"With your powers combined, I am Captain Planet!"
Captain Planet and the Planeteers was an environmental "edutainment" program created in collaboration by Ted Turner and Andy Heyward. The story revolves around 5 teenage kids who receive the power to control the elements (the Planeteers). These powers, given in the form of rings, were given to them by Gaea, who could no longer stand the destruction of the planet due to industrial and technological activities. When they combine their powers, they are able to summon Captain Planet, super-guardian of the environment.
Each Planeteer comes from a different part of the globe, and possesses a different elemental power. Kwame, from Africa, holds the power of earth, enabling him to mold the Earth's crust into anything he pleases. Wheeler, a North American, has the power of fire, and he can summon flames from out of nowhere and control them. Linka, from the Soviet Union (and later, Eastern Europe) is given the power of wind, which lets her create anything between breezes and tornadoes. Gi, from Asia, has the power of water, which allows her to summon water and create floods as long as there is a body of water or a source of water nearby. Incidentally, she has a pet dolphin. Finally, Mati, from South America, is bestowed the power of heart. Although it is unclear as to what exactly this power does, what can be derived is it can put any animal under Mati's control so they can do his bidding. Although they can fight as individual units, when things get tough, the Planeteers can point their rings into the sky and combine their powers. The result of this combination is the appearance of the show's title hero, Captain Planet.
The show ran in episodic format, wherein every episode featured a new (or at least different) villain with a different evil scheme. In almost all instances the episode would end upon summoning Captain Planet and having him defeat the bad guys with the powers of nature. However, some episodes may span more than one episode; this usually happens when either Captain Planet or the Planeteers are temporarily weakened. Toxic waste weakens the Planeteers when it gets on their rings, and Captain Planet when it covers the large emblem on his costume.
The show began airing in 1993 spanned 113 episodes and became one of the longest-running cartoon series of the 90s. It also won multiple awards for educational programming and raising awareness of the environment.
All that aside, however, Captain Planet is not exactly as squeaky-clean as Gaea wants the environment to be. The show paints industries and companies who naturally produce environment-unfriendly waste as a byproduct of operations as evil guys. Although, to their defense, the villains in the show seemed like polluting the environment is their business; however, there are many legitimate industries working for the betterment of humanity who will also be seen as evil because of the show's narrow concept of "evil".
In general, we all enjoyed this show as kids (as we were yet unaware of the concept of "political correctness" at that point in our lives) and was one of the more memorable Saturday morning cartoons that has become a classic today.
