Mighty Moshin' Emo Rangers is a Britoku parody of Power Rangers based on a 2005 short film by the same name. It was created by producer Chris Phillips and editor Nick Pittom. Originally created as a fan film purely for fun, it soon got a contract with MTV that guaranteed it a second season. However, behind-the-scenes issues prevented it from getting a proper third season.
Plot[]
When hoards of aliens threaten Earth, a mysterious being named Captain Emohead appears. His homeworld, wherever it is, appears to be powered by human emotions - particularly angst. This somehow allows him to protect Earth - which he cares about for some unknown reason - from evil aliens bent on either conquering or destroying it. The first evil menace to show up is the Evil Empress, along with her minion Colonel Crusher. Captain Emohead and his apprentice, Emo 5, respond to this threat by recruiting five depressed teenagers to become Emo Rangers, based on those specific kids' most defining traits. A sixth Ranger is quickly added, as the Empress gets more serious about enhancing the power levels of the threats she sends down. She even gets so desperate as to randomly transform a TV show host into an evil minion of hers, and use him and some device in his lap to turn a mall Santa into an evil mind slave with his own evil Santa Bot - forcing the Rangers to have to kill Santa to save Christmas.
The kids, in spite being whiny and weak in the beginning, very quickly adapt to life as Rangers. They battle the Hoodie Patrol, among other villains the Empress sends after them. After some time and some character growth, John gives up his drug addiction and gets new powers to go with it. An angry Empress seizes a golden opportunity to make an evil clone of John, bringing his old Chronic Stoner suit to life in the process. This exhausts much of her energy though. After the Rangers defeat John's evil counterpart, the Empress tries to send an army of killer teddy bears to murder the Rangers. However, her teddy bear minions are also rather easily defeated by the since-enhanced Rangers. She tries one more time, even getting a robot that looks like Avril Lavinge to kill the Rangers. This plot backfires even more horribly, causing her to disappear without explanation. With the Empress gone, new villains arise. The Rangers must save Chelmsford from space pirates, an evil restaurant mascot, and even a mutated ephebophile bent on raping one of their own!
After many more adventures, only one alien threat remained. He managed to stay under the radar for several years, even finding a way to successfully run a high school while acting as a human principal. This illusion of peace led to the Rangers retiring from Ranger duty and carrying on with their lives, while Emohead went into hibernation. However, a stubborn new high school teen in 2015 would irritate the principal into blowing his cover. The teen would become a new Chronic Stoner Ranger, and would inspire Emohead to call the other Rangers out of retirement for one final battle.
Cast[]
Rangers[]
| Designations | Rangers | Actors |
|---|---|---|
 Introspective
|
Ross | Ross Fretten |
 Chaos Mohawk
|
Luke | Luke Markey |
 Weeping Tears
|
Vicken | Vicki Godby (neé Symes) |
 Chronic Stoner /  StraightxEdge
|
John | John Penn |
 Bleeding Heart
|
Stef | Stef Braithwaite |
 FashionxCore
|
Fai | Fai Burnett (neé Archer) |
Allies[]
- (Uncredited) as the voice of Emo 5
Villains[]
- Kathryn Alder as Evil Empress (voice by Laura Bradley)
- Patrick Willis (suit actor) as Funky Monkey (voice by Chris Phillips)
- Evil Show Host (uncredited)
- Evil Mall Santa (uncredited)
- Johnny (uncredited)
- Georgina Sapsford as AvrilBot (credited as Georgina Fox)
- New Rave Pirates (uncredited)
- Burger Klown (uncredited)
- Uncle Kuddles (uncredited)
- Thanda Mutero as Sold Ya Boy (uncredited)
- Chase Peel and Kyle Johnson as several Hoodie Patrollers
- Generic Evil Robot (voice uncredited)
- Santa Bot (voice uncredited)
- Mr. Fluffy (voice uncredited)
- Fiddles the Kid (voice uncredited)
Actresses Katty Elyassi and Amy Hamilton repeatedly stepped in to either play various uncredited roles, or perform voiceovers for said roles. Whatever they couldn't get quite right, was run through heavy voice distortion algorithms to make them sound like aliens. Vocalist Marc Halls of Fei Comodo also frequently stepped in to play numerous uncredited roles. Other uncredited extras were pulled as needed, whether to portray villains or to portray civilians at risk.
Crew[]
See also: List of crew members
- Chris Phillips (writer, producer, and director)
- Nick Pittom (producer, 3D designer, and animator)
- Kyle Johnson (fight stunt coordinator)
- Zach Mikel (music supervisor)
- Gale Benning (costume designer and stage manager / prop designer)
- Dominic Sinacola and Robert Puttock (sound design and mixing)
Development[]
Inspiration[]
The creators, Chris Phillips and Nick Pittom, have explained two different sources of inspiration for how they inceived the idea for the show. The first explanation given is that in November of 2004, Chris was upset due to a breakup with his girlfriend of the time. Nick told him to: "Quit being emo, you Emo Ranger!" Chris replied with: ♫"You / Mighty / Moshin' / Emo Rangers! ."♫ as a joking response. Another source of inspiration, as described by Chris from an old interview:
"I was sitting at my computer chatting to a friend, [Patrick Willis]. Pat sent me a picture of him dressed as a ninja leaping across a recording studio, and I said: 'You look like an Emo Ranger!'
I sat there for a few minutes, and thought: 'That sounds kind of funny!' And then, [I] just heard in my head the term 'Mighty Moshin' Emo Ranger'. The more I thought about the name, the more I was convinced there should be a show called Mighty Moshin' Emo Rangers - but there wasn't. Which was annoying, because I wanted to watch it!"
