Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995) with Carlos Camacho

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
On the Bechdelcast, the questions asked if movies have women
and them, are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands
or do they have individualism? It's the patriarchy, zeph and
best start changing it with the Bechdel Cast.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Go Go Podcast Rangers, Mighty Morphine Podcast Rangers, and.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
Then we can do really long intros where like I
am the podcast cocker Spaniel.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Here we exactly.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
I do feel like if I was a power Ranger,
I would also be a frog. Okay, I think I think,
do you what would be your animals? Have you thought
about this? I haven't give you've spent time of your
one human life thinking about this? No?

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Maybe, like I mean, I love cats and I love
red pandas, and I love raccoons. Maybe it would be
like the raccoon Power Ranger.

Speaker 3 (00:57):
That would be a cute one. I was I was
a frog kid. I was like, I think I think
I would stick with what works for me.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
Tracks for you, Jamie.

Speaker 3 (01:07):
What is that?

Speaker 2 (01:07):
What do you mean when you say that it's a compliment?

Speaker 3 (01:11):
Fucking freak there. No, It's just like every time I've
told someone, uh, I played the Obo in high school,
They've been like, yeah, that makes sense to me.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
You're like sounds about rede.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
Fuck you, that's a loser instrument. And we both know
everyone knows it. All right, all right, all right, I
can't get triggered. At the top of the Power Rangers episode, Uh,
we are covering Muddy morphin Sunny Sorry, Sonny's Barque at
the Wall. Okay, We are covering nineteen ninety fives Mighty

(01:44):
morphin Power Rangers du movie.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Yes. Also, we are the Bechdel Cast. And my name's Caitlin.
I don't think we've done that yet.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
My name's Jamie Loftus. And this is our podcast where
we take a look at your favorite ooze covered movies
and discovered that there's actually quite a bit to talk
about with regards to intersectional feminism. Oohs and all.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
And we have an incredible returning guest joining us. He's
got a PhD in sociology okay and.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
Being a teenager with attitude.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
True. He's host of the Horror Agenda podcast, an aspiring screenwriter.
And you know him from our episode on Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles Secret of the Ooze. It's Carlos Camacho.

Speaker 4 (02:34):
Hello, Hi, I'm not gonna take it personally, I'm back
for two Ooh's episodes.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
Hey, you're our gooiest guest, Resident Ooz movie expert.

Speaker 3 (02:47):
Resident Ooz is a good title for a movie.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
Also, that's good.

Speaker 4 (02:50):
Shut that down.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
Okay, yeah, let's let's write that.

Speaker 5 (02:55):
Bob.

Speaker 3 (02:55):
Thank you for returning to the show to unpack the
Power Rangers for us.

Speaker 5 (03:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (03:03):
Again, just like, there's so much to talk about with
this movie and also with this franchise, So let's let's
just get right in. Yeah, what is your history with
the Power Rangers franchise?

Speaker 4 (03:19):
Who? It's been central to my life for most of
my life at this point, literally grew up watching the show.
Saw I'm assuming I saw this movie in theaters. I
definitely saw Turbo in theaters and I was so wrapped
that my family ate like all the popcorn and I
was like, oh is there food? And they're like, you

(03:40):
didn't eat? And I was like, I was watching the movie.
I was distracted. I was focused. This is what you wanted.

Speaker 3 (03:47):
Were none of you locked in?

Speaker 4 (03:50):
They weren't. They weren't locked in. But yeah, I collected
the toys dressed up as a Power Ranger for Halloween.
I had the gloves that made a noise that you
hear so often in this movie, and I still have it.
I was telling Caitlin off Mike, I have a bookshelf.
I have a bookshelf with all of my PhD books, race, sexuality, gender,

(04:14):
all that stuff. And then on the top is my
Power Ranger shrine where I have the original Megazord, the
flip top head, Power Rangers, toys from the movie, stuff
from comic con are I'm that guy in my friend group,
They're like, turtles are Power Rangers. We know how to
pluck the nostalgia buttons of this guy.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
I feel like everyone, everyone should have their comfort nostalgia
property that you're like, is it flawed? Sure, but it's fine.
It's fine. Okay, so you know the lore this is.
This is going to be a fun one. I'm excited.

Speaker 4 (04:52):
I'm so excited.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
Kitlin was your history with the Power Rangers.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
So I was a big fan of the show. I
wasn't sure if I had seen this movie or not.
I was like, well, I'll watch it and I will
see if anything is familiar. Turns out it wasn't. As
I was prepping for this episode, so I was like, okay,
I have not seen this movie, but I've probably seen
every episode of the show, because my afternoons when I

(05:18):
got home from school as a kid were watching Power
Rangers and then VR Troopers. If anyone remembers that.

Speaker 6 (05:25):
Show, No, what is that?

Speaker 2 (05:27):
It's a similar show made by the same horrendous zionist.

Speaker 3 (05:33):
Oh boy, we'll.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
Talk about it. But I think it's three Virtual Reality
Troopers versus the six Power Rangers. But they just they
do similar things. They're like teens or young adults who
fight inter dimensional beings and stuff, and they have suits
and all that fun stuff.

Speaker 3 (05:54):
I was really enjoying I found, of course, I found
a Power Rangers YouTuber. This is their lifecraft and they
were making fun of I guess an observation I had
also made. But I was like, oh, maybe it's different
than the TV show where he was like, so they're
teenagers with attitude, except they really don't have attitude, and

(06:16):
they really don't really transgress in any way. They're always nice.
They are not teenagers with attitude at all.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
They don't have distinct personalities either, really at.

Speaker 3 (06:26):
Least, which I think is for all of these reasons
that I didn't realize that are really interesting, where you're like,
we can't really have a character if we're constantly cutting
to a different person, possibly a decade ago, in a suit.
It's fascinating.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
Okay, So my favorite parts of the show were Bulk
and Skull because the comic relief that they provided was
top notch when I was, you know, seven or whatever,
and I loved all the five the little robot assistant.
Those were the characters that I remembered the most. I

(07:07):
couldn't tell you a single plot line of any of
the episodes. I didn't even remember, like what the Rangers'
names were or anything like that. But I was like, Bulkan, Skull,
they're getting into some goofy little high jinks. They're having fun,
and then the little robot guy is going beeboop, and

(07:28):
I thought that stuff was awesome.

Speaker 3 (07:29):
When I was a kid, I was like, the robot
I was calling in my notes definitely not C three
Po who works for definitely not the worzard of Oz
who when he gets sick, is definitely not nice Palpatine.
You're like, there's so many random visual references. I loved it.

Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yes, Jamie, what is your relationship with Power Rangers?

Speaker 3 (07:53):
So I figured I would be a little different here
so I remember The Power Rangers being around, but as
a little too young to actually watch it. I remember
my older cousins who were really into it. I remember
them watching it. It was like I have, for some
reason associate Power Rangers with the WWE, because it was

(08:14):
something my older cousins could watch that I couldn't and
it involved fighting. So much of what I knew about
The Power Rangers was like secondhand information. They were sort
of forbidden to me, and then by the time I
was old enough to watch, they weren't really popular anymore.
And I think I just watched The Powerpuff Girls, which
is weirdly a similar premise where it's like superhero children

(08:37):
who work for a weird old man become a premise
as old as time. That's also Charlie's Angels, except their
grown ups anyways. So the only thing I really remember
outside of their like existence and like seeing the toys
around and stuff, was I remember, for some reason, Rita
Rapulsea had a really strong icon effect on me. I

(09:00):
both so it was such like a weird childhood sense
memory where I remember being like, she's so cool, but
she she and maybe this is me just projecting my
like her tagline, but I was like, but I remember
it was like, well oop, I associate her with having
a headache because her voice is very annoying but also
her but also her like catchphrases, I have a headache,

(09:21):
which is so I don't know if I don't know
what it was, but yeah, I don't. I didn't have
deep lore knowledge at all, and so I I guess
it's like I had some fun and I also just
learned a lot prepping for this episode, because there really
is just like Caitlin, you alluded to a huge reveal

(09:44):
that I didn't know because I was like, Sabon could
have meant absolutely anything in the world to me. We'll
talk about the creator, we'll talk about I mean, there's
just I feel like part of this movie is first
of all iconic, Like the bad guys are thrown against
a wall, they exploded to purple calm. You're like yeah,
You're like, yeah, You're like exactly. I love that. I
love when the random definitely not zena Warrior princess character

(10:09):
is like it's every every character in this movie is
definitely not another very popular character, but when she is,
like it's the thing of ultimate power. And then just
points to a gigantic like penis shaped rock and you're like, yeah,
the big throbbing cock of power, and then they get that,
like I just it was we're gonna talk about all
the controversies. And also I was laughing so much like

(10:33):
it's it's it's so like it's low rent in the
best way where they're like we're animals and then they
hike on foot the entire way like it's so silly.
I love it.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
The budget was fifteen million dollars, and I'm like, did
you mean fifteen dollars? Because where did the money go?

Speaker 3 (10:52):
I think it was to pay I think a lot
of it went to that the soundtrack. The soundtrack was
very expensive. And also I would guess I don't know,
but I bet that those like very now very dated,
like screensaver, PlayStation one effects at the end. We're expensive
at the time, even though it does look like PS one.

Speaker 2 (11:12):
It was great. Yes, indeed, let's take a quick break
and then we'll come back for the recap.

Speaker 6 (11:19):
Let's do it.

Speaker 2 (11:30):
It's morph in time.

Speaker 3 (11:31):
We're back, all right.

Speaker 5 (11:34):
So.

Speaker 3 (11:36):
Right, we panicked, we thought there was more, Okay, we
power now it's time.

Speaker 2 (11:44):
I like that, like they'll be fighting in a battle
for so long and then finally they're like, Okay, let's
bust out our special powers. And it's like you had
these the whole time, Like why didn't you do it sooner?

Speaker 3 (11:56):
I am very reasons, right, I'm I'm so fascinated by
like how Yeah, it just seems like by design and
it seems like merchandising by the design, and also because
of like how these adaptations had to work, Like these
characters cannot really have person or they can only have
personalities to a very specific point, and so I was like, Okay,

(12:18):
my robot chicken pitch for this is like what do
these kids talk about on the long Hike? I literally
cannot imagine a conversation about them that is not strictly
like okay, we're at the big penis what do we
do now? Like that's like they I would I would
love to know what they're what they're chatting about. I
guess they do. It seems like they do on the
TV show, right, Do they have parents?

Speaker 4 (12:38):
Like yes, from what I remember from the show, the
parents are very much not involved. Like you have a
guest episode where I think it's Halloween and the parents
get kidnapped into some like alternate dimension. There's an episode
in I think the first season when the original cast
was still there where Treeny's uncle comes by and bonds

(12:59):
with Billy over like science and nerd stuff because he's
like really good at martial arts like Trainy, but then
also good at like brainiac things like Billy, and so
there's sort of like a meeting of the minds there.
But yeah, this is very much kids with no adults
around other than like they have a home to go
back to, but their parents are never concerned about them
skipping school, doing anything or perhaps appearing on the news

(13:22):
involved in shenanigans, just like don't care.

Speaker 3 (13:27):
Again, one of the iconic things where they're like, no
one can know, but then it's like everyone knows, including Fred.
The child's the most nineties kid to ever nineties It's true.

Speaker 2 (13:43):
Okay, here is the recap. It is one of the
shortest recaps I've ever written, because there is because there's
almost no plot to this movie.

Speaker 3 (13:50):
Oh yeah, but so much happens. Yeah, yes, they're like
I guess it is mostly and then they're fighting these guys,
and then they're fighting these guys, and then they there's
a secret dinosaur bone that kills the dinosaur.

