Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always Parent Guide

In the years since we last saw the Power Rangers, they have continued their fight to protect the world from evil. In a desperate battle against the malicious Rita Repulsa, Trini is killed saving Cranston’s (David Yost) life – the first Ranger to die on this team. Zack (Walter Jones) agrees to be a guardian for Trini’s now-16-year-old daughter, Minh (Charlie Kersh). Rita isn’t finished with her evil plots, however, and the Rangers are going to have to learn to live with their loss and work together if they want to stop Rita from destroying Earth.

During my misspent childhood, I didn’t really watch Power Rangers. My parents thought it was too violent, and I was more interested in Pokémon anyway. Of course, growing up in the 90’s made Power Rangers essentially unavoidable, so while I wouldn’t care to speculate about the finer details of the show, I can tell you that this mini-movie absolutely nails the vibe of the original series. The campy dialogue, soap opera acting, corny monster suits, and generally poor production values are all elements in this little tribute to bad 90’s TV. I kept expecting the show to cut to some commercial for Fruit Gushers or a Super Soaker.

And honestly, while Power Rangers were never really my taste, I respect this newest entry in the franchise for committing to the nostalgia of the whole thing. Those of you lucky enough to miss the 2017 reboot movie might be unaware that trying to modernize a property so rooted in cheap 90’s kids television is not a recipe for success. You can’t carve out everything that made the show identifiable and expect older fans to approve, or younger audiences to care. This production, on the other hand, has picked a side: it’s going for the aging Millennial fans who remember watching after school as rubber-suited adults slugged it out in a quarry. The raw 90’s power of everything about this short film isn’t likely to be particularly appealing to anybody unfettered by the rose-tinted-glasses of onrushing middle age.

Much like the TV show, there isn’t too much for parents to be concerned about here, just in case you did want to run this by a younger test audience. There’s the usual goofy violence, although two individuals are killed on screen, both in conveniently opaque explosions which leave no pulpy remnants to scar the kiddies. There’s no violence, sexual content, drinking, or profanity – of any description, as far as I noticed. In the interests of complete disclosure, I might have zoned out a few times – one of the reasons I never grabbed on to the show as a kid, I suspect. On one occasion, I got lost in my thoughts for all of three minutes, and when I tuned back in a giant robot was fighting a massive cyborg lizard on the moon. I’m not too concerned with the details, though, and you shouldn’t be either. That’s not the point of this shameless, and strangely evocative, dumpster fire of 90’s television.