Hey, hey, hey! Welcome to Millennial Misremembers, the column where I unsuccessfully try to hold onto my youth by reliving media from my past. You, however, can benefit from my misremembering! Today, we’re diving into Captain Planet and the Planeteers, so next time someone brings up the woke agenda on television, you can impress them with your nostal-edge.
Captain Planet and the Planeteers premiered September 15, 1990, on TBS with “A Hero for Earth.” The series aired for a total of six seasons and even won two Environmental Media Awards over its run. That’s pretty neat! But did it deserve those awards?
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What I (mis)remember
Even back when, I cared about animals and the planet, but my methods were quite childlike. In fifth grade, I wound up in the principal’s office for staging a walkout in science class … because we kept rolly pollies in terrariums. At some point in my youth, I wrote President Clinton a letter telling him to protect wolves and addressed it “Dear Bill.”
I can see how an environmentalist show spoke to the budding anti-capitalist-vegan-queer-agendist inside me. From what I remember, Captain Planet and the Planeteers is about a diverse group of teens who the Earth calls upon to stop people who are polluting and other such horrid things.
These kids were superheroes, yes, but they were also just ordinary teens, which was meant to show that anyone can be an environmentalist?
How far off the mark am I?
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Let’s rewatch!
Oh sweet — the first line of the Amazon synopsis is “Eco-villains beware!” I’ve got high hopes, y’all.

Captain Planet and the Planeteers opens with an expositional prologue. The Earth is in peril! So Gaia (Whoopi Goldberg) has sent rings to five special kids around the world, and the location choices are fasc-i-na-ting:
- Equipped with the power of Earth is Kwame (LeVar Burton), from Africa.
- Wheeler (Joey Dedio) is from North America and has Fire power. (Is it guns???)
- Linka (Kath Soucie) hails from the Soviet Union, and she is Wind-powered.
- Gi (Janice Kawaye), armed with the power of Water, is from Asia.
- Ma-Ti (Scott Menville) from South America has the power of Heart.
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I don’t know why this show doesn’t get more specific with these kids’ homes than their continents (or the USSR), but … that’s what they’ve chosen to do. Anyway, when these special kids point their rings up to the sky, they shoot laser beams that summon Captain Planet (David Coburn).
The episode proper begins with a bunny being smooshed as Hoggish Greedly (Ed Asner) clomps his AT-AT Walker through the forest. His mission? Drilling for oil, he snorts — he’s a pig, get it 🙄? This place where he’s drilling for oil is a wildlife sanctuary, btw.

Meanwhile, his eco-villainy wakes Gaia up from a century-long nap. She’s shocked by the amount of damage humans have done in those hundred years. Lady, that means you were awake for the Industrial Revolution … you didn’t foresee this?
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After she sees all the damage — factories dumping into water, smog from cars, plastic soda rings in the ocean — she realizes that Earth is dying. So, she decides she must send out her bejeweled rings to special kids around the globe. Ah, so the exposition at the beginning of the episode hasn’t happened yet.
Their rings drop while:
Kwame plants seedlings in the hot desert heat; Gi swims with dolphins; Wheeler fights crime; Linka plays keyboard on a mountain; and Ma-Ti rescues a monkey from jaguars.
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After they receive their rings, Gaia transports the teens to Hope Island. Wheeler must be US American because he brusquely demands Gaia for an explanation (that, and he’s got a terrible NYC accent). Then he tries to flirt with Linka, but she’s not going for it.
Gaia isn’t interested in the Cold War and begins instructing the Planeteers on how to use their rings.

In practicing using her Wind power, Linka gets sucked up into a tornado and shouts, “Chert voz’mi!” Next, Kwame has a go and splits the ground in two. He’s stoked, though, because his powers mean he can stop deforestation back home. They all play around with their powers.
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Then, they turn their attention to Ma-Ti. They wanna know what his power is. Apparently, having Heart power means being able to sense all of and hear their thoughts. He links them all.
Gaia tells the Planeteers they have no time to practice ’cause Hoggish Greedly and his sidekick, Rigger (John Ratzenberger), are about to destroy the planet. Cue the terror on the kiddos’ faces. Gaia tells them that if they’re ever in over their heads that they should put their powers together — hmm, what will happen then!?
Rigger is delighted about all the oil this wildlife preserve is generating, but he realizes that it’s gonna hurt the animals. Hoggish Greedly tells him he’s the only one who matters.
Next, the Planeteers fly to the wildlife preserve. Wheeler wants to know why Gi gets to fly. She reminds him she’s the only one with a license. Everyone tells him, “Sit down, Yankee.” LOL
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Hoggish Greedly sees them coming and sprays the Planeteers with oil. They’re going to crash! Oh. No, they won’t. Linka and Kwame use save the group with their powers. Then, when it’s time to confront Hoggish Greedly, Wheeler pulls out a megaphone to taunt the pig-man.