Speaker 2 (14:06):
It's a lot of like characters showing up somewhere and
then fighting, yeah, and then moving to a second location
and then fighting some more. But at the beginning we
get a very Star Warsian opening exposition crawl and we
learn about an interdimensional being named Zordon who came to

(14:30):
the city of Angel Grove, California question mark, I think
so and established a command center where he his assistant
Alpha five, the little robot guy who I love, and
a group of six teenagers work together to fight evil.

(14:51):
And these teens called the Mighty Morphine Power Rangers can
transform into these or I don't know. I don't think
it's them transforming, but they're able to like summon these
like planes and other machinery.

Speaker 3 (15:08):
Yeah, Carlos you how does how does it work?

Speaker 4 (15:12):
So there's a well, first off, the film is non
canonical to the show, like you find it right in
that like exposition dump because in the original series, Zordam
picks five teenagers. The sixth teenager is a surprise and
he's initially evil and his arc is where the Green
Ranger comes tries to destroy them, becomes a good guy

(15:34):
and loses his powers because he's like tied to Rita's
green candle. It's a whole thing.

Speaker 3 (15:40):
So it's like, ok, and we all know Rita's grain candle.
I really enjoyed. I watched a bunch of like you know,
those like cannon summary videos and the Green I mean,
the Green Ranger story is compelling.

Speaker 4 (15:54):
It's real good.

Speaker 2 (15:55):
Yeah, so is that Tommy And then he becomes the
White Ranger. Mm hmm Okay.

Speaker 4 (16:00):
So Alpha and zord On work in their basement. They
have a secret lab where they build the White Ranger
so that they can bring a new footage because, like
Jamie was saying, the show is originally spiced with like
very little US footage and a lot of like taking
Japanese footage. So it's like, oh, we ran out of

(16:20):
Super Sentai, Judah and Jef footage. Now we have to
switch to a different show. Because in the Super Sentai version,
which is like Japanese Power Rangers, each season was in
and of itself. It was like a one shot season,
so it's like the Power Rangers, then the Ninja Rangers,
then the spin like it was all different. In the US,
they like sewed it together because they're like they're not

(16:40):
gonna get rid of these guys and watch a new
show with all new people, which they eventually did later on,
where it's like, you've got the Mystic Rangers, You've got
the dyno Oh what is it? Dinoh Thunder comes back?
Like there's so many different seasons of Power Rangers only decades.

Speaker 3 (16:54):
Brother, watch Dino Thunder. I think, okay, yeah, So for
listeners who aren't aware, because I did not know this,
this Power Rangers is a licensed adaptation, because I was
also worried that they just stole shit, but they so.
It is a licensed adaptation of a Javit show called
supercent Tie that goes back to the seventies that super villain,

(17:17):
real life supervillain Carl Saban had wanted to adapt in
the West, I think pretty early on into that series. Also,
stan Lee wanted to adapt it at some point, like damn,
that would have been cool, but wasn't able to get
it off the ground until the nineties. And so and
then what you said, Carlos, so much of the early
series is just the American teenagers taking off the helmet

(17:40):
and having a plot and then putting the helmet back on,
and then cut into footage from supercent Tie that could
be from god knows when kind.

Speaker 4 (17:48):
Of right, yeah, and sometimes you can see that it
doesn't add up, like it's like very clearly filmed differently
because it's like film versus like whatever technology they were using.
It's just like are two different people.

Speaker 3 (18:01):
It is so wild to think, yeah, like it's like
intercutting a movie from today with a movie from like
two thousand and seven. Like it's just bizarre.

Speaker 2 (18:10):
Well, you know, who didn't notice me, my seven year
old ass brain?

Speaker 3 (18:14):
Oh what I mean? Of course not. I think that Unfortunately,
you know, the producers of this show took a risk
on maybe kids are not media literate and they don't
give a fuck.

Speaker 2 (18:27):
And and that risk paid off.

Speaker 3 (18:29):
Yeah, it's so interesting thinking about this like time of
like really aggressively I mean it still happens obviously, but
like really aggressively merchandised shows where the content is like
there's not much going on. It's just like we just
need enough plot to justify selling a toy, and it worked.
That was like the entire eighties and nineties, it felt like.

Speaker 2 (18:53):
Anyway, so we get all this exposition about the Power
Rangers and their machines called zoos love it.

Speaker 3 (19:02):
I wonder what it's a reference to.

Speaker 2 (19:06):
Then we meet the Power Rangers as they're jumping out
of a plane and skydiving and then later rollerblading.

Speaker 3 (19:15):
No explanation. Well, I guess there is an explanation. I
love this, just the Power Rangers and their bullies.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
In the other they're hanging out to his friends almost
but we meet Billy the Blue Power Ranger, Kimberly the
Pink One, Adam the Black One, Aisha the Yellow One,
Rocky the Red One, and Tommy the White one, and
he seems to be kind of the leader of the group.

Speaker 3 (19:42):
We know that because he's in the middle of the
poster and Fred says hey Tommy, and you're like, okay,
got it.

Speaker 2 (19:51):
Also, there are the two bullies from the show, Bulk
and Skull.

Speaker 3 (19:57):
Iconic, and they do their bullies are like thirty five yes,
love it.

Speaker 2 (20:04):
They're also completely inconsequential to the plot of the movie. Yeah,
to the point where you're like, why are they even
on screen?

Speaker 3 (20:12):
But how dare you? I thought, I'm a fan.

Speaker 2 (20:16):
I love so anyway we see them doing, you know,
extreme sports, the Power Rangers. Meanwhile, a large glowing orb
egg thing is discovered at a construction site, and it
seems to give off this evil energy, which Zordon is

(20:39):
able to sense using all of his evil sensing equipment
at the command center, so he summons the Power Rangers.
They I forgot this that they're able to teleport. They
have teleportation technology. Wow, And so they teleport to the
command center and Zordon, who is this like large disembodied

(21:01):
Wizard of Oz's head.

Speaker 3 (21:03):
But nice, like he's the Wizard of Oz but nice
and Palpatine but.

Speaker 2 (21:07):
Nice, and yes he looks like Palpatine. And he tells
them that an evil interdimensional being named ivan Ooz has
returned after many millennia And.

Speaker 3 (21:22):
Just checking Carlos, is this a new character at the time? Okay,
I didn't know if ivan Ooz was already Cannon. I
just know that I love him.

Speaker 2 (21:31):
Ooz is new.

Speaker 4 (21:32):
Mordant, the guy like the pig man who's hanging out
with Goldar, is new because some of the characters from
the original series are like face characters in the Japanese footage,
so they can't necessarily translate them in the same way.
I guess do you get Rita and Z coming back?
Goldar comes back, but everybody else is like, there's no Finster,

(21:53):
no Squat, no Baboo, no Scorpoena, and then more dant
is there.

Speaker 2 (21:59):
Yes that we all no one loves O favorites.

Speaker 3 (22:03):
I do, I do never read. I was glad Rita
was there, and then I was so sad that she
was instantly banished.

Speaker 2 (22:10):
So rude. Yeah, okay. So Goldar is he this sort
of like gargoyle looking.

Speaker 3 (22:16):
Like winged oh, the golden golden armor.

Speaker 2 (22:20):
Yeah, okay, that makes sense.

Speaker 3 (22:22):
Yeah. I guess that the operating thing here is don't
think too hard and you'll probably get it right right.

Speaker 4 (22:28):
Yeah, okay.

Speaker 2 (22:30):
So back at the construction site, the main villains of
the Power Rangers, Rita, Rapulsa, and lord Z show up
with Goldar and then mister pig Man and they open
this egg and outcomes I've an ooze.

Speaker 3 (22:49):
Oh and we're cheering. I love. It's too bad he's
not a canonical care and he never comes back.

Speaker 4 (22:58):
No, no, there's even a link up of all of
the villains in the show when it'll become relevant later
when Jordan dies in the TV show and Ooz is
never there. The teng Goo are they Tenga or tango?
Because they change the name between the movie they're Tenga
on the show, they're tengu in the movie they come back,
but none no Ooz or the Uzi creature Purple guys.

Speaker 3 (23:23):
That's too bad. I hate to hear that, because what
a character.

Speaker 4 (23:27):
He's so great. He's probably one of the best parts
of the film. Like the standout.

Speaker 3 (23:32):
I mean talk about let's let's just give not to
shout out a man right from the drum, but like, yeah.

Speaker 4 (23:40):
I didn't say that.

Speaker 3 (23:42):
We got a shout out mister Paul Freeman, who's just
like leaving it all on the field. Like it's who
I guess was most famous for playing Renee Bellock in
Raiders of the Lost Arc.

Speaker 4 (23:54):
Oh my gosh, that's him.

Speaker 3 (23:56):
Which I haven't well, I have seen, but I don't
really remember very well. But yeah, that's I figured you
would like that.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
I was just like, there's no way Ivan Ooze is
played by any actor who I would ever recognize from anything,
So I didn't even bother looking it up.

Speaker 3 (24:11):
But he did such a good job. He really like,
I was taken. It's it's I think, far and away
the best performance in the movie by all, and it's
not even close. These kids couldn't see ivan Ooze with
it with the Hubble telescope. It's ridiculous.

Speaker 4 (24:28):
And there's a telescope in the movie that's very very young.

Speaker 2 (24:32):
Yeah, well, okay, I am shook to my core. I
can't believe he plays Belloch.

Speaker 3 (24:37):
Yeah, it's wild, it's range, it's range. I also love
that this movie was there. Oh there's like one shot
because it's just so like sloppy and funny. This happens
a lot and lost as well. Where this movie was
shot in Australia and so sometimes people are randomly Australian
and your there's like this the I think it's like
a security guard who morphs in ivan Ooze and he's

(24:58):
like Hallia power right, and you're like, really the fuck
are we and then he just turns into Ivanues and
then you forget.

Speaker 2 (25:06):
That's amazing. Okay, So we meet ivan oohs and Lord
z instructs him to kill Zordan and he's like happy
to do it. The Power Rangers then show up and
deal with the minions that ivan Ooze conjures before he
fucks off to somewhere else, and the Power Rangers are outnumbered,

(25:31):
so they invoke their mighty morphine powers and fight these
uze minions, and there's a lot of karate or some
similar type of martial art. There's a lot of goofy
sound effects. There's a lot of horrible puns. They have gadgets.
They have like Batman like gadgets that they're using.

Speaker 3 (25:55):
Usually which I and correct me if I'm right. It
becomes a trend that usually Kimberly, Ayisha and sometimes Billy
are like damseled at some point in the fight, and
then it ends up being fine and they get to
kick someone before the end of the fight. But I
feel like Kimberly and Aysha in particular, you see them
be like, oh no, and then Tommy comes in or

(26:18):
the other one. I'm honestly shocked. I remember that many names.

Speaker 4 (26:25):
Like why is that you should trapped here? Why is
I should trapped again? Kimberly screaming again? Why are we
doing this?

Speaker 2 (26:31):
We'll talk about it.

Speaker 3 (26:32):
Aysha is always alone. I'm like she's fighting by herself
in every scene.

Speaker 2 (26:37):
Yeah, well, well that's what that's what we'll talk about.

Speaker 3 (26:41):
We're here for, Yeah, we come to this place.

Speaker 4 (26:44):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (26:45):
Also, the song that's happening on the soundtrack during this
fight scene, it's like action boy now Action Girl, Now.

Speaker 3 (26:53):
We should start playing that, Like that should be added
to everyone's like gym playlist, like yes, I was, I
was hived.

Speaker 2 (27:01):
It was awesome. And eventually the Power Rangers defeat the
US Minions, but oh no, they're special powers and suits
vanish because ivan Ooze has gone to the command Center
and he trashes the place and he nearly kills Zordan.

(27:22):
So the Power Rangers return to the Command Center and
discover that Jordon is dying and that he needs some
sort of vague great power to keep him alive.

