FernGully: The Last Rainforest

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

FernGully: The Last Rainforest
Directed by Bill Kroyer
Produced by Peter Faiman
Wayne Young
Written by Story:
Diana Young
Screenplay
Jim Cox
Starring Tim Curry,
Samantha Mathis,
Christian Slater,
Jonathan Ward,
Robin Williams
Music by Alan Silvestri
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release date(s) April 10, 1992 (USA)
Running time 76 min.
Language English
Budget NA
Followed by FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue (1998)
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

FernGully: The Last Rainforest is an animated feature produced by Kroyer Films, presented by FAI Films and distributed by 20th Century Fox and first released on April 10, 1992. It is a film with a strong environmentalist theme adapted from the Fern Gully stories by Diana Young. The film features the voice talents of Tim Curry as Hexxus, Robin Williams as Batty Koda, Samantha Mathis as Crysta, Christian Slater as Pips and Jonathan Ward as Zak. The film was the first of three animated features released in consecutive years by Fox in the early 1990s: Once Upon a Forest (1993) and The Pagemaster (1994) followed. None of these films were financially successful.

The film was followed by an unsuccessful direct-to-video sequel, FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue, which featured none of the original voice talents.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

The film tells the story of Fern Gully, a rainforest near Mt. Warning, Australia (perhaps named after the Upper Ferntree Gully in Victoria, Australia). A curious and mischievous fairy girl named Crysta (Samantha Mathis) sees a part of the world she has never seen before beyond the rainforest and believes humans dwell only on the nearby mountain. But the wise sprite of the forest and Crysta's mother figure, Magi Lune, says humans are extinct (but in the opening scene of the movie she says that they fled, never to return). Befriending a mentally unstable yet comical fruit bat named Batty Koda (Robin Williams) who has been experimented on by humans and now has wires and aerials fused into his head, Crysta heads into the unknown where she finds dead trees all covered in red aerosol paint crosses. She finds male humans, and accidentally shrinks one named Zak to prevent him being crushed by a tree.

Zak (Jonathan Ward) goes on a wild adventure with Crysta and Batty, nearly getting eaten by the lizard Goanna (Tone Lōc), unexpectedly falling in love with Crysta which adds rivalry to Pips' (Christian Slater) hidden feelings for Crysta, which results in strong jealousy against Zak, getting Zak bullied by him and his gang of idiot bugs. Meanwhile throughout the rest of the time tries to separate him and Crysta, trying to get Crysta to notice him in a different light, more rapidly than previous attempts before Zak's arrival. All the while, Zak's superiors—lumberjacks to be exact—chop down an enchanted baobab tree that releases an evil known as Hexxus (Tim Curry), the spirit of destruction, who wishes to get revenge upon the fairies of Fern Gully (specifically Magi Lune) for imprisoning him in the tree many years ago. Hexxus apparently gains power from pollution, specifically the energy and smoke produced by the Leveler, as he can be seen "drinking" from it like a liquid. He manipulates the lumberjacks and their tree leveler into tearing down the rainforest in the direction of the fairies by the next morning, thereby destroying the very fabric of their world. He does this under the vocal guise of their boss.

The fairies all join forces and fuse their powers together, creating a protective tree cage. Magi sacrifices herself (giving her power to the fairies and even Zak) and it is up to Crysta and the other fairies to defeat Hexxus. Zak turns off the leveler, causing Hexxus to lose the energy he was gaining from it and disappear, but he soon rips out of the machine as a giant demonic skeleton creature made of oil that breathes fire. Crysta seemingly sacrifices herself like Magi did by allowing Hexxus to devour her in one bite, and uses her powers from inside him to grow flowers to again imprison Hexxus (together with the leveler) inside a new tree with help from the fairies led by Pips, thereby imprisoning him forever. However, she emerges, unharmed and alive, from a flower soon after. Crysta sadly resizes Zak to normal size and he sets off with his fellow lumberjacks, Tony and Ralph, to try to stop the destruction of the rainforests. Meanwhile Crysta now takes Magi's place after learning finally how to control her powers.

[edit] Cast members

[edit] Soundtrack

The soundtrack includes songs by Tone Lōc who also was a voice talent in the movie. The ending song Some Other World was written and performed by Elton John, and Life Is A Magic Thing (performed by Johnny Clegg), Batty Rap and Toxic Love was written by Thomas Dolby (the album version of both songs contained lyrics that were edited out of the movie for being too "adult"; see "Censorship" note). Also included in the soundtrack was Raining Like Magic by Raffi and Land of a Thousand Dances which was performed by Guy.

Track listing:

  1. "Life Is A Magic Thing" – Johnny Clegg
  2. "Batty Rap" – Robin Williams
  3. "If I'm Gonna Eat Somebody (It Might As Well Be You)" – Tone-Lōc
  4. "Toxic Love" – Tim Curry
  5. "Raining Like Magic" – Raffi
  6. "Land Of A Thousand Dances" – Guy
  7. "A Dream Worth Keeping" – Sheena Easton
  8. "Some Other World" – Elton John

[edit] Reaction

The response for the film was mixed, overall. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a score of 67% "fresh" and the film also has a "B-" at Box Office Mojo. Film critic Roger Ebert even gave it three out of four stars. FernGully performed modestly well at the box-office, grossing only $24,650,296 in theaters and $8,060,598 overseas, compared to Fox's later hit Anastasia. Critics reception of the animation was positive, but many found fault with the storyline, calling it slipshod and overly preachy[citation needed].

[edit] Environmentalism

  • In light of message of this movie, proceeds were donated towards environmental projects aimed at preserving rainforests.
  • The Smithsonian Institution provided informational assistance for the movie.
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
  • According to the DVD's featurette "From Paper to Tree," the film was shown in the General Assembly Hall of the United Nations on Earth Day, 1992. Olivia Newton-John said at the event “FernGully is a move of self-empowerment and promise, a modern fairy-tale for children and adults alike. It speaks to all of us with a simple message: humanity.”
  • The National Arbor Day Foundation has used scenes from the movie in some of its advertisements.

[edit] Censorship

 This section does not cite any references or sources. (September 2007)
Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Before the movie was released, two of the film's songs, Batty Rap, and Toxic Love, were reduced in length, most likely because of their disturbing content. The full version of Batty Rap has Batty reciting the frightening conversations during his experimentation (though one remnant of the conversation remains during the song). Toxic Love was not only cut, its remaining lyrics were spliced into a new order. In the full version, Hexxus further sings the praises of the leveler, even saying he feels "a special kind of horny." Changes were most likely made to amend the song's potentially sexual meaning. The line, in the soundtrack version, "with my foul breath to guide it" was changed to "with my sweet breath to guide it" in the film. One of Hexxus' lines (in which he calls the pollution that he was feeding on "mother's milk") was not cut.

[edit] External links

Languages