Top 10 Bad CGI Effects in Power Rangers

WatchMojo

There's bad and then there's...whatever this is. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at some of the roughest, most embarrassing uses of special effects in the Rangers’ series and movies.

Transcript

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.

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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!

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