Speaker 3 (27:35):
Which is contained in the Penis Rock, which we don't
know yet. He creates the coin from the Penis Rock. Obviously,
I have another canon question for you, Carlos. Is there
any reason why Kimberley in particular is like Zordan's like
my father, I was like what uh.

Speaker 4 (27:56):
No, okay, now that I can recall other then he
is the only adult person that like engages with them
outside of their principal who's useless, their teachers who don't
really seem engaged or concerned that like Bulk and skullar
like bullies TM in the school, like none of the
adults are functional. So it's just like I guess this

(28:18):
is the closest thing I have to a dad who's
like sending me on dangerous missions to go fight bad guys,
but it gave me powers to do it. I guess.

Speaker 3 (28:25):
Yeah, it's so wild. Yeah I was, because Zordan is
like such an amalgamation of other characters. You're like, wow,
every mentor character is just ultimately sending a child to
do their dirty work for them, And the Wizard of
Oz is the only character who's ever like appropriately called
out for it and.

Speaker 4 (28:43):
Ooh says it. He's like, oh, Zordan's still using a
bunch of teenagers to do his dirty work. It's like,
imagine if you picked adults who are not from the
same high school, like six adults from around the world
who maybe would have more skills and talents to like
do this work. It's no teenagers, it's bad.

Speaker 3 (29:02):
It's yeah, kids. I mean you could say the same
of one, uh what's his name, Dumbledore? Like they all
these mentor characters that are like, you might die, but
you'll definitely learn a lesson. You're like, I don't know, it.

Speaker 2 (29:15):
Is weird anyway. The Rangers return to the command center.
Zordon is dying, so Alpha five is like, well, I
can send you to this distant planet and retrieve a
great power that I'm pretty sure is there. So Alpha
five teleports them to the planet of Fatos. Meanwhile, i've

(29:40):
an Ooz stages a coup against Rita, Rapulsa and Lord
Z and traps them in a snow globe. Yeah, okay,
pretty iconic. And then he makes more US minions. These
ones look like birds.

Speaker 3 (29:57):
This is another ripoff from the Wizard of Us. This
is the director awesome. I'm not saying that as a criticism,
you know, it's it's homage qustionion work. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (30:10):
Well, the tengu are like Japanese folkloric, like it's derived
from a thing. Yeah. I don't know in depth about it.
I just know that because they end up coming back
for the TV show, because they are in the Japanese franchise,
because they are part of like the folklore. Though I
don't know if it's exactly the same style of look,

(30:31):
but like the winged fighter is a thing, okay, right, because.

Speaker 2 (30:34):
They look very different than the first Uzminians that he
conjures out of his blob of uz. Come, what is it?

Speaker 3 (30:43):
What is the thing? He said? There's just so many
great I've in oohze line reads where he's like meat
my kids like.

Speaker 4 (30:51):
He's got some of the best line reads.

Speaker 3 (30:52):
It's great, he's really I love when like a character
actor just fully commits to being a kid's I was
thinking a lot of I don't expect either of you
to have seen this. I watch it with my kniece
last year Elmo's Adventures in Grouchland. Mandy Patankin is the
villain in that, and he is unbelievable, like just again

(31:16):
leaving it all in the field and did not have
to love it.

Speaker 2 (31:20):
That rocks In any case, ivan Uz tells the bird
Us monsters to fly to the planet of Fatos and
destroy the Power Rangers. Then we cut to Fatos. The
Power Rangers begin their search for the great the very

(31:43):
specific great power that we know exactly what they're talking about.
But then the bird monsters show up. What are they
called again, Tengo tengu They show up, but the teens
don't have their mighty more powers anymore since Zordon is
dying and he's the one who gives them their powers.

(32:05):
So the powers are gone, so they're not very good
at fighting. But then this deis X woman in a
green bikini shows up and wards off the tengu This
is Dulcia, who is like, oh yeah, me and Zordon

(32:25):
go way back, so I'll help you guys.

Speaker 3 (32:29):
And also I feel like there is heavily implied sexual
tension between her and Tommy, which to and maybe I'm projecting,
but like he he keeps I mean, also, it's one
of those CW you know issues, where like these characters
are canonically fifteen, but they're visibly twenty five, so you're like, canonically,

(32:49):
I have an issue. Obviously these actors are probably the
same age h. But he kept being like, what do
you mean, and she's like, be pale, Like I don't know.
I was just I was sensing a little bit of
a like domb vibe from her, which is fine if
they're both twenty five, but canonically they're not.

Speaker 2 (33:05):
Right. Well, also, they so heavily sexualize her in her costuming.
Oh so I don't think you're necessarily like reading too
far into that, So.

Speaker 3 (33:15):
Yeah, I guess everything she's doing is sexualized, right.

Speaker 4 (33:20):
She was initially I'm sure this is in your notes
for later, Jamie, but was like a Marishka hargatea FROMU
was originally supposed to play Dulcia Oh my.

Speaker 3 (33:30):
God, which wasn't been a weird because her mom is
Jane Mansfield. It feels like a weird like continuation. But yeah,
I read that she got she because there's pictures of
her in costume, and then she got fired for and
this gets into the whole world of Power Rangers labor
issue expanded universe. She was fired because she took off

(33:53):
Christmas in New Year's was what I read.

Speaker 4 (33:56):
They basically had her on hold for a while where
she was just like there but not really doing anything.
So she's like, it's the holidays, I'm going home to
be with my family. I'll be back and then she's like, oh,
I'm ready, and they're like, we don't need you. You've
been let go, and it's just like what what. There's
a clip of her on I think fellon one of

(34:19):
the late night shows talking about it and showing the
pictures to the audience.

Speaker 3 (34:22):
Yeah, I mean, she the pictures are great. I mean,
and the actor who ended up doing the part is
also great. I'm just like, I guess she didn't get
to see her family over the holidays, Like they're like,
leave your family celebration. You're playing dull, dull, dull. Se'll see,
they'll see, Yes.

Speaker 2 (34:42):
And she shows the Power Rangers this monolith in the
distance aka Penis Power Rock.

Speaker 3 (34:51):
The big Penis in the distance.

Speaker 2 (34:52):
Yeah yeah, because that's where this great power is. But
she says that no one who has ever tried to
obtain the power has survived, but maybe the Power Rangers will,
and that she gives them new like animal spirit powers,

(35:14):
which come with costumes that happen to be the same
colors as their Power Ranger suits, which.

Speaker 3 (35:20):
Means more toys every time they change outfits. You're like, okay,
got it, more toys, more toye yes.

Speaker 2 (35:27):
Also, I did not write down who gets which animal
because it's again completely inconsequential to the plot, except for
maybe Adam, who gets the frog because he's insecure about it.

Speaker 3 (35:42):
What a small arc for him. I liked it. Yeah there.
I mean, I do think that the animals that they're
given also sort of speak to the broad stereotypes applied
to the characters, to where especially with Kimberly, who is
like always like given quote unquote the most feminine thing

(36:04):
of the crane, like the I think like they'll see
us as like the graceful crane and you know the
agility of the crane.

Speaker 4 (36:13):
Light is a feather. Yes, she got any light.

Speaker 3 (36:17):
To be clear, she's skinny like you're like.

Speaker 2 (36:20):
Okay, we get it.

Speaker 3 (36:22):
Sure, we'll circle.

Speaker 2 (36:26):
Yes. Meanwhile on Earth, Ivan Ooze wants to build an
army of mindless drones to do his bidding. So and
bear with me for this plan. He goes to a
factory to make a bunch of evil ooze, then gives
it out to kids at a carnival. And he's also

(36:47):
disguised himself as this like purple wizard man, and he
gives out the ooze. The ooze feels very ghack coated.

Speaker 3 (36:57):
Oh yeah, I bet they saw the ooze? Did I
saw that? They had to have solved the ooze.

Speaker 4 (37:03):
But I don't remember having it at all.

Speaker 3 (37:06):
Listeners, did any of you have the ooze? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (37:09):
Let us know. And so he distributes ooze to the
kids so that the kids will bring the ooze home
and their parents will open it and be brainwashed to
do the work that Ivan Ooh's once done, such as
dig up his giant evil robots from underground. And somehow

(37:34):
this plan works exactly as intended.

Speaker 3 (37:37):
Instantly, And this is where I was, and this is morbid.
But this does, to me anyways, turn into kind of
a Jonestown scenario for with with Ivan Ooze as Jim Jones,
because this is also escalating to mass everyone's gonna just

(37:58):
walk off a cliff. It feels very kool Aid coded,
where you're like, did he have to do? Like he's like,
you will all do my bidding and then then you're
gonna die and.

Speaker 2 (38:09):
You're gonna die. Well, they drank the kool aid. They
drank the ooze.

Speaker 3 (38:13):
Almost if Fred hadn't blasted them with that purple come stuff,
they would have. But also, I'm not even sure if
that's true. I don't know. We'll talk about.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
It, right. So this kid, Fred realizes that something weird
is happening with all the parents in town, so he
goes to like start investigating. Back on Fatos, the Power
Rangers set off toward the monolith. They have to traverse
a big forest where some dinosaur skelling tins come to

(38:45):
life and attack them, so they have to fight off
the dinosaur. Then they reach the monolith, which is guarded
by these big scary rock monsters with spiky weapons, so
there's another fight scene and then the monolith opens and

(39:05):
the great power within is unleashed, and it gives the
Power Arrangers News suits and Zords, and that allows them
to teleport back to Earth. But oh no, ivan UZ's
giant robots are wreaking havoc in the streets of Angel Grove.

(39:29):
So the Power Rangers summon their new Zords to fight
the giant robots.

Speaker 3 (39:34):
And this is kind of like a Star Wars y
kind of thing where they're in these little like battle
fighter It was cool. I liked it. They look like shit,
it's not.

Speaker 2 (39:46):
Yeah, the CGI is horrible here, and they're fighting individually
in their little like ships at first, but then eventually
they come together into the Megazord.

Speaker 3 (39:57):
And it's definitely not a Transformer.

Speaker 2 (40:00):
Definitely not, definitely not. Meanwhile, that kuld Fred is trying
to rally all of the other children who are partying
and rolling on ooze. They're rolling on ooze to see
and he's like, we have to come together and save

(40:21):
our parents because the parents are, as you alluded to, Jamie,
are about to jump into a pit to their deaths.

Speaker 3 (40:28):
Which seems extreme. Surely ivan News kind have found use
for them elsewhere.

Speaker 4 (40:34):
You would think something.

Speaker 2 (40:37):
So the Power Rangers. Meanwhile, lure ivan Ooze, who has
transformed himself or like entered one of the robots and
so now he's a huge evil robot. They lure him
into space and into the path of a comet which

(40:57):
hits ivan Ooze and kill him. And that's the big climax,
I guess, yeah. And then the Power Rangers head to
the command center to save zord On, but they're too late.
Oh he's dead.

Speaker 3 (41:14):
This is one of my favorite and like, with all
due respect to the actors playing the Power Rangers, there
this scene they I don't know why they kept this shot.
It's like it's a pan of all the kids when
they when they're like, it's too late zord instead. And
then you see each actor, one by one try to
cry and fail. It's all of them being like and

(41:37):
then they just close their eyes like what. And then
the last one, I think, Jason, he doesn't even react.
He just stands there. You're just like, God, we got
to help these twenty five year old children.

Speaker 2 (41:48):
You know what's hilarious. There is not a Power Ranger
named Jason.

Speaker 3 (41:52):
Oh wait, is there there? Maybe was there on the
show or something. I don't know his real.

Speaker 4 (41:56):
Life name Tommy is Jason David Frank.

Speaker 3 (41:59):
Maybe that's what i've so it's the actor.

Speaker 4 (42:01):
And Jason was the original Red Ranger.

Speaker 3 (42:03):
Okay, I was definitely thinking about one of those guys.
Let's go with that.

Speaker 4 (42:11):
You were talking about the actor and not the character.

