Summary: A stellar, surprising episode further digs into what it means to be a hero, even if you aren’t fighting giant monsters from space.
Recap
Chase discovers a tabloid magazine from New Zealand with a UFO sighting — which just-so-happens to be Sledge’s ship. The team ventures to Auckland, and the photographer, Albert, is an eccentric, Bigfoot-hunting weirdo (though Tyler and he bond, since Tyler’s father took him Bigfoot hunting as a kid.) In the city, the Rangers encounter a Purple Ranger, and realize that Sledge must be after the Purple Energem. The Purple Ranger is revealed to be Albert, who found the Energem in a mountain when he rescued a lost girl in a snowstorm. The Rangers train with Albert to help him prepare to be a Ranger, but he seems apprehensive about fighting monsters, wanting to stick with saving local people from less fantastical troubles in his hometown. When Sledge resurrects Iceage and Stingrage in addition to Meteor, Albert is called in to fight…but can’t bring himself to do it. The Rangers take on the monsters while Tyler’s leg is frozen by Iceage, and he and Albert must retreat. Albert is able to use his ingenuity to trap Iceage and Stingrage in a Bigfoot trap and frees Tyler, while the other Rangers for the Ankylo-Pachy formation to take down Meteor. Afterwards, Albert turns over his Energem, saying he’d rather stay home and help people his own way and let someone else fight the big space monsters. Keeper says Albert was chosen to protect the Energem, but someone else will be the one to use it, and his staff unbonds the them. Tyler says he wishes his dad could meet Albert, and Albert offers to take them both Bigfoot hunting when Tyler reunites with him.
Review
An underlying theme in Dino Charge has been the breaking down of what makes a Power Ranger a Power Ranger. The question was made explicit in “Rise Of A Ranger,” where Prince Phillip asked exactly that and got a direct answer. But even before then, there’s been substantial care taken to breaking down all the specific qualities that make these people chosen to save the world. We’ve had flashbacks for the Rangers’ origins, which all detail the heroic choices they make. And we’ve had episodes where the Energems threaten to stop working because of Rangers losing certain qualities. Those are all narrative devices — origin flashbacks allowed the story to start in medias res, and the Energems being so finicky ups the stakes and tension. But all of these factors taken together alongside Prince Phillip’s journey and now Albert’s, and it appears that this season is intentionally defining and digging into the Power Ranger archetype.
It’s interesting that, in nearly 23 years, the franchise hasn’t done that to this extent. One-off stories about Rangers believing in themselves have happened, but for the most part, being a Power Ranger is just about being a Good Person. And, well, that’s fine — each season has been able to stretch that to mean whatever it needs to, whether it’s that Rangers were chosen by fate or because they’re teenagers with attitude or they believe in magic. The vagueness in qualifications is exactly what’s allowed such a diverse cast of characters throughout the years to be Rangers, and that’s part of why the show has managed to resonate so thoroughly over two decades.
So Dino Charge isn’t necessarily looking to subvert or even truly deconstruct the concept of being a Power Ranger. Instead, it’s just diving a little deeper into what being the type of person who can be a Power Ranger would be. Prince Phillip got into the nitty gritty of heroism and intention, but Albert is a little more abstract — for him, heroism and bravery comes in all shapes and sizes, and isn’t synonymous with being a Power Ranger.
The obvious move “World Famous! (In New Zealand)” makes towards this is, of course, Albert himself. He’s so utterly the antithesis to a typical Power Ranger — a grizzled, kind of crazy older guy who searches for Bigfoot in his free-time. He ends up showing great physical prowess — though that’s kind of a misstep, which I’ll get to — but otherwise, he’s not a guy you’d expect to be doing flips and making quips while shooting lasers in skintight spandex. And he’s terrified of fighting monsters, not interested in the space opera that is Power Rangers. Albert just wants to stay in his hometown, rescuing kittens from trees, tackling bike thieves, and occasionally saving little girls from freak snowstorms.
What’s great about “World Famous!” is that Albert’s desire to stay small and local is not only accepted, but highly encouraged. Where “Rise Of A Ranger” skirted over Phillip’s charity because it wasn’t 100% pure in intention, Albert’s smaller-scale, “do what you can” approach to helping people — which is pure in intention — is shown to be vital and inspiring. There’s no such thing as small acts of courage, really, because any selfless act you do that helps another human being is worthwhile. Kids mostly imitate the fighting moves in Power Rangers when they’re young, but certain ideas can sit and resonate for much longer, and influence their decisions down the line. That any sort of community service or volunteer work is an act of heroism, even without superpowers, is one of those ideas, and hopefully kids will use it as an impetus to try to make a difference as they get older.
