Disney Bought ‘Power Rangers’…and Almost Killed the Franchise! What Went Wrong?

Lightning failed to strike twice for Disney.

During the 1990s, the Power Rangers were one of the biggest franchises in kids’ entertainment. In 2002, Disney purchased the property, looking to make it a new jewel in their intellectual property crown. Instead, within a decade they’d tanked the franchise. What happened?

Let’s start with a history lesson: The franchise we know as Power Rangers began life in Japan in 1975 as a tokusatsu (special effects/action-heavy television series) known as Super Sentai. The plot of each Sentai Series revolved around “a team of people who – using either wrist-worn or hand-held devices – transform into superheroes and gain superpowers – color-coded uniforms, signature weapons, sidearms, and fighting skills – to battle a group of otherworldly supervillains that threaten to take over the Earth” (sound familiar?). The show’s cast, theme, and setting traditionally change each season.

In the mid-1980s, musician-turned-television producer Haim Saban saw an episode of the 8th Sentai series — Choudenshi Bioman — while on a business trip to Japan. According to Saban, he was immediately struck with the idea that the series could be cost-effectively licensed for the American market by simply reusing the fight scenes and filming new civilian scenes with American actors. Saban spent several years attempting to sell the premises, before finally receiving a series order from the then-nascent Fox Kids Network in 1993.

The Frankensteined-together series, known as Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, became an INSTANT smash hit upon its August 1993 premiere. The show’s titular Power Rangers, clad in color-coded spandex uniforms (and the young actors who played them) quickly became 1990s pop culture icons, generating record ratings and millions in merchandise sales.

While the series didn’t stay quite as white hot over the next decade, it did remain a children’s entertainment juggernaut. After initially keeping the Mighty Morphin title and costumes for three seasons (of increasingly expensive production due to having access to less and less Japanese footage with those suits) the show eventually evolved into one that mimicked its Sentai counterpart in changing themes — and eventually casts — each season. This led to a popular run of seasons, including Power Rangers In Space, Power Rangers Lost Galaxy, Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue, and Power Rangers Time Force, which kept the momentum and merchandise money flowing.

One party watching that merchandise money? Disney. At the time, the company was seeing massive success with the Disney Princess line of products that were aimed at girls. They had slightly worse luck with traditional “boys” lines, leading them to look for outside intellectual properties, including Power Rangers. This led to Disney purchasing the franchise — as part of the larger Saban and Fox Family Worldwide — for $5.3 billion, a large chunk of which went to Saban.

At the time of the Disney purchase, the then-latest Power Rangers series — Power Rangers Wild Force — was in the midst of airing. Disney allowed production of the season to continue with the same cast and production crew, with the only change being the second half of the season airing on Disney-owned outlets like ABC  and Toon Disney. However, that wouldn’t be the case for long.

Following the production of Wild Force, Disney moved Power Rangers’ production from the U.S. to New Zealand. Over the course of the next 6 years, Disney produced six Power Rangers series: Power Rangers Ninja Storm, Power Rangers Dino Thunder, Power Rangers S.P.D., Power Rangers Mystic Force, Power Rangers Operation Overdrive, and Power Rangers Jungle Fury. In addition, Disney did slightly integrate the characters into their theme parks, having the characters appear in several parades at Hollywood Studios.

These Disney series met varying levels of success — both amongst the target children’s audience as well as the quickly-growing elder Power Rangers fandom. However, even those who were liked were dogged by criticisms of repetitive (yes, even for Power Rangers) stories, limited budgets for acting and effects, and some bizarre edicts from Disney regarding content.

Many of these limitations led to clashes between Disney and the show’s producers, leading to a great deal of creative turnover behind the scenes. By 2009, Disney made it clear that the then-upcoming season would be the last. Perhaps because of this, the season — Power Rangers RPM — was comparatively “risky”, focusing on a post-apocalyptic world and a serious tone. The show was a huge success amongst the older fandom, but its merchandise sales weren’t enough to save the show, and Disney shut down Power Rangers production.

Outside of an attempt at a nostalgia toy line and retiring of the first episodes of the original 1993 series, the property was dormant for the first half of 2010. That changed in May when Disney sold the brand back to Haim Saban for a mere $43 million, a massive loss for Disney.

While Power Rangers went its own way — a whole other article could be written about the so-called Neo-Saban era — Disney would eventually find its long sought-after “boy brands” with the acquisitions of Marvel and Star Wars. In fact, one could argue that the company learning their lessons from their Power Rangers experience — allowing the brands to be what they were, and giving them the budget to do so — was beneficial to the massive success they had with Marvel and Star Wars.

In the end, Disney’s disastrous ownership of Power Rangers may have actually helped prepare the company for its later Marvel and Star Wars success, though fans of the spandex-clad Sentai adaptation will likely always wonder what might have been. Stay tuned to AllEars for more deep dives into Disney history.

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Do you wish Disney had handled Power Rangers better? Let us know in the comments below.

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