Speaker 3 (42:13):
Sorry, I just know so much about Power Rangers. My
wires are getting crossed.

Speaker 2 (42:18):
So anyway, so they discover that Zordon has died, but
then they put their great animal spirit powers together and
it brings Zordan back to life and they rejoice, and
then the movie ends with a big celebration in Angel

(42:41):
Grove and everyone's like thanks Power Rangers. Fireworks, fireworks, and
that's the end. So let's take a quick break and
we'll come back to discuss.

Speaker 3 (43:03):
And we're back. Isn't the last song it's like a
van Halen song that yeah, I think so, just to
go through the nineties, noess of this. There's the Power
Rangers orchestra. So that's let's leave that alone. Red Hot
Chili Peppers, a band called Shampoo question Mark.

Speaker 4 (43:23):
Yes, they're the ones who do Oh We're in trouble
when the kids are partying.

Speaker 3 (43:28):
I know that song. Okay, Divo snap exclamation point fun
Thomas featuring Carl Douglas. Don't know, of course, Van Halen,
they might be giants. Like there's just so many, Like
you were saying earlier, Caitlin, the had to have been
an expensive soundtrack for sure, Carlos, Where would you like

(43:53):
to start the discussion here?

Speaker 4 (43:56):
Oh my god, there's so much good luck? Oh goodness,
I guess this is the Bechdel cast. Let's talk about
how Aisha and Kimberly keep getting like the short end
of the stick in their fights. They're like equally power rangers.
Kimberly's one of the ogs, and it's like, we need

(44:17):
to yell for help, like, what what's happening here?

Speaker 3 (44:21):
Repeatedly it stinks. I'm curious how much this character through
the show. I'm like, it's the nineties, so I'm assuming
it does. But but yeah, I mean, it's like we
have these sort of five featureless teenagers. Personality wise, they're
they're all basically the same person, and so I feel
like a lot of what we have to go off
of with them are these like broad character stereotypes where

(44:46):
you can tell this even if you don't watch the show.
But like Kimberly is like the hyper feminine white girl and.

Speaker 2 (44:54):
Her costume's pink.

Speaker 3 (44:55):
Her costumes pink, and she's a girl girl TM and
so we're going to give her love interests, of course
we are. And it's Tommy and he's gonna be saving
her a lot. So there's her. And then I think
it's like also equally important to talk about who is
not in this movie and why so this movie and
Carlo's correct me as our resident expert, because I'm new,

(45:17):
I'm new to the culture here, but there are three
original Power Rangers who are missing from this movie. Because
so the original US series went from ninety two to
ninety six. This came out in ninety five, So the
original Yellow, Black, and Red Ranger I think are all

(45:37):
gone at this point, whoo okay, And the reason that
is is because of a pretty serious labor dispute that
really foreshadows we'll be talking about the extensive villainy of
Zionist millionaire heim Saban, but he's also been added labor
wise for a long time. The original characters are who

(46:00):
are not there are Trainy Kwan played by actor Tui Trag,
who played the Yellow Ranger, the only Asian cast member.
Certainly nothing going on there. In a similar fashion, we
have Zach Taylor played by actor Walter Emmanuel Jones, the

(46:21):
only black cast member of the original Power Rangers, playing
the Black Ranger. He has said that this was like
a choice that he made and that he's not bothered
by it, but it's been talked about extensively. And then
the Red Ranger who was played who is a character
named Jason Lee Scott played by a guy named Austin

(46:43):
Saint John. Three names really challenging. But these three characters
are missing because so this show, as we've talked about,
is an amalgamation of old footage from Japan and contemporary
footage at the time from the US. So the kids
are shooting a lot, but they're not necessarily performing everything,

(47:04):
which is at the heart of this labor dispute. So
the like Mighty Worphinpower Rangers becomes really successful right away
in the US, primarily in merchandising and toys, and like
this is disputes we've talked about over the years where
like Star Wars is the most famous one, where like
Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill, like they weren't cut in
on merchandising and lost out on god knows how much

(47:27):
money by not having that in their contracts. Similar issue
going on here is that none of the young actors
are cut into merchandising. And I think what Carl Sabon
and Ko say is, well, you're not even doing the
stunts and people like the suits, they don't like you.

Speaker 2 (47:44):
Sorry, is his name Carl ham Seon?

Speaker 3 (47:48):
I don't know why I called them Carl Saban. Let's
be on. I think it's let's focus on the names
that I got right, which is amazing, and let's just
why am I any.

Speaker 2 (48:00):
Are you thinking of Carl Sagan?

Speaker 3 (48:02):
I'm thinking of Carl Sagan, honestly don't know. Okay, so
I'm Sebon. It's been Carl in my head for days
now for some reason.

Speaker 2 (48:14):
Oh wow, well again he's an evil, heinous piece of shit.

Speaker 3 (48:18):
So cure if I get it. But on the labor
piece of shit side. So, these are non union actors
at the time, which if you're which basically means you
can pay non unit uian actors anything they'll agree to.
Most people start non union while they build a resume,
and then they join SAG and are in a union,

(48:39):
get a standard rate and have people to help them
negotiate their contracts. So this started as a non union
show became extremely successful, and then half of the cast,
who are all represented by the same manager at the time,
they're red, yellow, black Rangers, go to Sabon and Co.
At the you know, beginning of this season, I guess,

(49:00):
and they're like, hey, we want a cut of merchandising.
And the thing that's like really wild to me is
like they're like, we want to become union actors and
they say, no, fuck you. I am not exactly sure.
I know that the actor who played Kimberly. Let's see,
let's see if I get Amy Joe Johnson. Everyone in
the nineties had three names. Amy Jo Johnson later expressed

(49:25):
regret for not having doing this because it seems like
the all the kids were or the young actors were
given the same bad deal, but only three of them
fought against it. And I think because they weren't a
united front, or maybe it would have gone this way. Anyways,
We'll never know. So Bond was like, we are going
to bank on.

Speaker 5 (49:43):
The fact that kids care more about the suits than
they care about you, and they just did away with
the characters entirely, so, you know, not only is this
like a massive labor issue, And as Amy Jo Johnson
has said, this means that the remaining cast members, sure
they're still on Power Rangers, but they're still making like

(50:05):
shitty wages and being put in unsafe conditions constantly, and
they're not protected by a union.

Speaker 3 (50:10):
Like Amy Jo Johnson said, she was almost electrocuted on
the set of this movie. And like, you know, just
there were all of these malpractice issues because it wasn't
an above board set because they weren't union. So not
only left the remaining cast members in this very vulnerable place,
it got these other actors, you know, cast out of

(50:30):
this very successful franchise just for advocating for basic, basic,
basic labor rights. And also you lose two people of
color in the primary cast. So that is where how
we get the new characters of Aisha who oh my god,
there's so many names. Who is played by the actor helped.

Speaker 2 (50:52):
Me out, Karen Ashley, I think.

Speaker 3 (50:56):
Karen Ashley, Yes, so she comes in and take except
the Yellow Ranger role as Ayisha, and then we get
a different Black Ranger.

Speaker 4 (51:08):
Frog Johnny Young Bosh.

Speaker 3 (51:09):
Yes, the Frog, and a different Red Ranger. But like
this was all very recent like around the time that
this movie was being made, like those decisions had sort
of just happened, and they're you know, not that you
would expect someone of Heimsiban's character to ever express remorse
over having done this. It just shows like from moment one,

(51:32):
this was a business endeavor and that even the people
who you would think you would want to treat well
and pay over they were making sixty thousand dollars a year,
maybe they were making six hundred dollars an episode on
like the most popular children's franchise like in the West.
Like it's just it was ridiculous. So that is like whatever.

(51:55):
I just wanted to give context for who these characters
are and that like half of this cast is sort
of new to the kids watching it.

Speaker 2 (52:03):
I'd also like to dive just a little bit deeper
into the racial component here, because the conversation about the
original Black Ranger being played by a black actor the
original Yellow Ranger being played by an Asian actor, that's
a conversation that has been happening since the nineties. It's

(52:25):
like and so you so, you know, it's bad if
people were noticing it in the.

Speaker 3 (52:29):
Nineties, particularly because I mean, and it's just like it's
just shows the aggressive racism of the makers of this franchise,
the American franchise specifically, because this is taken from an
Asian franchise, right, and it is still extremely anti Asian
in its portrayal of its only Asian character, who unfortunately
died very young, Tui Tray, died in a car crash

(52:51):
when she was only twenty seven. The racial components. I
know that it's been like you're saying, like debated since
the nineties, and Walter Emmanuel Jones has said, like, it
doesn't bother me, and I'm like, great, but I think
it is a valid critique regardless.

Speaker 4 (53:09):
For sure.

Speaker 2 (53:10):
Well, I was curious to see if anyone from the
cast and or crew has said anything about this over
the years, and so I'm pulling from a Variety article
from earlier this year. So this is about the series quote.
Head writer Tony Oliver said that none of us were
thinking stereotypes when these casting decisions were originally made, which

(53:34):
is why the show ran for two seasons with the
black character the Black Ranger and the Asian character the
Yellow Ranger. It wasn't until my assistant pointed out in
a meeting one day that Oliver realized these castings were
upholding stereotypes. Oliver added, it was such a mistake. The
piece goes on to say, quote co creator Shuki Levy

(53:56):
previously told Complex that Jones and try casting wasn't intentional
at all. At that time. Haim Saban and I were
new to this country. We didn't grow up in the
same environment that exists in America with regard to skin color.
We grew up in Israel, where being a black person
is like being any kind of color. It's not something

(54:17):
we talked about all the time. It wasn't a big issue, unquote.

Speaker 3 (54:22):
So first of all, so many layers of yeah, it's
like word to begin Yeah, famously tolerant and non racist,
fake ass country of Israel, Like are you fucking serious?

Speaker 4 (54:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (54:34):
Second, just like the privilege of not thinking about or
not having to think about race, or not noticing the
racist implications behind casting choices, Like I.

Speaker 3 (54:45):
Also just like, don't believe it. I think that they
stopped casting Asian and black actors in these roles because
they were criticized for it, not because they were like,
oh we someone brought up a gentle like someone gently
told me, and I was like I didn't, no, because
it's like, not only is that privilege, I don't believe
that that's how they why they stopped doing that. I'm

(55:06):
guessing they stopped doing that because they've got in trouble
for it, right, And Saban is just a fucking monster.
I mean, like, to this day he is still with
us and still aggressively pouring money into pro Israel causes.
To this day, he's been denounced by the Arab American Institute.
In the last year, he is has well over two

(55:27):
billion dollars from I'm assuming merchandising that he stole from
these actors, as well as different investments that he's made
that I didn't honestly look into because I didn't want
to know anything else about him.

Speaker 2 (55:42):
Yeah, understandable.

Speaker 1 (55:44):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (55:45):
And then in response to those comments made by the
head writer and co creator, this is pulling from another
Varieidi article, Walter Emmanuel Jones and the actor who played
who originally played the Black Ranger in the series.

Speaker 3 (56:04):
And was also in Brink, I didn't realize one of
my childhood faves.

Speaker 2 (56:10):
Apparently there's footage of him from a documentary made about
The Power Rangers saying something on set like oh, of course,
like the black guy plays the Black Ranger, go figure,
so he you know, he was commenting on it at
the time. He later says in an Instagram post, I've

(56:32):
always believed in focusing on the positive. I understand the
impulse to address what might be seen as cultural insensitivity,
but calling it a mistake, that's the reference to the
head writer Tony Oliver's comment. But calling it a mistake
would dismiss the impact it had on countless people around
the world who found inspiration and representation in TV's first

(56:53):
black superhero morphin into none other than the Black Power Ranger.
It wasn't a mistake. It was a milestone. It was
an honor unquote. So it's it's a complicated thing, you know,
the actor not being particularly bothered by it is that
is good.

