Growing up as an innocent, whale-hugging, environmentally concerned little girl at age 5, had it's perks in the early 90's.
In the early to mid 90's we seemed to have a sudden wave of child based cartoon shows that focused on teaching children about environmental issues. These shows, though corny in every sense of the word, actually seem more educational than the crap I see today, that tries to get the attention of the same age group.
Two of these shows I watched all the time, was "Captian Planet and the Planeteers" and "Free Willy". Though "Captian Planet" was more educational, "Free Willy" was the basic idea only in the ocean, and a little more up beat.
Though, I have very little memory of the whole TV show, I do remember episodes that talked about the issue of oil spills, captive animals doing shows for people, ocean pollution and the marine animals themselves. These were episodes that sometimes portrayed humans in a pretty dark way. Many of the villains being either half human half machine, or being derived from machines.
This ends up dividing good people from bad, and how the innocent animals and environment end up being hurt, all because of people. But Willy and Jesse always ended up saving the day, and though not really teaching children in a direct way such as "Captian Planet", children still get the basic idea, that humans are harming the environment and the animals in it.
This show is actually, overall, very cute and very fun for children, as long as you don't look to deeply into the messages as I do now. In fact this show tends to inspire children, more than teach them.
