00:00FIRE!
00:01NO!
00:02NO!
00:03Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at some of the roughest, most embarrassing
00:09uses of special effects in the Rangers series and movies.
00:18Number 10, the Abominable T-Rex, Power Rangers Time Force.
00:28Wes and Eric have ended up in prehistoric times and find themselves being hunted by
00:31an angry mother T-Rex.
00:33This would be terrifying for anyone, if the big scary dinosaur was more convincing.
00:37The T-Rex was brought to life using mostly stop motion, and digitally rendered into the
00:41live action scenes.
00:42The stop motion is decent, but the rendering looks cheaply done and fails to convince us
00:47that our duo is in any real danger.
00:50With the show's budget, we're not expecting something out of Jurassic Park, but a little
00:56more time to cook in the editing room could have done this sequence more justice.
01:06Number 9, Roxy's Bad Wiring, Power Rangers Beast Morphers.
01:17Bad wiring can be hazardous when you're working with lights, but even worse when you're
01:21trying to make a convincing fight scene.
01:23During the first episode of Beast Morphers, Roxy and Blaze's evil avatars are born,
01:27and already putting our heroes through the wringer.
01:29Roxy summons a whip of wires to wrap the Rangers up, but the wires are obviously CG props.
01:36They stand out in the worst way, and ruin the illusion of the Rangers being all tied
01:45up, despite the actor's best efforts to fake it.
01:48While fake wires might be good for safety concerns, it's not so good for creating
01:51tension during a fight.
01:59Number 8, The Janky Robo Rangers, Power Rangers Super Ninja Steel.
02:07In the 25th anniversary team-up, Dimensions in Danger, the evil Lord Draven plans to invade
02:12the multiverse with a massive army of Robo Ranger clones.
02:15The army's very impressive, as long as they're in their ranger suits.
02:19The actual robots are stiffly animated with no real textures.
02:27In addition, what should have been an awesome shot of Draven's army standing behind him
02:31looks awkward, with a lineup of CGI rangers marching stiffly behind him.
02:36Most of them look like they're just copy and pasted over and over to create the illusion
02:40of an army, and it's hard to ignore when they start moving.
02:42Thankfully, the actual fights between the rangers and doppelgangers are beautifully
02:45practical.
02:51Number 7, The Awkward Sinkhole, Power Rangers Zeo.
03:00While searching through the rubble of the destroyed command center, the rangers find
03:04the Zeo Crystal.
03:05They place the crystal on the ground, and it creates a glowing circle around them.
03:09We're forced to watch in terror as a cheap green screen effect swallows our heroes.
03:13At this point, chroma keying in television hadn't been perfected yet, resulting in an
03:16embarrassingly amateur cave-in sequence.
03:18It gets even worse when the teens start falling, and we zoom in on the hull.
03:22The camera's shaking only makes it worse.
03:24It's a good thing the ranger's acting was up to par, since the special effects team
03:27was asleep at the wheel today.
03:34Number 6, The Digital Animation, Power Rangers Samurai and Power Rangers Super Samurai.
03:45Both seasons of Samurai, Nickelodeon's first major ranger series, had a rough start.
03:50Part of that roughness came from the digital animation for certain scenes.
03:53The zords, finishing attacks, props, and even silly moments had to be rendered in CGI, but
03:59the effects were so cartoony that they stuck out in the most obvious way.
04:02While Power Rangers has plenty of goofy moments, it's hard to digest when we're supposed to
04:06take the effects seriously.
04:08The Super Sentai series is the source material for Power Rangers, and the Samurai Sentai
04:13series, Shinkenger, also had famously bad effects.
04:15Believe it or not, some claim that Samurai handled their animation better than Shinkenger,
04:20but that's pretty faint praise.
04:30Number 5, Tommy vs. The Dinosaur, Power Rangers Dino Thunder.
04:40The great Tommy Oliver has been out of action for quite some time, but in the first episode
04:44of Dino Thunder, he comes face to face with his most terrifying foe to date, a poorly
04:49rendered CGI dinosaur.