Speaker 3 (57:13):
I mean, that's good. And it's also like, I mean,
and again, we don't know this guy, but I think
it is like a very complicated thing. When I believe
that Walter, Emmanuel Jones and a lot of these original
actors still do work for the franchise, right, so it's
like who knows, like it not to cast doubt on

(57:34):
the quote, like I hope he feels fine about it.
But it's like, if you're still making appearances as a
former cast member of the Power Rangers, you probably wouldn't
be disparaging the Power Rangers. So true, it's it's a
tricky thing. But yeah, I mean, and we've I think
we've talked about this in a number of examples of

(57:56):
how you know, the characters of Trainy and of Zach
meant a lot to a lot of kids, and that
like that is for all of this franchise's faults, and
there are many like that that still has value too.

Speaker 2 (58:12):
And then as far as the new characters who were
brought in.

Speaker 3 (58:16):
For wait, sorry, I'm seeing the link you sent Carlos.
Oh my god, another labor layer. Oh, Carlos just put
in the chat. The original Yellow Ranger, Audrey du Bois,
was originally cast as the Yello Ranger before being replaced
by Tuy Trang due to her requesting financial help to
move to La to film the series. So another just

(58:38):
like this company being an absolute piece of shit and
not doing the bare minimum for their actors, come on,
ye horrendous.

Speaker 4 (58:47):
They also were like gotten rid of on the show
in like the most anti climactic and shitty way. So
if we have later when Kimberly leaves the show and
gives her powers to the new Pink Power Ranger played
by Catherine Sutherland, I believe like she gets to take
her power coin, put it in her hand, and like
you see the transfer of power from Kimberly to the

(59:09):
new Ranger with the original trio, they are seen in
the show with like reused footage or they're shot from behind,
or somebody's in a wig, or you don't really get
to have that same moment of them giving Rocky, Adam
and Aisha their powers. It's just like, oh, we're gonna

(59:29):
be in a suit and then teleport away. They don't
get to say goodbye. There's no sort of conclusion. It's
just like you're off the show. Now we've got these
new characters who all of a sudden are taking up
like half of the episode because we've got to introduce
these heroes who care and are worth being the replacements
for Jason, Zach and Treney.

Speaker 3 (59:49):
Which is so uh yeah, I saw that like clip
that literally it's so clunky. It's like them in silhoette
because it's body doubles. It's not actually the actors the
actors had already quit, and then voice doubles being like, Hey,
we're going to Switzerland. Oh, we're going to the peace conference.
And they're like, oh man, we're gonna miss you so much.
You're just like okay, and then the final or not

(01:00:14):
maybe I don't know. Another sort of controversy that is
around a cast member who is in this movie is
David Yost, who plays Billy Cranston, who I was like, wow,
that's so close to Brian Kranston. And Brian Kranston also
did voices for the original Power Rangers series and he
plays I think zored On in the twenty seventeen adaptation,

(01:00:36):
so the Cranston is strong with this franchise for some reason.
But that David Yost, who is another actor who is
now involved again in the expanded Power Rangers universe. But
he didn't talk about this for years, but stopped acting

(01:00:57):
and left the show shortly after or he stayed till
nineteen eighty five, so he stayed through the movie and
then he stayed on the show for a little bit
after that into Power Rangers, Zeo question Mark, but then
he left and he said due to extensive homophobic harassment
that he received on the side of the show from

(01:01:20):
I honest, I didn't go super deep into it. I
read in the interview where he first spoke about it.
It sounds like what really plagued him the most is
that it was coming from the highest level. It was
coming from the producers. He was getting harassment from crew
impossibly cast, but like it was also being encouraged, like
the cast was being encouraged to interrogate his sexuality by

(01:01:43):
the producers of the show, to the where he felt
so uncomfortable. And there's literally like video footage from the nineties.
It's just which it's very in passing, but it was
a part of the like Power Rangers behind the scenes
clip where he's being like flipped off by a crew
member and being called Gavid, like to his face in

(01:02:07):
a BTS thing like so it's just, you know, obviously
we believe him anyway, but the fact that there's like
footage that was released to the public that backs up
what he's saying, it just sounded like it was extremely
traumatizing and he didn't return to Power Rangers. He weirdly,

(01:02:28):
I was like fascinating. He moved to behind the scenes work.
He worked on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills for
a while as a segment producer, I was like, what
a life. And now he's like back involved in the
Power Rangers universe as of like a couple of years ago.
But he kept it at arm's length for a long
time because the homophobic harassment was so severe. As we

(01:02:50):
talked about Amy, Joe Johnson later regretted not encouraging the
rest of the cast and herself to stand with the
three who ended up getting fired over labor just futes
and also almost died on the set of this movie.
And she does not fuck with the Power Rangers. Now
she's she's an indie film director in Canada, and I

(01:03:11):
love that for her. Oh, good for her.

Speaker 4 (01:03:14):
So that's understandable.

Speaker 3 (01:03:16):
I was like, I would also move to Canada and
say fuck the Power Rangers. But so that's the context.

Speaker 2 (01:03:24):
Yeah, So to circle back to the conversation about gender,
Oh my.

Speaker 3 (01:03:31):
Gosh, she has the conversation you started an hour ago.

Speaker 4 (01:03:33):
Girl, I mean, this is all important, this is all relevant,
Like there's intersectionality, it's all layered, it's all in.

Speaker 2 (01:03:41):
There, indeed. Well, and then to speak to the intersection
of gender and race when it comes to Kimberly and Aisha.
So Kimberly is white, Ayisha is black, and wouldn't you know,
the white character has far more focus, more lines of dialogue,

(01:04:01):
generally more screen time, and just a more prominent character overall.

Speaker 3 (01:04:06):
She's also given and it's like, I don't even I'm
not saying this is a pro, but she has a
love interest in Jason, Ayisha does not. I feel like
Ayisha is very largely plot wise and often just in
the shots by herself, where there are like micro relationships
where we're like, oh, Jason and Kimberly like each other,

(01:04:28):
Billie and the Black Ranger, the Frog Ranger or friends
or something. But Aisha is just like kind of by
herself a lot, which is a shame because I guess
in this series and you two actually watched it, but
like Kimberly and Triny were best friends, and that was
like something that was frequently coming up on the show

(01:04:50):
of like how they were BFFs. And this movie doesn't
really have space for any relationship between any of the
Power Rangers, but it's like they don't even bother to
do the of kind of nice, sort of misogynist thing
of oh the two girls are friends, and and the
fact that it's I think that we see this a
lot with how black women and girls are portrayed on screen.

(01:05:13):
Of like there's a lot of attention drawn to how
feminine Kimberly is and in this I think very like
white colonial mindset way, And I wouldn't say that, like,
I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, but I wouldn't say
that like Ayesha is aggressively othered, Like she's given the

(01:05:34):
character of a bear, which is I would say, like
comparably strong to what the other power rangers are given
in terms of an animal, Like I don't really have
an issue with it.

Speaker 2 (01:05:42):
Certainly stronger than a frog, that's true.

Speaker 3 (01:05:45):
Frog and crane. I'm like, I don't I'm not so
sure about that.

Speaker 2 (01:05:50):
But the crane seem flimsy to me, no offense to cranes.

Speaker 3 (01:05:53):
But I don't know. But that also comes up in
intersectional feminist masterpiece Killed, so who knows.

Speaker 4 (01:06:01):
True.

Speaker 3 (01:06:01):
But I didn't think she was othered. I just feel
like she was like neglected pretty severely in this.

Speaker 2 (01:06:08):
Yeah, to see and then to the point you were
just making Jamie about like Kimberly's given a hetero love interest.
She's also more sexualized in her costuming because when she's
not in the Power Rangers suit she's wearing, she's wearing
short shorts and a very form fitting crop top versus Ayisha,
who's wearing like a baggy hoodie. And I'm not, you know,

(01:06:32):
advocating for them to be equally sexualized.

Speaker 3 (01:06:34):
But like right, it's like everyone loses in this scenario,
which is true of most subjugations. Like it's just like
both of these characters are losing. I think Amy Jo
Johnson when they were like Amy, why didn't you come
back for the twenty twenty three movies, She's like, because
I'm fifty three and I don't want to have to
wear spandex for the Power Rangers anymore. As like fuck yeah, fair.

Speaker 4 (01:06:58):
And I think adding in to injury. It's also the
kind of part they'd written for her was like negligible
at best. It's like, I'm not coming back to do
this thing that has been not great in all of
these ways, that has followed me for decades for you
not to give me a real part because I watched it.
Of course, like Billy's character and Zach's character play a

(01:07:19):
huge role. It's really about them. Everyone else is just
kind of in the background, and they mourn Treeny's character
because they kill her off in the show because the
original actors passed in real life. But it's like, yeah,
makes total sense why you wouldn't want to come back
for this, Like, I get it, Amy, Amy Joe, I
get it.

Speaker 3 (01:07:37):
You're chilling. You're chilling in Canada. You're like, I'm not gonna.

Speaker 4 (01:07:40):
I'm making music. Like she's like, oh, making music too. Yeah,
she's like an indie pop uh maybe indie folk. I
don't know genres, but she like makes music as well.

Speaker 3 (01:07:50):
Good for her, Good for her. I'm like, I I
feel like, yeah, they're because because there are I mean,
and this isn't necessarily relevant to the conversation, but there
are cast members who did not have as fruitful post
careers as Amy Jo Johnson did. I think she probably
ended up doing having the most fruitful post Power Rangers

(01:08:11):
career and is suspiciously the only person who refuses to
engage now. And also that just worth mentioning that Jason
David Frank, who plays Tommy, was very I mean, he
was like basically the face of the series. It seems
like for years and years and years, very involved in
the fan community all this stuff, and then he unfortunately
took his own life in twenty twenty two, and so

(01:08:34):
the movie that we were just talking about that Amy
Jo Johnson was like, fuck this movie. It is also
dedicated to the memory of those two original cast members,
Jason David Frank and Thui Tran. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:08:47):
I guess the one thing I'll say about the gender
piece that's very clear. When they're calling their zords, everyone
gets into their zord and has a cute little moment.
Kimberly's is very stereotypical. It's just like, oh, nice stereo.
It's just like you were in a giant zord, which
is pretty similar to what she says when she gets
in the I think the pterodactyl in the original series

(01:09:08):
for the first time. Okay, so I think it's a callback,
but I'm like, does an age well, And then we
don't see Ayisha say anything when she gets out to
her zord, like not a second, Like you literally just
have to her to be like, let's kick some butt,
let's like do something, like anything anything in the zord.

Speaker 3 (01:09:25):
Nothing I kept waiting for, even just like nineties cast
off Girl Boss moment of like one of the girls
saving the other or something like anything, I'll take anything,
and they know it's always one of the guys has
to swing in. If it's Kimberly, it's her love interest
has to swing in and save her, and she, you know,

(01:09:47):
like it's and going back to your point, Caitlin is
Aisha has literally no character that we know of. Kimberly
sort of has a character because she's been on the
series for a long time. But yeah, the and Ayosha
is there is because Trety isn't there for all of
these horrible so it just like goes up and up
and up and up.

Speaker 2 (01:10:07):
I will say that I feel like the romantic kind
of thing that's going on between Kimberly and oh god,
what's his name?

Speaker 3 (01:10:16):
Tommy Tommy, it's every generic nineties name.

Speaker 5 (01:10:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:10:21):
Ever, I feel like is not played up so much
to the extent that I didn't even totally notice it.
And it also could be that I was watching this
movie in a fugue state, so maybe it's a me thing,
but I, like Loki did not really pick up on it.

Speaker 3 (01:10:42):
Oh really, yeah, it's I think, I mean, it's definitely there,
But I agree it's not like harped on in the
way that other franchises would harp on it.

