History WesternAnimation / CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers

Recently, the cap was TheUnexpected on the MascotFighter CartoonNetworkPunchTimeExplosion.

The show's first season was finally released on DVD (in the US) on April 19th 2011, just in time for Earth Day. The packaging was, unsurprisingly, made from 100% earth-friendly recycled paper. In July 2011, Cartoon Network announced that a live-action film adaptation of the show was in the works.

* TheDoctorDolittle: Possibly the one really useful power given by Ma-Ti's Heart ring.

*** No, but extreme climate change and pollution could result in conditions that would wipe out at least a large chunk of the population. And environmentalism was the whole point of the series after all.

* WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway: TropeNamer. Ironically, [[AtopTheFourthWall Linkara]] pointed out in his review that Heart was actually [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower more useful than the other elements,]] especially Fire, as it could allow [[{{Telepathy}} reading of minds]]. It also worked [[SpiderSense as a communicator]], and [[FriendToAllLivingThings could control wild animals]]. It also gave Ma-Ti the chance to see through the illusions casted by the MasterOfIllusion Zarm. Basically, if Ma-Ti were ''evil'' or [[AntiHero more ruthless]] in the use of his Ring, he could potentially [[{{Brainwashing}} brainwash]] almost anybody he wanted by manipulating the good in their hearts and using that to his advantage. Good thing (for us!) that Gaia was GenreSavvy and picked a more innocent, younger Planeteer...

* TakingtheBullet: At the near end of the episode "Future Shock", one of the future baddies try to shoot a laser gun at a little girl to fix their future (i dunno theres a time-continuum thing involved). Ma-Ti jumps in front of the girl and gets hit by the beam, wringing on the ground in pain. Hegotbetter

* Taking the Bullet: At the near end of the episode "Future Shock", one of the future baddies try to shoot a laser gun at a little girl to fix their future (i dunno theres a time-continuum thing involved). Ma-Ti jumps in front of the girl and gets hit by the beam, wringing on the ground in pain. He gets better, though.

* Taking The Bullet: Near the end of the episode "Future Shock", one of the future baddies try to shoot a laser gun at a little girl to complete their future. Ma-Ti jumps in front of the girl and gets hit by the beam, wringing on the ground in pain. He gets better, though.

** [[spoiler: This explains Wheeler's [[YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries accent and hot temper. A temper, that could be called rage. Rage, from Brooklyn.]] ]]

* BittersweetEnding: If you think about it, HIV episode "A Formula for Hate" ending is bittersweet. While Todd was accepted by other people, who felt guilty about harrasing him and they learnt that HIV positive people aren't monsters and need care and support, he still has HIV and will not have a chance to marry his girlfriend and have any children, since they will also have HIV and Todd himself will eventually gain AIDS and die.
* BlondesAreEvil: Dr. Blight, though she is potentially more insane than evil.

* AllergicToEvil: Captain Planet is hurt by Adolf Hitler's hatred considered to be a form of emotional pollution.

-->Gi: (looking at food) "ReallY? I didn't know you liked duck feet soup and squid in its own ink."

-->Mabu: "Uh... what pasta? It is grub worm stew." (the other four Planeteers go wide-eyed, then looked at Wheeler in morbid fascination as he continued to eat until he cleaned off his place, obviously not hearing what Mabu said)

* ChristianityIsCatholic: The episode "Nothing's Sacred" seems to imply that Linka is Catholic. Eastern Orthodoxy was more common among Christians in the Soviet Union, although there were Catholics, usually among specific ethnic groups (Lithuanians, Poles, and some of the Volga Germans for instance).
** Apart from the fact that religion as a whole was quite... frowned upon in the USSR. This included everything from baptisms to Sunday masses.

The villains -- who all had ObviouslyEvil {{names|ToRunAwayFromReallyFast}} like Duke Nukem ([[DukeNukem not that one]]), Hoggish Greedly, and Looten Plunder -- were {{strawm|anPolitical}}en who often seemed to want to destroy the planet [[ForTheEvulz just because it was the eeevil thing to do]] (though there was often a perfunctory profit-motive involved). This was a sincere, if ''exceptionally'' hamfisted, way of avoiding offense: if the villains had been given [[WhiteAndGrayMorality grayer morality]], then kids might have compared them to their parents or their parents' employers, who are only trying to do their jobs in an efficient manner. To avoid friction, the writers created villains who were intentionally exaggerated and made to be symbols of the planet's environmental problems (rather than representative of the actions of individuals).

* [[ArtisticLicenseEconomics You Fail Economics Forever]]: Any time economics come into it, they are wrong. Even ignoring that the villains could have [[CutLexLuthorACheck made more money legitimately]] than off their various evil schemes, most of said schemes are totally self-defeating from a profitability standpoint. These include plans for massive oil rigs to harvest huge amounts at once (instantly devaluing it on the market) and huge mercenary armies hired to strip ''entire continents'' of their natural resources (now no-one has anything to trade for your products PLUS you completely raped them even if they did).
** Plus, the show tries to make it a point that environmentalism isn't just right, but also always great economically. No, it isn't; it is usually more expensive, which is why so many businesses don't do it, regardless of whether or not they should.
* [[ArtisticLicenseHistory You Fail History Forever]]: In one episode, the Planeteers take on Hitler in the Führer's Alpine Castle, which is under attack by the (apparently desegregated) American Army. Also, Hitler has a Fu-Man-Chu mustache.

* StrawmanPolitical: Too many to list, but taken to [[BeyondTheImpossible particularly ridiculous]] extremes with Looten Plunder. In one episode in the future, he even promised tax-cuts for the rich while running for President, because "The more you have, the less you should share!". Hoggish Greedly counts too, being a DeepSouth style CEO who partially represents the damage caused by obtaining and using fossil fuels.

** Apart from the fact that religion as a whole was quite... frowned upon in the USSR. This included everything from baptisms to Sunday masses. [[FridgeBrilliance Unless, of course, Linka is from Poland, a (now former) Soviet country that is and was not only devoutly Catholic, but also managed to sustain many a certain religious aspect of life during the Soviet times]].
*** Poland had never been a Soviet country. It was part of Warsaw Pact and Soviet Union had a great deal of influence on government but it was independent since WorldWarII.

''Captain Planet and the Planeteers'' (1990 to 1996) underwent several small revisions over the course of its run -- it was renamed ''The New Adventures of Captain Planet'' during its 1993 to 1996 run, which co-incided with a change in production companies -- but the tone of the show always focused on the environment, often with an {{Aesop}} [[GreenAesop about the environment]] [[hottip: *: though other topics like violence or AIDs received their aesops as well]] near the close of each episode. Prevalent in the show's theme was the concept of personal responsibility: Captain Planet's {{Catchphrase}} was "The power is ''yours!''"

The show's first season was finally released on DVD (in the US) on April 19th 2011, just in time for Earth Day. The packaging was, surprisingly, made from 100% earth-friendly recycled paper. In July 2011, Cartoon Network announced that a live-action film adaptation of the show was in the works.

The show's first season was finally released on DVD (in the US) on April 19th 2011, just in time for Earth Day. The packaging was, unsurprisingly, made from 100% earth-friendly recycled paper. In July 2011, Cartoon Network announced that a live-action film adaptation of the show was in the works.