Best and worst Environmental themed cartoons

K

Kunmui

New member
There are have been many environmental themed cartoons, like Captain Planet, the Racoons and even Sonic sat am.

Which ones are best and which ones are the worst? Also describe why you think an enviromental themed cartoon is good or bad.
 
The collected works of Hayao Miyazaki have a strong sense of righteous eco-fury. Wall-E's the only other work that measures up in delivering such a message in an effectively entertaining-yet-disturbing manner.
 
While Captain Planet has more problems then any show I have ever seen the biggest problem I had with it's message was that it was unable to shiw it in in entertaining way. The message was force feed to the audence though a flimsy plot, the villains were so exageratingly evil and the protaginists were so pure and good that there was no conflict. The message was too clear, there was no middle ground most of the time.

There were a couple exceptions in captain planet. A few times when the answer was not 100% clear but those episodes were few and far between and even then the antaganist was basicly a mustace twiling(SP) villain.
 
Best
Naussica Of th Vally of the Wind
Pom Poko
Fern Gully
Wall-E
Sonic Satam (it was enviromental, Kinda)

Worst
Captian Planet
A Troll in Central Park (or whatever it was called)

thats all I can think of right now
 
I prefer Hayao Miyazaki's works because their environmental messages are more subtle than most other cartoons like Captain Planet and Ferngully.

I especially like Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and the river spirit bath scene in Spirited Away.

(What a coincidence. I watched my Nausicaa DVD tonight.)
 
Though it's hardly the best, I can still appreciate FernGully for its animation and some really cool sequences.

I still have something of nostalgic attachment to Captain Planet, but I still can't call it a good example for reasons already given.

Does WALL-E even count? The staff said that the setting was purely to justify the story. Though it's still an awesome movie.

I think the Lorax is my favorite though. Sure, it isn't subtle, but it also isn't as one-dimensional as most environmental cartoons. The Onceler isn't just chopping down trees because it's fun, or for some nebulous logging job, but because the trees in question can be made into some pretty awesome stuff. And it doesn't have some magical out that makes everything better in the end. The Lorax is utterly powerless to stop the Onceler, and the entire forest is destroyed, unlike most works where there's still at least a small patch of lush green left.
 
I thought that the Raccoons did it fairly well in general. Apart from being a very enjoyable series, when it did tackle environmental issues (which wasn't really as often as one would think-- only a handful of episodes actually deal with eco-problems), it did it in a way that was less heavy-handed than some of its contemporaries. This was partially because Cyril Sneer was a multi-dimensional character. Apart from being a greedy industrialist, he was also trying to be a good widowed father and on a few occasions he even helped the Raccoons, if he realized that his plans were causing harm. His damage was mostly caused by oversight in trying to get the best deal, or his henchmen's ineptitude. He was never evil for the sake of evil, unlike the villains on a show like the Smoggies or Captain Planet.
The show also rarely addressed environmental issues by simply saying stuff like 'cutting down trees is bad because trees are good'. Rather, it showed what would happen to the animals who lived in the forest if their homes were destroyed, and how the eco-system would be altered.

I'm not saying the Raccoons tackled these issues better than any other show, but I think with a few exceptions such as the early specials, it was fairly mature and honest about it. Again, compare with something like Captain Planet. The villains on that show just wanted to pollute because they liked polluting.
 
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