Captain Planet and the Planeteers

- Season 1

(1990)

The Spirit of Earth, Gaia, is woken from a century-long sleep at Hope Island to discover that Earth is dying because of humans' carelessness in deforestation, pollution, over-hunting, and especially now by oil-driller Hoggish Greedly and his henchman Rigger, who threaten all life on a sea coast with their work. She sends a quintet of rings out to five youths around the world - Kwame, an African who tries to preserve plants, is given the Power of Earth to create mountains and earthquakes. Gi, a Malaysian with an affinity for sea life, is given the Power of Water to ...

The Planeteers take on Verminous Skumm, an evil human-rat who thrives in polluted conditions, whose plan is to burn coal in an abandoned factory to create acid rain.

A mysterious dragon-like creature rampages through the jungles of Thailand, destroying croplands and terrifying the people. Gi's friend Newalk tells the Planeteers that some believe it is Phi Pok, a mythological dragon-beast. Wheeler learns that it is just a machine Hoggish Greedly has invented to scare the villagers into leaving so he can steal their temple's jewels, but he is captured and must contact the others to stop the theft.

Verminous Skumm creates a substance that, when placed in water, will mutate its drinker into a rat-resembling character who willingly serves him. The Planeteers go to stop him, but Wheeler falls into a vat of it, and Linka and Gi are splashed, so the others must hurry to recover an endangered plant Ma-Ti's friend the Shaman believes may cure them. Meanwhile, Skumm plans to place the liquid in Ma-Ti's village water supply, then the Amazon to infect the country and perhaps even the world.

Mad scientist Dr. Blight and radioactivity-dependent mutant Duke Nukem deliver a fake bomb threat to the Planeteers through Blight's smart computer MAL, who arrive and are forced to call Captain Planet. He disables the machine that's supposed to make everything work, but in freeing the Planeteers from a forcefield is captured. The villains say they'll only release him if the Planeteers deliver a lifetime's supply of radioactive waste - in which case not even Captain Planet could do much for the world...

Zarm, an alien being, lands on Earth and gives Planeteers iron fists which greatly amplify their powers. The fists corrupt our heroes, and they nearly destroy the Earth in the process. It's up to Ma-ti and Gaia to stop Zarm's evil ploy.

Kwame is shocked to see greedy businessman Looten Plunder and his right-hand man Argos Bleak are poaching Africa's elephants. Wheeler considers the trip an opportunity to buy Linka an ivory necklace as a birthday gift. The Planeteers go to free the creatures and also try to find an elephant cub's mother. But one of the problems facing them is that some Africans feel desperate enough to need to accept Plunder's jobs even if it means sacrificing all of their animal neighbors - and hurting themselves in the long term - as he would have them do...

Gi is outraged to see Hoggish Greedly using a giant drift-net to illegally fish whatever he wants from the ocean. Kwame is the only one she finds right away to get the news to, and he reluctantly follows her as she goes to fight without waiting for anyone else. They free some animals but the Ecosub is caught in a net and two are captured. They contact Ma-Ti and the others, who rescue them, but Greedly learns their secrets of how they summon Captain Planet and that their powers are absent when he does arrive. While Cap is active but away, ridding the world of the nets,...

Dr. Blight cuts down a magical tree that contains all the powers of Nature. With this power now at her disposal, even Captain Planet may not be strong enough to stop her from destroying the forest.

Greedy garbageman Sly Sludge has found a get-rich-quick scheme where he rids the world of their trash by placing it on Laipuno Island - and claims he's reducing it with a machine whose blinding light causes it to be seen one minute and apparently in miniature proportion the next. The Planeteers go to investigate it and also meet Lenii, a local girl who works for him. When examining the machine when Sludge isn't around, Lenii is caught in it and they realize that the garbage isn't being shrunk but moved - to the island's volcano, which will soon erupt and bury the ...

A boy named Jason tries to help the Planeteers fight Dr. Blight's latest creation - a Smog Blob monster. But the challenge may be too much for him to handle.

Gi and Ma-Ti investigate polluted areas of water, suspecting Sly Sludge is pouring garbage and sewage there, and Ma-Ti is pained from hearing many cries for help underwater. Gi goes down to examine pollution levels, and is attacked by Sludge's robotic octopus, losing her oxygen-tank and consciousness. She's rescued by Pontus, a resident of the secret underwater city Oceanus, and discovers that the protective dome around it is leaking from the contaminants. The civilization's Council forbids her leaving to bring the other Planeteers back to help, and the others, ...