Speaker 2 (01:10:53):
True, But and this is speaking to something you were
saying earlier, Carlos, But the the women are power rangers
as well, they are warriors. They have this theoretically the
same powers as their male counterparts. But they keep getting
the damsel treatment where they're like put into, you know,

(01:11:16):
a tight spot and either have to be saved or
the story in that moment is really focused on like,
oh my god, look how much danger they're in because
they're trying, to the movies, needing ways to heighten the tension,
heighten the stakes. How do we do that?

Speaker 3 (01:11:32):
Oh no, one of.

Speaker 2 (01:11:32):
The girls is in trouble. So that happens quite a bit.
There are a few instances here and there where like
one of the boys gets in a sticky situation as well,
but it's never really harped upon the way that it
is when the teen girls are in a tight spot.

Speaker 4 (01:11:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:11:52):
You mentioned this also, Carlos. Like they're screaming a lot,
like anytime a bad guy shows up, they're like, ah,
and it's like you're a warrior, You're and sure they're scary,
like like the boys aren't screaming, Like it's just all
of these very gendered, reductive tropes are happening.

Speaker 4 (01:12:12):
The dinosaur skeleton fight scenes like the perfect example, you
have Rocky the Red Ranger get slammed into a wall
and seemingly knocked unconscious, and then almost instantly he's back up,
no screaming, no yelling. Meanwhile, Aisha and Kimberly both get
cornered different times in the same fight and have to
be saved by either Adam or Rocky or Tommy, who
then immediately backflips on top of the dinosaur to like

(01:12:34):
decapitate it. It's just like we could have just little tweaks,
we could have done little differences there, Like it didn't
have to be this.

Speaker 3 (01:12:40):
It's no, absolutely not. It's also fixable because the plot
is so goofy too, like anyone could that Getting back
into stuff I liked because we we had we had
to spend all I mean, like there is so much
to talk about with this, Like, yes, we had to,
but getting back into stuff I liked the dinosaur beig
the dinosa or See's ending with I think Tommy like

(01:13:02):
yanking just a random bone from it and you literally
hear like, and then and then the fight's.

Speaker 4 (01:13:08):
Over when you're like, it's like a cartoon, Oh.

Speaker 3 (01:13:10):
Okay, yeah, it's kind of adorable. Yeah, I mean this
is this is worth of a plot issue where that
seems like it's not an issue in the actual TV show,
but just the Power Rangers, like what they're fighting for.
And then what Fred, who I'm pretty sure is just

(01:13:31):
a movie character. Yes, he's like the randommest character. Like
the Power Rangers and Fred, like they're not fighting for
the same thing. The Power Rangers seem like not invest
This is why I was like, do they have do
they even have parents? Because they're so like kind of
keeping the whole, like all of the parents are gonna
walk off a cliff in I think their hometown. They're

(01:13:53):
like not worried about that at all, to the point
where I think it's like the Frog Power Ranger saves
the kids from this random almost train accident, and then
the kids are like, oh, we're gonna make it, We're
gonna go save our parents, and the Frog Power Ragers
like good luck. Kids, almost like do you not care
your parents live there? And then so then I spiraled out,

(01:14:14):
I'm like, do they not have parents. Is that why
they don't care what happens in the city where they live.

Speaker 2 (01:14:18):
I would still care, well, Zordan is their daddy?

Speaker 3 (01:14:22):
Yeah there?

Speaker 4 (01:14:23):
Or maybe their parents didn't get oozed because they didn't
bring home the ooze.

Speaker 2 (01:14:27):
So like the perfect plan, distribute oohs to the children,
and the children will bring it to their parents. The
parents will obviously open the ooze.

Speaker 3 (01:14:36):
I mean, and that dad with three brain cells to
his name was and.

Speaker 4 (01:14:40):
He dug in.

Speaker 3 (01:14:41):
He's like, he was like, my son's not home. I
guess my parents gack. Honestly, I'm like, I'm laughing, and
yet I'm like, hmm, well, if my here's the thing.
If I was a parent, and I hope to be
one che if my kid brought home oohs, I would

(01:15:01):
want to touch it, but I would be like, kids
are dirty. I'm not touching theirs. I'm going to go
to this story. Get my own, your own, my own oose.

Speaker 2 (01:15:08):
Yeah, okay, good clean ooze, get not contaminated oohz. Yeah. Well,
for the Fred subplot, I was like, well, every movie
has to be about fathers and sons, so we need
to wedge of fathers and sons thing in here. Yeah,
the thing that I thought was hilarious about this is
toward the end, Fred goes to the construction site where

(01:15:33):
the parents are all about to like jump off of
a cliff or into the pit or whatever.

Speaker 3 (01:15:39):
The pit. You're just like, ooh ooh. That is just
it reminded me of just as I was researching how
the American version, in one of the few instances where
I'm like siding with the American version of Supercentai, that
they would change a lot of plot points because the
original Supercentai was so gruesome where I guess there would

(01:16:01):
be children regularly just like murdered in cold blood, and
the American version was like, we're kind of we're going
to not include those parts, and I'm you know, in
a show for five year olds, I'm pro that, But
but then you get the little senses of it of like, no,
we're okay if we jonestown these random characters adults.

Speaker 2 (01:16:22):
Yeah, well okay, So the adults are about to jump
in the pit. Fred gets hold of some huge water
nozzle and there are also children who are trying to
like physically push the parents away from jumping into the pit.
Fred starts spraying the water to try to again also

(01:16:44):
push the parents back, but he ends up just like
blasting the children with the water rather than any of
the adults. It's just like it's like a fire.

Speaker 3 (01:16:55):
Hose, yeah, full of like purple ghack, And no, I.

Speaker 2 (01:16:59):
Think it was just water.

Speaker 4 (01:17:01):
I think it might just be the color of like
the quarry is, like it's colored in an odd way.
But I think it's just supposed to be water.

Speaker 3 (01:17:07):
Yeah, Okay, So clearly I misigressed on what was happening there.
It also felt like he thinks that him doing that
is what saves them, when in fact it is the
power Rangers blowing up the villain is what saves them.
But I think that Fred spends the rest of his
life being like, who if I hadn't blasted our parents
with a fire hose, they all would have died. Like yeah, wait,

(01:17:27):
there's a really good Ivan oohs line. I wanted to
shout out.

Speaker 2 (01:17:30):
Oh please, I have a few lines I enjoy as well.

Speaker 3 (01:17:33):
Oh Aysha a big moment for Ayisha. Her spaceship kicks
Ivan oohz in the balls. So that's yes, that's fun.
That's fun.

Speaker 4 (01:17:41):
We like that that line passes the BECHDL test. You
have what are you doing taking care of business.

Speaker 3 (01:17:47):
Yes, it is a very funny pass. But yeah when
says now I'm starting to get really angry, and then
he just stretches out and like he enters a robot
in a way that I wouldn't say is unsexual, and
then he says, I feel big again? What do you

(01:18:11):
mean again?

Speaker 2 (01:18:13):
Oh? Yeah? My favorite lines were I think this is
Billy during one of the early fights in the movies
when he's like punching one of the Ooze minions and
then he goes, you oose, you lose. Okay, that's good writing.
And then my other favorite, like what the fuck who
wrote this thing? Is so the Power Rangers they arrive

(01:18:38):
on Planet Fatos and they keep talking about how urgent
it is that they get the power so that they
can save Jordan. Jordon is actively dying. Like the sense
of urgency is talked about a lot, but they are
moving so fucking slowly. They these kids, there's no urgency
in their movement.

Speaker 3 (01:18:58):
These kids need to be in school, Like, I don't
understand what is going on in these kids' brains. They're
they're given these like because even if they are not
able to do these animal powers for whatever reason I
would I at least want to see them. Wonder why
the fact that they're like, all right, cool, we went

(01:19:20):
to the big we like made it to the the
thingy and Zena was there and she gave us these powers.
But uh, but we can't use them and we're not
gonna try, and we're just gonna travel on foot and
we're gonna walk to the We're gonna walk.

Speaker 4 (01:19:35):
To the penis and like set up, it's set up.
She turns into an owl. So it's like, if that's
her power, why didn't we turn into a wolf?

Speaker 3 (01:19:42):
Yeah, we can literally see her do it. Wow.

Speaker 4 (01:19:46):
So it's like plant never never never payoff And so
they get the zords. I guess technically would be the payoff.
But it's like that's too She wasn't an owl zord.
She was an.

Speaker 3 (01:19:57):
Owl, right. Yeah, she didn't turn into a spaceship, although
I wouldn't have hated if she did. Her character cracked
me up? Is she and other stuff?

Speaker 4 (01:20:07):
Nope?

Speaker 3 (01:20:08):
Oh good.

Speaker 4 (01:20:08):
So there's this YouTuber called miss stare Fusion who actually,
for the thirtieth anniversary of the movie's release, did a
comparison between the movie and how the TV show handles
the transition because this was the transition from like one
set of powers to the ninja powers, and so in
the TV show, the way they did this was different

(01:20:30):
with Turbo later the movie is canon, So like the
movie is the transition, and here there's a guy named
Ninjor who's like a Dudley do Right kind of character,
who's in a blue suit. He's basically a Zord that
turns into a bigger Zord and comes back later to
help the Rangers. But like they have to go through

(01:20:51):
like four episodes to get the powers to like reclaim them,
get the same suits, fight the Tenga, and then get
the powers to come back because Tommy technically destroys their
powers in the TV show, Alfa's like, you're pushing the
zords too much. You're going to like overthrow the powers.

(01:21:11):
And then he's like, we gotta do whatever it takes.
Immediately the swords explode, they lose their powers, they fall
out of their swords. There's a bit more meat for
the movie.

Speaker 3 (01:21:23):
These kids are a mess. These kids are a mess.
I love them. Yeah, it is like I don't know
it is so whatever, just like speak you to like
and I would love both of your feelings on this too,
because I was trying to put a little time, like
putting this franchise into a larger context around like merchandise

(01:21:45):
heavy franchises, international franchises, the like exchange of entertainment culture
between the US and Japan, which is a very complicated subject.
And because it is just like it's it's so silly,
but it's also like it's it's a rich text, these
these power Rangers and its history with Super Sentai, and

(01:22:06):
which I kept I'm immature, so I kept accidentally saying
Hentai and then going he he, and then saying sorry, Sentai.
But because it didn't occur to me until I was
like doing some just like kind of basic background research
that this is sort of similar to how Godzilla became
popular in the US, is by showing original footage from

(01:22:28):
Japan and then just throwing in a couple American actors
and releasing it as if it's completely original content. It's
just very it's very interesting, and I know we don't
really have the bandwidth within this episode to fully get
into international relations, but just because like the US and Japan,
there is still such an intense cultural exchange today, it's

(01:22:52):
just like a very particular moment, and I just had
a lot of fun watching the like the original cuts,
which I feel like as a grown up, you're like, oh, yeah,
that's a different person twenty years ago, but it still
somehow kind of works. Like it works Rita Repulsa, Like

(01:23:13):
it's very badly dubbs, but it works. I wish that's
my main note for this movie at the end of
the day. I know it's been an hour and a half,
but Rita Repulsa, get her out of the snow globe.
Get her out.

Speaker 2 (01:23:26):
Because she's such a prominent character in the series, I
was expecting her to be something in the movie, but I.

Speaker 3 (01:23:35):
Kept waiting for her to like join forces with ivan
Ooze at least. I'm like, don't get rid of Ivanoze.
I love ivan Nees, but you know, talk about silencing women,
putting readA Repulsa in a snow globe come on.

Speaker 4 (01:23:47):
After throwing goo on her mouth to shut her up,
and Z so happy about it, Like, no, she's so important.
That voice is iconic. It's so sad she does come
out at the end.

