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Captain Planet and the Planeteers

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redfarmer

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I think "Captain Planet" was more of a foot-bullet for environmentalism than anything else. I watched it as a kid, and so did most of my friends.... and I can't think of any other program we ridiculed more. Its heavy-handedness was apparent even then. The fact that the Planeteers were complete lamers didn't help, nor did the Captain's garish appearance...

Ducktales was a favorite, though. Heh, I wonder which fictional character is responsible for influencing more capitalists, Scrooge McDuck or Howard Roark? I always wanted a money bin to swim in...

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  • 4 weeks later...

I loved Beakman, but I was only 6 when it stopped playing, so I don't remember much. But my favourite all-time cartoon has always been Batman. Batman could kick Superman's butt anyday. :nuke:

There's something brilliant about a man who can create a wealthy empire and defend justice for his own selfish (if somewhat obsessive) reasons, and manage them both superlatively. If I ever have children, I would definately push Batman.

(note: I think the justification for the teletubby and boo-bah atrocities is that they are colorful and speak on the "level of toddlers". It's sick that parents undermine their own children's intelligence in such a manner.)

~Amanda :dough:

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I actually remember watching Captain Planet all the time. Never bought into the whole enviornmentalist agenda. Maybe I was somewhat Macabre and strange as a child but I always wanted someone to murder that Captain planet. I remember sometimes wondering why the "real" plans of the "eco-terrorists" weren't revealed. This were just destroying the enviornment for no aparent reason. Just if the trees they were cutting was a house being built for a homeless shelter, helping people get back on their feet.

Once I asked myself that, I turned to something more worthy.

As for Ducktales, I loved Ducktales. I loved how enormously huge Scrooge's house was, and his safe full of gold.

Gosh, we are greedy! :dough:

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I remember Captain Planet, what an awful show. My dad didn't want me watching it (is it any wonder he was the one who introduced me to Ayn Rand's works?).

I watched Ducktales though, Duck Tales...WOO-HOO.

I find it hilarious that a lot of us watched that show.

As for Mathnet, I think I watched that too. Did that show have anything to do with Square One?

Another show I enjoyed, because I liked the game, was Where In The World is Carmen Sandiego.

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I loved Beakman, but I was only 6 when it stopped playing, so I don't remember much. But my favourite all-time cartoon has always been Batman. Batman could kick Superman's butt anyday.  :P 

There's something brilliant about a man who can create a wealthy empire and defend justice for his own selfish (if somewhat obsessive) reasons, and manage them both superlatively. If I ever have children, I would definately push Batman.

(note: I think the justification for the teletubby and boo-bah atrocities is that they are colorful and speak on the "level of toddlers". It's sick that parents undermine their own children's intelligence in such a manner.)

~Amanda  :dough:

Batman is practically the Objectivist ideal hero. Not only is he a self-made BILLIONARE (It's like every night, after a hard day at the mills, mild mannered Hank Rearden descends into his cave... and becomes BATMAN!!) he is also a super hero in the sense that his only superpower is his mind. No fancy gimmicks, just years of martial arts training and a utility belt. He uses the power of his mind to overcome adversaries. He doesn't fight crime out of any altruistic sense, but he does it in his own interest, out of his own desire for justice.

But then again, I may be biased, because I grew up two houses down from the writer of Batman comics. I used to go there and he would give us all sorts of cool stuff. Heck, he even used one my uncle's name as the name for one of his villians. That and his house was like a gothic styled architexture, and his son was one of my best friends, so going to his house was an adventure for a 9 year old.

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But then again, I may be biased, because I grew up two houses down from the writer of Batman comics. I used to go there and he would give us all sorts of cool stuff. Heck, he even used one my uncle's name as the name for one of his villians. That and his house was like a gothic styled architexture, and his son was one of my best friends, so going to his house was an adventure for a 9 year old.

That's so wonderful! :lol:

As for Batman being the "ideal objectivist hero", I agree, I don't know how he could be more spectacular. He even works with the police. I really dislike it when new writers depict batman as being unhealthily obsessed with his night job. It's not that obsession is unhealthy, they just don't get the concept of choosing to be as focused as him.

~Amanda :pirate:

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Batman is practically the Objectivist ideal hero.

