Steve Zeitchik at the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday that someone in Hollywood thinks it's a terrific idea to make a live-action film out of...."Captain Planet," that awful Ted Turner eco-propaganda cartoon with cardboard-cutout capitalist villains with names like Hoggish Greedly:
Can a cartoon with a conscience make for good cinema? That's the bet being made by Cartoon Network, which announced Tuesday that it would develop a film based on the early '90s cartoon "Captain Planet and the Planeteers." The movie will be produced by Don Murphy and Susan Montford, who as the producers of "Transformers" have some experience in turning cartoons into film franchises.
"Captain Planet" centers on five kids from across the world who are given superpowers to fight environmental disasters, such as sensing where a cataclysm may be happening, a kind of Spidey Sense as imagined by Al Gore.
Producers say that the property's entertainment value will dovetail with a larger timeliness. “With the earthquakes, tornadoes, melting icebergs and all the other problems threatening the world right now, Earth really needs her greatest defender,” said Montford. No cast or filmmakers have been brought on board yet.
The original Turner Broadcasting press release in 1989 explained the plot: "Captain Planet follows the adventure of five youngsters from five continents who have been assembled by Gaia, the Spirit of the Earth, to save the planet. Helping them in their mission is Captain Planet, a superhero who uses the power of nature itself -- including the unstoppable force of the earthquake, the irresistible onslaught of the tidal wave, the flight of the eagle and the electrifying shock of a lightning bolt. Among the threats they will face together are overpopulation, global warming, toxic waste, acid rain and the depletion of endangered species."