Looten Plunder dams off an African village's river and offers the people electricity to improve services the river once provided, and some luxuries. The Planeteers realize that this means severe loss of fish-life and animals becoming wild with thirst, especially since Plunder had Argos Bleak block the water he didn't dam up. They convince Chief Morla, but not his people, not to do business with him. Shortly after they arrive, an elephant-stampede convince the villagers to reject his technology, but Plunder still hands out the electric bill for everything he's given ...

Duke Nukem enters a nuclear power plant with a radiation-leak while the manager is seeing reporters instead of repairing it. He breaks into the machinery and prepares to trigger a meltdown to give himself strength. The Planeteers arrive to stop him, but Dr. Borzon mistakes them for more reporters and locks them in a cramped room full of radiation where their rings don't work. They need Captain Planet to prevent Nukem's creating a worldwide fallout, but first must save themselves and regain their powers.

Hoggish Greedly steals a factory to mass-produce horribly polluting vehicles. But the resulting smog goes so far out of control, that eventually Greedly himself has to ask Captain Planet for help in order to save his son's life.

Sly Sludge, Dr. Blight and her computer, MAL, hack into the government's computer system to falsify the Planeteers' records and clean Sly Sludge's background check as he appears to be a committed environmentalist.

Looten Plunder, Verminous Skumm, Hoggish Greedly, and Dr. Blight team up to dump contaminants in the water-supply for many cities so they can get rich off of selling Plunder's clean water at high prices. The Planeteers go to see what is causing such pollution, and investigate the water and the polluters' operation. Gi and Wheeler are captured while entering the headquarters, so Captain Planet is summoned to get them out and stop the business. But the other three are attacked with the large supply of powerful pollutants, and though he shields them, it proves a major ...

Sly Sludge is dumping trash on an unsuspecting town, but no one cares, which causes Kwame to lose hope in humanity, and therefore his ability to summon Captain Planet. It's up to one little girl to restore Kwame's faith and save the day.

Nukem decimates the ozone layer so he can feast on ultra-violet rays.

Two Middle Eastern village leaders have declared war on one another, despite their sons' friendship and pleas for peace, when an arms-dealer claims that each will attack the other and sells them weapons. The Planeteers, like the children, are aware of the needlessness of the fighting, and the loss of life, destruction of the land, and suffering for both peoples it will ultimately bring. But they learn that Looten Plunder is the one selling weapons, and suddenly not only have to convince the chiefs to end combat, but also have to make sure Plunder doesn't stop them ...

Captain Planet prevents part of a wall breaking and falling on a crowded street in an overpopulated city. Back on Hope Island, the Planeteers learn that the world is very overpopulated and some countries try to slow it down. Wheeler, annoyed at the idea of anyone recommending how many children to have, goes out windsurfing despite an approaching storm. He's blown off-course and is washed up on an island with a miniature city. The inhabitants, genetically-effected mice with human characteristics including overpopulation and its resulting polluted land, capture Wheeler ...

Looten Plunder, Dr. Blight, Verminous Skumm, Duke Nukem, and Sly Sludge team up to defeat the Planeteers by getting powers similar to the ones they have from their rings. Sludge and Skumm send a fake distress-call from an island, then shoot sleeping-gas over the Geocruiser so it crash-lands and they can steal the Planeteers' rings. Before they can take the Planeteers prisoner as well, though, they find the "deserted" island actually has a soldier's radar-station on it, and he orders them to leave. Blight contacts Commander Clash, posing as a soldier claiming that the ...

The Planeteers learn Commander Clash's radar station he releases Ma-Ti and Gi from was set up during the Cold War, which he doesn't know ended. He is depressed and doubts he has any purpose when he learns the truth, but when Captain Pollution arrives to attack the leaving Planeteers, he manages to beat him back, at their advice, by spraying him with uncontaminated water. They tell Clash that Captain Pollution and his creators will return, but can't convince him that his help is necessary to defeat them. While the villains help Pollution regain his strength, the ...

Hoggish Greedly prepares to enter Dr. Blight's time pool to travel back to the 1950s where he can profit through development as much as he pleases without having to worry about environmental policies. The Planeteers track down their cave in Greenland, and though Captain Planet slows down Greedly and Rigger, Wheeler's pursuit of them near the pool separates him from the others when a sound-wave machine causes an ice-fall. Cap is weakened by radiation and must depart, and the others can't see an easy way to get through the blockade. Bitter about being trapped in a ...

Wheeler's attempt to keep his former self from joining the Planeteers has grave consequences for the planet. Second of a two-part episode.

Dr. Blight attempts to destroy Hope Island by turning it into a huge greenhouse surrounded by a force field. Gaia and the Planeteers are trapped inside the force field, and cannot summon Captain Planet. Will this be the end of them?