Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Complete Series

[Blodiak]

Originally Posted by Zero_Cool

Well I am up to episode 50 now. I will take a break for a little bit. This brings back so many happy memories. All I can say is they used lots of stock footage. Not sure why they were filming 7 days a week for a few months.

haha lol yeah, especially with the battles of the megazords....

[Aragorn the Elfstone]

Finally bit on the box set.

At that current price, I had no reason not to grab the complete MMPR set, as it would cost the same to get the remaining season sets (I've only picked up Season 1, Vol. 1). Plus, I get the bonus features.

[metaridley]

Do you guys think there's ANY chance this series will ever be released on Blu-ray?

[Rinzler]

Originally Posted by metaridley

Do you guys think there's ANY chance this series will ever be released on Blu-ray?

I'd like to think there is... but the time/money/effort involved (keep in mind Haim Saban will be looking to save and make $$$$) will likely negate any chances until there is great fan demand (many don't have Blu-ray players and whether or not they enjoy the DVD sets greatly, some blind to how much better the episodes could have looked with less compression) or other motivation to revisit and restore. The primary point of concern is that, when it comes to restoration, think of the restoration of the 90s Star Trek series x2, in that Power Rangers (PR) is made of original American footage and source footage from its Japanese counterpart, Super Sentai (SS). Toei has done a good job of cleaning up footage from the original film stock of the Japanese shows, but for PR, cheap, lower quality tapes were used to send the Japanese footage over to America to be edited in. While the Japanese footage is restored and looks much better than what is seen in PR, it is not yet in HD, and it is unlikely that effects were added on film, rather it is more likely that they were added on video, if that is the case, that will be the second case where effects will have been added on tape, as this is the case with PR. As with 90s Star Trek show, ALL visual effects must be redone in high definition, and extensive restoration will need to be done to existing 16mm film stock (hopefully it is ALL out there) to bring it up to HD (2K likely, 4K would be great but at 16mm may not matter) and then have effects added back in. PR and SS footage will likely have to be re-spliced together to create a finished product, and hopefully PCM stereo tracks of each episode would be included along with a 5 or 7.1 remixed track.

As I said earlier, extensive, exhaustive, and all-encompassing work would be have to done. Thanks to BDs fantastic storage space, episodes, even in 1080p, would not need to be compressed. We are much more likely to see episodes upscaled (in their current condition, that would certainly be less than optimal). My main preference would be, if the above mentioned work is never happening (I wouldn't rule it out), that the episodes all have new masters made, entirely uncompressed in SD and put on BD, that way they can look muuuuuuch better than Shout's 10 episodes per disc schtick, which I think is awful. Yes, it was an economic decision, how else would they have taken the risk with a greater investment, blah blah blah. I am watching Zeo on DVD now and I remember watching reruns of Zeo on ABC Family/Toon Disney etc and being struck by the quality, some old recordings further back that up. The added compression with the bad quality of the masters (SS footage from video, etc.) really does not help. I think with what comes with Power Rangers Megaforce and Super Megaforce (upcoming 20th anniversary seasons) that demand will appear and persist, greater than before. Check it out next Saturday at 1pm on Nick, it's the premiere!

[metaridley]

Originally Posted by Rinzler

I'd like to think there is... but the time/money/effort involved (keep in mind Haim Saban will be looking to save and make $$$$) will likely negate any chances until there is great fan demand (many don't have Blu-ray players and whether or not they enjoy the DVD sets greatly, some blind to how much better the episodes could have looked with less compression) or other motivation to revisit and restore. The primary point of concern is that, when it comes to restoration, think of the restoration of the 90s Star Trek series x2, in that Power Rangers (PR) is made of original American footage and source footage from its Japanese counterpart, Super Sentai (SS). Toei has done a good job of cleaning up footage from the original film stock of the Japanese shows, but for PR, cheap, lower quality tapes were used to send the Japanese footage over to America to be edited in. While the Japanese footage is restored and looks much better than what is seen in PR, it is not yet in HD, and it is unlikely that effects were added on film, rather it is more likely that they were added on video, if that is the case, that will be the second case where effects will have been added on tape, as this is the case with PR. As with 90s Star Trek show, ALL visual effects must be redone in high definition, and extensive restoration will need to be done to existing 16mm film stock (hopefully it is ALL out there) to bring it up to HD (2K likely, 4K would be great but at 16mm may not matter) and then have effects added back in. PR and SS footage will likely have to be re-spliced together to create a finished product, and hopefully PCM stereo tracks of each episode would be included along with a 5 or 7.1 remixed track.

