Trivia / Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie

• Acting for Two: Besides being the Rangers' stunt doubles, Hien Nguyen, Sophia Crawford, David Wald, Bridget Riley, Danny Stallcup and Stuart Quan played the Oozemen and Tengu Warriors.
• California Doubling: The series was filmed and set in California, while the movie was filmed in Queensland, New South Wales and the Northern Territory in Australia. The movie actually looks rather good for its budget, and some industry analysts have suggested it helped promote the use of Australia as a cheap filming location.
• Channel Hop: Unlike the rest of the Power Rangers franchise, neither this movie nor Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie were included in the sale of Saban Entertainment to Disney in 2001, and both remained with Fox even after Disney sold the franchise back to Haim Saban in 2010 (who in turn sold the franchise to Hasbro eight years later). In a twist of irony, both films ended up at Disney when it acquired Fox in March 2019, giving Disney pieces of Power Rangers history once more.
• Deleted Role: Richard Genelle (Ernie) was actually present for the entire two months of filming and was supposed to appear in his new place for the movie, called Ernie's Waterside Cafe. The Waterside Cafe was meant to substitute for the Angel Grove Gym and Juice Bar and is only seen in the film when all of the Ooze-possessed kids, as well as Bulk and Skull, are found and recruited by the new kid character Fred Kelman. The Rangers were originally meant to arrive there at the end of the rollerblading sequence. This scene was intended to introduce Fred, with Bulk and Skull also being present.
• Deleted Scene: At conventions, the film's actors have commented on various scenes filmed that didn't make it into the movie, such as the Rangers doing some preliminary training between being given the ninja robes by Dulcea and traversing into the forest. In particular, Tommy's was apparently seen practicing some superhuman kicks similar to the corkscrew kick he used to finish off the last gargoyle.
  • The first sequence inside the Command Center included exposition about the "Order of Meledon" that originally imprisoned Ivan Ooze, and had Zordon giving the Rangers new "Opt-Scan" devices for their helmets, one of which Rocky later uses in the construction site.
  • The film was to have the rangers attack a group of rats that were mutated by Ooze. They were eventually defeated when Tommy busted out Saba.
  • Upon arriving on the planet Phaedos, the Rangers were to follow Dulcea into her home inside a temple, where she would teach them the ways of Ninjetti. This was cut after her character's last-minute double-recasting.
  • A scene of the Rangers resting inside Dulcea's compound, replete with colour-coordinated beds, where she would give exposition on her backstory and her connections to Ooze and Zordon was cut.
  • A number of scenes set in Angel Grove, showing Ivan's gradual takeover and brainwashing of both the adult and child population through his alter-ego as the Wizard. Many of these scenes also featured Bulk and Skull, who were reluctantly recruited by Ooze to work in the chemical plant.
  • Extended scenes of Ooze's robots rampaging through the streets.
  • A longer sequence of the kids wrecking the Waterside Cafe at Ooze's insistence.
  • The extended climax was heavily trimmed due to a mix of time and budgetary issues:
    • Fred originally sprayed the kids at the Cafe with a firehouse to break them out of their brainwashing, explaining how he knows to use it against the adults. This was changed to him simply whistling and getting their attention.
    • Fred had a longer speech pleading the kids to fight back against Ooze, but it was cut due to Spicer being unsatisfied with the actor's performance.
    • Ooze was meant to stand atop the tower and shoot lightning from his hands, creating an army of monsters below. This scene was shot but cut after Spicer was unsatisfied with the depth of the image, due to the backdrop being smaller than anticipated.
    • An extended fight between Goldar and Ooze atop the tower.
• Dueling Dubs: Brazil had three, one for TV, the other for everywhere else, starting with the VHS, and a third for Star+. The first was the most consistent with the show... except for Rita, Zordon and Alpha (though the latter two had their voices from Power Rangers Zeo). The second had a consistence that was mostly with the show's first season, bringing back the original voices for Tommy and Bulk, the right Rita and Zordon... and the weirdness that by bringing back the original five Rangers when three of them were not the same characters, Rocky, Aisha and Adam had the voices of Jason, Trini and Zack! The third had most of the second dub's cast, ultimately making Billy, Kimberly, and Dulcea being the only ones to never change voices in any version.
• Exiled from Continuity: Due to Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie being owned by Fox at the time, Ivan Ooze never made a return appearance, nor was ever even mentioned on the show. "Ninja Quest" essentially retold the events of MMPRTM and Ivan's role was split up between Rito (new villain who allies with Rita and Zedd and destroys the Rangers' original dinosaur powers) and Master Vile (dangerous new Big Bad more powerful than Rita and Zedd combined).
