Conceived by Barbara Pyle and media mogul Ted Turner, Captain Planet was an ecological hero way ahead of his time. The animated series ran for years with some nifty design work by Neal Adams and his Continuity Associates. Each episode featured an adventure and a lesson (of course). It endeared itself to a generation of viewers and remained an enduring figure from the 1990s.
Now, Warner Home Entertainment has released Captain Planet the Complete Franchise, with 41 hours and 31 minutes of environmental goodness. For silly legal reasons, the show has two titles evenly split among its six seasons: Captain Planet and the Planeteers (animated by DIC) and The New Adventures of Captain Planet (animated by Hanna-Barbera) for the final three seasons.
Gaia, the spirit of Earth, was voiced by Whoopi Goldberg, who set the tone and standard for the entire series. She was accompanied by a voice cast that included Margot Kidder (who replaced Goldberg in season four), Meg Ryan, Martin Sheen, Jeff Goldblum, LeVar Burton, Ed Asner, and Dean Stockwell.
As Gaia awakens after far too long, she is unhappy with the shape of Earth and sets about to repair things, with the help of teens drawn from the continents, granting each power — earth, fire, wind, water, and heart — to help save the world. United, they summon forth Captain Planet (David Coburn). The excellent captain can be felled by pollution and similar harmful environmental factors. Our teen heroes —Gi (Janice Kawaye), Kwame (LeVar Burton), Linka (Kath Soucie), Ma-Ti (Scott Menville), and Wheeler (Joey Dedio) — respond to Gaia’s alerts via their solar-powered Geo-Cruiser.
Their recurring foes include Hoggish Greedly (Ed Asner), Hoggish Greedly Jr. (Charlie Schlatter), Rigger (John Ratzenberger), Verminous Skumm (Jeff Goldblum/Maurice LaMarche), Duke Nukem (Dean Stockwell/Maurice LaMarche), Leadsuit (voiced by Frank Welker), Dr. Barbara “Babs” Blight (Meg Ryan/Mary Kay Bergman), MAL (David Rappaport/Tim Curry), Looten Plunder (James Coburn/Ed Gilbert), Argos Bleak (Scott Bullock), the Pinehead Brothers (Dick Gautier and Frank Welker), Sly Sludge (Martin Sheen/Jim Cummings), Ooze (Cam Clarke), Tank Flusher III (Frank Welker), Zarm (Sting/David Warner/Malcolm McDowell), and of course, the good captain’s evil twin, Captain Pollution (David Coburn).
The DIC episodes were very much formula, and when H-B took over, backstories and more depth were added throughout, making for a more enjoyable viewing experience. Still, there were many times the themes were heavy-handed, making them feel like an “eat your spinach” experience.
It did spawn The Captain Planet Foundation in 1991, as Pyle donated a percentage of the show’s merchandising revenue to do some actual real-world good. It ran a decade until new parent company TimeWarner shit it down. After the disastrous AOL merger, the foundation was resurrected in 2007 and continues to do good work.
The series looks fine on DVD, reproduces the original animation well, and offers Dolby Digital audio. Little expense was spent on cleaning and unifying everything, although the entire package is a lavish one. Not a single special feature has been included.
English (US) · 