For the first time ever, the complete Captain Planet franchise is available in one DVD box set and we got the chance to check it out ahead of its release!
Anyone who grew up in the 90s likely has memories of watching Captain Planet and the Planeteers or The New Adventures of Captain Planet on the weekends. The show was an educational cartoon that featured an eco-friendly message and a warning against the dangers of pollution that was aimed at a young audience. It also featured an all-star voice cast, which set it apart from other cartoons of the time.
For the first time ever, Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment is releasing the entire series on DVD in one box set. Previously, only the first season had ever seen a DVD release in the United States, so the bulk of these episodes have never been available on DVD before. The box set officially releases tomorrow, October 15, 2024.
I was personally very excited to hear about this release as I grew up in the 90s and loved this cartoon. With physical media becoming an increasingly important issue, I was pleased to see this entire series would be made available on DVD.
Having checked out some of the episodes, I can say that Captain Planet and the Planeteers: The Complete Franchise is a complete success on the nostalgia factor alone. The episodes are exactly as I remembered them and it’s a lot of fun to go back and see what details completely went over my head as a little kid. For a 90s cartoon, the animation holds up fairly well and watching really made me miss the days I would spend weekends watching cartoons all morning.
On the other hand, this box set suffers from being about as bare bones as one can get. While the packaging is relatively sturdy and the cover art is great….that’s pretty much all there is to it. There no extras or special features of any kind included. Which came as a big surprise because, usually one place you’re usually guaranteed to get some kind of extras is with a complete series release.
I’m not only disappointed by this, I’m actually upset. You mean to tell me that the first time we get the Captain Planet franchise completely released on DVD, and there aren’t any commentaries, cast interviews, even a short video looking back at the impact this cartoon had on kids? As happy as I am to have a hard copy of this series, Warner Bros. missed a huge opportunity by completely skipping any special features. Mind you, I’m not saying every episode needed a commentary or anything like that. However, how cool would it have been if the Planeteer voice actors had gotten together to record a commentary on the pilot episode? I suppose we’ll never know now.
That disappointment aside, the Captain Planet set is still a must have for anyone who is a fan of 90s cartoons. As I said before, with physical media releases becoming more and more rare, it’s important to pick series up that we enjoy so the studios know that we still want these things.
