The Fresh 2008 Captain Planet Discussion Thingy

Ummm, of course Captain Planet isn't going to go that far, it was targeted at a certain audience which B:TAS and BB were not.

At least the show tried to deliver education about the environment to young audiences, even if it wasn't successful at times. Even if the characters were corny, well, that's not a problem with '90's cartoons like this. And as for how they simplified these issues: maybe some of the kids this show was targeted at hardly knew about government stuff, so the producers didn't want to confuse kids.

And y'all know, bashing this show is inevitably going to get the attention of those who can appreciate how great this show was in certain respects.
 
They don't have to go into political detail to illustrate that pollutor's dump garbage for laughs. To make it more simple, it's usually cheaper and faster to dump garbage than it is to recycle it or throw it away properly. Heck, Tiny Toons even managed to drive that point home, so a more serious show like Captain Planet should be able to as well.
 
With the way he's talkin' bout the environment and global warming nowadays, I'm surprised no-one has done a parody of Al Gore as Captain Planet. :confused:
 
First, I don't consider those positives as much as they were goals. Goals that they ultimately failed at. Messages, attempts at being mature were goals, but they came off as cheesy and ultimately ineffective.

Yeah, it's not Tekkaman Blade. It's not Ronin Warriors, or any of those shows. But it seems like it was cut from the same relative cloth as Ronin Warriors or sentai, a team of 5 teens fighting against something. Unfortunately, instead of fighting an army of Japanese demons, or invading aliens, they were "fighting" people who polluted for no reason except that they thought it was fun, a business man who was evil for making money off polluting ventures, and one guy who between polluting, moonlighted as a drug dealer, gossip, and chef who polluted his food. How were you expected to create an exciting plot when you drew from a Rouges gallery like that? That goes beyond things like animation quality and battles, or little silly complaints like how Mai-Ti would trade in his heart ring for something like inferno armor in a heartbeat if he thought he could get away with it. That goes to the very heart of the series failure.

And let's face it, if the world is in danger, who would you rather have fighting the bad guys, these guys, or these guys?
 
Yeah, well, whatever the case, someone on these boards is jealous of how great Captain Planet was, and it sure is heck isn't me.

Since next to no one else on this board cares to do anything but spit on this, I'm here to say that it's a '90's classic, least it's far better than Loonatics and The Batman, it had good intentions, sure it didn't always live up to them, but come on, it's a classic of '90's animation

And the way you haters carry yourselves on, you're just dooming yourselves to inevitable conflict with those who can appreciate how great this show was, even if it did get a little extreme at times. I learned that lesson before when I would constantly mention Yu-Gi-Oh and The Batman, and have stopped since then. You, evidently, have not.

And just so you know, I WILL BE BACK.
 
Oh, so now I am jealous? How? I just don't think Captain Planet is a good show.


A classic? No, Batman: The Animated Series is a classic from the 90s. Beast Wars is a classic from the 90s. Gargoyles is a classic from the 90s. Captain Planet is in the same laughably bad category as the 60s Batman show.



Instead retreading the reason why Beat keeps mentioning Ronin Warriors & Tekkaman Blade. I'll just repost it.


If you don't know what sentai is, it's essentially the concept which Power Rangers is based on. And let me tell you, I grew up watching Captain Planet & Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. The thing is, when I see Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers on TV, I'll watch it and remember the fun memories with it. But when I see Captain Planet on TV, I'll change the channel and remember how bad it was.


And I will be ready.
 
It's ironic- I figured if they DID do this live movie that's rumored, who better than Al Gore TO be cast as Captain Planet? And then throw in Bono as Wheeler, the "loser American"...yeah, I know- he's not American...but I can't see him pulling off Kwame or Ma-Ti that well :D
 
Hey, watch the West. Batman was as much a conscious self-parody as it was a straight action show. Planet doesn't have that excuse.

It had lofty goals, and occasionally got a good message across - but, as we've heard, even the messages themselves didn't have a great track record, and the execution failed to varying degrees of miserableness on nearly every angle.

Desdiablo's got a good idea. Give the issues behind pollution their due, or if they're too complicated for a kid's show (don't be too quick to count this out; some are more complicated than I'd care to get into myself), at least acknowledge that there are issues driving them. It's been a long time, but it would help to linger a little less on the terrible effects of pollution on the environment, and a little longer on the corrupt businessmen and their kin. Deal with how much time and money they're saving with their practices. (Heck, flesh them out in general. Complex characterizations for everyone!)

I'll spot the show some demonized antagonists - frankly, again, it's a kids' cartoon we're talking about, not that "adult" live-action shows are above that. The show should still deal, unflinchingly as possible, with why people who pollute, from casual littering to grand-scale waste dumping, do what they do. We don't want the kids watching the show, hearing the message, then falling into the same traps. Drive it home as solidly and realistically (as much as a show with a premise like this can get) as possible.

Granted, hindsight is 20/20, but it's still kind of painful to see a show with so much potential...
 
