Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers has done some pretty amazing things outside of the show’s universe itself. For one, it dethroned the similarly four word named Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as the top kids cultural phenomenon. It brought live-action back to kids action television for the first time since the 1980s began, possibly late 1970s. It also outlasted most kids properties except for Scooby-Doo, Superfriends, and current title holder Sesame Street when it comes to how long the show’s been on. It’s one of the few kids shows with its own 24/7 streaming channels. It got older viewers interested in Japanese superheroes like source material Super Sentai. It’s proof that a kids show can have good writing and not only entertain kids but have adults still enjoy it or at least look fondly on what came before.
However, not every take on the franchise has worked, and some have not even seen the light of day. Not being heavy into the Power Rangers community (I used to be part of a Power Rangers newsgroup until people kept spoiling the season that borrowed too much from the Sentai it was based on) I had never heard of Power Rangers: Origins, an animated take on the original team produced in part by ZAG Entertainment, mostly known for Miraculous: Tales Of Ladybug And Cat Noir. It’s not the first time they’ve associated with Japanese superheroes as Miraculous was co-produced by Toei and certain anime tropes show up in the series despite being set in and produced for a French audience. It’s also not the first time Japan and France have worked together on a project, so I’m surprised none of the Miraculous World movies were set in Japan, but we had one in China. (The heroine is part Chinese.)
A recent article by Bounding Into Comics saw some leaked footage of the failed project. I knew they wanted to shift the franchise into animation but I didn’t know it had gotten this far. So okay, let’s have a look and see how good or bad it is.
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