The New Adventures of Captain Planet

We all grew up watching and loving Captain Planet. So we're all more than pretty familiar with the opening.



I think it's safe to say that this opening is a much loved classic.

And then there's The New Adventures of Captain Planet. The opening for this isn't quite as good as the original. In fact, I'd say it's as bad as the other is good.



That rap is horrible, and I don't know about you, but I can't quite tell what the rapping lips seems to think of Captain Planet. Do the lips agree with all that Captain Planet and the Planeteers do and stand for? Or do the lips sympathise with the eco villians?

Then there's also the darker turn that The New Adventures of Captain Planet seems to take. The villains are far more serious about killing the Planeteers ... actually Hoggish Greedly doesn't seem to have his heart in killing them. He just appears to want them out of the way while he does his thing. And so far Looten Plunder seems happy to do everything legally and doesn't seem interested in killing the Planeteers. He's satisfied in rubbing their noses in his victory.

But the rest of the villians seem dead set in killing the Planeteers and anyone else who gets in their way. Dr Blight locked Wheeler's cousin in a cage with her killer guard dogs, for example, and she would've happily locked all of the planeteers in there if she had've been given the chance. Then there was the knife weilding poacher. She and her mates were happy to stab and kill anyone who got in their way ... actually they weren't too picky about how they killed people. Just as long as people who got in their way died they were happy.

The one I find most disturbing, however is Verminous Skumm. Granted, his plan was pretty genious in a very dark and twisted way; he created an army drug addicted zombies to do his bidding and even managed to get Linka addicted ... that was actually a very shocking episode. Not only was there the unexpected drug issue, but Linka got called a "stupid cow" before she joined the drug addicted zombie ranks, and then her cousin died. Not exactly the stuff of children's cartoons. At least not anymore.

The death of Linka's cousin was only slightly more shocking than Looten Plunder winning (and doing so within the law)in another episode. I always remembered Captain Planet always beating the bad guys and saving the environment. I clearly didn't watch enough of The New Adventures of Captain Planet. These darker episodes probably have several times where the bad guys win. But with the Looten Plunder winning episode I couldn't help but take in the message that the best way to save the environment is to go out and become some sort of eco activist/terrorist since the courts and the legal way are a joke and don't work. Captain Planet's saying of "The power is yours!" suddenly takes on a new meaning ... little wonder that the greenies are the way they are today.

And as you've probably guessed, The New Adventures of Captain Planet don't just tackle environmental issues. Probably because there's only so many episodes they can do before people get bored with it. So the Planeteers now also fight issues such as puppy farming, aides, drugs, the evils of using animals in the circus, having a responsibly sized family etc etc. There's probably more issues that go under the umbrella of social conscious than the environmental umbrella, I just havn't seen those episodes yet.

It'll be interesting to see what other non environmentrally based issues Captain Planet and the Planeteers face and just how dark the episode will get. For a children's cartoon, some of the episodes are very dark and confronting. But then, I guess it was made in the days before molly coddling and wrapping children up in cotton wool because they just won't be able to handle anything we deem to shocking. Maybe it's time children's cartoons went back to the darker shiz, because I'm sure children can handle it.

But until then, THE POWER IS YOURS!