Ah, Captain Planet. A franchise I've kinda become synonymous with thanks to my Tooncrap articles. When I reviewed the show for the first time in 2010, I was doing it mostly out of a sillier, and less "woke" mindset. Much like a lot of my Tooncrap reviews back in the day, my intention was more to be silly with my reviews and being far less "woke" if you will when it comes to everything. It's why of the reviews I'm most mixed on how I handled it, my pick has to be "A Formula For Hate", which as of right now is sitting at almost 20,000 views. Something I never thought would be possible for someone who was just ripping off Wrestlecrap. Part of me feels I wasn't fair to this episode, and that I placed it as Tooncrap because "hurr, durr, Aids is funny". So, I'm here to give it a second opinion almost eight years later. If this comes off as positive, consider this the first of several re-reviews for my earlier Tooncrap reviews.
Captain Planet and the Planeteers debuted on September 15th, 1990. Created by Ted Turner and Barbara Pyle as a series to teach children about protecting the environment. Of course, the best way to do that was obviously through the Burger King Kids Club summoning a weird blue guy in tight red spandex who gives off an unrelenting stream of one-liners. But it proved successful, lasting for six seasons. Hell, the nostalgia for this show is so strong that Captain Planet and Kwame recently appeared on an episode of OK. K.O! Let's Be Heroes! Despite being the show that taught environmentalism for its majority, the show was surprisingly unafraid to tackle subjects like drug addiction, gang violence, the war between the Catholic and Protestant Irish, and, the most infamous, HIV.
The episode in question sees the villain Verminous Skumm sneaking into a doctor's office in the middle of the night and stealing a mysterious file. The Planeteers are confused about what's going on, but Gaia, the spirit of the Earth, suggests that it can't be any good. The head to where Skumm was located, a nondescript town somewhere in the south, just as a teenager named Todd Andrews (Voiced by Neil Patrick Harris, something I seriously neglected to mention) wins the big basketball game for his high school team. Before he can celebrate, Skumm gives Andrews a warning about riding high and being careful not to fall. Because if there's one person I should listen to, it's the rat man in the trench coat. The episode does do a good job at showing how popular Todd is before everything goes terribly wrong.
Cut to the next day as Todd learns that he has HIV. The episode does a good enough job at bringing up how HIV isn't AIDS, but it can lead to AIDS. The episode also mentions how HIV can be spread. Be it needle drugs, unprotected sex, or the likely culprit for Todd, a blood transfusion he had years ago. I said it back in 2010, and it's worth repeating. How they got away with saying "unprotected sex" on a show intended for the eight to twelve market is astounding. I guess when you have Ted Turner behind you, you can make it possible.
Todd is understandably upset, as having HIV could mean his chances at a basketball career are over. It's made no better as we see what Skumm's plan is. To use propaganda to turn the town against Todd. I kinda knocked how this seems like a minor evil plan in comparison to more evil schemes, but I think time has made me a lot more mature to just how dangerous propaganda can be. I also never clued in to the concept of a villain like Verminous Skumm. He's someone who revels less in world domination and more in causing pain and suffering. Be it like in Mind Pollution, where his Bliss Drug turned people into crazed zombies, or in the case here, finding pleasure in spreading hate and fear. Spreading it like a disease. Like a rat. Oh, damn, that's more clever than I gave it credit for.
We get a bit of stuff involving Todd's coach promising that even if Todd has HIV, he'll still let him into the big championship game. But Todd, still conflicted about his situation, breaks up with his girlfriend. Not by telling her about his HIV, but awkwardly saying that he may see other people when he leaves. It's a believable thing, but that is a scummy way of handling it. Speaking of Skumm (Hell, speaking of the Planeteers), he lures the Planeteers into a trap deep within the sewers. He uses a machine that snares them all, while the water rises. They manage to escape, but not before Skumm's plan is set in motion. We see the rest of the school turn on Todd, fearing he'll infect them. Not only that, but the adults in town are also quick to ostracize Todd.
And this is where I begin to really dislike how I handled this review back then. I was very naive in the thought that a whole town could easily turn on someone, even a kid, through propaganda and fear mongering. The last few years alone have shown me how that can be real, and how dangerous that can be. Be it attacking transgender men and women for using the restroom they feel fits their gender, be it spreading misinformation about vaccinations to fearful parents, be it someone running a presidential platform calling Mexicans rapists, blanketing all Muslims as terrorists, and referring to white nationalists as good people, and still managing to win because hey, "He's making America Great Again". Hell, as I write this, teenagers who lived through a school shooting where seventeen of their fellow schoolmates were murdered are trying to fight against this happening again, and their activism has led them to people discrediting them as crisis actors, and sending them death threats. I couldn't have been more wrong on this episode. It wasn't crazy, it was kind of ahead of its time.
This is where we finally get the big blue guy himself, Captain Planet. He helps bring Todd back just in time as the big game is going down. Of course, everyone in town is kinda pissed that Todd's back, since they're still wound up in the hate and propaganda machine. Thankfully Captain Planet and Todd's coach finally tell the town the truth about HIV and that it can't affect them through normal contact or even drinking a water fountain. Of course, this being a cartoon, we get the mega happy ending with the town embracing Todd again, and Verminous Skumm's plan failing.
And that's A Formula For Hate... again. It still has its problems. The animation is super stiff, even for Dic. And the main issue in that it feels really disconnected from Captain Planet. The Planeteers and Captain Planet don't factor that much into the story's progression. Heck, you could take them out for the most part and it wouldn't affect the story. I was really harsh on how I felt this handled certain concepts, be it the hype machine or just some other petty and pointless things, and I think I jumped the gun way too much on it. This was coming from someone who just rushed out reviews without much study into the history of certain things, like how the Reagan Administration really did a lot of harm during the early days of the AIDS epidemic. And this episode does a solid enough job of talking about HIV in a way that kids can understand. It's not the most perfect way, and feels disjointed for Captain Planet, but it's okay at best.
Also, if this gets enough interest, I might consider re-reviewing more old Tooncrap articles, giving them another, more educated look back. As for Captain Planet? Well, keep looking to this blog, because we'll be talking a lot more about him very soon. Have a great day, and remember, The Power Is Yours!
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