‘Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Season 1’ DVD Review (Manga UK)

“Judge me all you want, if you took the time to open this review based on the title, The Pink Ranger was YOUR first love too”

Back in January I brought you all the awesome news that Manga Entertainment UK had secured the rights to distribute the awesome 1993 classic series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers on DVD for the first time in the UK… EVER. Obviously as a massive fan of the original series there was no way this was getting by me, You know for Nostalgia and stuff.

Well I got home from my family holiday a short while ago and was psyched to find the full series one boxset on my door mat and wasted no time in tearing through this 6-disc collection of my childhood viewing pleasures (my “Rosebud” if you like). So for anyone who cant remember how great this show was or even what it was about here is a cheeky synopsis.

After 10,000 years of imprisonment, the evil sorceress Rita Repulsa and her loyal minions are freed when astronauts on a routine mission in space accidentally open her dumpster prison on the Moon. Filled with rage, Rita decides to conquer the nearest planet: Earth. But her arch nemesis the heroic sage Zordon has been patiently waiting in preparation for this day.

With the assistance of his wisecracking robotic sidekick Alpha 5, Zordon recruits a team of five teenagers with attitude Jason, Zack, Kimberly, Billy, and Trini-to receive superpowers beyond their wildest dreams and defend the Earth as the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Aided by giant robotic vehicles modeled after dinosaurs called Zords, the Power Rangers fight back the evil alien hordes of Rita Repulsa.

I had so much fun re-watching this show, I have 3 daughters but man it would have been great to have a son to share these episodes with. Even though this is just a DVD conversion and not exactly remastered (in the traditional sense), it still looks great and how I remembered the show to be. Cheesy FX, clunky dialogue total kick-assery with a sprinkling of very, very, stereotypical characters and the town of Angel Grove which is more Saved By The Bell than Saved By The Bell was!

60, count them, 60 half-hour episodes for you to digest and much like myself I can guarantee you will be plodding along and realize “Oh hell I remember this happening” including the epic five-episode arc Green With Evil. I know you know it. The only downside to this box-set is that there are no special features to be seen, not even some cheeky 5 -minute featurettes and at £40 I guess you may expect something. This didn’t bother me much though because I got 60 episodes of Amy Jo Johnson (sorry I’ll stop now).

So guys if you wanna remember just how bad-ass Jason (Austin St. John) was, how smooth Zacks (Walter Jones) moves were, how geeky Billy (David Yost) gets, its obnoxious at times; and how method Jason David Frank is (lets face it over the years we have found he was just being himself not Tommy). Well buy the box-set when it is released on June 26th!

Personally this is a great buy and I look forward to Series 2 and the arrival of Lord Zedd… Awesome! Also, I still have not seen the reboot but cant wait to get my hands on it.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Season 1 is released on DVD by Manga Entertainment on June 26th.