| Captain Planet and the Planeteers | |
|---|---|
Captain Planet and the Planeteers title screen |
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| Genre | Action/Adventure Science fantasy Edutainment |
| Format | Animated series |
| Created by | Ted Turner |
| Developed by | Phil Harnage |
| Voices of | David Coburn LeVar Burton Joey Dedio Kath Soucie Janice Kawaye Scott Menville Whoopi Goldberg (1990–1993) Margot Kidder (1993–1996) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 6 |
| No. of episodes | 113 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Barbara Pyle Nick Boxer |
| Running time | 25 minutes |
| Production company(s) | DIC Entertainment[1] (1990–1993) Hanna-Barbera (1993–1996) Turner Program Services |
| Distributor | Turner Program Services |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | TBS |
| Original run | September 15, 1990 – May 11, 1996 |
| Chronology | |
| Followed by | The New Adventures of Captain Planet (1993–1996) |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Captain Planet and the Planeteers is an American animated environmentalist television program, based on an idea by Ted Turner.[2][3] The show was produced by Andy Heyward, Robby London, Barbara Pyle and Nicholas Boxer. The series was developed and co-produced by Turner Program Services along with the partnership of DiC Entertainment and ran episodes from September 15, 1990 until December 5, 1992. A sequel series, The New Adventures of Captain Planet, ran for three seasons and was produced by Turner Broadcasting and (then corporate sibling) Hanna-Barbera Productions. Both programs continue today in syndication.[4] The program is a form of edutainment and advocates environmentalism.[2][3]
In February 2009, Mother Nature Network began airing episodes and unreleased footage of Captain Planet and the Planeteers on its website.[5][6]
Contents |
Gaia, the spirit of the Earth, is awakened from a long sleep by human activity threatening ecosystems, taking place across the globe. Realizing that the damage is extensive, Gaia sends five magic rings, four with the power to control an element of nature and one controlling an extra element, heart, to five chosen youths across the globe: Kwame from Africa, Wheeler from North America, Linka from the Soviet Union (changed to Eastern Europe after the Soviet Union's collapse), Gi from Asia and Ma-Ti from South America.
These five are dubbed the Planeteers and given the task of defending the Earth in the case of the greatest of disasters and making efforts to keep others from happening. Gaia uses her "Planet Vision" to discover where the most devastating destruction is occurring and sends the Planeteers to help solve the problem. The Planeteers use transportation (usually a flying machine called a Geo-Cruiser) based on solar power to avoid causing pollution themselves.
In situations that the Planeteers cannot resolve alone, they can combine their powers to summon Captain Planet, a magical entity who possesses all of their powers magnified, symbolizing the premise that the combined efforts of a team are stronger than its individual parts. Captain Planet only appears in his Captain Planet garb. These are not clothes but elements of the Earth that are integral to his composition. He is able to rearrange his molecular structure to transform himself into the various powers and elements of nature. Captain Planet's outfit does not represent a specific culture. He has a grass-green proto-mullet, sky-blue skin, earthy brown eyes, a fire-red chest, gloves, and boots, and a sun-yellow globe insignia.
In a manner similar to the mid 1950s–1986 incarnation of Superman, Planet has seemingly godlike superhuman powers, and seems to gain more proportionate to whatever the situation requires. Nevertheless, he is weakened by pollutants which sap his strength, from smog to nuclear radiation, in much the same manner that Superman is weakened by Kryptonite. Captain Planet's personality is also similar to that of the Silver Age version of Superman; always remaining friendly and upbeat in the darkest of situations. Like the Silver Age Superman, he also dislikes killing even the cruellest bad guys and has a strict sense of justice (such as when Captain Planet allowed himself to be jailed for a crime he did not commit).
