For my critical media analysis, I watched the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Movie. This movie was released in 1995 and is about six teenagers, The Power Rangers, who have the power to fight the forces of evil. In the beginning of the movie, a giant egg is unearthed in Angel Grove City. Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa(the villains) investigate the egg, and release the creature inside. His name is Ivan Ooze, whom Zordon, the Power Rangers advisor and guardian, had trapped him inside the egg six thousand years ago. Ooze destroys Zordon leaving him in a crystal deathbed which ends the Power Rangers abilities. The Power Rangers head for a distant planet and meet up with Dulcea, a bikini-clad warrior who imparts ancient wisdom and new powers. With their new powers, they become “Ninja” Power Rangers once more and defeat Ivan Ooze and bring Zordon back to life.
As the group I was with watched this movie, we all pointed out several things about the movie that seemed “typical” about any movie. The first thing was that there did over seventy back/front flips in the movie without tiring out which is hardly realistic in today’s world. This movie did distort the social reality because first off, teenagers don’t have mystic powers or travel to other planets. However, the movie did try and portray the message that no matter what, as long as people work together, anything is possible. This was another reoccurring theme throughout the movie that I felt was more or less the “moral” of the story. Dealing with symbolic interactionism, George Mead had stated that humans decide how to act based on their perceptions of the social world and that people learn their roles and how to carry them out. In our social world, the girl always gets saved by the guy. In the movie, Kimberly, the Pink Ranger, was always in trouble and screaming for Tony, the long haired, good looking White Ranger, to save her. No matter what the situation, he was always right there to save her. She was pretty much worthless throughout the movie, always needing saved. I also want to add in that the girl was matched up with the color pink.
Since this movie was made to mostly target a younger audience of kids, they had a scene where the kids are saving the parents from dying. The role that society portrays, that parents should take care of kids, is reversed here. I believe that this was part of the reoccurring theme that as long as people work together, anything is possible.
On the basis of racial and sexual trends, two of the Power Rangers were African-American, one male and then other female. While the male was the Black Ranger, they were both treated equally in the movie. Even in a child’s movie, there was lots of sex appeal. On another planet, the Rangers met a Bikini-clad Amazonian-like warrior. Wathcing this movie as an “adult” I was rather shocked that she was dressed. I had thought that there would have been more precautions taken for a children’s movie in the way of sex appeal. However, when I look at society, I realize that the media targets people at an early age with subliminal messaging such as bikini clad warriors or always having the damsel in distress get saved by the good-looking guy.
In conclusion, I noticed a lot more than I thought I would in this movie. Watching back in 1995 when it came out and watching now, fifteen years later, I noticed a lot more things than I ever would have before. It’s almost ridiculous all the subliminal messaging that is hidden in this movie and those like it. I made sure to look at how sex and race played a part of this film as well as any reoccurring themes I may have noticed. Now that I am finishing this paper, I wish I would have watched the movie A Bugs Life instead. They mention that you have to B.Y.O.B at one point. Children’s movies are just as much for adults, they just get a different meaning out of it than kids.
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