Can Enviro-toons Change Perceptions of the Environment? Maybe Captain Planet Can

Enviro-toons, animated shorts and features with environmental messages, reflect the evolution of the environmental movement, with animated features from the 1990s forward providing illustrations of the most recent approach to ecology, chaotic—and conveying more blatant calls to environmental action like those found in the Captain Planet (1990) series. In Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park (1993), for example, chaos theory and, perhaps, chaotic approaches to ecology, are broached by the character, Dr. Ian Malcolm, a chaotician.

Although chaos theory and chaotic approaches to ecology are under dispute (see, for example, Klaus Rohde and Peter P. Rohde’s “Fuzzy Chaos…”), as the most recent approach to ecology, its appearance in a film from 1993 demonstrates the continuing impact of environmental history and the evolution of the environmental movement on the content of animated features.

Enviro-toons seem to have less effect on the environmental activist bent of their viewers, however. Although some audience members on both the “left” and the “right” called for a boycott of WALL-E merchandise to protest Disney’s hypocrisy in its critique of mega-corporations like itself, few viewers seemed to respond to the call. The WALL-Ewebsite sells its own merchandise, including figures, DVDs and games, but makes no reference at all to environmental concerns.

The Happy Feetwebsite does contain an “environmental” link, but it connects to a page where site users can create Happy Feetcards, not participate in environmentally conscious projects. Some audience members watching Happy Feet may have changed one behavior, however, and now encourage others to cut up six-pack rings. The Captain Planet Foundation, on the other hand, does promote environmental causes, with a Down to Earth Day festival for kids, grant money to fund hands-on educational projects, and programs to plant organic gardens and establish outdoor classrooms.

Primarily, however, animated features promote entertainment and consumption, not only of the films themselves, but also of the many products that accompany them. The content of animated features may be lauded by the Environmental Media Association, but the call to action is diluted by the ongoing call to buy.