Captain Planet and the Planeteers Wiki
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Captain Planet
Captain planet 350
Overview
Gender Male
Race Humanoid
Status Alive
Powers All powers of nature
Flight
Super strength
First Appearance A Hero for Earth
Voices David Coburn
Ricky Berwick (Un-aired)

Captain Planet is the eponymous character of the TV show Captain Planet and the Planeteers.

He is created by the five elements of the Magic Rings Gaia had invented. The elements that are used to create him are Earth, Fire, Wind, Water, and Heart.

Appearance[]

Captain Planet has a long grass-green mullet and earthy brown eyes. His skin is crystal blue, and he wears a wide red collar that covers most of his chest, nape, and shoulders and has a yellow globe sign on it, red gloves, red trunks that have a black belt with a gold buckle on the front, and red boots. But in his very first appearance, his boots were missing for the first two episodes. In the episode 'Future Shock', a futuristic version of Captain Planet appears, sporting the same colour of skin and hair, but his uniform is blue with red accents, and he speaks in a semi-deeper voice.

Personality[]

Captain Planet has a strong sense of humour and frequently makes puns and comes while taunting the villains. He only really refrains from joking if he's dealing with a serious situation that requires an equally serious demeanour, most notably the episode Mind Pollution that dealt with drug addiction. He is also highly altruistic and is quick to rescue anyone in trouble, including his eco-villain enemies--on numerous occasions, he has saved various eco-villains from dangerous situations, and he almost never harms them even when provoked. The major exception was Captain Pollution, who left Planet with little choice but to fight him to the death on both occasions they met.

Much like Gaia, Captain Planet serves as a mentor to the team. Despite his own enormous power, he repeatedly reminds the Planeteers that their true power comes from within and they have the potential to succeed even without their rings. In Greenhouse Planet, when he was temporarily stripped of all his powers except Earth and Heart (due to Kwame and Ma-Ti being in outer space and their powers bouncing back to him), he practiced what he preached and managed to rescue Wheeler, Linka and Gi through conventional means rather than using his normal power. In addition, he stresses that the ultimate responsibility of saving the planet rests with the people of Earth, rather than with him.

Powers and Abilities[]

Captain Planet's abilities are never clearly defined within the show, allowing him to always have a way of defeating his enemy and solving the problem before him.

  • Transmutation - He can alter the form of any matter into whatever he wants.
  • Elemental Manipulation - he can control the following elements:
    • Earth Manipulation: he can control all types of soils, stones or crystals or become composed of them.
    • Fire Manipulation: he can control flames or become composed of it. He can survive to lava.
    • Ice Manipulation: he can control and create ice or become composed of it.
    • Water Manipulation: he can control and create water or become composed of it.
    • Air Manipulation: he can generate winds or become composed of it.
      • Flight - he is always flying while stopping big pollution issues. It is established that Linka's Wind-power gives Captain Planet the ability to fly.[1]
    • Plant Manipulation: he can control and (literally) grow plants or become composed of it.
    • Weather Manipulation: He can create sandstorms, tornadoes and thunderstorms.
    • Electricity Manipulation: He can create and control electricity.
    • Light Teleportation
    • Environmental Awareness: He seems to have a sense that detects environmental imbalance in the vicinity.
  • Electromagnetic Manipulation: He is capable of creating electromagnetic fields around his body and also create electromagnetic pulses to shock people and disrupt nearby technology.
  • Energy Blasts: He can shoot energy blasts of unknown nature from his hands.
    [2]
  • Rainbow Generation: he can create rainbows and use them offensively.
  • Super Strength: He can break out of machines and bend metal. He was once strong enough to lift Zarm's starship and hurl it out of Earth's escape velocity.
    • Super Breath: He can blow big gusts of wind from his mouth.
  • Invulnerability
    • Self-Sustenance: He doesn't need to breath, and probably doesn't need food and water.
  • Telepathy
    • Empathy
  • Ecology: Captain Planet have shown a great knowledge of ecology and how human actions can impact environment.
  • Aviation: Captain Planet can pilot the Geo-cruiser.[1]
  • Transformation: He can transform into elemental forms like: Earth, Fire, Wind, Water, Ice, Liquid Nitrogen, Lightning, Plant, Metal, Gas and likely Diamond. He can also turn into a buzzsaw.
  • Energy Absorption: He can absorb solar energy.
  • Life Meter: his Planeteer logo acts as a life meter, decreasing in size the more he's injured.

Weaknesses and Limitations[]

