If Captain Planet was being remade what you do to make it better?

I always found it amusing that the American was the asshole. Though it's true that he - and Linka though association with him - had a bit more personality than the rest of them.

It does occur to me now that I'm older that Kwame was something of a standard bland leader archetype but as a kid I thought the guy was definitely cool, something that still sticks with me even though I can't really sit through a Captain Planet episode any more.

edited 29th Nov '12 12:43:07 AM by KnownUnknown

@title, thread hop: Eh, I'd have it established that heart IS actually useful powers so people wouldn't forget about it and make untrue jokes

Let's make him a Bald Black Leader Guy. and Ma-Ti a woman.

Hell make them all ladies

edited 29th Nov '12 6:00:44 AM by HeroShepherd

OK for real this time.

Let's get rid of Wheeler and Sly Sludge Wheeler will be replaced by an Hispanic and Greedily will do Sly's stick.

Lets make Linka Ambiguously Brown

Also Captain Pollution his powers will be changed so they include garbage. So it takes 6 rings to summon him.

edited 1st Dec '12 5:36:22 AM by HeroShepherd

Try and make the anvilicous parts of the shows a little more subtle. Don't make the bad guys pollute for no reason. I really like to see a myth arc too, but that might be asking for too much. I'd also really like to see them show how good of a power Heart is.

Areed but there should still be one who's evil for evil's sake eather Plunder or Skumm.

To present the issues with anything approaching the level of complexity of reality, you'd need to ditch the twenty-minute self-contained episode format. Ideally, switch to a few 60-minute TV movies; failing that, you'd have to do it through multi-episode arcs.

I say make Linka a Kazakh. By ancestry if not by nationality.

A what?

I say instead of saying addressing the character as "Captain Planet", I say he referred only as "The Emissary", "The Herald", "The Harbinger". He is summoned anytime some aberration appears as a result of excessive ring use. He would correct the aberration however he will not spare the effort to save human lives and will perhaps take a few lives if necessary.

Also have the rings be in the hands of the Mega Corps. Also change the rings so that its powers can be geared towards profit and bettering lives. Earth allows transmutation of metals, Air can control air currents and thus the weather, Water allows one to shift rapidly shift large quantities of water between the usual three states of matter, Fire violates the First Law of Thermodynamics generating large amounts of energy from nothing.

Heart is a missing ring. It should be the focus of the series to find it in order to prevent the Emissary from doing further harm and to prevent the Mega Corps from subjugating the entire world.

Also the Planeteers should instead be granted some ability to negate the rings or have a tiny portion of it bestowed upon them.

"Of whom?", "Of what" and "of what" respectively. All three of those kind of imply that Gaia is a more direct, active force in the world and that Captain Planet is only there to tide things over until she gets there.

I think it was a case of You keep using that word

They can't just give up and get the job to Captian. planet every Episode There needs to be repercussions first summoning him

Something that a lot of Western Animation seems to be better with these days is averting "Status Quo Is God." Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated had the relationships between the Scooby gang in a state of flux and naturally gave the main characters more personality compared to their previous incarnations.

Now, unlike a few people, I believe there's nothing wrong with a Green Aesop, but the characters in a show can't just be a vehicle for viewpoints if you want someone to actually care about them and the overall message. So I'd flesh out the Planeteers as more than just a ridiculed Five-Token Band. Keep the episodic format, but show changes in the group and the teen's relationships and character development over the course of a season. Maybe even show fluctuations in the membership. Perhaps one teen is killed (in a family-friendly manner, naturally) and has repercussions for the rest of the group. Perhaps one teen goes off the slippery slope and breaks from the group to become a full-on ecoterrorist and Well-Intentioned Extremist antagonist.

In my humble opinion, writing a good show has to come before teaching an aesop. While the original Captain Planet could be an enjoyable show (and not just in a So Bad, It's Good Guilty Pleasure sort of way) at times, individual episodes could still feel like they were written "aesop first."

edited 1st Dec '12 7:59:06 PM by romanticaveman

What would be really great (although also terrifying) is the following.

Let's say the Planeteers (they're not called that way in any reboot) are mostly the same, except Wheeler is replaced by a different person. This different person however is more extreme than his team mates. Eventually he's fed up with the rest of the Planeteers and decides to do what he thinks is good.

However, his actions cause property damage or he does something that doesn't necessarily threaten any lives, but is illegal. For that, he's being tried. Even though the rest of the Planeteers try everything to keep him out of jail, he is sentenced for an undetermined amount of time. Before he goes to jail though, he is forced by the rest of the team to give up the ring, so that they can find somebody else to give the ring to to continue their battles.

That person happens to be Wheeler.

Why this would be great? It shows that there are limits, legal limits, to what you can and can't do. You can't do everything and still get away with it, even if your intentions are well. In the end, you should fight for what you stand for, but within what is legal.

I think we all agree that the biggest problem with this series is that it was little more than a vehicle for Ted Turner's incompetent lecturing. The only question is whether or not there is anything to salvage from the series if they remove that.

Are you kidding? The only reason I see to revive the show is to spoof the hilarious incompetent lecturing!

Ditto and I love Elemental Powers

edited 2nd Dec '12 1:10:32 PM by HeroShepherd

Well, if they took more of an Earthsong approach, it might work.

edited 2nd Dec '12 1:25:42 PM by Suland