Am I mad, have I lost my mind - am I smoking something illegal?
No, this question has to be answered. What is behind the whole concept of Captain Planet? And how important is he to us in relation to a geopolitical stance in modern day society?
For those of you that don’t know what Captain Planet is, it’s a cartoon program produced in the 1990s focussing on the promotion of environmentally friendly practices. The plot based purely around the world being in turmoil, due to a number of template evil characters. After years of the not being awakened, the spirit of the earth, Gaia, chose five youths from all over the world to protect her vision of what the earth should endeavour to be: the planeteers. Gaia would send the planeteers to where the worst environmental crimes were happening to resolve the issues. Issues that they couldn’t solve themselves forced them to summon Captain Planet, who lived deep beneath the earth’s surface.
At this point you must be wondering what relation the planeteers have with Captain Planet. Each of the 5 ha their own powers: Kwame from Africa, Wheeler from North America, Linka from Soviet Union, Gi from Asia and Ma-Ti from South America. The powers given to the five youths were Earth, Wind, Fire and Water (the fifth element being Heart). No, ladies and Gentlemen they are not a tribute act (another thing to take on board is that when the five did summon him their powers were given to him and magnified just as the title song suggests).
Moving on to the villains that the show has to offer, they can only be described as ‘thugly’. There are plenty of villains for the show, but they never work as a team to destroy the planet. That would be too easy. Just like the planeteers they have names and characteristics to set them apart from each other.
The downsides of the show are, to be fair, substantial, and can destroy the socio-economical message if taken to heart. The five youths representing different social spectrums from around the world are cynically given the powers, names, lifestyles and appearances to represent themselves in somewhat of a bigoted correlation. Why can’t the popular one from North America have Heart as his power? When the planeteers summon Captain Planet to come and help them out why can’t he look like Swampy? Why does he have to be chiselled and look like an environmental god?
When looking at the pros, the show does hold strong environmental views. For the time that this show was broadcasted they were real issues and not marred by any form of sensationalism by the media, just a feeling of being humble and wanting to help. The teamwork within the group showed a unity on earth and translates into what has happened in past events and how if we worked together we can get rid of anything that can be seen as cancerous in society today.
There’s just one last thing I have to add. It’s not related to environmentalism, it’s more a comment on superpower-related cartoons in general. When watching Captain Planet, I always used to wonder why they didn’t just Captain Planet as the start so they can carry on with their daily doings? I guess the righteous answer would be because life is not that easy; the show represents us. This resonates within every human, the ability to have an impact on life, no matter how big or small. We have the power to change and inspire through our thoughts and actions. Captain Planet represents the inner us, the strength and capability we have to change the earth for us and for future generations to come. We watch movies and they have an impact on us and we see them as iconic. Think of these cartoons as iconic and the inspiration they give us to do good. Just because they’re for kids, doesn’t mean they’re not important.
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