Power Rangers Ninja Storm

This season was Disney's new experiment and it was an attempt to unite many aspects that people were looking for in a Power Rangers show. Some wanted it to be like the original Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, other wanted it to have a very deep storyline to continue the shows gradual change to an adult audience over the years ever since the shows became standalone stories, and yet others wanted an entirely new take on what they though Power Rangers should be....

What Disney ultimately produced was a show (1)that had a lot of MMPR like jokes and puns (which I personally found extremely annoying and was glad that the direction of the series from Space to Wild Force did not use them)which was both great for fans of the old shows and horrid for fans of the new shows, (2) a show that gave depth only when a multipart cycle was started, but hardly any for individual episodes, and (3) tried to appeal to as many different people as possible.

My thoughts are: The premise for the show was corny since it tried to combine crouching tiger: hidden dragon with aliens from space. Once the show was started, however, it did have interesting cycles like the Thunder Strangers, Return of Thunder, and the Samuria's Journey. The problem is that not much attention was given to individual episodes. I personally liked Lost Galaxy for its talent to have episodes not part of a story cycle that spoke an important message and Wild Force's almost continuous cycle throughout the show.

Another thing that I disliked was that Lothor turned from a villain to be respected to one that could not be taken seriously at all. This combined with the fact that Ninja Storm had no overall message made me generally rank this show low on the Power Rangers scale. Time Force's message of "I make my own destiny" was great and so was Wild Forces message about poluting the earth and the heart. Ninja Storm did not even stress the message of discipline, honor, and all that other ninja stuff.

Nuff Said.

ive been watching power rangers from the start, ive missed a few seasons here and there but ive just started tuning into power rangers ninja storm. this power rangers reminded me a lot of mighty morphin power rangers. its entertaining though cheezy at times but that is what makes the power rangers fun.

For the ninth PR series Ninja Storm (based the Super Sentai counterpart Hurricanger). The PR crew more/less made to move from the U.S. to New Zealand to shoot the PR. This is also the very first PR series to be produced entirely by Walt Disney which acquired the Family Channel and PR was part of the deal.

In this series Shane Clark, Tori Hanson, and Dustin Brooks are students at the Wind Ninja Academy. However they tend to be slackers and their Sensei Kanoi Watanabe chastise them for their lack of commitment. However when an old student named Lothor return to enact his vengeance on Earth he kidnaps the students of the Wind Academy as well as other ninja schools. In process he turns Kanoi into a guinea pig

Shane, Tori, and Dustin miss the action are the only ones left, and because of that they have given Power Morphers to become the Wind Power Rangers. They are assisted by Kanoi's son Cameron who is not happy but the arrangement but still does his job well at Ninja Operations. However Lothor recruits two students from the Thunder Academy when he sees they were given to ability to become Power Rangers themselves. He tells them that Kanoi murdered their parents but so learn it's was a lie and eventually the Thunder Rangers side with the Wind Rangers in the fight against Lothor.

Cam wanting a piece of the action and to not just sitting on the sidelines goes back in time to retrieve a pendent that vanished years ago. He sees his parents in their younger years as well Kanoi's brother Kya. Cam eventually discovers that Kya would become Lothor. He also understands why his father held him back from learning the ways of the Ninja. Cam was to become the Green Samurai Ranger and does get a chance to fight with the rest of the rangers as well provide any weapons as need be.

The first weeks of Ninja Storm are good as the team was being put together. Lots of cliffhangers which make you come back to see what happens. Sadly when the team finally is completed their is a lack of story arc for a few weeks until the Lothor's Generals come into play. If their were more story arc's like their were in Wild Force then Ninja Storm could have done better than the previous PR series.

Lothor meanwhile has been made into a Dr. Evil type while some of the Generals that serve him have a darker bend. Lothor's nieces Kapri and Marah also provide the comic relief but have their moments of darkness and redemption at the very end. The heroes were great but they had to make Dustin the clown of Rangers. However he does shine with the rest at the end. Kanoi unlike Zordon is quick to discipline when the Rangers (and even Cam) get out of line, and it was seen several times during the show. That does not make Zordon bad, but Kanoi is not afraid to put his foot (or his GP body form) down. Also the creation of holographic Hip-Hop personality of Cam was a waste of time since he was not used as many hoped we would have been.

Ninja Storm was good but could have been better.

This is the first Power Rangers since the original series to have someone who has the screen appeal that Amy Jo Johnson had. Marah portrayed by Katrina Devine just lights up the screen each time she smiles. I hope we see a lot more of her. Tori is also a hit. She has that same unassuming sexiness that Amy Jo had in the original season. She just has something special. I want to see a lot more of Marah and Tori. So far I have enjoyed the Ninja Storm. Dustin is convincingly clueless and is always good for a laugh.

The plot line of this Power Ranger series is very good. Ninja Schools from all over the world have been destroyed by a former ninja student named Lothor who after being cast off the planet for turning to evil. Lothor has kidnapped ninja students from all over the world and has turned his former sensei literary into a Guinea Pig. The only hope that the sensei Guinea Pig and his son Cam have are three slacker students of their own ninja school. They now have now have the powers of the Wind Power Rangers and their true potential is now put to the test for they hold the fate of the world in their hands.

This series is somewhat of a take off of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I say cause of the personalities of the Wind Rangers and that their mentor who is an animal and looks cartoonish but the personality is very wise (not to mention the Rangers mistake him for a rat in the first episode). PR Ninja Storm also mirrors the original Mighty Morpin series in several ways.

First the Wind Rangers must shout out a command in order to morph. In MMPR the Rangers called out the name of their Dinosaur or prehistoric animal to change into Ranger form. Here they must shout out "Ninja Storm Ranger Form" in order to morph. Other Power Ranger series had a shout out before the Rangers morphed, but it was window dressing sort of speak. "MMPR had a mentor who was bound in a cylinder (Zordon) and a robotic helper (Alpha 5). Ninja storm has a mentor who is bound by an animal form but helped by his son who is a techno wiz so you have the same concept but done differently. Alpha 5 was skeptical at times of the Rangers but Zordon had faith. Cam is the same way but his dad believes in the Wind Rangers, and he might have expelled them from his school had this crisis not come up. So far only two episodes have aired and the rival Thunder Rangers are suppose to show up in episode 3.

With the way Power Rangers follows the Super Sentai counterpart by changing it every year, expect development of all the characters and maybe some key revelations about some of them incorporated into the storyline. Allready Grant McFarland is pulling a dual role of the voice the senei GP and Lothor. Could it be that they are related? Hopful their will be a all compsing storyline and a great climax at the end of this PR series. It shows some promice.