That’s an imperative lesson to carry in a kids’ show like Power Rangers, where the idea of being a hero can sometimes get lost in the bigger space battles and explosions. One thing Megaforce did right was giving the Rangers a chance to be down-to-Earth, on-the-streets superheroes for the people much of the time, and Dino Charge has continued and improved on it. So to take that a step further and show how to be that sort of hero without fighting in giant robots is a wonderful, even responsible direction to take.
The only thing that doesn’t totally click, perhaps, is that Albert sort of randomly shows a bunch of physically prowess, to the point that he’s faster and more agile than the 20something in-their-prime Rangers. If Albert were staying on as a permanent member of the team this would be necessary, and it’s likely thrown in to further the illusion that Albert would be the regular Purple Ranger. But in the context of the episode’s lesson — that heroism and bravery can come from anyone — it seems out-of-place. Especially given that Albert defeats the monsters with pure ingenuity — it’s very clever tying the Bigfoot trap into the climax — and he doesn’t ever really have to use his physical capabilities. Albert could be a man of average strength and endurance and still take down thieves and climb mountains, and that he’d be able to do those things because of his own willpower and courage rather than because he’s absurdly in-shape would fit in far better with the episode.
That said, it’s but the smallest of quibbles in what’s otherwise one of the season’s strongest episodes. Arthur Ranford is a joy as Albert, finding the same Power Rangers mix of serious and silly that the main cast has nailed since day one. Ranford totally indulges in the eccentricities of Albert, but never seems to be making fun of the character. In fact, Albert’s likeablility — which the episode absolutely hinges on — can be attributed to Ranford, who carries just the right amount of weight as Albert goes through this conflicted journey. It’s hard for Power Rangers to get one-off actors who “get” the tone of the show and don’t play too self-serious or over-the-top, so kudos to Ranford, Director Mike Smith, and the casting team for making Albert an instant favorite.
The same can be said for the paternal bond Albert forms with Tyler, in which we learn that Tyler’s father took him Bigfoot hunting. It’s heartwarming to see that, even when the rest of the team brushes Albert off as a weirdo at first, Tyler thinks it’s all genuinely cool and exciting. It’s completely in-character for Tyler, and there’s enough chemistry between the two that we see a surrogate father in Albert in a near-minuscule amount of screentime. It’s a real testament to the warmth of both actors, not to mention the writers for crafting so many angles into what could have been a straightfoward story.
“World Famous! (In New Zealand)” is another episode of Dino Charge that digs into what makes a Power Ranger a Power Ranger, and the answer this time is unexpected. The qualities that make someone capable of being a Power Ranger — bravery, desire to help, ingenuity — does not mean they must be a Power Ranger to do good. Each Ranger team exists for a specific purpose — consider how often they lose their powers at the end of a season because the Big Bad has been beaten and their jobs are “done.” Being a Power Ranger and being a hero are not even remotely mutually exclusive, and sometimes the world needs people who can watch over the little things to keep them safe. The Rangers can’t save lost little girls if they’re busy blowing up monsters in a Megazord, but people like Albert — someone who isn’t any different from you and me — certainly can.
Odds & Ends
- Yeah, the episode devotes about 1/5 of its running time to sightseeing around New Zealand, aka The Most Beautiful Place Anywhere In The Universe Ever. No, I’m not complaining.
- Shelby complains about working seven days a week, which is pretty accurate for working in food service, unfortunately.
- The way the episode’s title is displayed hilariously mimics how it’s meant to be read, with an all-caps “WORLD FAMOUS!” followed by “(In New Zealand)” in a deliberately smaller font.
- I wonder what Chase told his mom when he came to New Zealand, but not close enough to where they live to visit. I guess he could have said it was a business trip, since it sort of is?
- The creativity of this season, even in little things, is astounding. In plenty of other seasons, the Rangers would be told of Sledge appearing in New Zealand by an all-seeing mentor. In Dino Charge, Chase sees a UFO headline in a tabloid that happens to be Sledge’s ship. Genius.
- It’s totally in-character for Riley to desperately want to get out of Albert’s weird, dirty, unorganized living space.
- I absolutely love that even as a one-off Ranger, Albert still got a morphing sequence. Nice fake-out.
- Poor Phillip, the Rangers form an all-new Megazord with his Zord, the Ankylo-Pachy configuration, and he’s not even there for it.
- Turns out that Keeper can rather easily unbond a Ranger from an Energem with his staff. That will surely play a role by the show’s end.
