Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie Facts That Zordon Would Be Proud Of

On June 30, 1995, movie theaters got a whole lot more morphenomenal with the release of "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie." It was the first time the teenagers with attitude got to kick monster butt on the silver screen, with updated costumes and a major new villain — the monarch of muck himself, Ivan Ooze.

While not exactly a critical darling, the film's still beloved among the Ranger fandom and the young at heart. As the movie's been revisited over the years, more and more behind-the-scenes details have been revealed that may take even those who've seen the film countless times by surprise. Was Gabrielle Fitzpatrick always going to play Dulcea? What lines were really ad-libbed? And what was the deal with Mordant, anyway? Awaken the Ninjetti power within you and don't touch that ooze, as we explore the secrets of "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie" that even Zordon might not know about. 

It's rare for a screenplay to be written by a single person in Hollywood. Generally scripts tend to change hands often, going through revision after revision before being finalized. A version of this happened with the script for "Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Movie." Rather than a single script that was polished repeatedly, however, the movie is actually a blend of two different scripts: one by John Kamps and another by Arne Olsen. As the latter screenwriter explained in an interview with Farrand on Film, the scripts were combined not long after being sent in, after which Olsen was asked to finesse the result alongside the film's director, Bryan Spicer. Perhaps fittingly, the script continued to "morph" even in both the shooting and post-production stage, with Olsen and a number of uncredited writers making alterations where necessary.

Though many of Kamps' lines were altered or removed from the movie, the major element that was kept was his villain, Ivan Ooze, which is why Kamps receives a story credit along with Olsen. Meanwhile, the Ninjetti, Dulcea, the Rangers going off-world, and an ambush on Zordon are from Olsen's script, as are the film's central themes of togetherness and finding inner strength by exploring the unknown. Further additions from Olsen included making Ooze even funnier than Kamps' already humorous version and giving the character more things to do — all at the Power Rangers' expense, of course. 

While Ivan Ooze is unique to the film, a number of familiar villains appear in "Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Movie" — namely Rita Repulsa, Lord Zedd and Goldar. However, rather than be accompanied by fellow Moon Palace regulars like Finster, Squatt, and Baboo, the three have a surprising unknown flanking them: an alien pig-man named Mordant. Though not a major presence in the movie, Mordant does join Goldar in siding against Rita and Zedd when Ooze usurps them, and of course finds himself in hot water when Zedd and Rita break free. No reason is given, however, as to why Mordant is there at all.

The answer — or at least, what would have been the answer, had it stayed in — lies in a line from Goldar that didn't make the final cut. As can be seen on the Internet Movie Script Database, Goldar would have explained to Rita, "Mordant's my second cousin three times removed on my mother's side." He then cheekily adds, "He's just visiting for the summer" — a clever, metatextual way of acknowledging that Mordant is a character specific to the movie, which was released when it was summertime in the U.S. Mordant also is more active in the older script, accompanying the Tengu Warriors to Phaedos and later losing in hand-to-hand combat on Earth to a surprising opponent: Fred Kelman, the child who befriends the Power Rangers in the film.

As the Power Rangers' costumes are a major part of their appeal, it was important to get them right for the big screen. Rather than use the suits from the show, however, Spicer instead sought to give them a visual upgrade by armoring the Rangers up, as he explained in "The Mighty Leap to the Silver Screen." Though made with movement in mind, their weight could often be an issue when it came to pulling off the Rangers' acrobatics and martial arts, as actor Jason David Frank (Tommy the White Ranger) admitted to Flickering Myth. 

Another complication involved the Rangers' iconic helmets. Unlike the show, no Japanese footage was used to make the movie. Spicer saw this as an opportunity to rework the helmets to show more of the actors' faces, hoping it'd create more expressive performances and show audiences that it was indeed the American actors in the suits. Thus various elements of the helmet were removed or altered — something art department electrician Paul Matthews stated in a press release titled "The Original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Movie Fact File." 

