been a Red Ranger focus, judging by the solo Tyrannosaurus battle at the end.
The cast is finding their footing very quickly, especially considering how many episodes they were shooting at once. They seem comfortable in their character's skins, and it's nice to see them kid around with each other. Yes, they're dialogue is pretty corny, but they seem earnest enough for me to care about what's happening in the story. The rope climbing stuff with Bulk and Skull was sufficiently stupid, but I did chuckle when it broke and the roof caved in on Bulk's head. It's the way he puffs out the sheetrock dust, no doubt a suggestion of actor Paul Shrier, given what we know now about Bulk and Skull's gag preparation.
The civilian fight scenes are clearly just not there yet in terms of energy and choreography, made more obvious by the stupid looking "human tank mode" or whatever the hell the teens do to take out the putties. It looked absolutely ridiculous. I'm very grateful that this is a one-time thing. I get that this is one of the first big putty fights, but it's awfully weird. I didn't mind the rock climbing scene with Billy and Trini, especially when Trini calls one of the putties a "dirtbag." It almost feels like a swear word by Power Rangers standards.
Thankfully, the Sentai footage looks really great. There's a fun fight with Bones in his weird dimension, with those those skeleton putty things were never used again. What's up with that? Those things were neat! Bones is the first in a long line of monsters that fall apart but can reassemble themselves, plus he has a cool voice. I have a lot of nostalgia for him, given that this is one of the very few episodes that was available on video at the time (and I rented them from my the library so often that I might as well have owned them). I always found it odd that it's Jason who finishes off the monster (not Bones, just some random Giant) rather than Trini, but it's still nice to see a Zord fight that doesn't resort to using the Megazord immediately.
And of course, we get our first use of the ultra-cheesy fast-motion "for comedic affect" gag that will remain a staple throughout early MMPR. It happens a few times: Alpha freaks out and runs around the command center, the putties run away with cactuses on their asses, and Trini climbs the rope at the end. It's another trend that didn't really stick after the first string of episodes, and thank God for that.
I'd go so far as to call this "classic" Power Rangers. Corny, fun, and stocked with likable character moments, featuring nonsensical desert putty fights and Sentai footage that looks great but doesn't have anything to do with the story at hand. It's well-paced enough to remain interesting, and never feels overstuffed because the story is simple and clear, which is exactly what one should reasonably expect.
Mighty Morpin' score: 8/10
Power Rangers score: 7/10
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