Non-Disney Comics and Gladstone

Torsten Wesley Adair torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu
Sun Jan 30 21:24:14 CET 1994


On Fri, 28 Jan 1994, James Williams wrote:
> This isn't related to Disney Comics directly.  Since it pertains to
> Gladstone, I thought you all would find it interesting.  Apparently,
> Gladstone has secured the comic book rights to Filmation's Mighty
> Morphing Power Rangers.  I'm pretty sure that Jack C. Harris will be
> one of the writers.  I've been worried about how Gladstone would remain
> solvent when their titles sold so poorly.  Hopefully, MMPR will help.
> Gary Leach:  What other non-Disney Comics is Gladstone planning?  Also,
> if I have any of the detail wrong, please correct me.

For those of you who do not have direct access to American television
(quick!  Call the United Nations!  We must have an airlift for Europe!), I
will explain the previous post.

Mighty Morphing Power Rangers is a live action television program imported
from Japan.  The story is about five teenagers who have the ability to
transform into five martial artists to fight Rita Repulsive and her evil
band of nasties.  Each MMPR (three boys, two girls) also commands a large
robotic prehistoric animal (tyrannosarus, pteryodactyl, mastodon,
sabertooth tiger, triceratops), which can also be assembled to create a
giant robot, which usually fights one of Rita's giant creations, and thus
destroys a miniature replica of Los Angeles.  Guiding the youths is an
electronic sentient master, and an android.

So, what's so great about this program that kids actually get up early on
school days to watch it?  Well, it has giant robots, prehistoric
creatures, lots of cool ninja fight scenes (no graphic violence, evil villains
disappear), and some really cheap dubbing of Rita.  Mindless fun, usually
with some environmental message.  

The real genius is that the MMPR costumes are unisex.  You can't tell who
is in the costume, which means the Japanese fight scenes don't have to be
reshot.  And the nasties are full costumes as well, leaving Rita as the
only difficult dubbing job, which usually isn't that well done anyway. 
All that has to be done is about five minutes of USA filming with the
normal teenagers. 

Fact:  Last Christmas, MMPR toys were impossible to find in the U.S.  I
visited Toys R Us last week, and didn't see any then.  

Torsten Adair	torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu	Omaha, NE, USA




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