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Power Rangers is a long-running American children's television series adapted from the Japanese tokusatsu Super Sentai Series, though it is not simply an English dub of the original. Rather, it is a 'new' production with English-speaking actors spliced in with the original Japanese footage in varying ratios. Due to the very Japanese nature of many of the Super Sentai Series' stories and design, the American shows are altered to fit a Western audience. However, many of the action sequences featuring the characters in costume and the mecha (referred to as "Zords" in the English series) are typically dubbed.

The series that began the franchise was Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, which began broadcasting as part of the Fox Kids group of programs that aired on the Fox network. It lasted for three seasons (from 1993 to 1996). The franchise has continued, and as of 2007 has consisted of 15 television seasons, 14 different series, and two theatrical films. The fifteenth season and thirteenth series, Power Rangers: Operation Overdrive, debuted on February 26, 2007, and completed on November 12, 2007. The new series, Power Rangers: Jungle Fury debuted on February 18, 2008.

The Power Rangers series was distributed by Saban Entertainment from 1993 until the end of 2001 and was broadcast on Fox until the fall of 2002. The franchise was purchased by the Walt Disney Company as a part of the buyout that took place between 2001 and 2002. This resulted in Fox Family Worldwide becoming ABC Family Worldwide. This buyout also included Saban Entertainment becoming BVS Entertainment, from News Corporation, Fox's parent company, and Haim Saban. The show continued to air on Fox until its Fox Kids package was dismantled in the United States. Since September 2002, all Power Rangers shows have aired on various Disney-owned networks (ABC Kids, Toon Disney and Jetix channels worldwide). ABC Family, another Disney-owned network, also used to air Power Rangers until it did away with its Jetix timeslot after August 31, 2006. As of 2007, Disney Channel remains the only Disney-owned network that has never aired Power Rangers. ABC affilates owned by Hearst-Argyle Television do not air the show.

The Power Rangers

A Power Ranger is a fictional individual who "Morphs" from an unpowered form into a powerful superhero usually wearing a brightly colored battle suit usually made of spandex featuring a helmet with an opaque visor. In many cases, the helmet serves to protect his or her secret identity. (In some cases, more powerful Rangers may have extra shielding on their suit to protect them from strong blows.)

A morphed Ranger generally possesses superhuman strength, durability, and hand-to-hand combat ability; unmorphed Rangers may possess other innate abilities such as telekinesis, super speed, invisibility that are usually not directly related to his or her Ranger powers.

Rangers appear to retain their original physiology beneath their suits when in morphed form, as Rangers' helmets have been seen removed or broken on numerous occasions, revealing his or her natural form underneath. Helmets aside, the suits are donned and removed nearly instantaneously with a glow of light or some other effect. Sometimes, Rangers "de-morph" involuntarily due to powerful physical attacks.

Rangers regularly operate in teams of five, with a special sixth Ranger frequently joining the team part way into the series; More recently a core team of three will later be joined by additional Rangers. Each Ranger's suit and energy spectrum will match a specific color, with red, yellow, and blue being joined by some combination of pink, green, black, or white. Rangers may be named after their respective colors, such as Red Ranger, Blue Ranger, etc., but numbers or other names may also be used. There is usually no more than one Ranger of a given color on a team, but exceptions of this rule are generally given alternate names (in Time Force, there were two Rangers with red-colored costumes; the first was the Red Time Force Ranger, the second was the Quantum Ranger). Each team's costumes are nearly identical aside from color, helmet design (most notably the shape of the opaque visor) and perhaps a numerical designation. Any additional Rangers will regularly have additional costume modifications, usually some form of additional armor.

The Rangers' color designation also influences their wardrobe throughout the series, as their civilian clothing is often the same color as their Ranger color. This correlation was joked about in Dino Thunder when Tommy Oliver (a former Green Ranger, White Ranger, and twice a Red Ranger) became the new Black Dino Ranger; he said that he had to go shopping because he did not own enough black-colored clothing.

Elements of a Power Rangers season

Each team of Power Rangers, with few exceptions, obey a general set of conventions, outlined at the beginning of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and implied, though not stated explicitly, throughout many of the other incarnations. These include the Power Rangers being forbidden to use their Ranger powers for personal gain or for escalating a fight, explaining why the Rangers do not simply crush the small monsters by means of their Megazord. The Power Rangers are also forbidden to disclose their identities to the general public, barring extenuating circumstances (although this rule was disregarded in Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue, Power Rangers: S.P.D. and Power Rangers: Operation Overdrive, in which they were public servants Following a Spartacus-inspired scene by Angel Grove's townspeople, this rule was also disregarded at the conclusion of Power Rangers in Space and, to a lesser extent, Power Rangers: Mystic Force. The penalty for disobeying these rules, at least in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, would be the loss of their power.

