Kimberly Hart
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 Kimberly Hart |
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| First Appearance: | Day of the Dumpster (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers) |
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| Last Appearance: | Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie (Power Rangers Turbo) |
| Number of episode appearances: | 136 |
| Status: | Retired |
| Affiliation: | None |
| Homeworld: | Earth |
| Weapon(s)/Gear: |
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| Zord(s): | |
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Kimberly Ann Hart (commonly referred to as just Kim) is a fictional character in the Power Rangers universe. She was played by actress Amy Jo Johnson (teen/young adult) and Maxxe Sternbaum (young girl).
Kimberly is one of the original five Power Rangers chosen by Zordon when Rita Repulsa attacks Earth following her release from containment. She is an capable gymnast and would later show that she also has some musical and artistic talent.
She is an avid gardener, a trait and talent that lead to her being invited to design Angel Grove High's float for a parade. Kimberly is fluent in American Sign Language, and once taught an aerobics class while interpreting for student with a disability.[citation needed]
[edit] Character history
Kimberly starts the series as a typical valley girl, but with a heightened awareness for her friends. Throughout the series, she is the member of the team most likely to fire off a sarcastic or witty retort in defense of herself and others. Though as Mighty Morphin Power Rangers progresses, she becomes a more friendly and kind hearted person.
Skull, one of the local bullies, had a crush on her until she became involved with Tommy. However in season 3, it is shown that Skull still had some feelings for Kimberly when she was placed under a spell that made her breifly reject Tommy.
All the members of the team possessed unique fighting styles. Hers was a blend of gymnastic maneuvers followed by punches, elbows and kicks. She often used the environment around her as a springboard for her attacks. Kimberly was often called upon to finish off monsters with physically visible weaknesses such as the Terror Toad's second mouth once he had been weakened by losing his horn and the Snizzard’s golden apple on top of its head.
Midway through the third season (1995), Kimberly was written off the show (by request of the actress herself). The character was accommodated with a 10-episode story arc focused on Kim, leading up to her departure. Kim was replaced by Katherine Hillard, played by Catherine Sutherland. The veteran Ranger was targeted for elimination when Katherine (aka "Kat"), under Rita's spell, steals her power coin, granting her access to the Ninjazords. The coin being in the hands of evil also served to drain Kim of her life force as, unlike the Dinosaur-based power set, the Ninja Powers were linked directly to the life of the Ranger. To take advantage of this, Rita launched a campaign to keep Kim overexerted in battle, knowing that, at the same time, she was focusing all of her personal time to gymnastics training for the Pan Globals. Her coach, the famous Gunthar Schmidt, grew increasingly impatient with Kimberly's apparent lack of dedication to her training. On one occasion, Kim trains late at Ernie's Gym and Juice Bar after hours and, depleted, she falls from atop the balance beam. She is discovered unconscious on the floor by Katherine which overrides the evil spell she is under. Kat calls '911' and Kim is hospitalized. Kim recovers, but almost abandoned her gymnastics training after that, until she is encouraged to go back to it. In a turn of events, it is Kat herself that takes a more dramatic approach to inspiring Kim to pursue gymnastics again. Kat achieves this by revealing to Kim a scrapbook of her own athletic achievements in the sport of high diving. After hitting her head on the board, she gave up on the sport, just short of her entrance into the Olympics. Kat lures Kim to a local pool where she arrives just in time to see Kat perform a fearful, yet expert high dive for her first time in years. This, and Zordon's declaration that her recruitment as a Ranger is over, prompts Kim to leave in order to train full-time with Gunthar Schmidt.
Tommy Oliver, played by Power Rangers veteran Jason David Frank, was Kimberly's boyfriend and the two shared many dates and tender moments. Unfortunately for him, during Season four of the Power Rangers series, titled Power Rangers Zeo, Kimberly later met someone else while in pursuing her athletic career, and broke up with him in a dear John letter.
In Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, the Pink Ranger suit was modified with metal and PVC plating and a new helmet design, as well as no skirt.
Kimberly returned briefly during Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie, when she and Jason Lee Scott (another of the original Rangers that had since left the group) are captured by Divatox while scuba diving and sacrificed to Maligore, Divatox's fiancé. As a result, the ex-Ranger's became evil. After being cured, she helped the Turbo Ranger's take on the villains.
[edit] Trivia
- According to the MMPR Interactive CD-ROM, Kimberly's birthday was February 14th, making her an Aquarius.
- Kimberly coined the expression "Morphinomenal!".
- Her parents are divorced. Her mother lives in France.
- Kimberly was in I'm Dreaming Of A White Ranger, which occurred during Christmas. This seems to bring up issues with the Power Rangers continuity and timeline. When the Rangers see Kat through the viewing globe, she not only knows the Rangers identities', but is good. That means that after Changing of the Zords, Kimberly did draw power from the Ninja Coins. Then the next spring, Kimberly retrieved the Pink Power Coin, and gave her powers to Kat.
- A USENET poster named "The Dark Ranger" created a pornographic fan fiction called "Agony in Pink", which was about the torture and death of Kimberly at the hands of Lord Zedd and a fan character named "Tortura" (after the word "torture"). This story, first posted in the alt.sex newsgroup around 1994, caused a lot of commotion on USENET [1] due to its adult nature and subject matter. Sequels of the story were later created. The posting of the story lead to the Australian Broadcasting Group to censor a newsgroup [2] [3]. Another posting of the story on Fanfiction.net was removed. The story was blamed for the banning of all adult fan fiction on FF.net [4].
| Preceded by none |
Pink Ranger 1993-1995 |
Succeeded by Kat Hillard |
[edit] see also
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Power Rangers Characters by Era and Generation
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|---|---|---|
| General: | List of characters | Minor characters | |
| Ranger colors: | Red • Yellow • Blue • Black • Green • Pink • White • Other | |
| Zordon | I | Jason Lee Scott • Trini Kwan • Zack Taylor • Kimberly Hart • Billy Cranston • Tommy Oliver |
| II | Rocky DeSantos • Adam Park • Aisha Campbell | |
| III-IV | Katherine Hillard • Ninjor • Aquitian Rangers • Tanya Sloan • Trey of Triforia | |
| V-VI | Justin Stewart • Blue Senturion • Carlos Vallertes • Ashley Hammond • Cassie Chan • T.J. Johnson • Phantom Ranger • Andros • Zhane | |
| Post-Zordon/ Independent |
VII-X | Lost Galaxy Power Rangers & Magna Defender • Lightspeed Rescue Power Rangers • Time Force Power Rangers & Quantum Ranger • Wild Force Power Rangers |
| XI- | Ninja Storm Power Rangers • Dino Thunder Power Rangers • S.P.D. Power Rangers • Mystic Force Power Rangers & Clare • Operation Overdrive Power Rangers | |