Speaker 2 (01:24:02):
Yeah, she's well, she's rooting. She and lord Z are
rooting for the Power Rangers because they hate iven Ouz
so much that they're like, I hope they kick his ass,
and then they do by throwing him into a comment,
and that's awesome worth mentioning. I think again. I got
to talk about Bulk and Skull now, the fat character's

(01:24:26):
name being Bulk. First of all, there's also a part
where Skull asks Bulk, are you hungry and Bulk says
always so, just casual fat phobia present in the Bulk character.
I really wanted them to be a larger part of

(01:24:47):
the movie as well, but they are like barely even
tertiary characters, Like they get nothing.

Speaker 3 (01:24:55):
It really does just feel like random fan service of
like they're on the show and they jump out of
a plane, see yam. It's too bad. I would say
a whole movie about those guys.

Speaker 4 (01:25:05):
They have more of a role in Turbo, but they
similarly have nothing to do with the main plot and
the TV transition between seasons. But it's also the fat
phobia is so much worse. It's like they're the bully
TM characters, but like rewatching Power Rangers as an adult,
you're like, you guys are doing too much to these
so called bullies, Like you're really bullying them, Like there's

(01:25:28):
moments where it's just like, are you guys the good guys?
I'm having my doubts you should go to an anti
bullying seminar.

Speaker 3 (01:25:36):
I think about that with I don't know why this
example like just jumped right to my mind, but there
was a similar thing with the bully on Boy Meets
World where there was just a lot I vividly remember
to the point where it like occurred to me as
a child that I'm like, they're being really mean to him.
They're like making these like fat phobic comments. I think

(01:25:57):
maybe there's one episode where it's like that hurt my
feelings the so I guess maybe they called it out
at some point and then continued to do it. But yeah,
this this franchise is especially and it always like sticks
out even more when that's one of the characters few
moments on screen at all, Like it's just stating the

(01:26:17):
broad cruel stereotype. And then we don't even see them again.

Speaker 4 (01:26:22):
That you flew out, Like yeah, as members that they
did not fly out, you flew out Bulkan Skull for
what to have them play second fiddle to Fred who
we never see again, who nobody knows just because you
insert like the hell, yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:26:38):
Yeah, Bulkan's skull could fill. I mean, no offense to
that kid, but you're like, who fuck is it?

Speaker 4 (01:26:44):
That is?

Speaker 3 (01:26:44):
Like I'm not convinced that that wasn't like AI like
that the most generic ass kids in the entire world.
I wanted to say this while I was thinking of
it because I went into deep A Repulsal lore because
I was like, damn, oh, she's so cool that her
original first of all, her grievance is very valid because

(01:27:07):
here's how she enters the show in the pilot. Pulling
from scholarly journal Wikipedia here, Rita Repulsa is an evil
space which bent on ruling the universe. Being a powerful sorceress,
Rita has conquered many worlds a master large collection of
monsters and putty patrollers to do her bidding. Origin story.
Imprisoned in a space dumpster by Zordon, Rita was cast

(01:27:31):
into space, where she would float for ten thousand years
before arcing back to the Moon in nineteen ninety three.
Once freed by two astronauts, she and her minions reclaimed
their headquarters and started a second campaign on Earth to
defeat Zordan and take the planet for Lord z now
the Lord z thing. I don't know what that means,
but she is right to be hell bent on destroying Zordon.
He imprisoned her at a space dumpster for ten thousand years.

Speaker 2 (01:27:55):
That was rude. He should not have done that.

Speaker 3 (01:27:57):
Yeah, I also hate there's something like I reject Zordon.
I don't like him.

Speaker 2 (01:28:02):
No, he freaked me out.

Speaker 3 (01:28:03):
I think that Zordon is kind of Heimsibon coded in
that he's a creepy weirdo who doesn't do anything, and
his whole thing is I do not compensate these young
people for their labor, but they do my bidding. Well,
I just fucking hang out in a room and collect
wealth that is not mine. Yeah, yeah, I don't know.

(01:28:25):
I don't I'm is Zordan canonically a Zionist?

Speaker 4 (01:28:29):
I don't know, no, But this is the thing that
becomes even worse for the continuity of the show if
you follow him movie canon. So in later seasons there
are a bunch of other villains that come together. Zordan
has one of the Power Rangers spoilers for I guess
Power Rangers in Space has the Red New Red Ranger
destroy his tube, and when he does, he explodes in

(01:28:52):
like an essence of good Ray that like turns Rita
into a normal human, turns the Lord Zet into a
normal human, arguably eliminates all evil from the universe because
he exploded, And I'm like, that didn't happen in the movie,
Like in the movie when his tube exploded, he just died,
but like he self sacrifices to save the universe for

(01:29:13):
what because I somehow evil comes back to the universe
later when they start to like cross different timelines and
play with different show continuities later. But yeah, Jordan seems
to be a like typical bad mentor where it's like,
you must do this for the greater good. Don't go
be a gymnast because then you can't be a power ranger.

(01:29:34):
You can teleport. Why can't she go do her routine
on the balance beam and then come back to Angel Grove?
Why does he only attack Angel Grove? Like the adult
questions you ask, it's just like why Angel Grove? Why
the us?

Speaker 2 (01:29:48):
Why because it's hell Mouse or something.

Speaker 3 (01:29:52):
You're like, why is this villain only attacking Burbank, which.

Speaker 4 (01:29:58):
Has been referenced in like newer more meta commentaryan movies
where it's like, yeah, he seems to only attack Japan
in like a Godzilla movie or in some other thing.
It's just like, yeah, but like there's a whole world.
Why did Jordan have ivan Ooze buried near his ectomorphicons
near his lab instead of on Fatos, on Aquatar, on

(01:30:21):
El Tar, literally anywhere else. It's like bad planning, my guy,
what if this fail?

Speaker 3 (01:30:26):
I gotta be honest, None of this occurred to me,
none of it at all. Wow, No, you're totally right.

Speaker 4 (01:30:33):
I watched this and rewatched this way too often, so
I'm like, deep, deep deep into lore. No.

Speaker 2 (01:30:40):
Good, thank you. That's why you're here.

Speaker 3 (01:30:42):
We need you.

Speaker 2 (01:30:44):
Does anyone have anything else they'd like to talk about?

Speaker 3 (01:30:49):
I'm sure I do, but I'm gonna stop myself.

Speaker 4 (01:30:53):
Yeah, I joke with my friends. I'm like, this is
a horror movie. Given how bad the CGI has aged
in this movie, Like the footage from the show is
so much better age because it's like a person in
a like suit. I think still in this season they
haven't gone to like animation yet. So just there's some

(01:31:15):
ways that this is not hold up, but it's still
a fun, little nostalgic tickle in the brain.

Speaker 3 (01:31:22):
True. Yeah, I felt like the bad effects. At this point,
I feel kind of nostalgic for this kind of bad effect.
It doesn't really bump me because you're just like, this
is I do believe this is the best they could
do at the time.

Speaker 4 (01:31:37):
I've turned around.

Speaker 2 (01:31:38):
Oh yeah, the technology just wasn't really there in ninety five.

Speaker 3 (01:31:42):
It's just teenagers sitting inside of a screensaver, and I
celebrate that beautiful.

Speaker 2 (01:31:49):
Does the movie past the Bechdel test?

Speaker 3 (01:31:51):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:31:51):
It does, with the what are you doing taking care
of business? Me to the not sack of the eye
of an uh'ze giant robot.

Speaker 4 (01:32:01):
Which is plot relevant.

Speaker 3 (01:32:03):
Yes, it was like a very plot relevant nineties girl
Power pass.

Speaker 2 (01:32:11):
True. Do they talk to each other aside from that though?

Speaker 4 (01:32:15):
No, But they talked to Dulcia y and then but
the context is about Zordan and it's like our leader
Zordan said, you know Zordan, it's just like, can we
talk about something like the powers? Can we talk? And
then they go into ivan ooze and then the boys
jump in and so yeah, I don't think Aisha and
Kim talk to each other at all.

Speaker 3 (01:32:34):
No, which again is just like they're not even doing
the bare minimum that they were doing in the show
by making the only two girls BFFs, and I was
reading I don't know. I was like reading some synopsies
about Kimberly and Triney from the original show, and it's
so nineties and goofy, where it's like Trainy and Kimberly
both start after school clubs and Trainee is more popular,

(01:32:55):
and so Kimberly gets possessed by the jealousy monster. Like
you know, it's like all very you know, goofy kind
of stuff, but it's it's something where I'm like that
that seed particularly drove me up a wall because you're,
first of all, you're like waiting for it to maybe
pass the Buckfel test and then it doesn't. But I'm like,
you guys are standing right next to each other, please

(01:33:17):
just turn your head and speak like it's just it.
I don't know. I'm glad that it wasn't really like
this in the show, but in the movie it really
does feel like these kids are complete strangers to each other.

Speaker 4 (01:33:29):
Yeah, one of your favorite people actually had something to
say about that. I'm gonna try to find it. I
opened up the tab. Give me one second.

Speaker 3 (01:33:39):
What if Alfred Molina was like, I have to say something.

Speaker 4 (01:33:42):
About, oh no, this is fully sarcastic your favorite person.

Speaker 3 (01:33:45):
Oh oh even better. So there's a Roger Ebert review
on this fil Okay, you know what, I at least
he covered it. At least he covered it.

Speaker 4 (01:33:56):
He gives it half a star, and he starts it
mighty morphim power readers. The movie is about as close
as you can get to absolute nothing and still have
a product to project on the screen. The movie is
like those synthetic foods that have no fat, no sugar,
no vitamins, and no calories, but they come in bright
packages and you can chew them. And he goes on
to like comment like we did about how there's no

(01:34:17):
real character because I imagine they anticipated, you're gonna watch
the show, You're gonna see the movie. You know these characters,
so this is like another adventure there on rather than
catering to a new audience that's like who is Tommy,
Who is Kimberly, Who is Adam, Aisha Rocky, et cetera.

Speaker 3 (01:34:33):
Right, Yeah, it was like, it is interesting that I
was at least happy to see that there are technically
characters that are established in the show, But it really
this movie is really assuming that you either don't care
if there's characters or you already watch the show, which
I guess in nineteen ninety five was a reasonable guess,
but it makes it very confusing to watch thirty years later.

Speaker 2 (01:34:57):
Well, I mean, like when you watch the for example,
Ninja Turtles movies, those characters are still very distinct from
each other and very well defined in the movies, so
it's not hard to do, especially if you've already established
the personalities of those characters, as you've done in the show.

Speaker 3 (01:35:17):
I would say, and it's like, and I'm if I'm
remembering correctly, It's like it really is simple enough with
the Turtles for it to be like I'm the blank one,
Like that's all you really gotta do, But this movie
doesn't even really do that, because I'm like, I don't
know which what, Like I guess Tommy's the leader one,
Kimberly's the pink one, the other the other three or four.

(01:35:40):
I'm like, I have no idea which one you are
or yeah, what you do?

Speaker 4 (01:35:44):
Yeah? And Billy like it wasn't always the best, but
like he was the tech nerd of the group, so
he was always like saying very nerdy things, very sciency things,
and it's just like you couldn't keep some of that
where it's like, oh, we're gonna do something like science
like no, even if it's nonsense. Alpha has a bunch
of like technological nonsense lines. Billy doesn't get any of that.

(01:36:07):
So it's like the character that was there now he's
just boy number five, boy number three, whatever number you
want to put him in the order.

Speaker 3 (01:36:16):
Really bizarre. I'm like, all this said, I had a
great time watching.

Speaker 4 (01:36:21):
This is so great. I watched it twice to prepare,
revisited the pilot, and watched some of Mister Fusion to
to get into the vibe. Great time.

Speaker 2 (01:36:30):
Oh wow, thank you, I'm all your work.