  • Similarly, Dulcea's role as a mentor to the Rangers and provider of their new ninja powers was given to Ninjor.
• Fake American: Australians Jamie Croft (Fred) and Peter Mochrie (Fred's father) play Americans. British Paul Freeman also plays Ivan Ooze with an American accent.
• Hostility on the Set: During the film's production, the crew had to deal with Australian ministers squabbling over the use of a potential filming location.
• Network to the Rescue: Since no American or Canadian studio could produce or film MMPRTM at short notice, Fox's then-executive vice president of film production Jon Landau helped set up the necessary clearances to get filming locations set up in Sydney, Australia.
• No Stunt Double: Johnny Yong Bosch did all his own ninja suit stunts because his stunt actor Danny Stallcup had broken his leg during training. Jason David Frank also did many of his own stunts.
• Prop Recycling:
  • The first fight scene in the construction site involved the Rangers fighting mutant, humanoid rats. However, it was universally agreed upon that the rats looked absolutely horrible, and they were replaced with the Ooze Men. The rats later showed up in the TV series, in Season 2's "Return of the Green Ranger."
  • The Tengus were used in the third season as the Tengas.
  • Much later, one of the stone gargoyle-guardians the Ninjetti Rangers fight appeared in the background of an episode of Power Rangers S.P.D..
• The Other Darrin: Zedd, Rita, Goldar, and Alpha are portrayed by different suit actors, though, thanks to their voice already being redubbed, they sound just the same as they did on the show (though Zedd sounds deeper than his show incarnation). Their suits are slightly modified as well, to go with the Darker and Edgier feel.
  • While Rita remains the same as she usually is (though with shorter hair spikes), the "Z" on Zedd's forehead crest is notably lower down, he gains platinum pauldrons, and the gaps in his helmet's mouth are more closed up. His brain is also visibly pulsating.
  • Goldar is between the two: He retains the same look overall, but his armor is a little "cutesier" than normal (no doubt to help with his more comedic role here), his face is more feline than monkey-like, his wings are a bit more bat-like than bird-like, and for some odd reason his sword is never seen nor mentioned.
    • Goldar looking more feline-like makes sense when you consider that his original suit's face is supposed to be leonine, as his Zyuranger self is based on a griffin.
  • Alpha retains the same overall look, but is increased in detail to the point of looking like a Star Wars droid. A few notable changes include the underside of his dome head now being a reflective silver, much more red on his body (particularly his legs), and his lightning bolt symbol now features crisscrossing red and green lines as opposed to flashing completely yellow.
  • Zordon is played by Nicholas Bell here; when he plays the character as he's dying, that's his real voice.
• The Other Marty: Gabrielle Fitzpatrick was the original choice for Dulcea, but had to back out to remove a cyst. Mariska Hargitay (yes, that one) was brought in as her replacement. Filming ran longer than expected along with some reported dissatisfaction with Hargitay in the role, this ranges from her performance to how well she wore the costume. Hargitay herself said she was fired because she went to visit family back in the states during a perceived lull in filming, which she blames herself for being young and stupid. So Fitzpatrick returned and this actually resulted in discarding an extended sequence where Dulcea trains the Rangers in their proto-ninjetti powers (which are later seen in their fights), and they didn't have the time or budget to refilm with her.
• Scully Box: Paul Freeman wore boots to make him appear taller and more imposing.
• Shoot the Money: The very first scene of the movie is a lengthy sky-diving sequence. It isn't the slightest bit relevant to the plot—the whole stunt is supposedly a fundraising gig for the Angel Grove Youth Center—but it's an effective way to show off the budget.
• Throw It In!:
  • The Take That! to The Brady Bunch Reunion was made up on the spot by Paul Freeman. Obviously, Spicer decided to keep it in. It turned into one of the funniest moments in the franchise's history.
  • Adam being bummed out about being a frog was thrown in by Johnny Yong Bosch, who felt that it'd seem more real, and the fact that frogs aren't fast and agile (compared to humans, anyway), as he used to catch them in his backyard as a child. Of course, as his appearance in this video about the origin of the frog motif shows he's changed his tune about them since.
• Troubled Production: As detailed in numerous interviews, a document by art department electrician Paul Matthews, as well as the dedicated page, the film's production was chaotic.
• Uncredited Role: Though credited for his directorial work, Bryan Spicer worked as an uncredited script doctor.
• What Could Have Been: Enough for its own page
• Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: To quote Paul Freeman:
  The script developed as we were making it, and at one point the producer Suzanne Todd would be sitting in the corner on set, writing the script on her laptop. In the middle of speaking lines, I'd get handed rewrites, and a producer would say: "Here, say this instead".

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