Lost & Found in Translation

This article is about an episode in Power Rangers Dino Thunder.

Lost & Found in Translation

Power Rangers Dino Thunder, Episode 12x19

Tribute to

Bakuryu Sentai Abaranger

Air Date(s)

June 19, 2004

Production Information

Written by

Steve Slavkin

Directed by

Paul Grinder

Episode Guide

Previous	Next
Bully for Ethan	It's a Mad Mad Mackerel

Lost & Found in Translation is the nineteenth episode of Power Rangers Dino Thunder. It is a tribute to Bakuryu Sentai Abaranger and parodically utilizes footage from Episode 10.

Synopsis[]

When Conner, Ethan, and Kira find a show about Power Rangers in Japan, Conner is appalled at its portrayal of them. Meanwhile, the Japanese Power Rangers must go up against a money hungry monster named Ka-Ching.

Plot[]

Late at night, at the Cyberspace, Conner and Kira arrive following the sound of the TV turned on, and find Ethan watching it. He explains that, thanks to the new satellite antenna bought by Hayley, they now have access to over 900 different channels from the entire world. Conner, not as enthusiastic as him, reminds Ethan they have a social studies assignment to do. As he starts to leave, Ethan, surfing through the channels, finds a Japanese show depicting the Power Rangers. While Kira is enthusiastic and Ethan, curious, Conner is skeptical about it because, as it is not an American program, they would portray the Rangers very inaccurately. Even so, he stays when Kira convinces him to keep watching so as to back up his claim.

The first scene shows the Japanese Rangers, in their civilian forms, cooking some curry, when Kenny, the Blue Ranger comes in and reads in a newspaper of baseball player Whacker Wilson's visit to Japan. He complains about American athletes being greedy, then offers to make curry for his teammates when Red Ranger complains about Yellow Ranger's curry being too spicy.

At this point, Conner, outraged, turns off the TV, complaining that the Rangers on the TV look nothing like they do, even when Ethan reminds him that no one really knows who the Rangers are. Kira points out that different things don't necessarily amount to bad work, and Ethan, who states to have liked his counterpart despite the glaring difference, turns the TV back on.

At the villains' lair, they plot against the Power Rangers with a plan revolving around bad hair - specifically mushroom heads which, while old-fashioned, is stated to be evil. Though Conner is visibly annoyed by this, Kira finds herself amused.

In the next scene, Kenny's curry is ready - an odd dish with a pineapple in the middle. The other Rangers try to dodge it by giving it to a friend of theirs, Mr. O'Shaughnessey, to eat it, but he soon passes it on to Mikey, the Black Ranger, who eagerly and unsuspectingly eats it. He soon gets sick, as the emergency alarm flashes. Due to his sickness, Mikey is unavailable to fight, so the other three Rangers go on to fight, asking their friend to "clean up after him" when he is done.

In the next scene, the monster – an improbable combination of "mushroom, bear and ATM machine", as Conner points out – is wreaking havoc on the city. While Conner comments on the absurdity of the creature, Kira is quick to shoot him down by reminding him of the monsters they've been fighting themselves. The monster, called Ka-Ching, uses his mushrooms to grow mushroom head wigs on people and make them greedy. The Power Rangers soon show up to stop the monster, morphing into action, surprising Ethan and Kira as to the morph's accuracy. Conner meanwhile comments they will finally get some action. Ka-Ching has plans for the Rangers involving turning them into the Wig Rangers, complete with an imagine spot. Conner, outraged, thinks they are making fun of them and decides to leave. Even though the others try to convince him to stay, he goes, but Ethan knows he will return because he forgot his backpack.

On the TV, the Rangers are saved by a bystander, who uses a baseball bat to rebound one of Ka-Ching's mushrooms back at him, growing a mushroom head on him as the Triptoids laugh at him. After the monster leaves with the Triptoids, Kenny recognizes the bystander as Whacker Wilson, the baseball player. Whacker, who has an injury on his back that prevents him from playing, is searching for a famous chiropractor who lives in Japan, called Kenny Yukito, who happens to be the Blue Ranger.

