Captain Planet & The Planeteers was my morning cartoon before school in 1990. There was never a day you wouldn’t see my siblings and I sprawled out on the hardwood floor of our bedroom in front of our small personal T.V. watching Captain Planet & The Planeteers after shoveling down our breakfast cereal. We would trade off on which one of us was a certain Planeteer as each had their special power ring that summoned the 4 basic Elements and Heart. As there were only four of us and five of them we would each trade off being Heart because then you would get 2 special power rings! Which were just made up .25 cent rings from the quarter machines at the Dairy Freeze my Grandmother owned.
The special thing about the Planeteers was that when they combined the powers of their rings they created CAPTAIN PLANET! They fought eco-villians that sought to pollute the Earth and loot it of it’s resources! So when things got too rough they would combine their powers to create Captain Planet to finish the job. When my siblings and I would see an eco-villain (which was generally a litterbug) we would pick up the trash and thus we had “Saved the Earth” from certain destruction! Captain Planet & The Planeteers was our first introduction into how important the environment was and how to keep it safe. At the end of each episode it would air a segment where they would teach everyone how to be a part of the solution, ending with the tag-line “The Power is Yours!”
April is Earth Month and there is no better month than to present Captain Planet & The Planeteers: Season One on DVD. It will be out in stores on April 19th, but you can Pre-Order the 4-DVD Box Set packaged in eco-friendly packaging on Amazon. It has 26 Episodes and all the excitement of Bonus Features! Which includes The Story of Captain Planet, the Original Concept Art and Animated Storybooks!
Whether you want to revisit, as I had, the wonderful show that brought to us the importance of being responsible for our Earth or you want to have one of the best shows that will help your kids understand these same concepts, there isn’t anything better than Captain Planet & The Planeteers. As adults you can enjoy the voice acting of Whoopi Goldburg, Meg Ryan, Martin Sheen, Jeff Goldblum, Sting and many, many more wonderful actors while your children rush to save the world from Sly Sludge, Looten Plunder and Duke Nukem all the while yelling with enthusiastic glee:
“Earth! Fire! Wind! Water! Heart! By your powers combined, I am Captain Planet!”
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