Negativity: Captain Planet And The Planeteers

The tone of the article is extremely negative. Focusing on the problems with the show. But it's not like the show was never extremely popular (Being. over it's two series, one of the longest running cartoon of the 90s). It would be nice if it could be somewhat made more neutral in tone.

I tried to make the description more neutral, mostly by just cutting out the criticism part of it. Someone who is more familiar with the show probably should look over my edits though. I think I may have cut out too much.

Reviews belong in the reviews section. I certainly agree that the page is overly critical, although I personally can't do much to help as the entirety of my knowledge about the show is that it spawned the What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway? meme.

Edit: Ninja'd.

edited 19th Jul '11 4:15:24 PM by nrjxll

There's probably ways to address that the show is somewhat controversial without just piling on it. I'll cop to having done so (it's like shooting fish in a barrel really), but yea, the article as is reads in some ways like a big screed against it. Also, the laoded nature of the show being something of a soapbox for Ted Turner back in the day does draw people out of the woodwork like flies.

EDIT: So yea, looking at your edit, you got the wordiest stuff out of the way - and probably for the better, no intro should be that long. I can take a shot later at writing something that lightly notes the show's controversy without diving back into that pit, but I'll post here first before I do.

edited 19th Jul '11 5:02:04 PM by Rebochan

Some mention should be made of the show's attempts to tackle issues well beyond the ability of its writers. Like AIDS.

It's really a balancing act though. The intro isn't supposed to be a piece defending or bashing it, just providing a small summary of the work's context in pop culture.

Just mention that the show occasionaly veered into controversial territory with... questionable results.

I don't think "veered into controversial territory" is as good as something like "frequently engaged in Author Tract".

Hey, I was trying to stay neutral. By all means, put Author Tract in there.

What would be worth mentioning is that it pretty much didn't have that reputation when it was originally aired.

Eh, I remember hearing about it all the time when it was actually running. Usually with my parents mumbling in the background about how it was poisoning my mind with liberal propaganda. It was a pretty popular target for right-wing talk radio hosts in the US.

...oh god, it just got a movie deal, the rhetoric is going to climb to 11.

Actually, I'm going to slip in and add that to the intro (along with the DVD information because apparently a DVD release slipped under my radar and THAT WILL NOT DO), but that's all neutral info.

Yeah, my parents, who were dyed-in-the-wool liberals, despised the show as a shallow, humorless, ham-handed attempt to present complex issues that probably did more harm than good. An embarrassment to the cause.

Basically, a lot of people either thought it was a commie plot or a cynical and poorly-done attempt to cash in on the environmentalist movement.

Ironically I did grow up to be a liberal tree-hugging hippie, but I tend to view Captain Planet much the same way.

Really though, the show was Ted Turner's baby and he still talks about it as something that will save the world. Oh, I'm sure he made a lot of money on it, but I think it's more than that to him. You know that Robot Chicken cartoon parodying him? Yea, he's probably like that in real life.

So backing away for a second, there needs to be a way to get an intro that can bring up the show in the context of its time and how its remembered without just being an attack on it, because that's a no-no. And yea, it was a pretty popular show with some lucrative tie-ins and now's even got a movie coming down the pipeline, so clearly it wasn't powered by Ted Turner's vision alone.