Episode Title: A Pig Surprise
Original Airdate: Feb 8, 1994
Those Power Rangers are always doing good things. If they aren’t saving Angel Grove from giant monsters, they’re planting trees, or recycling, or something like that. Well, this time they’re handing out animals on Angel Grove’s pet adoption day. They end up getting more than they bargained for, though, in A Pig Surprise.
As we begin, Kimberly, Trini, Billy, and Jason have successfully handed out a bunch of puppies and bunnies to loving owners. Then, they approached by an old woman with an oversized pig on a leash. She asks if they will help find a new home for the porker. She calls him Norman. Eventually, the gang ends up sending him home with, of all people, Bulk and Skull. However, Zack, who was not at the adoption drive, spots the old woman in the park later on and sees her change into a puttie. Zack ends up having to battle a bunch of putties before they disappear. One of them, though leaves behind a strange device which Zack takes to Billy to analyze.
Billy determines the device is a timer of some sort…counting down to something. Later, Bulk and Skull are with Norman at the Youth Center. When the timer reaches zero, Norman suddenly changes into the Pudgy Pig…one of Rita’s monsters that we saw many episodes ago. The creature goes nuts, making a mess of the Youth Center and stealing Bulk’s lunch. Soon the rangers all morph to do battle with the pig, but after a big fight he gets away. Alpha then locates the pig and transports the rangers to its location. Turns out he’s at a farm, flirting with other pigs!!?
Thing is, the pig was just a smokescreen. With the rangers distracted, Rita has sent Goldar to attack Angel Grove. The rangers then head off to defend the city, but Scorpina and a band of putties get in the way. The rangers have to take care of them before they can finally summon the zords and take care of Goldar as the Mega Zord. Oh, and when all is back to normal, they transform the Pudgy Pig back into Norman so he can experience true love on the farm.
I gotta admit, it’s a bit strange to see one of Rita’s monsters return for a second round. The Pudgy Pig first showed up in episode six…Food Fight. Truth be told, we see some footage from that episode reused in this episode. I doubt that any of the kids watching this back in 1994 noticed, or cared if they did. It helps, too, that there is a lot of new footage using the pig costume alongside the American actors. Face it, it’s kinda fun seeing this thing terrorizing Bulk and Skull in the Youth Center. However, the new footage also includes the scenes of the pig at the farm. This may be one of the most twisted moments we’ve seen in the 42 episodes we’ve covered so far. After all, this is essentially a giant pig head trying to get busy the barnyard’s most eligible bachelorette. Kimberly even has a “that’s so, gross” comment and I couldn’t agree more.
Though the stuff with the pig may get a bit inappropriate for kiddie programming, at least it’s entertaining. The same can’t be said, as much, for the third act of this episode. It essentially just boils down to Goldar’s attaching…AGAIN. We’ve seen this several times already! He’s giant sized, he’s smashing things up, same old same old. The rangers’ response is the same as always, too: make the Mega Zord, get the Power Zord, that’s that. Weird thing is, they don’t even get a chance to use the Power Sword! The thing drops out of the sky and it doesn’t take long for Goldar to turn tail and run away. Well, he teleports away, but you know what I mean. It’s all very anticlimactic.
Still, the battle scenes are enjoyable, even those that are slightly recycled, and at least Norman finds love in the end. Just so long as we don’t get Fifty Shades of Norman, that’s okay with me. Well, next time we leave behind stories about pig love and move on to one about fish…a Goo Fish, specifically. Join us next time for Something Fishy.
Channel: Superhero 