As I said earlier, extensive, exhaustive, and all-encompassing work would be have to done. Thanks to BDs fantastic storage space, episodes, even in 1080p, would not need to be compressed. We are much more likely to see episodes upscaled (in their current condition, that would certainly be less than optimal). My main preference would be, if the above mentioned work is never happening (I wouldn't rule it out), that the episodes all have new masters made, entirely uncompressed in SD and put on BD, that way they can look muuuuuuch better than Shout's 10 episodes per disc schtick, which I think is awful. Yes, it was an economic decision, how else would they have taken the risk with a greater investment, blah blah blah. I am watching Zeo on DVD now and I remember watching reruns of Zeo on ABC Family/Toon Disney etc and being struck by the quality, some old recordings further back that up. The added compression with the bad quality of the masters (SS footage from video, etc.) really does not help. I think with what comes with Power Rangers Megaforce and Super Megaforce (upcoming 20th anniversary seasons) that demand will appear and persist, greater than before. Check it out next Saturday at 1pm on Nick, it's the premiere!

Wow, that is a much more informative and detailed reply than I ever expected! Let's hope you're right. Thank you for your response.

[MasturB]

Originally Posted by Rinzler

I'd like to think there is... but the time/money/effort involved (keep in mind Haim Saban will be looking to save and make $$$$) will likely negate any chances until there is great fan demand (many don't have Blu-ray players and whether or not they enjoy the DVD sets greatly, some blind to how much better the episodes could have looked with less compression) or other motivation to revisit and restore. The primary point of concern is that, when it comes to restoration, think of the restoration of the 90s Star Trek series x2, in that Power Rangers (PR) is made of original American footage and source footage from its Japanese counterpart, Super Sentai (SS). Toei has done a good job of cleaning up footage from the original film stock of the Japanese shows, but for PR, cheap, lower quality tapes were used to send the Japanese footage over to America to be edited in. While the Japanese footage is restored and looks much better than what is seen in PR, it is not yet in HD, and it is unlikely that effects were added on film, rather it is more likely that they were added on video, if that is the case, that will be the second case where effects will have been added on tape, as this is the case with PR. As with 90s Star Trek show, ALL visual effects must be redone in high definition, and extensive restoration will need to be done to existing 16mm film stock (hopefully it is ALL out there) to bring it up to HD (2K likely, 4K would be great but at 16mm may not matter) and then have effects added back in. PR and SS footage will likely have to be re-spliced together to create a finished product, and hopefully PCM stereo tracks of each episode would be included along with a 5 or 7.1 remixed track.

As I said earlier, extensive, exhaustive, and all-encompassing work would be have to done. Thanks to BDs fantastic storage space, episodes, even in 1080p, would not need to be compressed. We are much more likely to see episodes upscaled (in their current condition, that would certainly be less than optimal). My main preference would be, if the above mentioned work is never happening (I wouldn't rule it out), that the episodes all have new masters made, entirely uncompressed in SD and put on BD, that way they can look muuuuuuch better than Shout's 10 episodes per disc schtick, which I think is awful. Yes, it was an economic decision, how else would they have taken the risk with a greater investment, blah blah blah. I am watching Zeo on DVD now and I remember watching reruns of Zeo on ABC Family/Toon Disney etc and being struck by the quality, some old recordings further back that up. The added compression with the bad quality of the masters (SS footage from video, etc.) really does not help. I think with what comes with Power Rangers Megaforce and Super Megaforce (upcoming 20th anniversary seasons) that demand will appear and persist, greater than before. Check it out next Saturday at 1pm on Nick, it's the premiere!

Disney spent all that money when they re-released Mighty Morphin Power Rangers with those crappy comic book effects like 3 years ago.

I wish Saban would do the same with blu-ray, since they do have a cult following. It may not be as big as Star Trek's, but there'd be a demand for it.

[Rinzler]

Originally Posted by metaridley

Wow, that is a much more informative and detailed reply than I ever expected! Let's hope you're right. Thank you for your response.

You're welcome!

Originally Posted by MasturB

Disney spent all that money when they re-released Mighty Morphin Power Rangers with those crappy comic book effects like 3 years ago.

I wish Saban would do the same with blu-ray, since they do have a cult following. It may not be as big as Star Trek's, but there'd be a demand for it.

