I know what you’re thinking: how the heck does that work? Well, according to the director of Power Rangers, the nostalgia for both properties was very similar. Just like most millennials, Dean Israelite grew up watching both Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. After being given the task of re-creating the concept behind this Americanized Super Sentai series, he immediately went to work by watching the first season in order to brush up on the origins of the franchise.
In addition to putting that show on his playlist, he also watched a few select episodes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. When asked why, Israelite said that he wanted to “capture what I used to feel when I was watching these things. I wanted to imbue that feeling into the movie.” If it sounds like Dean is a little nostalgic for the programming of our past, there may be a very good reason for that. When asked why he thinks audiences are nostalgic for these properties, the director went on to state the following:
“I think part of it is it helps you combat fear. It takes you back to a place where you feel completely safe. I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately and it’s something everyone talks about. We’re in the era of nostalgia. Everyone is bringing back things that will create these feelings of nostalgia. I’ve started to think about why? I think part of it is it makes you feel empowered.”
Maybe the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles really do go hand-in-hand with the Power Rangers. Image Source: Saban, “Power Rangers in Space”
No matter how you look at it, there’s definitely a lot of truth to that statement. I don’t know if I agree that this is the era of nostalgia (Back to the Future was nostalgic for the 1950s, and that movie was released in 1985), but we’re definitely seeing a surge of nostalgic filmmaking on the marquee as of late. It’s highly unlikely that the inspiration pulled from our heroes in a half shell was based on anything other than this nostalgia, but it’s nice to know that directors of modern films still look to the Ninja Turtles for guidance.
Oh, and when it comes to that episode of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers where they teamed up with the TMNT, Dean stated that he definitely remembers the episode. It doesn’t appear that he used that as inspiration for the new Power Rangers movie, but he was quite fond of the nostalgia that episode kicked up. For more information, check out the original post from Den of Geek.