So in five year's time, Al Gore's bluster will most likely be a thing of the past, along with the quick "greening" trend in popular culture, which would prevent a Planet reheash. I think this review spells out a lot of the issues with that sort of preaching. (warning, language)

I remember a few years ago tossing around ideas for a redone version of Planet that wouldn't be a horrible preachy mess. Unfortunately, it seems that every idea I came up with ended up removing the final product so far from the original premise that it would be better marketed as a new Five Man Band show ala Ronin Warriors, with the culmination of my argument being "Eh, Captain Planet wouldn't have sucked as much if it was Tekkaman Blade." But then it wouldn't be Captain Planet, it'd be Tekkaman Blade! That's the main issue here. Planet and preaching are tied so close together that the entire product was poisoned from the start. If Wheeler was an idealist rather than an idiot, it would counteract Planet's theory that most pollution is our fault. If the Planeteers had actual uses for the rings besides summoning Captain Planet (my script suggested the ultimate of cliches, elemental "armor" that the rings could form around the heroes as the ultimate manifestation of their individual powers, although said clichessness was commented on), it would run counter to Planet's theme about the one generally being well...useless in the long run. If Planet wasn't a total dork that cracked lame puns, it might imply that we needed to be sufficient in solving these problems, as opposed to their theme of "Only someone else can handle it, with enough pestering." If the main villain was supernatural in origin rather than the usual cast of "We hate clean things" eco-villains, pointing out the follies of everything those guys represent would be impossible. (Ex- Hoggish Greedlys sole qualification for being evil was that he was fat. You don't need a superhero for that, you need a nutritionist) Every aspect of Planet that is deserving of ridicule and critique is also every aspect that defines the show.
 
Eh, I liked 60's Batman. It never reached for more than it could grasp, distinctly unlike Planet.

"Some days, you just can't get rid of a bomb!"
 
Probably because most of the people who are positioned to parody him (entertainers) believe everything he says and treat him like their high priest. Only a handful of skeptics, like Matt Stone and Trey Parker, are willing to challenge him.

And while I think casting a 60-year-old fat man as Captain Planet has a certain appeal to it, somehow, I don't think it will fly. Gore's better suited to play Hoggish Greedly.
 
In the DIC era the character designers were: Paula LaFond/Continuity Studios, and also, if memory serves, one Kathi Castillo. IMPO,the DIC era had,hands down, the best cdes. I hated the HBCI era cdes; the characters looked, at too many times,to be in danger of some type of disintegration.
 
I haven't seen it in a long time, but it was my understanding that they did give the polluters second chances, which they rarely if ever took - although I imagine they'd be less willing in the face of established supervillains.

And before anybody says it, most of the aforementioned supervillains did have reasons for polluting the environment, not just the corrupt businessman Looten Plunder. Off the top of my head (I think I got these from the official website, actually), Duke Nukem thrived on radiation, and Dr. Blight was genuinely crazy.
 
"I'm super serial!" :D

Yeah, 'Manbearpig' was one of the better SP episodes in recent years.

Anyhow, I don't think Captain Planet is THAT bad of a show. It is a good idea, but unfortunately, poorly executed. Like someone mentioned earlier, kids AND adults do not like to be talked down to. When I was a kid, I didn't really like the forcefully preachy aspect of the cartoon -or anything that was preachy, period-, though there were some episodes I liked (the one where Hoggish's son falls in love with Linka was always one of my favorites).

It is interesting to note that CP was the first show to tackle the issue of AIDS. Which strikes me as odd, because AIDS isn't exactly an environmental (read: to the trees, ocean and flora) danger...
 
That post works so much better if you hum "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" as you read it. :p

You can admire what a show was aiming to do but not the end product, and that's exactly how I feel about Captain Planet. Do I think using an action cartoon to teach was a good idea? Yes, of course, and I'd like to see it attempted again someday. But they faltered on the 'action' part and concentrated too little on actually making it entertaining enough to make its lessons anything other than laughable. So I admire what they were trying to do, but can't help but consider them having missed their mark by several miles.
 
I watched a few episodes and I must say, as a mid 80s to early 90s action show it was okay. But as a show with a serious message, it's laughable. It's like Reefer Madness only instead of drugs, it's pollution.

  • The villains are laughably bad, especially Duke "Not The Badass Video Game Character" Nukem. Zarm was the only threatening one and was also the least recurring.
  • Also bad is all the hokey one-liners Cap himself said when he's onscreen.
  • Gi has to be my favorite Planeteer, she's has cool power, her accent isn't as put-on as Linka(since her VA is actually Asian), she's likes dolphins like I do, and she's pretty cute too.
 
If you like the show, that's cool, but defending it in a biased manner doesn't help to convince people to enjoy it you know. I myself don't outright hate the show, and heck I like Power Rangers myself. But I don't delude myself into thinking those are top quality programs. I tend to think you're not so secure with your decision to enjoy the show if you have to get that defensive over it. If you like it, that's all that matters (You don't need to tell everyone that it's the perfect show and that they are jealous of it).

Aside from what Caswin brought, I and some other posters mentioned a bit of a contradiction the series brought on. The show tries too teach viewers that one person alone will make a difference, yet on the show, The Planeteers always need Captain Planet to help them out of trouble. He needs to be an extension of their teamwork, not their janitor.
 
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