I knew there was a reason Batman has always been my favorite hero in comic books! Batman and all of his allies (with the exception of Azrael and crossover allies) are self-made heroes! I had never thought of it that way but that must be what I always saw in him!

Now I really can't wait until Batman Begins comes out.

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Between this and someone on another thread seeing Kwanzza featured on an episode of "Blue's Clues", it makes me wonder whether there's any good TV shows for kids.

My 2 yr. old son loves "Blue's Clues". He walks around the house with a little notebook & a crayon pointing at stuff & saying "Find another clue, put in our notebook.....'cause they're whose clues? Blue's Clues!!" Just like the guy in the show, its absolutely hysterical.

Although, I have never seen the "Kwanzza" episode to which you refer. Every episode I've seen (or we have on DVD) is very focused on counting, spelling & finding clues. I thought it was kinda neat because they always sings lines like, "You sure are smart!" & "Sit down in our thinking chair & think!" & "When we use our minds...we can do anything..."

As far as other shows, he also loves the "Wiggles", Baby Einstein DVDs & the classic Dr. Seuss books/vids (almost all of them are on DVD now!).

But they turned on Teletubbies and she was mesmerized.

Oh, yeah! He likes some of the Teletubbies, especially when they are counting or identifying objects.

I love watching all those shows with him & talking about the stuff in the shows. It's wonderful to be there interacting with him while he's learning, building his mind & vocabulary.

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captain pla-net, he's our he-ro! gonna take pollution down to ze-ro!

TRANSLATION: kill every single human being.

Morbid little show, isn't it?

:lol: As awful as this cartoon is, it does have a catchy little theme song. To this day, it gets stuck in my head, and I get weird looks from my coworkers when I'm singing it under my breath.

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Does anyone remember Mr. Wizard? I loved that.

I think Ducktales and Talespin (and possibly Rescue Rangers) were the only true "spin off" shows that were ever good. For those who never saw it, Talespin used Baloo and Louie from the Jungle Book. Baloo worked with a small business owner (a small female bear) as a cargo pilot, and Louie ran a pitstop-style bar/club. My memory of specific episodes is vague, but I remember enjoying it. I never liked any of the Tiny Toons, Animaniacs.. whatnot that came out of the classic characters. Baby Looney Toons is the newest and it's just ... awful. Duck Dodgers of the 24th 1/2 century had the potential to be funny, but it's just missing the mark.

As for Captain Planet, I think more offensive than the bad plots surrounding environmentalism (they never made sense. "evil capitalist wants to pollute because he's evil") was the horrendous stereotyping. The American kid, Wheeler, was a total slob, a total moron and just seemed to be angry a lot. I'm not sure how anyone from any of those backgrounds could watch the show and really be proud.

And frankly, the animation was probably the *worst* I have ever seen.

I also like Blue's Clues. I have not seen the Kwannza episode either. Even though the main character speaks slowly, I don't think the show really speaks down to the child. Teletubbies is a total atrocity. (What IS that goop that comes out of the pipe?? Pudding? Slime?) Dora the Explorer seems to miss the mark that Blue's Clues hits effectively. There's also some show, I think on Nick Jr., that has children running around with big puppet faces that move in a somewhat lifelike manner. I've no clue what it's called, but I find it really disturbing.

On the upside, I do like the Discovery Kids programs that show sometimes in the mornings or Saturdays. The information is usually selective, but it's all good. I miss the days when Discovery showed actual science programs all day long, instead of whole blocks of decorating or angry people building machines. Still, Mythbusters is a great show :(

(I think I've rambled enough.)

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Does anyone remember Mr. Wizard?  I loved that. 

I remember Mr. Wizard. I always liked that. The Magic Schoolbus is a little newer, but I liked that one also, someone else here mentioned Bill Nye, and I was also a Ducktales and Batman fan. I'm also looking forward to the upcoming movie. It's funny that we liked a lot of the same shows. I couldn't have said my reasons then for sure. I never watched Captain Planet either, I mean I've seen it, but I thought it was boring.

I don't watch TV anymore though unless I am hanging out at someone else's house. Too much of it as a kid maybe, it just really turns me off now. My bf though has HD TV so we watch alot of the IMAX specials. I enjoy those.

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Perhaps this was already mentioned but I always fell apart with laughter at the Captain Planet song:

Captain Planet! He's a hero! Gonna bring pollution down to zero!