Chris and Nick, both professional video editors at the time and being inspired by this in-joke, set out to pursue their idea by using a Sony HDR-HC1 camcorder to film a low-budget Power Rangers parody. They were able to get a handful of volunteers to portray their characters. The Ranger actors, for some reason, agreed to have their characters share first names with the actors themselves. This didn't change until the 2015 special, when Krystal Moore's character was named Mary Jane. End credits for that special were updated to reflect that actresses Vicki Symes-Godby and Fai Archer-Burnett had gotten married; and that they had assumed new last names since their debuts on the show.
Production history[]
It was not long after the short film was made that the producers were contacted by MTV about the desire to make more content, allowing for episodes that could be streamed to MTV in the UK and later to the US. This led to a rush to create three more episodes very quickly: "Beware the Funky Monkey," "A Fashionable Choice," and "Emo Rangers vs. Santa." These would be routinely remixed with bits of stock footage taken from the short film to create new episode mixes, providing just enough content for MTV to fill out a time slot with it. Things were rushed in December of 2005 to get the last bits done. MTV delayed release of its syndication, however, until almost a year later in 2006.
With the extra money earned from the budget of that piece, the crew were encouraged by MTV execs to work on content for another season. However, delays and real-life complications led to the actors taking several months between late 2007 and early 2008 to get their new footage shot in totality. Posters were put up early, promising viewers ready-to-go new episodes. Yet, the new episodes were delayed until late 2009 before editor Nick Pittom could get everything put together. Repeated trouble with audio files getting lost or corrupted led to heavy amounts of bad dubbing, leading to even more edits to provide for disclaimers for the fact that bad dubs were needed.
MTV then decided to wait until the late summer of 2010 before uploading completed episodes, leading to only six episodes being completed and most of them having jokes that were no longer culturally relevant. The cast and crew quickly moved on to other projects, and series creator Chris Phillips moved to the United States. This complicated season 3 development significantly. Instead, in 2012, Chris promoted the idea of getting together with MTV to make a feature-length film, on a budget of $5M USD. Those plans fell apart fairly quickly around January of 2015, given a lawsuit between Saban and Adi Shenkar over a "Power / Rangers" parody had scared most properties making Power Rangers parodies into treating the measure as a de-facto cease and desist letter toward all of them.
Due to this strain, and MTV not wanting to foot the bill, and other issues, Chris elected to release the milestone Emo Rangers 2015 Anniversary Special episode's production to Boise, Idaho. A poster would later tease a sequel to that, with the Emo Rangers having another Christmas special and encountering parodies of the Avengers. Yet, so far, nothing has materialized from that poster. Some assume it to have been posted as a joke.
Locations[]
The series and the short film it was based on were all filmed in the same town as the one the producers and actors resided in: Chelmsford. The intersection of Moulsham Street and Parkway in Chelmsford clearly had its sign visible in the 2005 film, during the scene where a massive-sized Colonel Crusher walks past.
In "Beware the Funky Monkey," a traveling circus set up shop in the Chelmsford Central Park. The main battle between Funky Monkey and Ross was shot at this carnival event. Oaklands Park in Chelmsford was another common location used. It's possible that this house on Baddow Road between Longfield Road and Chelmer Lea became the inspiration for the house on Emo Road that is shown housing the Emo Rangers throughout the series. Similar locations that could also have had their facades used include Sutherlands at 117 Baddow Road, and this location at 99 Baddow Road.
The 2015 special moved the setting to Boise, home location of the new cast members that Chris was in contact with at the time.
Music[]
Numerous musicians were involved in the series' production, though the chief band behind the theme song was Fei Commodo - most of the members of which have since gone on to form a new band called Hey Vanity. The arrangement was possible due to vocalist Marc Halls' friendship with Chris. It took Marc little effort to do an emo chord rearrangement for the original Power Rangers theme by Ron Wasserman, making it also very easy to rewrite the lyrics around a new team.
For season 2, a remix with additional new lyrics replaced the original "Go Go Emo Rangers" theme with "Emo Rangers Go." This was to further reduce the odds of a lawsuit, given MTV syndication that could run smack dab into Disney (which owned Power Rangers at the time, before Saban bought back that franchise.)
Zack Mikel would later produce a special new theme specifically for the 2015 special. A remix artist native to Boise going by the stage name of "Radica," Zack teamed up with fellow Boise local Austin Townend to make the track. Zack provided the main sound mix and instrumentals, whereas Austin supplied the vocals.
See also[]
- List of Mighty Moshin' Emo Rangers episodes
- Mighty Moshin' Emo Rangers (2005 short film)
- Emo Rangers (team)
- Emo Rangers 2015 Anniversary Special
- Volkonir Meets the Power Rangers (and the Emo Rangers), a Dozerfleet Megaverse and Power Rangers crossover webcomic made with The Sims 4
External links[]
        MEDIA | |
| MOVIES | |
| Mighty Moshin' Emo Rangers (2005 short film) • Emo Rangers 2015 Anniversary Special | |
| TV SERIES | |
| SEASON 1 | "Beware the Funky Monkey" • "A Fashionable Choice" • "Emo Rangers vs. Santa" |
| SEASON 2 | "Weed Better Sober Up" • "Bearly Legal / Scare Bear" • "Top of the Flops" • "Rave New World" • "You Want Cries With That?" • "Uncle Kuddles and Fiddles the Kid" |
| OTHER MEDIA | |
| Mighty Moshin' Emo Rangers: The Video Game • Volkonir Meets the Power Rangers (and the Emo Rangers!) • Emo Rangers for The Sims 4 • Soundtrack | |