Álvaro Díez Valle

30 years of Eco-Dialogue: How writing for kids’ environmentalist cartoon TV series has changed from Captain Planet (1990-1996) to MeteoHeroes (2020-…)

Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano, Italy

Environmentalist cartoon TV series for children are a very specific genre, and indeed there are just a handful of shows. This allow researchers to focus on the few products available in a more accurate way. One of the approaches is to understand how writing and producing a series in different time periods affects the series, as well as how the show is received by the audience and how it fosters dialogue in society. Understanding the themes, characters and narrative structure of these products is an excellent way of understanding not only the products themselves but also how societies have evolved.

Specifically, my PhD thesis focuses on two TV shows, Captain Planet (US, 1990-1996) and MeteoHeroes (Italy, 2020-…). Naturally both are cartoons for children. Both shows share similar themes and topics: a small group of young friends from all over the world with superpowers join their forces and become superheroes. They use these powers to save the world from environmental problems. Their target audience is also similar (around 7-year-old kids). Both TV shows have been successful and distributed worldwide. But a whole generation separates them and how they approach their topics is widely different. Our goal is to understand these differences and how the depiction of environmental issues has changed after 30 years. We’ll prioritize narrative design and thematic treatment. The research will be based on content and context analysis, and will be supported by archive work and interviews with the professionals who have worked in the process, in particular with regards to MeteoHeroes.

Álvaro Díez Valle is a PhD candidate recipient of a PON scholarship at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, where he has been teaching since 2019, responsible or assistant for the courses Strategic & Business Communication, European Studies, Visual Semiotics & Communication. Before, he had worked as an intern at the Faculty of History of Universitat de Barcelona and at the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence. He also worked in the digital Milanese startup Boom Imagestudio and he is a writer.