Speaker 3 (01:36:33):
And also for listeners, it's it's currently on YouTube for free,
like you can. You can. You can check it out
if you really need to. Like, I don't know, I
just I felt very like it's it's it's exactly. You
can tell it's gonna be a good movie because it's
exactly ninety minutes long with credits. You're like, oh good,
they hit it.

Speaker 2 (01:36:54):
If you need something to put you in a fugue state, yeah,
this will do the trick.

Speaker 3 (01:36:59):
It is intense, it is an intense movie. I had
a really good time watching it. But you know, I
don't know. I mean, the Power Ridges they are still around.
I feel like they're possibly in the process of trying
to do a larger reboot, because they did. I didn't
see it, but I know that, like towards the end
of like every reboot had to be Christopher Nolan coded,

(01:37:20):
they did a like dark reboot of The Power Edgers,
which of like, did you see that, Carlos did?

Speaker 4 (01:37:27):
I fully saw it in theaters and then immediately went
to the Toys Arrests because Toys arrest was still open.
Went to the Toys Arrests and bought the magazine because
I got copied the consumers.

Speaker 3 (01:37:39):
It works.

Speaker 4 (01:37:39):
I had fun with the opens. It was a fun movie.

Speaker 3 (01:37:43):
It works. I really. As I was watching yesterday as
someone with no nostalgia for this series, I'm like, should
I get to read a Repulse to action figure like
that could be? I mean, yes, yeah, I should. I
think I should. I already I already bought a pad
My amidalad do all this year. I can't stop humiliating myself.
It's getting bad.

Speaker 4 (01:38:04):
I mean it sounds good to be but yeah, there
I think Kitlin and I were talking about this off
Mike that they are working on a Disney Plus reboot
series of the show. And I think there's talks about
like once in Always Arranger the reboot or the the
sequel movie with like the original Billy and Zach. I

(01:38:26):
think they're talking about doing another version of that, but
that could just be like rumor speculation. But yeah, the
Rangers live on, The.

Speaker 3 (01:38:33):
Rangers Live on, baby, and does Supercenti live on as well?

Speaker 4 (01:38:37):
Ooh that I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:38:40):
Yeah, I'm oh, it's saying nineteen seventy five to present.
Oh yeah, wow wow. So there has been a new
season of so this is something I found fascinating and
I was like, oh, I can't really think of outside
of like soaps, like American shows like this. There's been
a new season of Supercenti with a new like their
antalt Like you're saying, Carl, it's an anthology show with

(01:39:02):
like new characters, new stuff. I think people come back
and forth, but like every year since nineteen seventy five,
so for over fifty years there has been it is wild. Yeah,
and some of them sounded really fun. There's like one
season that I watched a like every season of Supercentai
explained because I'm really cool, but there was one that

(01:39:24):
was like, there's like one that's like a mystery season,
and then I don't know, it just sounds cool. So okay,
that's all I have to say.

Speaker 2 (01:39:33):
I problem, which brings us to the Bechdel Cast nipple scale.

Speaker 3 (01:39:38):
Oh boy, oh don't make me do this.

Speaker 2 (01:39:42):
We have to. Uh, this is our scale where we
rate the movie zero to five nipples based on examining
it through an intersectional feminist lens. I'll give it one
nipple because we see women fighting sometimes question mark, and

(01:40:06):
that's sort of the whole purpose of the show is
that these teens are fighting evil and so they let
two women do that. Thirty percent of them are girls,
so that's nice. But otherwise, with everything we've talked about,

(01:40:28):
this is not an intersexual feminist text, if you can
believe it. But I will give it one nipple, and
i'll give that nipple to read or pulse the best.

Speaker 3 (01:40:38):
Character iconic legend, I'll also give it one nipple. I
think the best thing you can say is that the
Girl Power Rangers are at least presented as being equally important.
They are not as women and girls often are presented
as strictly sidekicks or love interests. However, they are still

(01:41:02):
subject to a lot of classic nineties tropes with regard
to gender. But also, as we've discussed, this franchise is
no stranger to severe racial stereotypes and fat phobic stereotypes
and behind the scenes homophobia, and is run by a
billionaire zionist and so the you know, issues with this

(01:41:25):
franchise run to its core. It's very of its time.
But I don't know, I mean, like watching this, I
very much understand its appeal, Like it's it is fucking fun.
It starts with people jumping out of a plane for
really no reason at all, and it continues to make
that exact amount of sense for the entire time. So

(01:41:47):
I'm going to give it one nipple because, like you said, Caitlin,
girls are there, and I'm gonna give it to I
guess I'm going to give it to Ayisha because she
needs something.

Speaker 2 (01:41:56):
I'm like, she is not given much. Yeah, Carlos, how
about you?

Speaker 4 (01:42:01):
Oh, the nostalgia wants to go higher because like I
feel like I'm Caitlin's rampometer.

Speaker 3 (01:42:07):
This is like for me, off the charts this is so.

Speaker 4 (01:42:13):
Good, so fun. The nostalgia, I want to give this
super high, but given the stuff we talked about, I
don't think that's fair. As a listener who like listens
to every episode, I'm like, why did they rate this
so high? Like I understand the nostalgia, but like, and
part of me wants to be that person right now.

Speaker 3 (01:42:35):
You're welcome to me too. You're like, it's no judgment,
we do that all the time.

Speaker 2 (01:42:39):
Well, here's the thing. The Nipple scale is the end
all be all thit in. If you miss this.

Speaker 3 (01:42:46):
Up changes the course of history every time.

Speaker 2 (01:42:51):
So follow your heart.

Speaker 4 (01:42:53):
I think the best I could do. I'm like edging
between like two and a half and three. I think
you do have rita sort of sidelined, which is not great.
You do have Kimberly and Aisha doing a lot of
cool stuff. They get damseled a bunch. There's no real equivalent.
I think Rocky's in trouble a couple of times and
one of the other guys has to save it, but

(01:43:14):
never one of the girls has to save him, which
could have been a fun little twist. You have Dulcia,
who on paper Master Warrior fade Us nobody can get
to this power. She defends people from like trying to
start down the path, saves them from the tengu She
becomes an owl, which is dope, etc. But that she's

(01:43:36):
like half undressed, which like she's in a tropical climate.
I guess, but like why did we need to do that?

Speaker 3 (01:43:42):
We did it, But also I mean this is a
climate where Ayisha is wearing a hoodie and uh Dulcia
is wearing nothing and the owl, well, the owl's completely naked.

Speaker 2 (01:43:54):
So also if she's like this like warrior, that outfit
is not providing very much much protection.

Speaker 3 (01:44:00):
No, that is not armor, and she's not that powerful
because she's like if I leave this room, I will
turn into But can the owl leave?

Speaker 4 (01:44:09):
I don't know, unclear because we see the owl still there.

Speaker 3 (01:44:13):
And so kind of a useless power when you think
about it. If the owl also can't go anywhere.

Speaker 4 (01:44:19):
It's like you cannot cross this part of the island
or the world, Like how does that work? Is like
the whole planet this one continent, it's unclear we can
keep going.

Speaker 3 (01:44:29):
I wasn't seeing food there, Like what does she sustain it?

Speaker 6 (01:44:31):
On?

Speaker 4 (01:44:32):
What did the rangers eat?

Speaker 2 (01:44:34):
Well, they ate the dinosaurs, and that's why their skelet tense.

Speaker 3 (01:44:39):
Exactly.

Speaker 4 (01:44:41):
I get to be fair. I think I'll end a
little lower. I think I'll just go two, two nipples.
I'm gonna give one to Aisha because I want to
boogie with the bear another pass. I was thinking about
what we were raiding when Kimberly is caught in the
electromagnetic deadlock from Ooze. He's like, oh my god, I
need help. I'm burning up in here. He's just like, girl,

(01:45:03):
use your thrusters, and I'm just like, oh, yes, true,
which saves Kimberly's life arguably.

Speaker 3 (01:45:11):
I'm like, why didn't she remember? I don't know, but
her friend was there?

Speaker 4 (01:45:15):
Yep. So two nipples for one for Asia, and I
guess Kimberly, yeah, yeah, oh no, we got to give
it to Fred character Kimberly. Kimberly gets a second.

Speaker 3 (01:45:32):
That would be funny, like.

Speaker 2 (01:45:35):
Nipple Fred illegal.

Speaker 3 (01:45:38):
Friend, and then Fred's like, goofy ass, Dad, being like
I love you son, and having that be kind of
the last thing You're like, who are these people?

Speaker 4 (01:45:46):
Right after a no Home a moment from Bulk and Skull,
because it's nineteen ninety five, like Bulk goes to hugs
skull because they're not dead. They saved the day. And
then he's like, hand up, shakes his hand.

Speaker 3 (01:45:57):
I totally. That's so funny that I feel like they're
doing some sort of nineteen ninety five Bingo card at
the end where they're like, oh, we didn't do a
no homo moment. We didn't have a father saying I
love you son, like and then and Van Halen song,
We're good. There's a time.

Speaker 2 (01:46:11):
There's also a moment where I've an ooze and then
what's the gargoyle looking gold goldar. They're both discussing their
crush on a teenage girl. They're like, oh, Kimberly, the
pink one's so cute? Am I RIGHTO? You're like, you're like,
that is a teenager and you're thousands of years old.

Speaker 3 (01:46:32):
That said Ivenu's top ten cinema characters I've ever seen.

Speaker 4 (01:46:40):
Him.

Speaker 3 (01:46:41):
Yes, he put his whole ivan as into that part.
I we didn't deserve the amount of effort that he
put into it. I'm glad we got it well.

Speaker 2 (01:46:56):
Carlos, thank you for joining us for yet another OOZ movie.
Come back for more OOZ movies or something else. I guess,
but but I was. I found a Reddit thread and
me going on Reddit, it's so scary to me.

Speaker 3 (01:47:13):
Good for you.

Speaker 2 (01:47:13):
But I found a thread called slime, Sludge and Goo
on movies. So there's so many things we could choose from.
We've got to come back and discuss. But thank you
so much for being here. Tell us where we can
follow you and anything you'd like to plug.

Speaker 4 (01:47:33):
Yeah, thank you so much for having me. I love
coming on the show, love listening. You've introduced me to
so many cool guests over the years. It's been great. Yeah.
I'm on Instagram still for the time being metas awful
Zuckerbergish trash. But yeah, Carlos creates twenty eighteen on Instagram

(01:47:54):
on Blue Sky. Those are like my two major social
media places. I have a podcast called The Horror Agenda
where we cover horror movies mainly, but we also cover
horror podcast comics, and we do a lot of short
films which a lot of people don't give enough love to,
which has been really great. And that's The Horror Agenda

(01:48:16):
on Instagram and wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 3 (01:48:21):
Thank you so much for coming back. Yeah, we can't
wait to see what you bring us next, there's some
there's I have. I want to send me that, send
me that, Lin, Kitlin, I want to know the others.

Speaker 2 (01:48:31):
Movies will do well And we could even include it
in the description of this episode.

Speaker 4 (01:48:37):
What should I come back for?

Speaker 1 (01:48:39):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:48:39):
Yeah, you have to start thinking now, all right? Well, uh,
we used and we lost, well, Bye bye. The Bechdel
Cast is a production of iHeartMedia, hosted and produced by Me,
Jamie Loftus and Meant.

Speaker 2 (01:49:00):
The podcast is also produced by Sophie Lichtermann.

Speaker 3 (01:49:04):
And edited by Caitlin Durrante. Ever heard of Them? That's
me and our logo and merch and all of our artwork,
in fact, are designed by Jamie Loftus, Ever heard of her?
Oh My God? And our theme song, by the way,
was composed by Mike Kaplan.

Speaker 2 (01:49:19):
With vocals by Katherine Voskrasinski.

Speaker 3 (01:49:22):
Iconic and a special thanks to the one and only
Aristotle Acevedo.

Speaker 2 (01:49:27):
For more information about the podcast, please visit Linktree Slash
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