The animated environmentalist superhero series Captain Planet ran for six seasons, with Captain Planet and the Planeteers running from 1990-1992, and the sequel series The New Adventures of Captain Planet running from 1993-1996. The shows featured some well-known actors playing the villains, teaching kids about the environment and promoting eco-friendly behavior while also just entertaining viewers.
Gaia (Whoopi Goldberg, Margot Kidder), The Spirit of the Earth aka Mother Nature, has awoken from a century-long rest to discover that the planet is now plagued by destruction. She selects five special kids from different corners of the globe to be her first Planeteers, the world’s greatest hope. She summons them to Hope Island, and bestows on them five magic rings to help her save the Earth from being ruined. Kwame (LeVar Burton) from Africa (from the Akan tribe of West Africa) becomes the de facto the leader of the group and is given the Earth Ring, Wheeler (Joey Dedio) from North America (Brooklyn, NY) is given the Fire Ring, Linka (Kath Soucie) from the Soviet Union (Russia) is given the Wind Ring, Gi (Janice Kawaye) from Asia is given the Water Ring, and the youngest of the group, 12-year-old Ma-Ti (Scott Menville) from South America—and his pet monkey Suchi (Frank Welker)—is given the Heart Ring. They can utilize these rings to control their respective elements to help stop those who are trying to harm the Earth. While the other rings are pretty self-explanatory, the Heart ring is the most powerful, letting Ma-Ti share the feelings and thoughts of the others, allowing them to communicate with one another, even if they are separated by long distances.
The team flies around in their solar-powered Geo-cruiser, taking on ecological threats, usually at the hands of some evil villain trying to make a quick buck at the expense of the environment. When the team faces a threat they can’t handle on their own, the Planeteers join their powers and summon Earth’s greatest champion, Captain Planet (David Coburn). Captain Planet is a flying superhero who can wield all of the powers of their rings combined. But instead of just handling things himself, Captain Planet often serves more as a mentor to the team, helping them find the power within themselves to neutralize the threats they face. Also, since pollution is his Kryptonite, he’s often in a weakened state and needs their help. However, when Captain Planet is around, the rings are useless, so the Planeteers must use their own ingenuity and skills.
Over the course of the series, the Planeteers face off against various recurring eco-villains, with many big name screen actors providing guest voices (though some are replaced later in the series by voice actors). Some of the recurring characters include Hoggish Greedly (Edward Asner), Rigger (John Ratzenberger), Verminous Skumm (Jeff Goldblum, Maurice LaMarche), MAL (David Rappaport, Tim Curry), Dr. Blight (Meg Ryan, Mary Kay Bergman), Sly Sludge (Martin Sheen, Jim Cummings), and Looten Plunder (James Coburn, Ed Gilbert), Argos Bleak (S. Scott Bullock), Duke Nuke (Dean Stockwell), Ooze (Cam Clarke), Stalker Slaughter (Charlie Adler), Okey Pinehead (Dick Gautier) & Zarm (Sting). As you can see, there are some pretty creative villain names. The villains are also often depicted as literal pigs, rats, etc since their greed and selfish behavior affects the environment. The villains can get a bit cartoony and moustache-twirling, but that also adds to the charm of the show.
People seem to complain these days about TV not being that diverse, but this cartoon from the 90s was ahead of its time, with quite the wide array of main characters literally from around the globe. Some of the accents are a bit over-the-top, such as Wheeler’s Brooklyn and Linka’s Russian accents, but there is this fun interplay and rivalry between these characters that it didn’t bother me. In fact, the whole team is quite entertaining and work well together. We also get a bit more of the backstory of the characters as the series goes along and the team faces some more personal cases.
I had watched the original series pretty regularly when it first aired—I had even joined the Planeteers and got some free Captain Planet shoelaces. So it was fun to revisit both series on this new Complete Franchise Collection DVD box set from Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment. The episodes have a great blend of action, humor, lessons and morals, and make for a fun, quick binge. Each episode also ends with some kind of handy energy or Earth-saving tip from Captain and the Planeteers that viewers can implement in their daily lives.
The DVD picture quality generally looks very good, with a clean hand-drawn picture and bright beautiful colors. However, the clarity varies a bit from scene-to-scene, sometimes looking slightly flat, while other times looking quite sharp, but that might just be the nature of the hand-drawn animation. That said, I didn’t find this variance distracting and it didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the series. In general the presentation was really good for an SD release of a 30-year-old cartoon!
The six seasons are split across 15 discs, with 6-9 episodes per disc. Seasons 1, 2 & 4 use three discs each, while the seasons 3, 5 & 6 only utilize two discs each. The discs are placed overlapping on plastic trays. There is one set of trays for seasons 1-3 (Captain Planet and the Planeteers) and a second for seasons 4-6 (The New Adventures of Captain Planet). Howver, both trays are stacked together in a single large, thick plastic keepcase, similar to the ones used by other recent WB complete series releases we have reviewed. The plastic keepcase is covered by a carboard slipcover, and also includes an insert with information on the Captain Planet Foundation.