The arsenal available to the Power Rangers is also somewhat standardized: each Ranger is generally armed with a weapon such as a laser gun and/or a sword. Each Ranger also has a secondary set of weapons that can often combine to form a larger weapon (usually a cannon). As the series progresses, one or more of the Rangers are also usually given a motorcycle for long-distance travel, as well as individual Zords. In many series, a Ranger is also given additional Zords or weapons. In some cases, one Ranger may receive something that other Rangers may not have; an example of this is the Battlizer given to the Red Ranger of each series since Power Rangers in Space. Although much of the arsenal can also be found in Super Sentai, there are usually at least some that are not, generally added for the express purpose of marketing toys designed and sold by Bandai.

Power Rangers series regularly have villains of their own make which do not appear in the Sentai footage, though for budget and footage reasons there are always carry-overs from the Japanese source material. Less commonly, some series use only the Sentai designs and footage, though despite this some sets have to be replicated for original footage if need be. There was also one instance when to maintain the trend of the Sixth Ranger for a series where only five existed in the source footage, the Titanium Ranger was created especially for Lightspeed Rescue.

In seasons following Power Rangers in Space, it became common for each team to be part of a separate storyline from those of previous incarnations. A tradition in later seasons came about such that two teams of Power Rangers teamed up to take on a villain. In Power Rangers: Wild Force, the tenth incarnation of Power Rangers, this is taken to the next level, as ten Red Rangers teamed up in the episode "Forever Red", and in Power Rangers: Operation Overdrive a team of former rangers from various incarnations of the series teamed up with the Overdrive Rangers to defeat an alliance formed by the son of Rita & Lord Zedd, Thrax, in the episode Once a Ranger. The only seasons thus far to not feature such a team-up are Power Rangers: Ninja Storm, due to a shift back to non-SAG talent when production was moved to New Zealand, and Power Rangers: Mystic Force, due to a relatively short series length. This was somewhat rectified when Xander, the Green Mystic Force Ranger, and Tori, the Blue Ninja Storm Ranger, appeared in the Operation Overdrive crossover two-parter, "Once A Ranger".

It is traditional that the arsenal of a Ranger team, especially the Zords, be destroyed at the end of the season in order to destroy the final monster, which is often the main villain. The Rangers also tend to give up their powers, though they remain available for later teaming-ups (For instance, at the end of Ninja Storm, the Rangers sacrificed their powers to imprison Lothor. Once Lothor was freed, however, they were able to get their powers back in order to fight him).

Seasons

Colors

Just like the Super Sentai series that Power Rangers is based on, the color palette of a Power Ranger team has varied greatly throughout the years.

Mystic Force has two allies who do not fall under the basic color schemes. The Solaris Knight wears gold armor over navy blue spandex and the Wolf Warrior wears dark red armor.

Spin-off

Masked Rider is an American adaptation of the tokusatsu series Kamen Rider BLACK RX, one of the many series of the popular Kamen Rider Series. It was produced by Saban and aired in 1995. It was a spin-off of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

The main title character of Masked Rider was featured on a three-part Mighty Morphin Power Rangers episode (A Friend in Need) before his own series was started. The Rangers themselves were never mentioned in the television run of Masked Rider, however, as Saban reformatted the series to sever links with Power Rangers, given that their popularity had been gradually beginning to slide following the first films. However, the Rangers were featured in the home video release of the Masked Rider story Super Gold, in the form of narrated clips from A Friend in Need, and also made a guest appearance in Masked Rider's short-lived comic book adaptation.

It has been heavily criticized for splicing random footage from the Kamen Rider Series' shows and films, to the point it was obvious that the Rider was wearing different costumes.

Motion pictures

The Power Rangers series have also brought forth two theatrical films, which were distributed by 20th Century Fox. As of 2007, Fox's home entertainment division, long after Fox's parent company News Corporation and Haim Saban sold Fox Family (currently ABC Family), including Saban Entertainment and the Power Rangers franchise, to the Walt Disney Company, still maintains worldwide home entertainment rights to these two Power Rangers films.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, 1995
Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie, 1997

Stage show

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers World Tour Live on Stage was the name of the stage show that toured during the second season of the TV show. It featured all the characters on the TV show at around the same time as The Wedding. This stage show was also simliar to the Super Sentai stage shows that are held every year when a current series is on tv in Japan and are held at Tokyo Dome along with other shows featuring Toei Superheroes.

