tamawani estefan jarmond
Jacinda Saleeby
Captain Planet and the Planeteers, commonly referred to as simply Captain Planet, is an American animated environmentalist superhero television series created by Barbara Pyle and Ted Turner[1] and developed by Pyle, Nicholas Boxer, Thom Beers, Andy Heyward, Robby London, Bob Forward and Cassandra Schafausen. The series was produced by Turner Program Services and DIC Enterprises and broadcast on TBS and in syndication from September 15, 1990, to December 5, 1992.[2]
A sequel series, The New Adventures of Captain Planet, was produced by Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc., distributed by Turner Program Services and broadcast from September 11, 1993, to May 11, 1996.[3] The series was rerun in later years on Cartoon Network and Boomerang.[4] It is currently on the MeTV Toons schedule.[5] The program is a form of edutainment and advocates environmentalism and is known for having a number of famous actors providing voices for the villains.[6][7] The show spawned a franchise consisting of eco-friendly toys, comic books, video games, and a public charity to further promote the work of the show.
Our world is in peril. Gaia, the spirit of the Earth, can no longer stand the terrible destruction plaguing our planet. She sends five magic rings to five special young people: Kwame, from Africa, with the power of Earth... From North America, Wheeler, with the power of Fire... From Eastern Europe, Linka, with the power of Wind. From Asia, Gi, with the power of Water... and from South America, Ma-Ti, with the power of Heart. When the five powers combine, they summon Earth's greatest champion, Captain Planet. Go Planet! The power is yours!
Every episode is followed up with at least one "Planeteer Alert" clip, often connected to the plot, where environmental-political and other social-political issues are discussed and how the viewer can contribute and be part of "the solution" rather than "the pollution".[8]
Her physical manifestation is that of a beautiful black woman. In the two-part episode "Summit to Save Earth" where her rival Zarm had defeated her, Gaia was shown as an old, frail woman, with Zarm explaining that given the Earth's several billion years of existence, it would make sense for Gaia to be superannuated in appearance.
In situations that the Planeteers cannot resolve alone, they can combine their planetary powers to summon the titular Captain Planet (voiced by David Coburn[9]), who is Ma-Ti's magnified heart power in the form of a male blue-skinned superhero avatar with green mullet, possessing all of the other Planeteers' amplified powers, along with more classical superhero powers such as flight and superhuman strength. Once his work is done, Captain Planet returns to the planet, and leaves viewers with the message: "The power is yours!" Typically, Planet only manifests to deal with the bigger crisis and then departs, but a few storylines have explored him existing beyond these moments, such as when he was summoned while Kwame and Ma-Ti were in space, with the result that the energy from their rings that created Planet could not return to its source, resulting in Planet being forced to operate on a human level, such as requiring a crowbar and handcuff keys to rescue the rest of the team.
The Planeteers are tasked with helping defend the planet from environmental disasters and making efforts to educate humankind to keep others from happening. In the beginning of the episodes, Gaia uses her "Planet Vision" in the Crystal Chamber to discover where the most devastating destruction is occurring (in most episodes one or more of the Eco-Villains is behind it) 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.[10]
The Eco-Villains are a small group of antagonists who cause danger to the planet through pollution, deforestation, poaching, and other environmentally unsafe activities. They enjoy the destruction they cause to the planet and the harm they bring to obtain wealth, land, or power. The Eco-Villains tend to work alone most of the time, although they're willing to work with one another when it suits their plans. When the Eco-Villains are defeated by Captain Planet and the Planeteers, they would mostly be arrested by the authorities. Only in the two-part episode "Summit to Save Earth" did the entire ensemble of Eco-Villains work as a team with Zarm as the leader. Each of these villains represents a specific way of thought that can cause ecological problems.
A polluting counterpart to Captain Planet named Captain Pollution (voiced by David Coburn, like his good counterpart) 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 which had the opposite power of the Planeteers:
Each of the evil rings has 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 clean water or sunlight, while he gains power from contact with pollutants, being able to absorb pollutant and emit radioactive rays (and is later shown to gain limitless power when in contact with pollutants after his resurrection). When he is summoned he says "By your polluting powers combined, I am Captain Pollution!!" as he maniacally cackles, 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 of the five evil rings that seep into the planet.
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 globe on his chest is torn in the middle. His voice is similar to Captain Planet's, but it 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. Captain Pollution is destroyed by Captain Planet who throws Pollution in the water destroying him.
According to Barbara Pyle, the inspiration for the five Planeteers came from real people that she met during the show's pre-production, in 1989. The character "Gi" was inspired by Malaysian environmental activist Chee Yoke Ling of Sahabat Alam Malaysia, while Ma-Ti was inspired on Paulinho Paiakan.[12][13] Wheeler was said by Pyle to be based on her own father. She reported on making him the most environmentally unaware based on the view she had of the attitudes displayed by the US at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. Kwame was inspired by the survivors of the Rhodesian Bush War.[14] In a September 2012 interview with Barbara Pyle and co-developer Nicholas Boxer, it was stated that the Hope Island was located near the Bahamas.[15]
The original series was the second longest running US-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).
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[16] and is performed by Murray McFadden and Timothy Mulhollan. During the end credits, James Coburn, in character as Looten Plunder, utters the line "You'll pay for this, Captain Planet.". This is then followed by a rap from the voice actors of the Planeteers. It is akin to New Kids on the Block's "Step By Step".
In 1993, the show saw a production company switch, changing the title to The New Adventures of Captain Planet (produced by Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, which was acquired by Turner in 1991). During this time, it aired as part of TBS' Sunday Morning in Front Of The TV block, alongside fellow H-B toons SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron and 2 Stupid Dogs. This series revealed more of the past of each of the characters and expanded on it dramatically. The tone of these episodes was more mature than the initial series. The animation style was altered, being of considerably higher quality than the DiC seasons.
The DiC seasons' synth-rock soundtrack was replaced by a large number of orchestral pieces, and while the end credits theme was retained, the ending sequence now showcased footage from the Hanna-Barbera episodes. Full-time voice actors replaced most of the major celebrities that had voiced Gaia and the Eco-Villains during the DiC seasons. The opening narration was spoken by David Coburn (Captain Planet) rather than LeVar Burton (Kwame) and, in the final season, was replaced by a rap by Fred Schneider of The B-52's.
In 1990, The Los Angeles Times described the show as having "not much originality", although also saying that "there's a passion behind this series, which adapts a conventional super-hero formula to an unconventional theme", also stating that the celebrities voicing the series "also sets the series apart". The newspaper also described the show as being part of "the increased awareness of Earth as endangered".[20] L. Brent Bozell III, a conservative activist, accused the show of "seeking to scare children into political activism",[21] along with accusing the show of having "leftist slants";[22] Barbara Pyle responded, saying "I don't think 'Captain Planet' is scary ... it shows kids that every action counts ... I consider [environmental issues] bipartisan."[21]
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