Disney Cancels Power Rangers

The New Zealand Herald is reporting that Disney has canceled its long running “Americanized” version of the “Super Sentai” franchise of Tokusatsu shows, “Power Rangers”. The franchise ran on American TV since the early 90s with the original series “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” and has since gone through various other iterations reflecting the Japanese series from they’re adapted from (for example, Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger becoming Power Rangers: SPD, Mahou Sentai Magiranger becoming Power Rangers: Mystic Force, etc.)

This leaves Kamen Rider as the only Tokusatsu franchise represented on American TV, with Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight (adapted from Kamen Rider Ryuki).

I remember seeing the first Power Rangers series when I was a kid, and it hooked me fairly early on, though I wasn’t able to watch it regularly. I never saw Power Rangers: The Movie, and ultimately I lost interest in the show with the shift to Power Rangers Z-O. Ultimately I discovered the original shows that the Power Rangers series were adapted from, and I came to be casually interested in those.

While I haven’t seen any of the more recent installments of Power Rangers (due to poor scheduling on ABC/Disney’s part – they’re being broadcast on the West Coast at about 4:00 AM), I do feel that the franchise had a place on television, and it sounds like the writing for the US version had improved from the original series.

And, just to get that nostalgia fix in, here’s the original opening to the US version.

6 replies on “Disney Cancels Power Rangers”

  1. Good Riddance
    I remember when this show premiered in the US, I was a teen at the time, but it snagged my younger brother. God I couldn’t stand this show, in any incarnation.

    I remember my Mom banning it in the house because it would get my brother worked up into a spastic pseudo-ninja frenzy. I just remember feeling sad for the kid. I at least had some fun stuff to grow up on (Transformers, GI Joe, Voltron) and he had this crap.

    But fear not, I did make sure he was well versed in the classics (Star Wars and Star Trek). It’s what big brothers are for.

    • Re: Good Riddance

      I remember when this show premiered in the US, I was a teen at the time, but it snagged my younger brother. God I couldn’t stand this show, in any incarnation.

      I remember my Mom banning it in the house because it would get my brother worked up into a spastic pseudo-ninja frenzy. I just remember feeling sad for the kid. I at least had some fun stuff to grow up on (Transformers, GI Joe, Voltron) and he had this crap.

      But fear not, I did make sure he was well versed in the classics (Star Wars and Star Trek). It’s what big brothers are for.

      Yea, I was in my early 20s when it came out, so I was already too old to do anything but laugh at it and make fun of my younger brothers for watching it. Man, those were the days.

    • Re: Good Riddance
      I hear you, it should have died fifteen years ago.

      I had an argument with one of my wife’s roommates in college, she loved MMPR and got giddy when it came on, but thought B5 was stupid as they "had all this weird makeup". Of course when I pointed out the oddness of this she got a little upset.

      • Re: Good Riddance

        I had an argument with one of my wife’s roommates in college, she loved MMPR and got giddy when it came on, but thought B5 was stupid as they "had all this weird makeup". Of course when I pointed out the oddness of this she got a little upset.

        This person clearly doesn’t have the mental capacity required to participate in a logical argument. It’s probably best that the conversation ended there.

  2. Seems to be a trend here…
    Those of us who were teens and older when this came out thought it was crap, but younger folks loved it. Strange how MMPR was, objectively, only slightly lower tier than what we grew up with, but in our minds, it’s bottom-of-the-barrel. I mean, have you TRIED to watch Voltron or GI Joe recently? *shudder*

    Incidentally, I had no idea it was still running and thought it died a decade ago.

    • Re: Seems to be a trend here…

      I mean, have you TRIED to watch Voltron or GI Joe recently? *shudder*

      I’ll cop to the fact that some of this stuff doesn’t age well. I grabbed a GI Joe DVD for my kids and they thought it was alright, but what really made us all laugh out loud from sheer stupidity was Thundercats. The kids thought it was stupid funny, but my wife and I couldn’t stop sniggering at the whole phallic "Sword of Omens" growing sequence. "Thundercats Ho!" indeed.

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