Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once and Always Review
Image Source: IGN
The new Power Rangers special, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always, intends to celebrate 30 years of the franchise. It reunites original cast members David Yost (Billy Cranston/Blue Ranger), Walter Jones (Zack Taylor/Black Ranger), Catherine Sutherland (Kat Hillard/Pink Ranger II), and Steven Cardenas (Ricky DeSantos/Red Ranger II) in addition to featuring cameos from Johnny Yong Bosch (Adam Park) and Karan Ashley (Aisha Campbell). This special celebrates the past while leaving the door open for the future. Fair warning: there will be spoilers for the special featured in this review.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always takes place roughly 30 years after the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series. It begins with a flashback to a year before the present. We see the original team (Jason, Zack, Billy, Kimberly, Trini, and Tommy) fighting against a robotic Rita Repulsa (voiced by Babra Goodson). They fight valiantly but ultimately are pushed to their limits.
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Robo Rita aims the final blow at Billy, but Trini gets in the way, sacrificing her life for Billy. Rita escapes to the dark dimension as the rangers mourn the loss of their teammate. Zack and Billy go back to Trini's house, debating how to tell her daughter, Minh. Billy wants to tell her the truth, but Zack wants to keep their Power Ranger lives away from Minh. However, the decision is made for them as Minh walks in on the debate to hear Billy blatantly say that Rita Repulsa killed her mom. They are forced to tell Minh everything.
Image Source: IGN
A year later, Zack, now Minh's legal guardian, prepares to head to the cemetery with Minh for the one-year anniversary of Trini's death. As they get there, however, they overhear their teammates morphing. It is soon revealed that Robo Rita is back alongside robotic versions of Minotaur (voiced by Ryan Cooper) and Snizzard (voiced by Daniel Watterson).
The rangers fight valiantly once again, but ultimately, Jason, Tommy, and Kimberly are captured by Snizzard and placed into a machine that will slowly drain their energy. Rita and her monsters teleport back to their moon base, where Rita plans to use the energy from captured Power Rangers to fuel her scheme to go back in time and kill the rangers before they become rangers.
Overall, the plot definitely has higher stakes than your typical Power Rangers plot line. It covers much darker subject matter, with the script not shying away from terms like "death" or "kill." The overall tone is a good balance between typical MMPR cheese and the more serious tone akin to something you'd find in the MCU. Having Robo Rita be a result of Billy trying to revive Zordon through remnants of the Z-wave caused by the being's sacrifice at the end of Power Rangers In Space.
Characterization-wise, it’s clear that the characters have moved beyond their one-note personalities from the 90s. It’s also rather interesting to see the contrast between the more logical thinking of the veteran rangers vs the more emotional response of the “teenager with attitude” Minh. It truly shows just how much these characters have grown and how they can act as mentors in addition to being active rangers. Furthermore, this may be coming from a point of bias (I voice Billy in the fan audio drama Power Rangers: The Audio Drama), but it’s especially refreshing to see Billy take a leadership role in this special.
Image Source: GeekyTyrant
The pacing, however, is a bit rushed. Also, the special was admittedly slightly hampered by the absence of some returning Rangers, particularly Jason, Tommy, and Kimberly. Tommy's absence is especially felt in light of Jason David Frank's passing in November of last year. Despite this, the story is overall well written and executed, feeling like a modern episode of the classic 90s series.
The acting is overall good, especially for the standards of the franchise. Walter Jones puts in a tremendous performance as Zack. He really balances being a good guardian for Minh and still kicking Putty butt as a ranger. There were several good moments with him and Minh, and Jones plays them tremendously. David Yost does a good job as Billy, though some performances felt a little stiff. Charlie Kersh makes a tremendous debut as Minh, living up to the legacy set by the late Thuy Trang. She tackled the emotional weight of losing her mother rather well, and her vengeance toward Rita is clear.
The other returning rangers also do tremendous jobs in their roles, though some of the ADR seemed off just slightly at times. Barbra Goodson does an awesome job returning as Rita Repulsa. Richard Horvitz does a good job as Alpha 9, but he does dip a bit into his Zim voice at times. Newcomers Ryan Cooper as Robo Minotaur and Daniel Watterson as Robo Snizzard also do an excellent job as their characters. Jason David Frank, Austin St. John, Amy Jo Johnson, and Thuy Trang appear as their respective characters through the use of archival audio, though Austin St. John’s ADR sounds slightly off. Overall, the acting was what one should expect from Power Rangers with several stand-out moments.
The music in the special is superb. Ron Wasserman clearly has not lost his touch, and the Wasserman factor is very much still in effect. However, rather than simply using mostly rock music, there is a good balance between orchestral and rock music. The new theme is also awesome. The only downside is that the mixing seemed a little off, but overall, it definitely builds on and exceeds his work from the 90s.
The only aspect of this special that was truly objectively bad was the CGI. Power Rangers has always been known for cheesy and bad effects. However, the CGI in this special was really off-putting, particularly for the Megazord fight. It definitely needed another render or two and still looked like it needed more refining. Instead of looking like cheesy TV effects, it looks more like graphics from a Dreamcast or PlayStation 2 game.
Image Source: GeekyTyrant
Though the models themselves look really good and detailed, the animation and rendering are not up to the standards of even the Japanese footage that is usually used in the series regularly. The suits also looked a little off too, but this was mainly due to the choice of hoods and collars used being reminiscent of what would be used in helmetless scenes rather than in fully morphed fights. These are the only aspects that really needed some more work.
Overall, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always is truly a love letter to the show that started it all and definitely has grown up with its adult fanbase. Though it clearly still has the cheesy DNA of the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, it has a lot of heart and plenty of things for old and young fans to enjoy. It ties up some loose ends and leaves the door open for more stories to be told in a similar vein.
It would have been nice to have more returning actors, but they did the best with what they had. Still, it was nice that these characters were included even without their actors (plus, the tribute to Thuy Trang and Jason David Frank was definitely touching). Mighty Morphin Power: Once & Always pays tribute to the past while looking toward the future.
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Rating: 7.5/10
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