El Capitán Planeta y las planetarios

I watched this series when it originally came out. I think this show contained a lot of great messages for children, and they were able to present them in a way that was visually stimulating for the children and could hold their attention. I frown on adults who are too hard on the delivery style of this series. Kudos to network executives, like Ted Turner, who take a chance on a show like this. There were lessons on subjects such as smoking, drugs, stealing, lying, and obviously not polluting the environment. It obviously wasn't looked down on by everyone. It ran for more than a couple of seasons, which speaks volumes for a show. There were a lot of great actors whose voices turned up on this show. I miss watching it, and I'd love for my six-year-old daughter to be able to experience it. She'd love it!

Unlike many of the reviewers here, I'm NOT going denigrate a television show just for the sake of bashing a political ideology. Of course the show is PC, just like "Sesame Street" is PC. It's a CHILDREN'S SHOW -- it needs to be simplified and non-cynical for the consumption of the younger audience. Plus, whether you like it or not, concern for the environment is not a throwaway, frivolous subject to mock. The people of LA had to find out the hard way.

Anyhoo, probably the only reason why I watched this show in the first place was that there was nothing else on at five in the afternoon on Saturdays. Back then, I thought the show was pretty cheesy with very little variations on the plot lines. Yet I still rooted for the Planeteers and was satisfied whenever the bad guys were dealt with.

But now that I'm older and a little bit wiser, I now reserve full appreciation of the cosmic and biblical cheesiness this cartoon had to offer. Whenever I think of the villain, I just wonder what's going through their minds: "Hahahah! I've just wasted precious time and money creating this environmentally unsafe factory, not to make any profits, not even to make a product of any kind, but just for the sake of polluting the planet and p**sing off the Planeteers, hahahahah!" Yeah, that's what most of these villains were thinking in most of the episodes.

Also, I agree with the other reviewers that there were hardly any character growth among the Planeteers, although the tension between Wheeler and Linka had me at least halfway interested.

There were some keeper episodes, like the one where three oppressed persons, an Irish Catholic living in Belfast, a Palestinian, and a black South African were supplied with triggers that will set off nuclear weapons which can then wipe out their adversaries. The Planeteers were dispached to those separate areas and only succeeded in turning around those people by having them experience the *hypothetical* consequences of their actions if they chose to press the button.

Of course, Captain Planet comes to the rescue, digs up the nukes and throws them like discuses towards the sun, which begs the question why didn't he just do that in the first place?

So one and a half stars (* 1/2) our of four for the Planeteers. Protecting the environment is an important thing, but we can do better.

FYI, Ma-Ti's Power of Heart allows him to communicate with the animals, so that in some episodes elephants and giraffes gives Captain Planet a breather and take care of all the dirty work.

I've caught some episodes of this cartoon show when I was a kid, and remembered it for having a heroic storyline where superheros work together to save the environment. Here, a quintet of teenagers team up to encourage everyday citizens to be responsible in saving and preserving the environment and, when disasters strike, they can band together and summon a superhero named Captain Planet to save the day.

It's a good cartoon to remind the little kids to be responsible for cleaning up after themselves, recycle and to keep stuff clean around them. And, what more inspiring to kids than to have a superhero to remind them to do these good deeds. There are some good action-packed scenes as well. Too bad saving the environment as gotten so polarized nowadays.

Grade B-

"It was probably only made to teach kids to keep the environment clean." This was posted by a few other people... Duuuhhhh!

I remember watching this as a kid when it first came out. My brother and I enjoyed watching it every week. It may have been repetitive and a little cheesy, but it had a good message.

As far as the show implying that we can't really save the planet, only a superhero can, give me a break. I, at the age of 8, realized that Captain Planet and the Planeteers did not exist in real life and therefore, it really was up to us to help save the planet. I credit this show along with Raffi's Evergreen Everblue album and the movie Ferngully the Last Rainforest as the reason I recycle today.

A little plug for those who want to help the environment a little. Check out the Seventh Generation line of products and click everyday on the website - the rain forest site. :) I hope they decide to put this out on DVD soon!

I may be in the minority but I was first introduced to this show once it was on syndication and actually liked it. I never saw the reason to write such an extended response that dealt with the complete and utter negativity of a TV show or movie as I've seen here. It truly is amazing that there are individuals that would sit there and write such elongated responses. Is it political, absolutely. This show is somewhat ahead of its time, as I don't recall a strong effort being made to concern ourselves with the environment at that time. Regardless, I enjoyed it and whereas I have not seen this show in quite a while, I imagine that I'd enjoy it as much as I did in the past were I to see it again.