Trini & Kimberly

Well this project that Raf and I are working on (see Ratdog Blog) is moving about as smoothly as WALL*E with 4 flat tires and a crowbar dent(i know he doesn't use tires...). I think the problem is (besides my raging 'boarder's block') that we can't seem to get a good workflow going between meeting, working, and the rest of our lives. What keeps me going though is a comment made by Andrew Stanton a while back. He said that if, at the start, you love your idea so much that you're dying to see it on the screen, that obsession will drag you through the slow times and rainy days. If we pull this off, it'll mean a lot for all our futures. Plus it'll look awesome.

Enough of that. Here's the official first pass at the 2 characters, Trini Kwan and Kimberly Hart. The point of this wasn't necessarily to caricature the actors from the show, but to organize their character descriptions and try to translate them to action cartooning. Of course to completely ignore any flair these actors brought to the MMPR craze would be a crime also. I'll "show my work" in these descriptions in case someone wants to make their own designs, sans the tedious research lol (Check my links section for some good MMPR reference sites...or not).

I always imagined Trini as the second most capable member of the team. She talks a small game, but she's always so Gung Ho about helping her friends. Her flaws are that she lacks a lot of the attitude most snot-nosed American kids have. Her humanity lies in her sincerity. She looks like she has a lot of respect for the truth. And also her inner strength. "Kid's got heart!", as the High School coaches say. The fact that the actress who portrayed her is no longer with us makes me want to draw her in as emotionally stronger than in the show. She has the rough hairstyle of Thuy Trang plus one of the outfits, But I played with her expression and gesture to fit my idea. She has a solemn look to her, sugesting she got "the call" from Zordon.

Kimberly is inescapably a Valley girl. She's also a competitive gymnast. Her more annoying character quirks are that she's so delicate, both emotionally and physically. You don't see much of her taking down putty patrols on her own, as she works much better with the team. However, she's not dead weight. No Sentai series from Gatchaman(G-Force) to Voltron would be complete without this acrobatic and graceful element. She's enthusiastic, and shows courage under fire. Plus, her "Check out the sterio!" comments were cute. I'm sure if she was actually cornered by a goon squad, she'd find a way to smear em'. She's the smallest physically, based on the Pterodactyl and later, the Crane. I imagine her Ranger animation would be light and floaty. Classic outfit + hairstyle. I improvised on the physical build and facial features.


NOTES: Of the people I showed it to, I got a few critiques. One was that Trini's face was too...big? I think in the cheek area, i dunno. Maybe I should bring that chin in a bit. No complaints so far on Kimberly, but I might still work on her a bit more. Any thoughts?

Next up is probably Jason and Zach. I stumbled on a cool and easy head design for Jason, but need to produce a solid complete figure before I show it. Zach is becoming a real pain in the spandex. Who knew the Black guy would be the big speed-bump lol!? I can't seem to get a good head design for him. Ah well. I'll keep on it.