Captain Planet and the Planeteers

When I first started watching 'Captain Planet', I was pretty much the ideal target audience; 5 years old, a sympathetic female with innocent cares for the environment, and that 'virgin' mindset that there was always going to be just good, bad and the unfortunate.

Now I'm older and somewhat more corrupted at age 18, I look back to those days and I can honestly say that though it may have been cheesy (the entire 'Go Planeteers!' and similar catchphrases) the cartoons like 'Captain Planet' that I was brought up on were so much more educational and fulfilling then the ones I see today. I know, its a broad generalisation, but the world of commercialism has taken over children's programs, and while I still enjoy cartoons, I can only feel free from the 'buy this' and 'you must have this' craze when I watch ABC TV (no commercials).

This cartoon impacted on my life a lot when I was younger. It made me really care about the environment; not just the cute ponies and flowers, but for every environmental issue that came up on the TV or in the newspaper. I wanted to take on the world.

But back then, there really wasn't a lot of support. There were organisations that supported things like 'Clean up Australia Day', but there was little community or family support for my ideals and as I grew older, I became disillusioned that I could ever make a difference on my own.

And when I reached High School, we were taught about the environment and biology, and I didn't care anymore about the dying world around me. I think we need to have 'important' cartoons like 'Captain Planet' back, because when I was impressionable and making up my own identity during my teenage years, it wasn't there for me and remains only a memory of when I was a little girl.

In any case, its a pity that people today can't try to make something 'worthwhile' to show the kids, to gently expose them to what the world really *is*. If its for the money, why can't they advertise and sell to kids the idea that environmentalism is 'cool' and needed? I mean, its better that telling kids to buy dolls with plastic clothes, in my opinion.

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.

Captain Planet and the Planeteers, if it is referenced at all nowadays, is generally treated as a subject of mockery. Online reviewers such as the Nostalgia Critic have shredded it relentlessly, depicting it as a hopelessly ideological cartoon that nobody enjoyed. The show did sometimes bite off more than it could chew, but it also managed to be entertaining and, yes, educational.

The show's premise is familiar to most people. Gaia, the spirit of the Earth, gives five elemental power rings to an international group of teenagers in order to fight pollution. When they going gets tough, they can summon Captain Planet, an anti-pollution superhero. Each episode deals with a different environmental theme, ranging from smog to extinction to...gang violence.

The show worked best when it stuck to environmental themes. At times, the writers became overambitious and tried to deal with more fraught topics such as AIDS and gang warfare. These episodes almost inevitably fell flat, coming across as ham handed and even more preachy than the series usually was. One episode on gang violence was particularly awful, with the gangs depicted as something out of a bad 80s Mad Max rip off.

Nevertheless, the show served a purpose. It was often brutally honest in its treatment of environmental topics, within the limits of a show geared towards children. For instance, one show dealing with whaling featured a sequence of a mother whale being harpooned, complete with blood getting spilled in the water. This type of straight talk was a good thing and left viewers not only entertained, but informed. Perhaps even willing to take action.

For all its flaws, Captain Planet remains a well remembered series for me.

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.