Recap: Power Rangers (Super) Megaforce, Episode (4) 24 – “A Lion’s Alliance”
The Rangers are in the middle of a zord battle where they finish off the embiggened Bruisers using the Mystic Force and SPD grand powers.
They head back to Gosei’s lair where he tells them that they will need a new ally to help them as the battles get tougher. Gosei is sending them on a mission to a turtle-shaped floating island hiding in the clouds called Animahreeya (which is like the fancier version of the Animarium of Animaria).
The Rangers are excited, until Gosei says their mission is to find a wild lion. Noah knows all about the huge Red Lion and Animaria as the safe haven of the wild zords who were allies of the Wild Force Rangers.
The Rangers hop onto the Sky Ship. Troy drives while the others are on the lookout on the ship’s crow’s nest. They end up scouring the Earth a few times before Emma recognizes a cloud she thinks they’ve passed before. That’s impossible. Unless…
Troy makes a hard left with the Rangers falling over and into each other’s arms when they see it: Animaria.
Tracking the Rangers, Damaras thinks there’s something very valuable on that island. He tells Levira to mobilize General Peluso so they can get their hands on that valuable first while sending the nearby troops to attack the Rangers in the meantime.
Clouds start to roll in and the Rangers lose sight of Animaria. Suddenly, an Armada attack ship rams them from below. They manage to take down the attack ship before being forced to crash land onto Animaria.
They disembark only to be met by the X Borgs of the downed attack ship. After taking care of them, they decide to split up to search for the lion. But Noah’s spidey senses are tingling.
Troy and Jake head off together while Emma, Gia and Noah head the other way. Noah keeps sensing something. But so does Emma. They’re on the right track since they’re standing inside a huge footprint.
X Borgs pop in, so the three Rangers decide to do an All Black morph; Noah into the DinoThunder Black Ranger, Gia into Alien Black and Emma into RPM Ranger Series Black.
Meanwhile, Troy and Jake are met by General Peluso and a swarm of Bruisers and X Borgs. The others, out of Black, join the fun.
“Didn’t you hear the ‘never surrender’ part?”
“Didn’t you hear the ‘won’t survive’ part?”
Noah says he can sense the Lion. So they try to hurry and finish off the new arrivals. But they keep coming. The Rangers decide to morph into Wild Force. General Peluso laughs that a costume change won’t help them. The Rangers use the Wild Force powers to fight when suddenly they hear a loud roar. It’s the Red Lion. “He’s real!”
Red Lion decides to swat all of them, including the Rangers, off of the Animarium and they all fall back to Earth, de-morping back to non-Super mode.
Prince Vekar walks into the command center and says they shouldn’t be wasting their time and effort on some lion. They must conquer Earth. He orders Argus to tell the troops that there has been a change of plans.
General Peluso and his X borgs are attacking the citizens of the city, so the Rangers go SUPER MEGA! Noah can still sense things while they fend off the goons.
The Rangers want to get rid of General Peluso who they think is just distracting them from the Red Lion, but Troy insists they have PROVE themselves to it. They morph into Wild Force again. GAO!
Troy can also feel things now and says the Wild Force powers are with them. The Wild Force Jungle Sword pops out of nowhere and they use it to get rid of General Peluso’s Bruiser shield. They de-morph back to SUPER MEGA! mode and use their blasters for a Final Strike.
Levira embiggens General Peluso and some Bruisers so the Rangers summon their Megazord.
General Peluso blocks their cannons and jams the controls, but Noah senses again. They see their Wild Force Ranger keys glowing and they believe the Red Lion has given them its blessing. They use the Wild Force keys to bring the Red Lion down to Earth.
The Megazord hops onto Red Lion’s back and together they finish off General Peluso and motorized Bruisers.
Tensou is excited and Gosei is happy the Rangers have earned the Red Lion’s allegiance.
Troy’s in the driver’s seat again while the Rangers are waving goodbye to Red Lion from the Sky Ship’s deck.
Episode Thoughts
Well this was a pretty pointless episode, storywise. It’s was an amazing toy commercial though, that’s for sure.
But I definitely did enjoy all that fresh, original New Zealand footage. The Rangers, helmetless on the deck and the crow’s nest of the Sky Ship was fun and at the very least pretty to look at.
The episode itself though was pretty hollow of story even if this is the closest we’ll be getting to actual tribute episode to past seasons. At least they morphed into Wild Force twice in the episode they’re actually obtaining the Wild Force Megazord.
And imagine that! They actually went out and earned something legitimately for the first time.
The overabundance of morphed fighting took up half the episode which eventually became very repetitive. Especially with that All Black morph which served no other purpose than to make it cool to see them morph into all one color.
And what was with that horrible pronunciation of Animaria. Princess Shayla would’ve sung their ears off if she heard their butchering of Animaria and the AnimarIUM’s name.
Thanks FalconFlyerfor reminding me that Col. Truman himself James Gaylyn voiced General Peluso. Best acting on the show in a long time, even if just his voice. But at the same time, it makes me sad that they can get James Gaylyn (and Mystic Force‘s Nic Sampson) to voice monsters, but we won’t be seeing them on-screen as the characters we all know and want to see them as. =(
How Much Different Was Power Rangers From Sentai?
Corresponding Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger Episode (s): Episode 9 – “The Lion Runs” and one scene from Episode 3 – “Changing Courage into Magic ~Maagi Magi Go Gokai~
It was a completely different episode, hence all that original footage which really did look awesome. Visually at least. There was no appearance by Cole like there was the appearance of GaoRed in the Gokaiger episode. Since apparently, they had no way of contacting Ricardo Medina Jr. after Wild Force ended 10 years ago. Oh, wait…
Actually adapting the Gokaiger episode and basically using the same story with Cole making an appearance would’ve helped give the episode more substance instead of having it be padded with random scenes from a different episode and consecutive morphs and de-morphs and fights for 2/3 of the episode.
And remember Power Rangers: New Powers an episode ago? This episode shows they have no problem filming new scenes to replace Sentai teams not adapted.
But overall, it was an alright, hollow episode Which is pretty typical of Megaforce, but helped by the shiny New Zealand footage.
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Pretty solid review though two additional things I think deserve a mention are
The excellent voice over from General Peluso’s voice actor James Gaylyn (or as i prefer to call him Colonel Truman)
– though now I’m hoping that when the megaforce rangers get the distress signal from Corinth they use his voice in the message (they don’t even have to show him in person just have him voice Colonel Truman in the message) that’s all I ask (too much to ask for I know)
and,
“Didn’t you hear the never surrender part”
“Didn’t you hear the won’t survive part”
I had almost forgotten what GOOD fight banter sounds like, after all the Teamwork/Environment/Humanity BS Megaforce has subjected us to, not to mention most of the terrible dialogue in Samurai.
otherwise though pretty good review, though its kinda sad that Samurai will probably have the best tribute episode, well at least there’s Jungle Fury.
Two great points. Yes.
But getting James Gaylyn and Nic Sampson voicing monsters just makes me sad that they won’t be making on-screen appearances as the characters we best know them as. =(