The Planeteers cannot use their individual powers while Captain Planet has been summoned.[7] Despite his vulnerability to pollution, Captain Planet is a formidable and valiant hero. Once his work is done, Captain Planet returns to the Earth, restoring the Planeteers' powers. When he does this, Captain Planet reminds viewers of the message of the series with his catchphrase, "The power is yours!"
| Captain Planet | |
|---|---|
| Publication information | |
| First appearance | Captain Planet and the Planeteers "A Hero for Earth-Greed Is The Word" |
| Voiced by | David Coburn |
| In-story information | |
| Team affiliations | The Planeteers |
| Abilities | Weather and climate manipulation Ability to generate and control earth, fire, wind and water Near invincibility Telepathy Flight Super strength Super speed |
Captain Planet is the title character of the series. In the beginning of the series, Gaia assembles a modern-day team of "Planeteers" from several nations. When the modern-day Planeteers combine their powers to summon the elemental warrior, this incarnation takes on the appearance of a superhero, who takes on the superhero-like name of "Captain Planet." Captain Planet displays a wry sense of humor and often uses puns while taunting the show's cast of villains.
The Planeteers summon him when the need arises and when the crisis is too much for them to handle. When summoned, Captain Planet declares "By your powers combined, I am Captain Planet!". After the crisis is dealt with, Captain Planet disappears, and restores the powers to the Planeteer's rings. His parting phrase is, "The power is yours", implying a duty and the ability of everyone to continue protecting the environment when he is gone.
Captain Planet's abilities are never clearly defined within the show, allowing him to always have a way of defeating his enemy and solving the problem before him. He can shape-shift and alter his structure to take on the properties of any element or material as well as transmuting other objects in a similar fashion. In various episodes he flies, has great strength, and displays telepathic/empathic abilities.
Captain Planet is weakened when he is in contact with pollutants, radiation, smog, etc. Like Gaia, he is bound to the physical realm of Earth. Although he is capable of flying into space, his powers and form begin to fade when he travels away from the planet. However, in one episode he is unable to "return to the Earth" completely because two of the Planeteers (and their rings) have been taken into space, leaving him unable to access his abilities associated with the other three elements.
Gaia (voiced by Whoopi Goldberg in 1990–1993, Margot Kidder in 1993–1995) is the spirit of the Earth. She is a modern rendition of the primordial Greek earth goddess, possessing an amalgamation of physical characteristics from all human races.
Awaking from a century-long slumber, and shocked with the increase in pollution of Earth that has sustained in such a short (by her standards) time, she summons the Planeteers to defend Earth and gives them their elemental rings.
Gaia lives on an island with large crystals in the middle of an ocean, although its exact location is never revealed. She is omnipresent; she can appear in any time or place she wishes, and can communicate telepathically with anyone at any point in time. She is bound to Earth, and her health and well being are connected with the condition of the planet.
The Planeteers are summoned by Gaia to defend the world from pollution, criminals, and natural disasters. The five teenagers, each originating from a different region of the world and who together represent several major ethnic groups, are each given a ring which allows them to temporarily control one of the four classical elements – Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water – as well as a fifth element, Heart, which represents love and communication and enables telepathy and empathy, as well as potential mind control. This combination has been compared to the Wiccan pentacle.[8]
In order to summon Captain Planet, the Planeteers must activate their powers in a specific order, preceded by the phrase, "Let our powers combine"; after his appearance, the Planeteers would cheer, "Go Planet!" It can be noted that during the DiC series, the sequence of special effects preceding Captain Planet's appearance differed each and every time. In the Hanna-Barbera series, there were some creative ideas for Captain Planet's appearance when being summoned; but most of the time, it consisted of flashes of lightning, along with sounds of thunder. Animation in the DiC series was inconsistent, showing some episodes as darker or brighter in color than others, and characters looking different from one episode to the next, and in some cases one segment (or even shot) to the next.
The Planeteers' rings are, like Captain Planet himself, susceptible to weakening when in the presence of toxic waste and pollution to the point that they can no longer use their powers or summon Captain Planet.