Because, of course, the loud, white US American would just coast off the hard work of the marginalized folx who did it. No, literally, the other Planeteers are building a boat while he prattles on.
Kwame decides they need backup. It’s time to combine their powers. They are not surprised enough when they manifest a superhero. Captain Planet is here, finally!
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At least Greedly and Rigger react appropriately. They run away, unfortunately spilling all the oil they’ve collected on a trail behind them.
The kids’ rings are deactivated while Captain Planet is around, so he’s got to do all the work right now. Greedly and Rigger try to attack him with the AT-AT Walker, but he’s impenetrable — until Hoggish Greedly sprays him with toxic waste. Which is his kryptonite, I guess.

The Planeteers clean and save him with a bit of sunshine and water. Captain Planet stops Hoggish Greedly — for the moment. He’ll be back.
Then, Captain Planet leaves his minions with their rings, telling them the power is theirs … to clean up all the animals on the beach. Wheeler, naturally, doesn’t think it’s fair that they have to clean up all the mess; they didn’t make it, nor are they being paid.
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Hahahahah. Linka’s response is: Because we care, my sweet Imperialist dog. Besides, some rewards are greater than money.
Then a seal/sea lion licks Wheeler in thanks, and they hug it out.

End episode proper; cue a PSA telling kids the changes they can make at home to save the planet. Ugh, that’s great, but the average person isn’t the problem: corporations and governments are.
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We have to talk about those accents …
I desperately wanted to try to make sense of the accents in this show. To my 2022-self, it doesn’t feel right, but your mileage may vary. The info about the actors’/characters’ ethnicities, nationalities and accents is what I’ve gleaned from context clues and the internet.
- Kwame is most likely Ghanaian, specifically of Akan descent. He speaks with an accent that, I guess, sort of works? LeVar Burton is US American.
- Gi is probably either Japanese or Korean, with a slight lilt to her English. Janice Kawaye is US American, though she is of Japanese descent and fluent in Japanese.
- The name Linka is of either Hungarian or Romanian origin, her accent is generically Russian, and she speaks English with Russian grammar (“Wheeler! Take out door!”). Kath Soucie is US American, and I don’t know her ancestry.
- Wheeler mentions he’s from Brooklyn. Joey Dedio is from New York and of Puerto Rican and Italian descent, but Wheeler’s accent in the show is not his actual accent (at least currently).
- And that brings us to Ma-Ti, who the internet tells me is supposed to be Brazilian. He’s wearing a loincloth and from the rainforest, so I’m guessing he’s meant to be indigenous. I can’t find much information about Scott Menville besides him being born in Malibu.
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Does it live up to the nostalgia?
Rewatching Captain Planet and the Planeteers made me sad to a degree I hadn’t anticipated. This show is filled with early 90s optimism, and more than 30 years on, we’re still destroying our wonderful home and taking it for granted. Second, I wanted to enjoy this show, but it was just kinda boring. It was not subtle enough to be engaging but not artless enough to be an after-school special.
I appreciated the effort to be inclusive, but even for the 90s, it missed the mark. What I do love, however, is the catchphrase and theme: The power is yours. Even if it’s not always true, it’s much better than Wheeler’s phraseology (“Rhooskie Tooskie?”).
I also love LeVar Burton, truly. Here’s an interview of him talking about Captain Planet and the Planeteers from back in the day:
That’s it for this edition of Millennial Misremembers! See y’all soon! 🌏🌍🌎
This article was originally published in August 2022.
https://www.geekgirlauthority.com/george-of-the-jungle-at-25/
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