Honestly, I was a little disappointed that Minh was so different from Trini. She was so driven by anger and aggression, while Trini had such gentle, serene strength, such a sense of peace within herself. She was always my favorite aside from Kimberly, played by the incredibly beautiful and incredibly talented Amy Jo Johnson. (I’m so glad they included that clip of her lovely singing in the closing tribute.) Still, Minh’s journey was pretty effective, and she was given the chance to grow and learn from her mother’s spirit. And it’s cool that they let her have a Vietnamese name instead of a Western one.
It was definitely a wise choice to center the special largely around Zack, as Walter Jones was the second-best actor in the cast (though David Yost was very much the weakest and hasn’t improved since). I was always very impressed by his amazing physical agility too, and it’s great that he can still pull off some of those Hip Hop Kido moves.
I’m also glad they brought back Barbara Goodson as the voice of Rita, and not only brought Ron Wasserman back as composer but actually gave him credit for the music this time. I also appreciate the continuity-preserving explanation for how she’s back. It wasn’t the original Rita, who went on to become the Mystic Mother (based on another Soga Machiko character from
Magiranger), but her evil energy that was purged from her body when Zordon sacrificed himself.
Anyway, nostalgia aside, I’ve been a mostly steady viewer of the franchise over the decades since, so I would’ve liked to see more integration of old Rangers and new, aside from some token glimpses of captured Rangers from later teams. The only actual actor from a later PR series who appeared here was the reporter who covered the Putty attack on Ernie’s, who was a background staff member of BuzzBlast from
Dino Fury, the most recent series.
Anyway, according to
RangerWiki, the captive Rangers other than Jason, Kim, and Tommy included: Zeo Ranger II Yellow (
Zeo); Phantom Ranger (
Turbo); Black & Yellow Space Rangers (
in Space); Red, Green & Blue Galaxy Rangers (
Lost Galaxy); Lunar Wolf Ranger (
Wild Force); Red & White Dino Rangers (
Dino Thunder); and Grid Battleforce Red, Blue, & Gold Rangers (
Beast Morphers). So mostly teams from the Saban era, one team from the early Disney era, nothing from the Neo-Saban era, and one from the current Hasbro era. Also a surprising number of Sixth Rangers (Phantom, Lunar Wolf, White Dino, and technically Battleforce Gold, though he was one of two “Sixth” Rangers on an initially three-person team). I feel it would’ve made more sense if there had been more modern Rangers, since presumably there would’ve been some retirements among the older teams. But it’s a tradition of tokusatsu reunion/crossover movies and specials that all the older heroes are still active, no matter how far back. Even though in the regular series, the current team of heroes is always the only one that can save the world.
There were some nice references to later continuity here and there, though, like Aisha and Adam working for Space Patrol Alpha and investigating the Troobian Empire, the villains in
S.P.D., which is set two years from now. There was also a reference to Mirinoi from
Lost Galaxy. And we got a billboard advertising Bulk & Skull’s business, though it’s a shame that’s all we saw of them. How can it be MMPR without Bulk & Skull?
Oh, incidentally, the villain Robo-Snizzard? The original Snizzard was voiced by Bryan Cranston when he was still an unknown.