The five Planeteers are:
A small group of villains, referred to as the Eco-Villains, make appearances repeatedly in the TV series to cause danger to Earth by committing pollution, deforestation, and poaching. They enjoy the destruction they cause to Earth (and the harm they bring upon anyone) by any means to obtain wealth, land, or power. Due to conflict among them from their varying self-serving interests and backgrounds, they tend to work alone most of the time. Each of these villains represent a specific ecological disaster. These include:
A polluting counterpart to Captain Planet named "Captain Pollution" appears in the two-part episode "Mission to Save Earth" when Dr. Blight steals the Planeteers' rings, creates polluting duplicates of them, and distributes the duplicates to most of the other Eco-villains. Each Eco-villain received a specific ring:
Each of the evil rings have malevolent faces on them, in contrast to the more element-themed Planeteer rings. Captain Pollution is weakened when he is in contact with pure elements such as water or sunlight, while he gains power from contact with pollutants (and is later shown to gain power without limit when in contact with pollutants after his resurrection). When he is summoned he says "By your polluting powers combined, I am Captain Pollution! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!", and when he disappears, he declares "The polluting power is yours!"
In his first appearance, he is sent by the Eco-villains to destroy the Planeteers but gets chased off by Commander Clash, and after a fight with Captain Planet, he returns to the evil rings causing them to explode. In the two-part episode "A Mine is a Terrible Thing to Waste", Captain Pollution is brought back to life by toxins that seep into the earth.
Captain Pollution resembles Captain Planet, but his skin is pale yellow, and covered in brown lesions. His hair is red, and styled in a Widow's peak and he has red eyes. His costume is the same color and style as Planet's, but the chest is torn in the middle, with two halves of a cracked version of Planet's chest symbol on either side. His voice has a California Valley twang to it. Captain Pollution is defeated twice by Captain Planet; first in Mission to Save Earth by being rammed through earth, lava, air and water, and then again in A Mine is a Terrible Thing to Waste by being tricked into going into an underground magma chamber.
His role as an evil/imperfect duplicate mirrors that of Superman's imperfect duplicate; Bizarro; Albeit more malevolent and less of a harmless dunce, and with normal intelligence and lack of confusion at his surroundings.
Like his good counterpart, Captain Pollution is voiced by David Coburn in both appearances.
In the comic book version, Captain Pollution was created by Zarm.
The episode titled "Mind Pollution" (1991) was notable in that it did not deal with the environment, but rather with the issue of drug abuse. This was mitigated by the fact that the characters thought of drug addiction as "pollution of the mind." The episode revolved around an epidemic of a designer drug known as "Bliss" created by Verminous Skumm. It was also known for being quite a dark episode in the Captain Planet series, as it allowed a scene of Linka's cousin Boris bleeding from his arms after jumping through a window and dying from an overdose of the drug.
The episode titled "A Formula for Hate" (1992) was also unique for the series in that it did not deal with environmental pollution or destruction. It was also the first episode in an American children's animated series to directly deal with the AIDS-HIV pandemic (and also the first to directly mention sex on a children's show).[11] In the episode, Skumm brainwashes a local community into thinking the virus can be spread through casual contact, and thus causing people to hate and fear a young man, infected with HIV, named Todd (voiced by Neil Patrick Harris, with his mother (voiced by Elizabeth Taylor).
The original series was the second longest running cartoon of the 1990s, producing 113 episodes. It lasted for three seasons under the name Captain Planet and the Planeteers (produced by TBS Productions and DiC), before many of the voice actors quit or were replaced and much licensing occurred, changing the title to The New Adventures of Captain Planet (produced by Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, which was acquired by Turner in 1991).
This series had noticeable differences from the original, such as episodes revealing more of the past of each of the characters. This does not directly contradict the first, but expands on it dramatically. Gi tells the story of her pet dolphin, while Linka is revealed to have a mining family who used canaries to detect lethal gases in the mines, and her opening sequence generalizes her birthplace as Eastern Europe to avoid confusion in viewers born after the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991 (which would place her canonical birthplace among one of the countries that gained their independence when the Soviet Union collapsed). Dr. Blight, with a new voice actor, is revealed to have a sister who is a famous movie actress.
