Captain Planet and the Planeteers

Captain Planet and the Planeteers is a popular animated series created by Ted Turner and produced by Jane Fonda to promote environmentalism in children. The series were developed and animated by TBS Productions and DiC. It ran from September 10, 1990 until 1996 and continues in syndication. It was continued by Hanna-Barbera with the series The New Adventures of Captain Planet (1993 - 1996).

Criticism

The series has also received a fair share of criticism. The show has been characterized as anti-American, as a good portion of the villains are American while the only American protagonist (Wheeler) is often portrayed as ignorant or arrogant. In an episode where a villain turns a village in a developing country into an American-style suburb, the villagers lament how they used to live in paradise without knowing it. One episode, "Population Bomb" suggested people should have less children or risk overpopulating the planet. Critics have also claimed that the show is pro-communist. Prior to the Soviet Union's collapse, Linka was the only character to have her origin specified by nation instead of by continent during the show's introduction. The show commonly depicted communist and formerly communist nations as pristine lands without many environmental problems, while in real life their environmental problems may be devastating. The show frequently exaggerated the potential output of renewable energy sources. For example, the Planeteers travel in a high-speed, solar-powered aircraft that uses a mere fraction of the solar panels that would be needed to power a single-passenger car in real life. The show has also been criticized for using caricatures; the villains' motivations have little in common with the people in the real world who cause pollution.

Related Topics:
Anti-American - Protagonist - Suburb - Communist - Caricatures

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