Season 11, Episode 1: Prelude to A Storm

"Prelude to A Storm"
Episode 1
Air Date: February 13th, 2003

"Dude! It's like...a new era of Power Rangers man!" :P

No but seriously, I finally made it to the Disney era after starting to write these reviews toward the end of last December; making it almost a year since I've been re-watching and reviewing Power Rangers.  It has been an easy task at all, mostly because I've been dealing with serious issues, personal or otherwise, but I am more than committed to finishing these reviews, it just won't be by December and maybe by the spring of next year but we will see!  Anyway, like I said in my overview of Wild Force, production for the show was moved to New Zealand for cost saving measures as Disney wanted to cancel the show and rerun old episodes on it's own networks and blocks.  But luckily Power Rangers was saved a second time and the show could continue.  Like you all know, Ninja Storm was almost complete different from what we got, since Amit Bahumik was adamant about making this incarnation of Power Rangers into some kind of Civil War season between two factions of rangers but thankfully that didn't happen and is an idea that should be used during a season that makes sense for it.

The episode opens with a cool new theme that is both fresh and energetic.  I really do love the Ninja Storm theme as it fits the more laid-back, carefree tone to the season.  I mean the first couple of scenes of our new heroes doing EXTREEEEEEMMMEEE sports! O_o  Tori, our future Blue ranger (the first female blue ranger I might add), is getting done surfing while Shane, our future Red Ranger, is doing some serious killer moves on the skate ramp before he has to leave quickly for "class".  The last of our core 3 and yes, the main rangers this season are made of 3, not the the usual 5, is Dustin, a motorcross athlete who has to rush off as well cause he's late.  I actually right off the bat like this new status quo of show with their being only 3 rangers for now instead of 5 and the 3 actors already have such nice, genuine chemistry too.  Of course, the first conversation they have are about Power Rangers, which Tori says aren't real and just comic book....I just...I don't understand why the existence of Power Rangers is soooo hard for people to believe when there have been like 8-10 incarnations of them fighting monsters attacks primarily on Earth, in space and various other planets but some people, even the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, don't know they exist! O_o  Anyway, Tori takes them to a road near the woods as she parks and they head through forest to a waterfall where something moving very fast is following them.  Turns out, these very fast things attacking them are a bunch of colored coated ninjas. Uhhh ohhh...O_o  Turns out when the three are cornered by them, they had their own ninja suits underneath their clothes all along! Gasp!  Yeah, ninja magic or whatever!  But one wonders if Tori is some kind of ninja with magical skills, you'd think she'd be less skeptical of the existence of Power Rangers!

Anyway, each of the 3 are attacked by each faction of ninjas as they all perform their own specific ninja trick like Tori running on water, Dustin going into the ground and Shane running on air.  But they clearly suck at being ninjas as they embarrass themselves and collective themselves as the rest of the ninjas laugh at their expensive.  Next a falcon flies toward them and turns into the rangers' mentor, Sensei Kanoi Watanabe, who tells the other rangers to leave and is very disappoint in the 3 in lack of commitment to their ninja training. The Sensei soon opens a portal through the waterfall as the 3 follow him by opening the portal again and revealing an an enormous campus full of ninjas training.  So this is the Wind Ninja Academy and apparently the 3 have been training to be ninjas for almost a year but their lack of punctuality is seriously hindering them from advancing forward. As he dismisses the 3, we are also introduced to the Sensei's son, Cam, who clearly isn't fond of the 3. No kidding!  Did you see those 3 fight and get their asses....just kidding! :)  Anyway, Sensei soon becomes very alarmed as the sky darkens into some kind of purple-ish vortex as a spaceship heads toward Earth and an obvious evil threat looms upon our future heroes.  So the next day, Tori, Dustin and Shane are running late again but this time because they decide to help an old couple fix their car.  Meanwhile, Sensei realizes someone named "Lothor" is coming as Lothor himself appears with his two generals...ohh and two bratty nieces.  Oh...Lothor.....smh.....moving on....  His generals and nieces begin their attack on the school while Sensei and Lothor battle each other, clearly sharing history together.  As Tori, Shane and Dustin finish helping the old couple and head back to the academy, one of the generals named Chuboo, captures all the ninja students and sends them back to the spaceship and Lothor seemingly destroys Sensei before the 3 arrive to see the school being sucked into a vortex.

As they rise from the destruction of Ninja Academy, Dustin apparently thinking it was an earthquake. Jesus, luckily Shane says why I was thinking soon after as they go through the massive crater left behind by Luthor's attack, we see up in the spaceship that Lothor has attacked other ninja academies (nice foreshadowing!) as his nieces babble before he comes in and shuts them up.  Soon one of his generals tells them that 3 students are not accounted for and they must be captured.  Back at the remnants of the school, the 3 find Cam beneath a pile of rocks and help him out as they begin to get attacked by Luthor's spaceship.  Cam quickly leads them to a secret underground lair aka Ninja Ops, which will be the rangers' headquarters this season.  Ohhh and...uhhh...the rangers' Sensei is now a talking CGI guinea pig.....moving on..... Sensei gives the 3 a quick briefing on the situation and that they are the Earth's only hope in stopping Luthor as he tells Cam to get the morphers.  While Cam hesitates, he eventually gives the 3 their Wind morphers.  After getting their morphers, I love how the moment is played more for laughs than some dramatic scene for once because it really is absurd at this point.  React as teenagers would, treating the morphers more like a toy than something important and I like that aspect of the show so far. So as Lothor's forces head for them, the 3 confront them and...forget the morphing call....HA!  Luckily, Dustin, the comic nerd is always prepared and yells out "Ninja Storm, Ranger Form" to morph into the Yellow Ranger as the other 2 follow his lead.  I like the Ninja Storm Morph.  Man, had the show come a long way from that first season morph sequence at that point.  So the new Wind Rangers....Ninja Storm Rangers....whatever, fight off the foot soldiers of the season called Kelzacks with their new powers.  They soon turn the fight to the monster, Blue Face (....hell still better than lazy Org names last season! :P) and fight itself is...hella gimmicky from rangers on hang gliders to the rangers' individual weapons being...a hairdryer, a megaphone and a hammer....  Just so random!!! O_O Finish off the monster by combining their weapons into a Storm Striker and blasting him into oblivion.  I gotta say I love how the rangers' helmets open up and in the next scene, they are helmetless, considering the last two season never did that...weird! O_o  It's just always cool seeing the actual actors in the suits and helps you believe the characters are in them.  So now this new team has a lot of work ahead of them...nice! We'll see if this season can keep up this cool and smooth way of presenting the show as "Prelude to A Storm" was pretty solid and fun; a far cry from Wild Force's lazy and rushed introduction with "Lionheart".

Final Morph: B-