Other changes were also noticeable, most significantly the animation style. While the character models from the DiC episodes were retained (and the original DiC opening sequence used) the new animation relied less on shading and was slightly more colorful. Many of the characters had refurbished outfits. The sound effects utilized when the Planeteers used their rings were changed and the echo in Captain Planet’s voice when he emerged was gone, as well was the DiC season's use of a specific synth rock soundtrack; these tracks were replaced by a large number of orchestral pieces, although the famous end credits theme was retained, now showcasing footage from the Hanna-Barbera episodes. A small number of cast changes occurred, affecting Gaia and most of the eco-villains; similarly, the opening narration was voiced by David Coburn (Captain Planet) rather than LeVar Burton (Kwame), and was eventually replaced by a rap by Fred Schneider of The B-52's.
The show's intro theme was composed by Tom Worrall.
The ending theme (maintained by both DIC and Hanna-Barbera’s versions) is considered one of the most memorable parts of the series due to its catchy main chorus and rock track ("Captain Planet, he’s our hero, gonna take pollution down to zero"). Its lyrics were written by show producer Nick Boxer[14] and is performed by Murray McFaden and Timothy Mulhollan.
As with many popular cartoons, Captain Planet had a toy line. Released by Tiger Toys in 1990, the line ran for several years, long enough to tie into the New Adventures series. The toys were repackaged and sold by Grand Toys in Canada and Kenner throughout Europe. The toys were of average poseability, with the common five points – neck, shoulders, and hips.
Finding a comprehensive list of what was released is difficult, since not all toys shown in the initial retailer catalog were even released. The collector's market is small, the toys being somewhat rare on eBay. The Captain Planet Foundation still sells a small number of them online, however. There may have also been further foreign variations of certain toys which may be even more difficult to catalog. Various toys from the New Adventures waves are not as likely to be well known.
All five Planeteers, five Eco-Villains, Commander Clash, and several versions of Captain Planet, each with a different gimmick or paint scheme, were released, along with several vehicles. A toy ring with lights and sound and interchangeable lenses for the five elements was also released. Four small vehicles were also sold through a Burger King promotion.
Marvel Comics published a short-run comic series to tie in to the show; however, the comics were a separate continuity. While not effectively part of the Marvel Universe, issue #4's cover was a parody of the cover to Fantastic Four issue #1.
A video game based on the series was produced for the NES by Mindscape called Captain Planet. The game, which involved a good deal of shooting, received poor reviews from game critics and thus a Sega Mega Drive (Genesis) version of the game was canceled. A separate side-scrolling game was developed by Novalogic for the Mega Drive/Genesis, but only saw release in Europe and Australia.[15]
David Perry and Nick Bruty developed a ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC game using the license, a 3-level shoot 'em up. A game was also released in 1990 for the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST, written by Tony Crowther. This was a platform game, and was briefly bundled with the Amiga 500 "Cartoon Classics" pack released in 1991.[1] A Commodore 64 game was in development but never released. Tiger Toys, owners of the action figure license, also created an LCD hand-held game.
In the video game Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion, Captain Planet appears as one of the unlockable characters in both Nintendo 3DS version and XL for Wii, PS3, and XBox 360.
Several VHS tapes were released, usually with a single episode each. A DVD with four episodes and bonus features exists but was only available as part of a "Planeteer Pack" purchased from the Captain Planet Foundation.[16] The "Planeteer Pack" special is no longer available.
Shout! Factory released a DVD set of the complete 1st Season on April 19, 2011. The DVD packaging is made of 100% recycled paper.[17]
Writer Michael Reaves reimagined the Captain Planet concept in a script he wrote for a theatrical movie in 1997, entitled "Planet" or "Dark Planet". The script was darker than the series, and set in a post-apocalyptic time period. The script was met with acceptance, but "got lost in the shuffle when Turner and Warner Bros. merged."[18][19] The movie reached the design stage before it was abandoned. The Mother Nature Network later released footage of these designs in a special video presentation to coincide with their streaming of Captain Planet episodes.
In late 2007, it was reported that Ted Turner was in talks regarding a Captain Planet movie.[20] In early 2008 Warner Bros. denied that a movie was planned.[21] On July 19, 2011, it was announced that Cartoon Network and producers Don Murphy and Susan Montford are developing a live-action film based on the series.[22][23]
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