Monday, April 22, 2019

With your powers combined...

Anyone remember Captain Planet?

I was watching a YouTube video about 90s cartoon intros and really dug  the intro for Captain Planet.  Granted it was mainly produced by TBS as a way to educate young people about ecological sustainability, but it had some cool characters and memorable moments.

The premise of it wasn't too far removed from another of my favorite cartoons, Voltron, that I would watch growing up.  Instead of 5 space pilots learning to work together through teamwork and form a giant mechanized super robot, there was 5 teenage activists from across the globe that had to use their "powers" gifted from a magical ring to work together to form a blue bodied mullet bearing superhero called Captain Planet.

Captain Planet literally brought about a hero that could only appear when everyone worked together to stop pollution.  The teenagers that summoned him were empowered through magical rings gifted from Gaia (Mother Earth).  Each ring possesed a different element to control and allowed the user to use it to prevent further damage from occurring.  The 4 natural elements (earth, wind, fire, water) were also used in association with heart to give the Planeteers abilities to overcome the over top villainy of Dr. Blight, Sly Sludge, Duke Nukem, Looten Plunder, Hoggish Greedly, and Verminous Skumm.

Let's take a look at some Cutch cardboard and how it can relate to the Earth Saving rings used by the Planeteers.

Earth

I chose a Gypsy Queen Sliding Stars mini card because it features dirt flying.  Seems appropriate for a ring that can cause the ground to literally come up from under you.

Fire

This card was a no brainer.  Topps has been producing a line of cards called Fire for a few years.  The one represented here is a metal card available only via there website in 2014.

Wind

I love this card. It ranks as one of my favorite images of Cutch on cardboard.  It looks like Cutch is taking some flying lessons with the wind lifting him up at Wrigley Field.

Water

This 2018 Legends in the Making blue parallel is a bit of a stretch for water, but something about the design of the card mixed with it being a blue parallel reminds me of a beach landscape.

Heart

This short print features a pair of 2013 Pirates All-Stars.  Pedro Alvarez and Andrew McCutchen look like they are great friends.



What are you doing today to celebrate Earth Day and help save our planet?


2 comments:

  1. Great post idea!

    I definitely watched Capt Planet as a kid. There were some awesome cartoon intros/theme songs.

    ReplyDelete
  2. In retrospect, Captain Planet really wasn't a very good cartoon, but I did watch it, probably saw the entire series during it's original run. Voltron on the other hand, now that was a solid show!

    ReplyDelete