Captain Planet and the Planeteers

I don't understand you people. This show was meant for children to teach them to respect the environment. You christians who claim that it offends you, get over it. Be accepting of other peoples beliefs, even if they are different. There is already more than enough Christian shows out there.

This show taught me valuable lessons, and as a kid, I never saw any underlying themes, other than to help the planet. It may not have been the best cartoon, but it was one of the few that had a great message, and one of my favorites.

As for political aspects, do you people spend your every waking moment searching cartoons for secret agendas? Get a life! This show may have other agendas, I don't know and I doubt that if it did, anyone who watched it, being a young child, would even notice. This show tried to unite different beliefs, different backgrounds and to show us that we can work together and make a difference. I admit that as an adult, I now see the cliché-ness of the villains, but as a kid I never noticed and I doubt any child would. The message of saving the earth won't even reach every watcher (though it will reach some), let alone all this other junk you are reading into it.

All in all, this was a good show, and I think kids need more shows like it. I wish that all those who disliked it for whatever reason, could at least try to see the good it was trying to do.

"All things are connected...whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth." -Chief Seattle

I may be in the minority but I was first introduced to this show once it was on syndication and actually liked it. I never saw the reason to write such an extended response that dealt with the complete and utter negativity of a TV show or movie as I've seen here. It truly is amazing that there are individuals that would sit there and write such elongated responses. Is it political, absolutely. This show is somewhat ahead of its time, as I don't recall a strong effort being made to concern ourselves with the environment at that time. Regardless, I enjoyed it and whereas I have not seen this show in quite a while, I imagine that I'd enjoy it as much as I did in the past were I to see it again.

Captain Planet is a wacky disjointed mess that somehow works. Let's discuss what makes it special.

1. The villains are so freaking evil. Let's torture kids. Kill kids. Mutate kids. Chop up kids. Blend kids into smoothies. No other cartoon attempts more horrific child murder.

2. The ecodisasters will give you nightmares. Blind sheep covered with tumors... Thanks for animating that captain planet.

3. The animation errors are constant. Hilarity ensues.

And then there's the sixth season theme song. The most atrocious thing to occur in animation apart from maybe that Scooby-Doo show with Scrappy but no Fred or Velma.

I watched this series when it originally came out. I think this show contained a lot of great messages for children, and they were able to present them in a way that was visually stimulating for the children and could hold their attention. I frown on adults who are too hard on the delivery style of this series. Kudos to network executives, like Ted Turner, who take a chance on a show like this. There were lessons on subjects such as smoking, drugs, stealing, lying, and obviously not polluting the environment. It obviously wasn't looked down on by everyone. It ran for more than a couple of seasons, which speaks volumes for a show. There were a lot of great actors whose voices turned up on this show. I miss watching it, and I'd love for my six-year-old daughter to be able to experience it. She'd love it!

Unlike many of the reviewers here, I'm NOT going denigrate a television show just for the sake of bashing a political ideology. Of course the show is PC, just like "Sesame Street" is PC. It's a CHILDREN'S SHOW -- it needs to be simplified and non-cynical for the consumption of the younger audience. Plus, whether you like it or not, concern for the environment is not a throwaway, frivolous subject to mock. The people of LA had to find out the hard way.

Anyhoo, probably the only reason why I watched this show in the first place was that there was nothing else on at five in the afternoon on Saturdays. Back then, I thought the show was pretty cheesy with very little variations on the plot lines. Yet I still rooted for the Planeteers and was satisfied whenever the bad guys were dealt with.

But now that I'm older and a little bit wiser, I now reserve full appreciation of the cosmic and biblical cheesiness this cartoon had to offer. Whenever I think of the villain, I just wonder what's going through their minds: "Hahahah! I've just wasted precious time and money creating this environmentally unsafe factory, not to make any profits, not even to make a product of any kind, but just for the sake of polluting the planet and p**sing off the Planeteers, hahahahah!" Yeah, that's what most of these villains were thinking in most of the episodes.

Also, I agree with the other reviewers that there were hardly any character growth among the Planeteers, although the tension between Wheeler and Linka had me at least halfway interested.

There were some keeper episodes, like the one where three oppressed persons, an Irish Catholic living in Belfast, a Palestinian, and a black South African were supplied with triggers that will set off nuclear weapons which can then wipe out their adversaries. The Planeteers were dispached to those separate areas and only succeeded in turning around those people by having them experience the *hypothetical* consequences of their actions if they chose to press the button.

Of course, Captain Planet comes to the rescue, digs up the nukes and throws them like discuses towards the sun, which begs the question why didn't he just do that in the first place?

So one and a half stars (* 1/2) our of four for the Planeteers. Protecting the environment is an important thing, but we can do better.

FYI, Ma-Ti's Power of Heart allows him to communicate with the animals, so that in some episodes elephants and giraffes gives Captain Planet a breather and take care of all the dirty work.