Recent distribution

Power Rangers on DVD

Currently, there are only 28 DVD releases of Power Rangers in the USA (as listed below).

The current Power Rangers DVD titles are:

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, 1995; 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie, 1997; 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie/Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie, 1995, 1997; 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (DVD compilation set of both movies.)
The Best of the Power Rangers: The Ultimate Rangers, 2003; BVHE (DVD compilation of episodes from five different seasons of Power Rangers. The episodes Forever Red and White Light are amongst them)
Power Rangers: Ninja Storm Volumes 1-5, 2003; BVHE
Power Rangers: Dino Thunder Volumes 1-5, 2004; BVHE
Power Rangers: S.P.D. Volumes 1-5, 2005, BVHE
Power Rangers: S.P.D. Volumes 1-5 Boxset (UK), 2006, BVHE
Power Rangers: Mystic Force Volumes 1-3, 2006, BVHE
Power Rangers: Mystic Force Dark Wish, 2006, BVHE
Power Rangers: Operation Overdrive Volumes 1-5, 2007, BVHE (For the first time in the US, all five volumes contain the entire season.)

Internationally, however, there have been additional DVD releases (such as Lightspeed Rescue, Time Force and Wild Force in Germany) and as free DVDs attached to Jetix Magazine UK. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 1, Season 2, and Season 3 have been released in Germany as well. There are plans to release Zeo-Lost Galaxy and rerelease Wild Force in Germany as well. France also has plans to release all of Power Rangers on DVD.

Power Rangers on iTunes

Power Rangers episodes have recently become available on the iTunes Music Store. So far, part of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and all of Power Rangers: S.P.D. are available, and the first 26 episodes of Power Rangers: Mystic Force are as well.

Power Rangers on Disney XD

Power Rangers is one of several shows made available for free online streaming, on Disney's official video streaming website Disney XD. This scheme allows any U.S.-based web-user to watch entire episodes up to two weeks after broadcast. Episodes are even sometimes released via the website before airing on TV. However, most of the episodes have not yet begun streaming on the website and only sneak peeks and teaser trailers are available.

International airings

Power Rangers has always had success in foreign markets and still airs in many countries today, except for New Zealand where the series is being filmed today.

USA - Airs on Toon Disney and ABC
UK - Airs on Jetix UK and CITV
Australia - Airs on Channel Seven and FOX8
France - Airs on TF1 and Jetix France
Germany - Airs on Jetix Germany, Super RTL and RTL
Italy - Airs on Italia 1 and Jetix Italia
Middle East - Airs on MBC 3
India - Airs on Jetix
Canada - Airs on Family Channel
Poland - Airs on Jetix Polish, Polsat and TV4
Spain - Aired on Tele 5, Antena 3, Canal Megatrix, FoxKids Spain and now on Jetix Spain.
Mexico - Airs on Jetix and Canal 5
Brazil - Airs on Jetix Brazil and Rede Globo
Chile - Airs on Jetix
Latin America - Airs on Jetix
Portugal - Airs on SIC
Philippines - Airs on ABS-CBN (Mighty Morphin', Zeo, Turbo, Wild Force, Ninja Storm, Dino Thunder, S.P.D., Mystic Force); Studio 23 (Zeo) and Hero (Ninja Storm, Dino Thunder and SPD). The series is dubbed in Filipino.
Malaysia - Airs on RTM, initially sponsored by Litt Tak, the distributor of Bandai toys in Malaysia
Singapore - Airs on MediaCorp TV 12 Central
Indonesia - Airs on Indosiar, previously on RCTI
South Africa - Airs on Mnet
Zimbabwe - Airs on ZBC and Star Kidz and Kidz.Net
Japan - All Power Rangers (パワーレンジャー, Pawārenjā^?, often abbreviated to Pawaren (パワレン, Pawaren^?)) shows and movies are dubbed into Japanese for television and video. The voice actors are often pulled from past Super Sentai casts, which also leads to the English-dubbed action sequences being "re-dubbed" or "restored" back to Japanese as well.
South Korea - Airs on JEI TV. Bandai of Korea dubs the original Super Sentai series from Japanese into Korean and airs it as "Power Rangers," and has so far had Dino Thunder, S.P.D., Magic Force and Treasure Force.
Greece - Airs on Jetix Hellas

