TV show topic of the week: Captain Planet

No.

Also a better cartoon the Jackie Chan Adventures and especially that piece of shit Captain Planet was the Robocop cartoon. Robocop kicks ass.

Just gonna have to drop a quick rebuttal to this YT blog here I just saw.

I am a real environmentalist, and I want to proclaim that I DON'T hate Captain Planet. It was a witty jab at american society, and a lot of this guy's argument is BS.

The reason one of the main villains in Captain Planet is a garbage collector (Sly Sludge) is a reference to the underground phenomenon of corporate dishonesty over recycling in the U.S.A., specifically Big Oil's influence on plastic "recycling". The reality: plastic (most plastics) cannot be recycled and wind up in landfills, where they don't biodegrade quickly, easily or naturally. This is why plastic bags and plastic cutlery are such a heated controversy in most first world countries, because they are NOT disposable, contrary to corporate claims. So yes, it makes sense for a villain in Captain Planet to be a crooked garbage collector who acts as a puppet for corporate greed by running a crooked garbage collection service. This was the norm in all corners of american society during the Bush Administration, and not just in regards to environmental topics like recycling, but every other subject you can think of like mental health, race and sexuality. Even human life was seen as a business and was dictated by the church, the military, the pharmaceutical industry or the Athletic Director's Association. Even other unassuming industries like the dairy industry had significant influence over human life. The conservative 1% controlled literally everything during the 90s and the 2000s (just watch Who Killed the Electric Car if you don't believe me).

Secondly, the reason the villains in captain planet are portrayed as either grotesque monstrosities or (in the case of Dr. Blight and Lootin Plunder) outwardly clean, attractive bastards is because most of the real world examples of the american 1% really are like that. Take Clive Palmer for example:




Does that look like a healthy man of modest means to you? All of his private jets are probably littered with scraps of moldy old french fries and hotdog buns.

centipede aye?

Appearance aside, powerful american socialites like John Schnatter, Bill Bennet, Elon Musk and Jair Bolsonaro have personalities that mirror those of Captain Planet villains like Lootin Plunder, Hoggish Greedly, etc. The villains in Captian Planet were intentionally designed to parody real world 1% conservative personalities and politicians at that time, like Robert Murray for another example. America was full of tuns of examples of people like that at the time. Even George Lucas couldn't resist pulling a Ted Turner by modeling one of his Star Wars villains (Nute Gunray) after the notorious 90s conservative politician Newt Gingrich, although I would call that case hypocrisy since George Lucas is himself one of the most grotesque, regressive figures of american society; a greedy, heaving walrus of a man who advocates space colonization and thinks the future should look like Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers. Honestly, George Lucas is basically a Captain Planet villain himself, probably closer in appearance and lifestyle to a Captain Planet villain than the insidious aforementioned Gingrich is!


So no, I totally disagree with this dude's claim that Captain Planet doesn't appeal to environmentalists. I mean, I AM an environmentalist and I literally just wrote two paragraphs raving about the show in my defense of it, which proves that even as an adult I still get enjoyment out of it, and that's because of all the symbolism and messages that Ted Turner's talented team injected into it. I would argue that the gen Z shmuck who made this vlog about Captain Planet should sit back and give the show some real thought before forming second opinions about it. Because, maybe the show wouldn't make sense to younger american democrats who didn't survive through the conservative chaos of the 90s and the Bush era of the 2000s. That's my theory about this guy.