Why is Captain Planet so hated?

Yeah, we cant forget stuff like widget the world watcher as well (and the whole turning into animals schtick was tired by 1990).
 
when I think of what other showes are as dark and talkive as captien planet the one that come to mind are evagalion and fullmetal alchemist

they diddn't talk about the pollution but they still preached your ear off about something
 
What....what did Evangelion preach to us about? The closest thing to preaching they did in that was about their own problems.

And how could either of those shows be compared to this?
 
Was there any action in this show at all? I remember the kids using their powers against the villains a few times at least.

I also remember the main guy and the russian girl kissed in one episode.
 
CyberCubed said:
Was there any action in this show at all? I remember the kids using their powers against the villains a few times at least.
As I recall, there was actually a specific mandate from Ted Turner to not allow the Planeteers to use any kind of violence against the eco-villains.

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http://www.turner.com/planet/mission.html

Interestingly enough, the site also goes into some of the reasoning behind why the eco-villains were so caricatured and over the top.

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Actually this doesn't really excuse them that much. Leaving aside the argument that laying the blame for pollution at the feet of outright supervillains kinda undermines the supposed educational value of the show, did they really have to be such lame supervillains?

I mean dear lord, how the heck is anyone supposed to take your radioactive monster seriously when he's running around in a mohawk and Hawaiian shirt?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
To be honest, that is something that always struck me as weird about the show: for all its corniness, it throw in something inexplicably brutal every now and then. I'm not saying this is a good thing, just weird.

Another example of this was the origin of Dr. Blight's disfigurement. I mean, Mal sneezes on her, in what should be a harmless visual gag, but instead the sparks burn the side of her face. It just feels so...out of place, that what would be a simple corny joke about a computer virus would end in permanent injury.
 
From what I recall about action...
-Dr Blight turned the essence of a mystical Tree into a perfume that gave her super-human powers, resulting in a battle with Captain Planet.
-A dark future story involving street gangs with laser-guns fighting Dr. Blight's robots.
-In an AIDS episode with Neil Patrick Harris and Elizabeth Taylor as a mother-and-son dealing with the disease (Wonder Years Winnie played the girlfriend), the Planeteers used their powers against a AIDS-fearing mob attacking the family (Linka and Gia were throwing people around).
-In a 'New Adventures' episode about race gang wars, Gia- angry over how a beloved teacher of hers got injured in a fight- uses her water powers on the guy responsible.
 
I think we can all agree that Captain Planet would be awesome if it were about Ted Turner painting himself blue, and running around beating people up while screaming "CAPTAIN PLANET!!!!"

Captain Planet would make an awesome villain protagonist.
 
I think anybody that feels strongly enough to actually -hate- Captain Planet is probably some Glen Beck/Limbaugh/O'Reilly culture warrior who considers it a legitimate threat to all that is good an holy about our military industrial complex. Most people just probably consider it a bit silly and maybe a little misguided in how much it oversimplifies the issue.

It is a failure, though, because it does a very poor job of educating because of how much it oversimplifies things. I saw the explanation AlgeaX posted, but it still would have been better for the show to acknowledge that yes, sometimes there are real understandable reasons for why people pollute, but to encourage kids to find a better way. Maybe they could show that people sometimes clearcut trees because they need farmland to eat, or that people kill tigers and other wild animals to protect their livestock. Instead we just get people who pollute for the sheer fun of it, for nihilistic kicks. Blight wants to do things that would ruin the world and kill her with it, for crying out loud.

And having Captain Planet there to bail out the Planeteers every episode sends a terrible message that we should rely on authority figures instead of ourselves to solve these problems. I know the idea is that Captain Planet comes from the combined powers of the kids, but that doesn't really come across because Captain Planet and their ring powers are supernatural, they don't really come from the kids' own skills or personalities. And because it's supernatural it has no real bearing on real life solutions to the problems, you can't wave an oil spill away with magic.

And I agree that it's not the only cartoon that could be preachy from that era. Tiny Toons had segments that were unforgivably preachy, just straight brainwashing.
 
Here's a good (and likely) reason why the show had such cheesy villains:


...which in a way, makes the series even more ludicrous, if that's even possible.
 
Huh. I never realized that Wheeler was the show's whipping boy. But then, I was rather young when I watched that show, and have never really felt the urge to back and see it again... Mostly, I just remember thinking that he was coolest of the characters. Him and maybe the Russian girl, just because she was, you know, Russian...


...Say, does anyone suppose this show had any influence on the YuGiOh translaters? Since they translated a character's name as Joey Wheeler and gave him a pronounced Brooklyn accent? Or might that just be a coincience...
 
Yeah, Wheeler ends up the most likable if for no other reason then that he's actually flawed instead of a perfect boyscout.

That said, I think one other way to improve CP himself, looking back, would've been to give the Planeteers a more active role after summoning. Even something simple like it required constant concentration to keep him on the battlefield.

That said, I would so love to see a battle royal between Captain Planet and Hexus.
 
The thing about Wheeler is, he's wrong even when he's right. He's wrong simply by virtue of being the Amerikanski. They might as well have the other Planeteers slap him across the mouth whenever he talks and shout "Shut your hole, you overfed bourgeois running dog!"
 
I used to like the show
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I liked Wheeler because he was the, "American," kid and he had fire power. That was cool.

I also liked it that he acted like a normal guy. If I remember wasn't he also always trying to get a kiss from the Russian girl? I know she does kiss him in one episode.
 
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