Characters

Rangers
Evil Rangers
Villains
Monsters

References

^ "Kick into Overdrive 1". Power Rangers Operation Overdrive. Toon Disney. 2007-02-26.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Disney buys Fox Family for $3B", CNNfn, www.money.cnn.com, 2001-07-23. Retrieved on 2007-09-21.
^ "Day of the Dumpster". Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. FOX. 1993-08-28. No. 1, season 1.
^ See Andros from Power Rangers: in Space
^ Demonstrated by Conner McKnight in Day of the Dino in Power Rangers: Dino Thunder
^ Tommy Oliver displayed this skill in "Back in Black" et al, in Power Rangers: Dino Thunder
^ Tommy Oliver removed his White Ranger helmet in the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers episode "White Light", Leo Corbett, the Red Ranger in Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy, had his visor smashed in "Journey's End".
^ There are exceptions to this rule: Justin, the Blue Turbo Ranger, was in his early teens and was much shorter than his Ranger form when unmorphed; Anubis "Doggie" Cruger, the S.P.D. Shadow Ranger, has a muzzle that seems to disappear beneath the helmet; and Daggeron, the Solaris Knight, transforms into his Ancient Mystic Mode while in the process of morphing.
^ This has been the modus operandi from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers through to Power Rangers: Wild Force
^ Power Rangers | Teams | Mighty Morphin. Retrieved on 2007-06-09.
^ Power Rangers | Teams | Zeo. Retrieved on 2007-06-09.
^ Power Rangers | Teams | Turbo. Retrieved on 2007-06-09.
^ Power Rangers | Teams | Space. Retrieved on 2007-06-09.
^ Power Rangers | Teams | Lost Galaxy. Retrieved on 2007-06-09.
^ Power Rangers | Teams | Lightspeed Rescue. Retrieved on 2007-06-09.
^ Power Rangers | Teams | Time Force. Retrieved on 2007-06-09.
^ Power Rangers | Teams | Wild Force. Retrieved on 2007-06-09.
^ Power Rangers | Teams | Ninja Storm. Retrieved on 2007-06-09.
^ Power Rangers | Teams | Dino Thunder. Retrieved on 2007-06-09.
^ Power Rangers | Teams | S.P.D.. Retrieved on 2007-06-09.
^ Power Rangers | Teams | Mystic Force. Retrieved on 2007-06-09.
^ Power Rangers | Teams | Operation Overdrive. Retrieved on 2007-06-09.
^ Power Rangers Jungle Fury Press Release. Retrieved on 2008-03-04.
^ Power Rangers: Operation Overdrive - First 2 Volumes of 'Complete Series' DVDs Planned @ TVShowsOnDVD.com. Retrieved on 2007-06-24.
^ Power Rangers: Operation Overdrive - Box Art, Date, Price & Extras for Volume 3: Blue Sapphire DVD @ TVShowsOnDVD.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-25.
^ Power Rangers: Operation Overdrive - Finish the Adventure in February: Final Two Volumes Kick Into Overdrive @ TVShowsOnDVD.com. Retrieved on 2007-11-10.
^ Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 1 @ Amazon.de. Retrieved on 2008-02-13.
^ Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 2 @ Amazon.de. Retrieved on 2008-02-13.
^ Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 3 @ Amazon.de. Retrieved on 2008-02-13.
^ 파워레인저. Retrieved on 2007-08-05.
^ 파워레인저 SPD. Retrieved on 2007-08-05.
^ :: 파워레인저 매직포스 ::. Retrieved on 2007-08-05.

External links

Jetix' Official Power Rangers website
Official Disney Power Rangers Websites
Power Rangers at TV.com
Power Rangers Universe Wikia
Bandai - Makers of the Official Range of Toys

v • d • e Power Rangers

Television series:	Mighty Morphin Power Rangers • Alien Rangers • Zeo • Turbo • Space • Lost Galaxy • Lightspeed Rescue • Time Force • Wild Force • Ninja Storm • Dino Thunder • S.P.D. • Mystic Force • Operation Overdrive • Jungle Fury

Movies:	Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie • Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie

Characters:	Rangers • Evil Rangers • Zords • Villains • Monsters • Other characters

Miscellany:	List of episodes • Planets • Battlizer • Cast members • Voice actors • Morphers

Video games	Mighty Morphin Power Rangers • The Movie • The Fighting Edition • Zeo: Battle Racers • Lightspeed Rescue • Time Force • Wild Force • Ninja Storm • Dino Thunder • S.P.D. • Super Legends

Related Saban series:	VR Troopers • Masked Rider • Big Bad Beetleborgs • The Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog • Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation

Other related series:	Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad • Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills • Mighty Moshin' Emo Rangers

See also:	Haim Saban • Shuki Levy • Tony Oliver • Fox Kids • ABC Kids • ABC Family • Toon Disney • Jetix • Saban • Disney • Super Sentai

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Related Articles	Fox Kids · Jetix Play · Toon Disney · List of programs broadcast by Jetix · List of programs broadcast by Jetix in the US

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