A quintet of teenagers work together to encourage environmentally responsible behavior and can summon a superhero to deal with ecological disasters.

Seeing the Earth in its profound environmental peril, Gaia (Whoopi Goldberg), goddess of the Earth, summons five kids from around the world to become the Planeteers, an opposing force to fight back and educate others in the need to be environmentally responsible. To accomplish that task, each kid is given a magic ring that each has a power of earth, wind, water, fire and heart. When the threat they face is too big for them to face, they can combine and amplify their powers to create Captain Planet (David Coburn), who has the power to stop catastrophic environmental disasters himself, while the Planeteers contribute with the things anyone can and should do to help.—Kenneth Chisholm <[email protected]>

Gaia, the spirit of the planet, assembles a diverse team of "planeteers," who are able to combine their powers to summon an elemental warrior that takes on the appearance of superhero Captain Planet. He works with the planeteers to defend Earth from pollution caused by criminals and villains. As the show's theme song says, Captain Planet is "gonna take pollution down to zero" by defeating the villains, who include the likes of Hoggish Greedly, Dr. Blight and Looten Plunder. The animated series was co-created by media mogul Ted Turner, a noted environmentalist.