Spicer was quick to reverse that decision, though, when he and the film's crew (not to mention higher-ups at Fox) realized just how low-budget the suits looked with the Rangers' faces exposed. The silver mouth plates and permanently tinted eye pieces returned to the helmets, and all the Rangers' costume footage was reshot with stunt doubles, while the Rangers' official actors handled the out-of-costume and Ninjetti uniform scenes, thus cutting down on reshoot time.

It's true that "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie" retains many of the show's tonal elements, including wisecracking Rangers and villains, occasional cartoony sound effects, and of course, Bulk and Skull shenanigans. Yet there's also a more dire and even somber feel to the film as well, particularly when it comes to Zordon, whom the Rangers find on the brink of death after Ooze's impromptu Command Center visit. Though the series could be dramatic, it was rare for the "Mighty Morphin" seasons of "Power Rangers" to deal with such personal stakes.

As it turns out, the tonal change may have had to do with 20th Century Fox's involvement in making the movie. As Jason Narvy, who plays Skull, explained in the "Mighty Leap to the Silver Screen" featurette, "Saban had to worry about the image of it. They wanted the show to continue. So there was this tug of war about the demographic. Is it gonna be like 'Batman' — dark, higher demographic, much more violent — or is it gonna continue to be sort of like Mighty Mouse meets Superman, innocent and fun?" The result is a hybrid that retains the show's kid-friendliness, but pushes the story in an emotional direction that wouldn't become common until later "Power Rangers" iterations. One of those later Rangers seasons, "Power Rangers in Space," would again place Zordon's life in peril, but with a decidedly different outcome for the character than the movie's more triumphant resolution.

While Ivan Ooze is certainly formidable on his own in a fight, he does make a few underlings to help him out. First there are the Oozemen, who battle the Rangers at the construction site where Lord Zedd frees their creator. Then there are the birdlike Tengu Warriors — renamed the Tenga Warriors on the show — who are sent to figuratively ruffle the Rangers' feathers on Phaedos. None of them are particularly successful, however, and Ooze even destroys the Tengus personally when their attempts to eliminate the teen warriors are foiled by Dulcea. 

It's enough to make any supervillain shout "Rats!" in frustration. While Ooze doesn't quite do that, he certainly would have had good reason to if he'd stuck with his foot soldiers from the film's earlier draft (via IMSDb) — human-sized rat warriors. The oversized rodents were originally going to be the Rangers' construction site sparring partners, but as stunt coordinator Jeff Pruit explained in "The Mighty Leap to the Silver Screen," the rat suits limited the stunt performers substantially in vision and mobility. Plus, as Cardenas noted to Flickering Myth, they didn't look all that menacing, either. Thus the rat warriors were instead repurposed for "Return of the Green Ranger," while the Oozemen replaced them in the film. The Tengus, conversely, were always separate from Ooze's construction site minions, and would've even received a power upgrade and a Queen from Ooze before script rewrites. 

What do the 1939 classic "The Wizard of Oz" and the "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" movie have in common? Quite a bit, in fact. Zordon — a wizard himself — usually appears as a floating head in a tube, for instance, while Oz presents himself as a giant holographic head before his true appearance is uncovered. Furthermore, as screenwriter Arne Olsen, a big "Wizard of Oz" fan, noted to "Farrand on Film," the Tengu Warriors are reminiscent of the flying monkeys in "The Wizard of Oz." And who can forget about the most famous "flying monkey" of the "Power Rangers" universe, Goldar? They even both have wicked witches, with Rita Repulsa filling the role in "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie."

While some of these similarities were already baked into the "Power Rangers" franchise before the movie was made, "The Wizard of Oz" had a very specific impact on the film's story. As Bryan Spicer clarified in "The Mighty Leap to the Silver Screen," the idea of a group of characters journeying to an unknown place with the same goal is the aspect of "The Wizard of Oz" he sought to replicate in the "Power Rangers" film. Thus Dulcea can also be seen as the wizard of the movie, especially since she possesses special abilities like being able to turn into an owl. Phaedos, meanwhile, can be viewed as the film's Oz — its greenery certainly brings Oz's Emerald City to mind.