The discs do not contain any bonus material, and there is no digital copy included.
What’s Included:
- All 6 seasons/113 episodes of the franchise:
- Captain Planet and the Planeteers
- Season 1 (1990-91) – 26 episodes
“A Hero for Earth”, “Rain of Terror”, “Beast of the Temple”, “Skumm Lord”, “Deadly Ransom”, “The Conqueror”, “Last of Her Kind”, “The Dead Seas”, “Tree of Life”, “Volcano’s Wrath”, “Littlest Planeteer”, “A World Below Us”, “Plunder Dam”, “Meltdown Syndrome”, “Smog Hog”, “Polluting by Computer”, “Don’t Drink the Water”, “Kwame’s Crisis”, “Ozone Hole”, “The Ultimate Pollution”, “Population Bomb”, “Mission to Save Earth, Part One”, “Mission to Save Earth, Part Two”, “Two Futures, Part One”, “Two Futures, Part Two”, “Heat Wave” - Season 2 (1991-92) – 26 episodes
“Mind Pollution”, “The Garbage Strikes”, “Domes of Doom”, “Send in the Clones”, “The Predator”, “The Ark”, “Isle of Solar Energy”, “The Coral Killer”, “The Big Clam Up”, “An Inside Job”, “The Fine Print”, “Off Road Hog”, “Trouble on the Half Shell”, “Stardust”, “The Blue Car Line”, “Birds of a Feather”, “Summit to Save Earth, Part One”, “Summit to Save Earth, Part Two”, “Losing Game”, “A Twist of Fate”, “The Great Tree Heist”, “Scorched Earth”, “The Hate Canal”, “Radiant Amazon”, “Fare Thee Whale”, “Utopia” - Season 3 (1992-93) – 13 episodes
“Greenhouse Planet”, “A Creep from the Deep”, “The Deadly Glow”, “A Perfect World”, “The Dream Machine”, “Bitter Waters”, “The Guinea Pigs”, “OK at the Gunfight Corral”, “Canned Hunt”, “Hog Tide”, “A Formula for Hate”, “If It’s Doomsday, This Must Be Belfast”, “The Night of the Wolf”
- Season 1 (1990-91) – 26 episodes
- The New Adventures of Captain Planet
- Season 4 (1993-94) – 22 episodes
“A Mine Is a Terrible Thing to Waste Part One”, “A Mine Is a Terrible Thing to Waste Part Two”, “I Just Want to Be Your Teddy Bear”, “Missing Linka”, “The Unbearable Blightness of Being”, “Wheeler’s Ark”, “Sea No Evil”, “Future Shock”, “I’ve Lost My Mayan”, “Talkin’ Trash”, “The Energy Vampire”, “Bottom Line Green”, “Gorillas Will Be Missed”, “Bug Off”, “You Bet Your Planet”, “Going Bats, Man”, “Jail House Flock”, “High Steaks”, “Planeteers Under Glass”, “Orangu-Tangle”, “No Horsing Around”, “‘Teers in the ‘Hood” - Season 5 (1994-95) – 13 episodes
“Twilight Ozone”, “Hollywaste”, “The Ghost of Porkaloin Past”, “The Disoriented Express”, “Horns A’ Plenty”, “A River Ran Through It”, “No Place Like Home”, “Little Crop of Horrors”, “In Zarm’s Way”, “No Small Problem”, “Numbers Game”, “Nothing’s Sacred”, “Who’s Running the Show?” - Season 6 (1995-96) – 13 episodes
“An Eye for an Eye”, “Whoo Gives a Hoot”, “Frog Day Afternoon”, “Five Ring Panda-Monium”, “A Good Bomb Is Hard to Find”, “Dirty Politics”, “Old Ma River”, “One of the Gang”, “Twelve Angry Animals”, “Never the Twain Shall Meet”, “Delta Gone”, “Greed Is the Word”, “101 Mutations”
- Season 4 (1993-94) – 22 episodes
- 480i / Full Frame 1.33:1
- Audio: English 2.0 Mono (Seasons 1-4), English Stereo (Seasons 4-6)
- Subtitles: English SDH
Extras:
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There is no bonus material included on this release.
- Captain Planet and the Planeteers
Episodes: (43 hours, 31 minutes)
Final Thoughts:
Captain Planet is not only an entertaining superhero series but it also comes with an ecological message/tips for kids. The series features some fun characters, big name voice actors, and some great animation. This DVD release features solid picture and sound, but lacks any bonus material. Fans of the show will want to pick up this collection, and it also makes a great family-friendly cartoon for kids.
Captain Planet: The Complete Franchise (DVD)
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