Captain Planet

One of the first animated TV series that we had in Romania after the Revolution was Captain Planet. It’s meant to be both entertaining and educational, dealing mostly with environmental issues and although we didn’t understand all the problems our heroes were solving, we certainly enjoyed watching them.

I’ve seen the intro again recently and I’ve noticed something odd. The five heroes with special powers, come from all the corners of the Earth, each representing a continent (Australia is excluded for some reason). Their nationalities are not revealed: Kwame is from Africa, Wheeler is from North America, Ma-Ti from South America and Gi from Asia. However, we know precisely, where Linka’s from: The Soviet Union. I found this both interesting and amusing, because as a kid I never noticed the oddity: a political message hidden in a show for kids.
I did a bit of research, and it appears that only after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Linka was introduced as coming from Eastern Europe. But I think there’s a good explanation for this. Wikipedia says that Captain Planet was the first of its kind, advocating “The United Nations as an organization, and the concepts of globalism, multiculturalism and environmentalism”. Of course, the producers wanted to target a whole range of markets, even the Eastern Bloc, and what better way of getting the communists on board, than making a young soviet part of Captain Planet’s team and telling everyone about it?
Go Planet!