I can't say exactly how much money they spent, likely not much. The "comic book" effects aside, they also messed with coloring and the overall look of the show... someone made a web page comparing the 2010 reversion with the original and it was interesting to examine. They did not perform actual remastering but attempted (unsuccessfully) to mask the show's 90s origins, and the crowd watching at 5am (when most markets got it) or DVR-ing did not notice or did not care, kids certainly weren't watching it (how would they find it?) so it flopped. It is unfortunate that what happened happened because the toys they were making were pretty cool (some of them) and a genuine remaster of both PR and SS footage on at a decent time slot/station other than ABC Kids on a Saturday (no one watched that) could have performed and sold Blu-rays/merch... But could we really expect this from Disney? Now we have the future to look forward to with Megaforce/Super Megaforce...

[trans8010]

First a hstory lesson,

PR was bought by Disney even if the shows was loosing steam the merchandise was still selling quite well especially the toys so Disney saw this as the golden opportunity to milk the show for all it's worth for possibly a year or so in merchandising and syndication In fact Wild Force was supposed to be the final season of PR, at least to the writers involved hence the title "The End of the Power Rangers" for the 2 part finale. However the ratings came back strong for Disney (and I'm sure Forever Red had something to do with it) and the company decided to keep it going and by moving PR to New Zealand they cut costs at least for awhile.

After realizing how expensive it was to keep on shooting especially in New Zealand they started cutting costs ironic huh? They then butchered the franchise with limited use of actual martial arts with the constant vehicle battles and mindless explosions for every morph and laser blast. Disney also wanted to use less sentai footage because it was too violent and that forced writers to use more filler in their own episodes to pad them out. We went from all sentai for fights to just sentai for some reaction shots and zord battles and pointless character interactions that really went nowhere.

Shooting your own footage becomes quite expensive after awhile, so Disney just dropped all focus from the show and the promtional budget was non existant by the time Jungle Fury and RPM arrived. By this time the show was only on one network the reruns ceased and no attention was put into Power Rangers because Disney had no more use for it.

Originally Posted by Rinzler

I can't say exactly how much money they spent, likely not much. The "comic book" effects aside, they also messed with coloring and the overall look of the show... someone made a web page comparing the 2010 reversion with the original and it was interesting to examine. They did not perform actual remastering but attempted (unsuccessfully) to mask the show's 90s origins, and the crowd watching at 5am (when most markets got it) or DVR-ing did not notice or did not care, kids certainly weren't watching it (how would they find it?) so it flopped. It is unfortunate that what happened happened because the toys they were making were pretty cool (some of them) and a genuine remaster of both PR and SS footage on at a decent time slot/station other than ABC Kids on a Saturday (no one watched that) could have performed and sold Blu-rays/merch... But could we really expect this from Disney? Now we have the future to look forward to with Megaforce/Super Megaforce...

I agree with everything said here. The remastering process (yuk yuk) was made with very little money and 4 or 5 guys total to come up with the comic book effects shots (mandated by Disney themselves) to mask the actual violence with colorful banter crowding the screen. The revisioning process was also to be just 32 episodes, and although people did watch it wasnt enough to extend the episode list to include the missing 8 that would have rounded off and made a better completed season.

To further add to your comment my area had MMPR air on Saturdays at noon, which being in North Carolina is a huge college state with UNC, Duke, NC State, Wake Forest, and ECU basketball, football and other assorted sports being televised on local networks and they aired at this time. So to mildly put it, you got 10 seconds of this;

Last time on Power Rangers. Kimberly and Trini are putting toget... (which is then cut to this) ...and welcome to the Dean dome for a fantastic match with the North Calolina Tarheels looking to best their opponent."

So there was another reason why kids couldnt see the new PR in those areas. ABC put it in TWO death slots, and as the case with RPM didnt market the any of the later seasons at all. Then Jetix was rebranded and most of all the Disney programming was repurposed as Marvel heroes actioners and other kiddie shows. With PR being on it's last legs The decision was made to drop the later PR seasons RPM and MMPR 2.0 from Jetix which is now DisneyXD and only air them on ABC and in those death slots. PR was being renegotiated with Saban at this time and this could also explain the decision to drop the show altogether because they knew that they wouldnt be in control over the franchise any further so screw it.

[Dynamo of Eternia]

I met Jason David Frank today at the C2E2 convention in Chicago...