Sure enough, Conner comes back, and decides to get back to watching it, as Kenny is fixing Whacker's back. Red and Yellow Rangers are nearby, commenting whether Whacker plays only for the money or he likes the sport. After Kenny is done with his job, Whacker is so grateful that he tries to convince him to use his talents to become wealthy, but he turns him off, explaining that being Blue Ranger is what's most important to him. When Ka-Ching shows up and fools Whacker into getting an autograph from a baseball player and then infecting Wilson with a wig, Conner gets enraged with the writers making American sports heroes appear gullible and self centered, going so far as to block the TV from Ethan and Kira's view. Kira says he is overreacting because it's just a TV show, and he doesn't even know if the entire series is like this, and Ethan suggests he watches it to the end and only form a concrete opinion then. Begrudgingly, Conner accepts.

Back to the show, Whacker Wilson tries to push a lot of money onto Kenny, who steadfastly refuses, until he notices there's a mushroom wig on Whacker, who reveals he won lots of money in a home-run derby by bribing the pitcher, and keeps trying to state the point that only money can make one happy, something which disgusts Kenny further as he throws Whacker's money away. And it appears that Whacker's not the only one being affected: the wigs are making everyone money hungry. Kenny tries to make Whacker come to his senses, but Ka-Ching punches him away and shoots enough coins to bury him. At this point, Conner's interest seems to get piqued, and it grows steadily when Kenny transforms into the Blue Ranger and breaks out of his predicament as the other Rangers join him.

As the Power Rangers face off against Ka-Ching's money attack, Red Ranger makes an inappropriate joke about getting paid by the monster, something Conner actually finds funny. Mikey shows up to help, bringing giant piggy banks to catch the money with. However, Ka-Ching's attack proves to be too much for them and they are struck down. Just then, Whacker comes by again offering his money bags. Remembering how Whacker batted Ka-Ching's mushroom before, Kenny pitches his piggy bank to Whacker, in hopes that he really does love baseball more than money. Suddenly, Whacker whips out his bat and bats his piggy bank back, straight into Ka-Ching, who gets knocked unconscious. He soon wakes up and strikes the Rangers viciously, prompting them to use the Z-Rex Blaster to destroy Ka-Ching. Conner gets caught up in the excitement of the Power Rangers' victory, admitting that it was "cool" after all and thus changing his opinion about the Japanese Rangers, with Kira making the point that they are not much different from themselves – it's just a matter of perspective.

The next day, Conner gets to write his social studies paper: he has written about the proximity between Japanese and American cultures, having caught a rerun of the episode as he explains to Ethan and Kira that he did so from his standpoint as a spectator: starting out skeptical, but getting into it later ("without getting too specific", as Ethan adds). The adventures of the Power Rangers continue in Japan, as other youngsters at Cyberspace come to watch them.

Cast[]

James Napier as Conner McKnight (Red Dino Ranger) (unmorphed only)
Kevin Duhaney as Ethan James (Blue Dino Ranger) (unmorphed only)
Emma Lahana as Kira Ford (Yellow Dino Ranger) (unmorphed only)
Jason David Frank as Tommy Oliver (Black Dino Ranger) (credit only)
Jeffrey Parazzo as Trent Fernandez (White Dino Ranger) (credit only)
Ismay Johnston as Hayley Ziktor
Tom Hern as Devin Del Valle (credit only)
Katrina Devine as Cassidy Cornell (credit only)
Latham Gaines as Mesogog (voice) (credit only)
Miriama Smith as Elsa (credit only)

Guest Cast[]

