Captain Planet: Parody and kitsch
Read more: CAPTAIN PLANET, CAPTAIN PLANET BEHIND-THE-SCENES
Nick Boxer talks about a comic book that once did a Captain Planet parody in this exclusive behind-the-scenes video. (Meredith Darlington/MNN and Mike Lindsay/MNN)
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Read the transcript
Nick Boxer: There was a show that came out right around the same time that we did called Toxic Crusader, which was a spin-off of the movie Toxic Avenger, or the comic book Toxic Avenger, and then they made movies out of it. But I don’t think they really focused on sort of the science and the issues nearly as much as we did, although in their comic book — we both had comic books — and they made a great, they did a great parody of Captain Planet and the Planeteers. It was Corporal Globe and the Globeteers, and they had these powers, and they were like — I forget what the first four, but I remember they replaced Heart, like, they had a character, it was like, Ma-Ti, and they replaced his power. His power was Coochi- Coo. So they sort of just mocked Captain Planet, but we decided that, still, that was the sincerest form of flattery, the fact that they, you know, were so focused on us that — it was a sign of success. And I sort of feel that Captain Planet has over the years had various renaissances, and it’s like, I feel like that in some ways going forward they can have that again in the same way, you know, Speed Racer. I think that, you know, at a certain point, as it goes further and further away, it becomes sort of more and more kitsch. You know, and obviously Captain Planet was very corny in a lot of ways, very tongue-in-cheek, sometimes badly done, sometimes over the top in terms of the corniness, but that was sort of — you got one shot. You didn’t have that much opportunity, you know, once you create a genre and a mythology, you’ve kind of got to stick with it and just try and do it better and better as you go along.
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Renaissance of Captain Planet?
It's amazing how many people know about this show even though it hasn't aired much since the mid 90's (it hasn't here, anyway.) As silly as this sounds, I think the corniness, gaping plot holes, impossible science, and general so-bad-it's-good attribute is one of the reasons why Captain Planet has stuck around for so long. Sure, people make fun of it a lot--but that means they still talk about it :P
I think Captain Planet could be brought back, if done properly. The story re-done with a darker,.... More