The "New" Threat

Back in 1993, a show began airing on television that was to become one of my favorites to this day: Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers (which was a chopped-up, Americanized version of a Super Sentai show that gets a new version every year in Japan). To a kid who couldn't wait to hit a double-digit age, this show had everything: Cool crime-fighting heroes, giant transforming robots, and a somewhat-loud hard-rock intro. Since then they have gone on to make over a dozen others, all taken from Japan and with American actors inserted. However, all of these have been new. There was no corporate reselling involved to make a few extra bucks off of something they'd already used.

That is, until now. Last Saturday, I was watching some 4Kids-licensed Saturday morning cartoons on The CW (CBS and WB's co-owned network) because, as most people in an Anime Club will tell you, it's fun to laugh at the atrocious English voice-overs. That was when it happened: The CW announced that they were going to re-air the original Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, starting that week. However, there was a catch. These episodes were advertised as being all-new, despite their being released in 1993.

The CW 4Kids, as this union is called, took the original Power Rangers, threw in some flashy transitions, some Batman sound effects (they actually inserted those POW! OOF! bubbles), and a still somewhat-loud kind-of-new intro and called it a totally new thing. They tried to play it off as something legitimately new by saying that the villain from the show, Rita Repulsa, sent the entire network back in time in order to destroy the original Power Rangers and make it so that none of the other versions would ever exist. While it's a nice thought, it would have been nice if it wasn't a blatant repackaging of a show from seventeen years ago.

However, this seems to have worked. Through clever manipulation, 4Kids and The CW were able to tweak the original show just enough to get a 2010 copyright slapped on it, just like one might with a new edition of a textbook. If I had to call out the network on one thing, it would be taking advantage of their target audience (who are too young to have seen the original show) and playing it off as a new thing. I support their re-airing the show, but playing it off as new just doesn't sit well with me.

I'll end this post with a quote from Wikipedia: "On January 2, 2010 a re-version of the series with a new logo, comic book-referenced graphics, and alternative special effects began airing... and Bandai produced brand new toys to coincide with the series."