Koichiro Nishi as Red Dino Ranger (unmorphed)
- Jamie Linehan as Red Dino Ranger (voice)
Sho Tomita as Kenny Yukito (unmorphed)
- Jorgito Vargas, Jr as Kenny Yukito (voice)
Aiko Ito as Yellow Dino Ranger (unmorphed)
- Morgan Reese Fairhead as Yellow Dino Ranger (voice)
Kaoru Abe as Mikey (unmorphed)
- John Barker as Mikey (voice)
Michi Nishijima as Young Girl
- Helena Easton as Young Girl (voice)
Taro Suwa as Mr. O'Shaughnessey
- Stuart Devenie as Mr. O'Shaughnessey (voice)
Eri Sakurai as Bad Red Girl
- Angela Shirley as Bad Red Girl (voice)
Kasumi Suzuki as Little Evil Girl
- Leslie Phillips as Little Evil Girl (voice)
Samuel Pop Aning as Whacker Wilson
- Jermaine Turner as Whacker Wilson (voice)
Greg Johnson as Ka-Ching (voice)
Jeremy Birchall as Morpher & Sumo Wrestler (voice)
Susan Brady as Old Japanese Woman (voice)
Patrick Wilson as Monster General #1 (voice)
Matthew Sutherland as Monster General #2 (voice)
Teruko Hanahara as Old Woman (Tokusatsu footage)
Shin Kusaka as Muscle Man 1 (tokusatsu footage)
Hideki as Muscle Man 2 (tokusatsu footage)

Errors[]

Note: Since the Japanese episode watched in this episode was intentionally dubbed in a bizarre manner, some of these "errors" may have been similarly intentional by the Dino Thunder production crew.

Kenny is standing behind the curry cake in one shot and is suddenly right where it was in the next.
The cake curry surprise was sitting on a baking tray which then vanished when Mr. O’Shaughnessey had it and then re-appeared when Yellow took it.
When Ka-Ching confronted Whacker Wilson, he called him an “American tourist” when the dub would pretend that this was actually taking place in America.
When Yellow did her pose, she had her fist to her neck in the close-up but the wide shot zoom-in had both arms outstretched in an eagle pose.
When Kenny realised that Whacker Wilson was here see a chiropractor, he is standing to the right of Red and far away from Yellow. In the next shot, he is suddenly stood in between the two.
- In addition, Whacker was not in front of them in the first shot, yet suddenly appears in front of them in the second.
When excited about the money Kenny could make, Kenny leaned in very close but then leaned again in the follow-up.
When the Japanese Dino Rangers use their Z-Rex Blaster on Ka-Ching, he gets up after not being hit by anything.
- In the corresponding Abaranger episode, the Dino Bomber was immediately preceded by a usage of Abare Mode which ended up cut.

Notes[]

Jason David Frank (Tommy), Jeffrey Parazzo (Trent), Latham Gaines (Mesogog) and Miriama Smith (Elsa) do not appear in this episode.
None of the U.S. Rangers appear morphed in this episode.
The original Abaranger episode had several minutes of footage cut and replaced with the Dino Rangers making comments. Most of Abare Leaguer Bind's dialogue was completely changed, part of which included all of the original names for the weapons and attacks being changed to the Dino Thunder names.
Kenny Yukito was voiced by Jorgito Vargas, Jr who played Blake in Power Rangers Ninja Storm, while the Japanese Yellow Ranger was voiced by Morgan Reese Fairhead, who played Kylee Styles from "Diva in Distress". Jamie Linehan, known for various voices in future Power Rangers series, provided the voice of the Japanese Red Ranger.
None of the Abaranger actors are credited in the episode.
In the beginning of the episode, when Ethan is surfing the channels on the TV, there is an image of the planet Onyx on the screen.
This episode was the first that two of the major minion characters, Creative Messenger Mikela and Visionary Messenger Voffa, appears in Dino Thunder. The next episode they appear in was during the "Thunder Storm" two-parter where they are the servants of the space ninja Lothor.
- The Ugly Monster from the later episode "A Test of Trust" featured the heads of both Mikela and Voffa on his shoulders due to his counterpart was a fusion of both monster generals.
Due to the nature of this episode, this is the first of two times that music from Super Sentai is heard in Power Rangers. The other would be a little less than eleven years later in "A Fool's Hour", albeit hummed by Koda instead of the actual music.
While Dino Thunder adapts the Abaranger episodes in order, this episode replaces the crossover episode that features the characters from Tsuribaka Nisshi, the anime that was not dubbed in the United States. The second part of the crossover, however, would be partly adapted into the following episode.
During filming, all the food on the table where the Rangers are sitting in front of the Cyber Cafe TV were fake, save for the popcorn that is visibly being eaten.^[1]