In the trips to the past that we are doing within our special on children's television, today we have to stop at one of the programs that came to our televisions in the nineties. This is 'Captain Planet', a series of cartoons that arrived in our country through regional television. The pillar of the series was to acquire ecological awareness on various issues that affected the environment, something that was achieved with a simple premise such as resorting to an action superhero.
'Captain Planet' is a fiction that has six seasons and more than 100 episodes, through which a series of plots are given to show the effects of the acts carried out by human beings that harm the planet, a theme That doesn't go out of style. Each episode of 'Captain Planet', about 25 minutes long, emphasizes a specific problem that directly affects the environment, without losing the appeal of a television series aimed at children.
Who is Captain Planet?
Captain Planet is the superhero used by the protagonists of the series when the problem he faces requires his help, since he has the necessary superpowers to fight against the most evil characters. Each episode begins with the problem that the five protagonists of fiction must face, that belong to five different parts of the planet. Everyone fights against those who threaten the environment, thanks to the powers they received from Gaia, the spirit of the planet.
Thus, the characters come from Africa, North America, Russia, Asia and South America and have been awarded with the powers of the earth, fire, water and wind, which are complemented by the power of the heart. This last power represents the will of each individual in their fight for the environment, giving importance to the presence of those spectators who demonstrate having ecoligistic attitudes in their daily lives.
What can we expect from the series?
The main contribution presented by 'Captain Planet' is that of approaching ecology through an entire superhero, presented as the main attraction of a fiction that aims to arouse the curiosity of the little ones. In their plots, the bad ones, those that harm the environment in some way, they present themselves as ugly and unpleasant characters, who never manage to get away with it thanks to the effort that their protagonists put on each task entrusted to them.
The five members of the group, called planetariums, are a reflection of what viewers can transform, who are expected to become the guardians of the environment they see on the small screen. Thanks to fiction we can observe the force of nature through the powers used by the protagonists and as with the collaboration of the human being (The phrase "the power is yours" is constantly repeated) The planet can become an idyllic place to live.
From the union of the five planetariums, coming from different parts of the world, 'Captain Planet' shows the importance of the collaboration of people to achieve a common goal that benefits everyone. The companionship and the union of cultures are other values to take into account of the series, which sought to collect profiles from different cultures to show that caring for the environment is everyone's problem. In addition, each episode of 'Captain Planet' ends with an explanation of something seen in the chapter or advice on the acts that can be carried out daily to combat everything that harms nature.
The episode extracted in this article introduces an evil person in charge of pollute the atmosphere with the burning of a large amount of coal, which can cause a huge acid rain that affects forests and cities. The planetariums are invoked by Gaia to avoid this tragedy and they devise a plan to end the pollution bath. In the chapter we can also observe that the protagonists play sports or collaborate with each other when they need help, as happens to the smallest of the group, who feels that it does not fit among their peers but then understands how important it is for their friends.
'Captain Planet', fighting for the environment
Although fiction has six seasons, from the third 'Captain Planet' took a new direction that made the stories focus even more on the presence of planetariums, and it was the first three seasons that had the greatest impact In our country. 'Captain Planet' was issued in a good number of countries, something that corroborated the success it also had in the United States, where it was created.
The truth is that although it is a television series broadcast in the 90s, the messages and complaints extracted from 'Captain Planet' are still valid today, maybe more than then. That may be the reason why the making of a film that is intended to once again cause the impact that the series had at its time was rumored, a good excuse to present today's children to that superhero who wanted to fight for nature and with which they grew many of the youngest parents that exist today.
