'Toon Reviews 19: OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Season 1 Episode 33: The Power is Yours

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The Power is Yours

Back in the day, there was an animated series covering the importance of taking care of the environment called Captain Planet.  It was about a group of teens using various powers to summon an eco-friendly superhero to fight against threats to Earth.  There would also be a PSA on environmental topics afterwards.  I’ve never seen it, but from a few short clips, it seems decent aesthetic-wise with good intentions, but doesn’t feel like a must-watch show.  This cartoon pays tribute to this old show and makes a point that even long after the end of the show, environmental problems still persist even if some say they don't exist. 

The conflict gets going when one of the original Captain Planet villains, Dr. Blight, teams up with Lord Boxman showing interest in how much his company pollutes.  Since Lord Boxman needs money for Boxmore, he agrees to go through with his guest’s pollution plan.  Also, given that he never even noticed how much he pollutes like most people would, it’s humorous to see someone do it intentionally.  It’s especially funny when Dr. Blight plans to destroy the world, and Lord Boxman calls out the obvious hole in her plan that they, the bad guys, also live on the world.  She brushes the flacy off though. 

The pollution scenes from the excessive smog, hot temperatures in winter, and huge puddles from the melting ice caps work entertainment wise for exaggerating real problems.  However, it’s concerning that even though these problems are in front of everyone, except for K.O., this cartoon is another example of people being too dense about matters.  Out of this denseness though comes even more of a tribute to Captain Planet.  One of the original Planeteers, Kwame, shows up disturbed by the bad effects of climate change.  There’s also a clever allusion to how long the show has ended with the other Planeteers giving up on their quest.  This means new Planeteers exclusive to this show is formed via power rings Kwame saved.

Just like in the old show, they summon the titular Captain Planet.  From there, the cartoon essentially becomes a Captain Planet episode going beat-for-beat in solving environmental issues.  That said, Captain Planet does stand out in the show’s simple style and even having his own Pow card.  Captain Planet stops the pollution from spreading while making corny one liners.  When Lord Boxman steps in, he easily defeats Captain Planet through hitting him with enough pollution. The new Planeteers then have to take care of things on their own, which does present an added challenge when their usual tensions make it hard to do the job. 

There are unfortunate implications when they only stop fighting when K.O. uses his heart power, manipulating them to get along instead of them doing so on their own.  Then, through more identical mimics of the old show, the group uses realistic environmental solutions to bring Captain Planet back to finish the job.

After that is a very blunt PSA about how climate change still persists which is true, but doesn’t have much of an edge to make it fit in this show.  It does get interesting when the cartoon ends with a sudden shift to the original Captain Planet animation style. K.O. and his friends are more realistically drawn as they present alternate energy solutions which is honestly pretty cool to see. 

This cartoon may be a little too on the nose with its tribute, but it’s overall fun for it to portray a well-known environmental show in its style. I certainly can’t fault the realistic message it spreads, preachy as it may be at times.  It’s not the best thing from the show, but it lets its strengths combine to give it enough merit to check out.

B

The Ranking

1. Face Your Fears
2. You Have to Care
3. T.K.O.
4. No More Pow Cards
5. Legends of Mr. Gar
6. We’ve Got Pests
7. I Am Dendy
8. Let’s Have a Stakeout
9. You Get Me
10. Let’s Be Heroes
11. You’re Everybody’s Sidekick
12. K.O.’s Video Channel
13. Jethro’s All Yours
14. Know Your Mom
15. Everybody Likes Rad?
16. A Hero’s Fate
17. Plaza Prom
18. We’re Captured
19. My Dad Can Beat up Your Dad
20. Let’s Be Friends
21. We Messed Up
22. Presenting Joe Cuppa
23. Sibling Rivalry
24. Second First Date
25. Stop Attacking the Plaza
26. Just Be a Pebble
27. The Power is Yours
28. Do You Have Any More in the Back?
29. You’re Level 100
30. You Are Rad
31. We’ve Got Fleas
32. Rad Likes Robots
33. One Last Score

The next OK K.O. review looks into the pasts of Carol and Mr. Gar when they were part of P.O.I.N.T. as Silver Spark and El-Bow.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is Episode 27 of Animaniacs.

If you would like to check out other OK K.O.! reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.