  • Vulnerability to Pollution: Captain Planet is weakened when he is in contact with pollution, including but not limited to toxic waste, radiation, or smog. The eco-villains frequently take advantage of this and attempt to neutralize Captain Planet with various pollutants, occasionally succeeding and forcing the Planeteers to try and rescue him. Notably, Duke Nukem (who can absorb and emit radiation) is particularly dangerous to Planet, who typically has to engage him with caution. It can be noted that air based pollution like smog and aerosols only tend to incapacitate and cause him to cough uncontrollably, but not completely deplete his powers and cause unconsciousness. Radiation rapidly drains his strength over time and concentrated beams are shown to knock him back, weaken, and cause significant pain. Liquid based pollutants however are the most effective against him as even the smallest splash on his body completely renders him weak and powerless. Often, when his whole body gets coated with pollutants, he either completely loses consciousness or is incapacitated to the point that he cannot even stand.
  • Vulnerability to extreme evil thoughts: It should also be noted that Planet's power of empathy (although a strength) can be a weakness. In an episode where he time travelled to World War II, he got weakened just by looking at Adolf Hitler as he felt his vast prejudice and hate as they are "as toxic as any other pollutant" since they poison the mind, heart and soul.
  • Earth Link: Like Gaia, he is bound to the physical realm of Earth. Although he is capable of flying into orbit, he can’t travel away from the planet. Thus, in the aforementioned Greenhouse Planet episode, he was unable to "return to the Earth" completely as Kwame and Ma-Ti were stranded in space along with their rings. In this weakened form, he had only the Earth Manipulation and Empathy powers, and his skin was rock-gray in color.
  • Extreme physical force: Although Captain Planet's body is capable of withstanding staggering amounts of physical force, he is not in fact completely invulnerable. In the season two episode, "The Great Tree Heist", He was sucked up into the spinning blades of Hoggish Greedly's tree grinding flying saucer and was so badly injured that he dematerialized in a flash of light. Even the Planeteers could not resummon him for a significant amount of time after, and once they finally did, he was still severely weakened from his injury.
  • Alien technology: In the episodes The Conqueror and You Bet Your Planet]], Captain Planet got forcefully summoned without the knowledge of the Planeteers and was held prisoner.
  • Overconfidence: Captain Planet's cocky and smug attitude frequently lands him in situations where he severely underestimates his opponents and gets overwhelmed.

History[]

Captain Planet's origins and history prior to the show are unknown, but he is clearly an ancient entity; Zarm was aware of him in The Conqueror, despite having been exiled from Earth for eons. Gaia hints in one episode that the Planeteer rings may have been used, and Captain Planet summoned, in a previous generation. However, what is known for sure is that at the beginning of the series, Gaia assembles a modern-day group of young people from several nations to serve as ring-bearers of the five magical rings. When the modern-day Planeteers combine their powers to summon the elemental warrior, this incarnation takes on the appearance of a superhero named "Captain Planet".

The Planeteers first meet Captain Planet in the first episode A Hero for Earth when they are brought to Hope Island. They must stop Greedly from polluting the earth. Planet defeats Greedly and tells the Planeteers to call him when they see Greedly again.

Relationships[]

Captain Planet rarely has much time to interact with the team on a personal level, as his main function is to save the day and return to the rings. However, as discussed above Captain Planet serves as a mentor to all the Planeteers, and appears to see himself as a father figure to them. He has strong attachments to all the Planeteers and to Gaia and has demonstrated unusual anger when they've been threatened or harmed. In Mind Pollution, when Verminous Skumm succeeded at getting Linka addicted to the drug Bliss, he was especially enraged and noticeably devoid of his trademark sense of humour.

Significant Episodes[]

  • A Hero for Earth - Captain Planet is summoned for the first time. He also explains that the Planeteers’ Rings are powerless while he is formed, but he is their powers combined and magnified.
  • Mission to Save Earth Part II - Captain Planet goes toe-to-toe with his evil counterpart, Captain Pollution. He defeats the clone by exposing him to the four pure elements of the Earth.
  • Mind Pollution - Captain Planet is uncharacteristically cold and serious when dealing with Skumm after learning what he had done to the people and Linka with his Bliss drug.
  • Greenhouse Planet - In a first, Captain Planet was unable to split off into the rings. While he was able to return Wheeler, Linka, and Gi’s powers, he was unable to return Kwame and Ma-Ti’s powers due to them being in space at the time, causing Captain Planet to be reformed with little to no powers.
  • A Mine is a Terrible Thing to Waste Part I - Captain Planet is summoned to fight off Captain Pollution once more, but is having a hard time of it.
  • A Mine is a Terrible Thing to Waste Part II - Continuing from the previous episode, Captain Planet is on the ropes against a super-powered Captain Pollution, but through quick thinking, Captain Planet defeats Captain Pollution once and for all.
  • Future Shock - Captain Planet gets imprisoned by the future Eco-villains, but is saved by his more powerful future counterpart.
  • No Place Like Home - Due to Gaia being separated from Hope Island, Captain Planet is unable to split off into the elemental rings and is also powerless. He sticks around with the Planeteers to help find Gaia and bring her back home.

Quotes[]

Catchphrases[]

  • By your powers combined, I am Captain Planet!
  • The power is yours!

Trivia[]

  • On June 27, 2013, Sony Pictures announced that they were producing a live-action movie based on Captain Planet.[3] Little has been heard about this since, so the idea probably got discarded.
  • On October 9, 2017, the Captain and Kwame appeared in a crossover episode with OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes. Coburn and LeVar Burton reprise their roles as the Captain and Kwame respectively.
  • When Captain Planet is summoned, the Planeteer's rings are useless until Captain Planet returns to earth by returning the power.
  • Captain Planet also likes to make good appearances when he is summoned such as forming from the powers while in the sky, or when the powers zoom down from the sky into the ground Captain Planet will rise emerging from the ground or emerging from the ground underwater.
  • The Planeteers have summoned Captain Planet by aiming their rings to the sky, at the water or at a vertical distance.
  • It is impossible to summon Captain Planet if there is too much pollution in the air.
  • He has been held captive by the Conqueror Zarm before without being summoned. It's unexplained how Captain Planet was captured when he wasn't summoned yet by the 5 rings.
  • When the TV series was beginning production, actor Tom Cruise was set for the voice role but dropped out before he recorded, so the role was passed onto David Coburn.

Gallery[]

References[]

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