04:56We should be worried for Tommy's safety, but how can we take this cheap looking T-Rex
04:59seriously?
05:00To add insult to injury, it has three fingers instead of two.
05:04On the one hand, seeing Tommy not hesitate to kick a dinosaur in its snout is awesome.
05:08On the other hand, it's not as impressive when the dino doesn't look real enough.
05:11The robot is so cheap, all it takes is bumping its head on a bridge to make it fall apart.
05:22Number 4, Dated Rendering, Power Rangers Lost Galaxy.
05:33In terms of writing, Lost Galaxy is a fantastic opener to a whole new era for our multicolored
05:37heroes.
05:38As for special effects, the season didn't age as gracefully.
05:42For starters, the dramatic scene where the people of Muranoi turn to stone feels less
05:46intense when you realize it's an obvious photo filter.
05:49Additionally, the Mighty Terra Ventress CG render feels unfinished and low quality compared
05:53to its actual model.
05:59The Galactabeast CG models are no better, as the untextured stiff beasts heavily stand
06:04out next to the costumed and puppet ones.
06:06To be fair, we can't blame Lost Galaxy for this last one.
06:09The original Sentai Ginga Man had the same problem, since CGI was relatively new at the
06:13time.
06:20Number 3, Megazord Moon Fight, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Once and Always.
06:30The 30th anniversary special felt like a genuine love letter to Mighty Morphin fans.
06:34It brought back so many beloved elements, including the dinosaurs.
06:38They fully recreated the Megazord transformation sequence in CG, leading to an animated smackdown
06:43between the iconic Mecha and Robo-Snizzard.
06:45While the models look more phenomenal, the animation isn't as impressive.
06:49The movements are stiff, and Robo-Snizzard looks more cartoony than threatening.
06:52It still heaps better than the Rangers' first cinematic experience, but what was wrong
06:56with just having two guys duking it out in practical robot costumes?
07:00Wasn't that part of why we loved the Rangers in the first place?
07:09Number 2, Serpentaro's Return, Power Rangers Wild Force.
07:20Let's be honest, CG animation wasn't Wild Force's strong suit, considering how low-quality
07:25Master Org's vines are, or how cartoony the Wild Zords were when separated.
07:29But nothing compares to the embarrassing return of Serpentaro in Forever Red.
07:33When we last saw the mighty dragon, it towered over its foes as one of the tallest zords
07:37in history.
07:38Being stuck on the moon for so long made it shrink, and its color palette kept switching
07:42from green to purple.
07:43Does this mean Serpentaro is part chameleon?
07:45Worst of all, it got taken out by a single Red Ranger and his flying motorcycle.
07:50While Forever Red is one of the series' best team-ups, this was too goofy to overlook.
08:02Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
08:05Warped Betty, Power Rangers Beast Morphers.
08:08This distortion effect is really hard on the eyes.
08:18Victor and Monty's Fart Balloon, Power Rangers Ninja Steel.
08:21The gag is bad enough, don't add to it with hokey special effects.
08:32Max Slices the Voltaris, Power Rangers Operation Overdrive.
08:36As if the finisher wasn't overpowered enough, the special effects make it worse.
08:47Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified
08:51about our latest videos.
08:53You have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them.
08:57If you're on your phone, make sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications.
09:03Number 1 – The Final Showdown, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers The Movie
09:14The Rangers' very first movie boasted of having a much larger budget than the show.
09:18That budget clearly didn't go into the final showdown.
09:20The Ninja Zords and Ectomorphicon Titans were created using CGI and the results aren't
09:26pretty.
09:27The models have no textures and look like they're made of water instead of metal.
09:38Think the Zords will look better when they're combined?
09:40Think again.
09:41The movie's Ninja Megazord is a hideous monstrosity that barely even looks like the
09:45mecha it's based on and its most impressive finishing move is a knee to the groin.
09:49Thankfully, the TV version of the Ninja Megazord helps us forget its big screen counterpart
09:54and CGI in Power Rangers can only go up from here.
09:59Where do you think Power Rangers fell flat with special effects?
10:06Let us know in the comments!
Comments