The show was unbearable to watch except in a Full House way, where you watch it with others just to make fun of it and crack up at other people's jokes on the horrible writing and storylines and characters, etc.

Duck Tales was a great cartoon, the only reason that goofy duck superhero came on in the last season was to launch the new show with that duck as the main character I think. Darkwing Duck?...

I think Batman and Superman were damaged by re-writing of their situations and their enemies. For instance, Batman has been re-painted recently as almost villainous and so brooding over his parents deaths that he almost seems crazy. Lex Luthor, the Superman nemesis, was re-written in the 80's as an evil businessman by the douchebags running DC at the time from the evil scientist he had been since his creation. Plus Batman was so dandified by the TV Show and the subsequent cartoon depictions of him in that guise that the writers must feel they have to overcompensate for that period by making him a psycho. I still think the first Batman movie, aside from the annoying Prince songs, was the best video depiction of the caped crusader. The subsequent films just got worse and worse, and I'm not too hopeful for the new movie with that guy from American Psycho (which is by the way, a terrible movie).

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Duck Tales was a great cartoon, the only reason that goofy duck superhero came on in the last season was to launch the new show with that duck as the main character I think. Darkwing Duck?...

No, no...not Darkwing Duck. Gizmo. He had a suit of armor with a unicycle wheel on the bottom and his armor attached itself to him whenever he said, "Blabbering blabberscythes!"

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Another show I enjoyed, because I liked the game, was Where In The World is Carmen Sandiego.

I owe my great geography skills to that show! Although Carmen was a villain I always thought she looked awesome in a fedora and trench coat! For awhile I was really into detective stories/cartoons/whatever...even considered a future career in it (I was 10..). Batman: The Animated series was my favorite Batman cartoon... I don't think any of the others come close. I do like the fact that Bruce Wayne had to train hard and uses his reason/intelligence to solve crimes and get out of tight binds.

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I thought some of you may be interested in some of the information I found out last night (given the tangent this thread has gotten on :) ). Apparently Disney has begun a policy where they will no longer air reruns or release episodes on DVD of Ducktales, Darkwing Duck or Rescue Rangers. The reason? Apparently they consider these three cartoons to be "too violent."

Disney has also apparently almost completely written out the character of Scrooge McDuck from the Disney cannon. He now rarely appears in comics, cartoons, and movies. The reason? They don't feel Scottish people should be portrayed the way he is.

I found out last night by browsing some discussion boards that this policy has apparently enraged many fans.

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  • 1 month later...

when i was 5 i watched one episode of captian planet, and all i saw were cool rings and pretty colors, and didn't think much else, but when my dad walked in he turned off the T.V, and explained why it was evil. From that day on, I was the only kid in kindergarten who thought Captian Planet was evil, that along with movies like "Fern Gully" (the biggest anti-production movie ever), the Great Panda Adventure, all the kids though i was crazy :D , but i've always been grateful to my dad for that.

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Glad to see we all liked Duck Tales. I was always fond of the X-Men cartoons myself.

Does anyone remember this show on PBS called SquareOne? It was an awesome math show where they solved word problems and had a little game show and stuff. But then again, I have been called a tool before.... :ninja:

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  • 1 month later...

Sweet, another superhero fan. Did anyone else here dig the Ninja Turtles? Yes, they were completely silly, but they were hilarious and it was also funny to see how flatly incompetent the villains were. And X-Men was just awesome. The story of mutants has a great appeal to any kid who ever felt different and excluded even when their difference made them special in a good way. People fear what they don't understand can easily equal stupid muscleheads throw nerds in lockers. It's also kind of a metaphor for adolescence too, I think.

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Sweet, another superhero fan.  Did anyone else here dig the Ninja Turtles?  Yes, they were completely silly, but they were hilarious and it was also funny to see how flatly incompetent the villains were.  And X-Men was just awesome.  The story of mutants has a great appeal to any kid who ever felt different and excluded even when their difference made them special in a good way.  People fear what they don't understand can easily equal stupid muscleheads throw nerds in lockers.  It's also kind of a metaphor for adolescence too, I think.

I love x-men, still do. Those guys along with Captian America, were my heroes. I remember a quote from Captian AMerica just before he was about to go fight some Nazi killing machine, "Let's go make the world safe for democracy!" Love it!

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  • 1 year later...

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