Animation Celebration Saturday - FernGully: The Last Rainforest

20th Century Fox, 1992
Voices of Samantha Mathis, Robin Williams, Johnathan Ward, and Tim Curry
Directed by Bill Kroyer
Music and Lyrics by various

Messages about the importance of saving the environment were all over TV and movies in the late 80's and early 90's. The Exxon-Valdez oil spill and other ecological disasters made people more aware of just how fragile nature was. Along with the TV series Captain Planet and the Planeteers, this was probably the most famous cartoon - and to my knowledge, the only musical - to deal with the importance of saving our Earth. How well does its message come across today? Let's head to the title rain forest on the eastern coast of Australia and find out...

The Story: Young fairy Crysta (Mathis) is in training with elderly Magi Lune (Grace Zabriskie) to take over her role as protector of the forest, but she'd rather be out exploring the many wonders of FernGully. On one such expedition, she encounters Batty Koda (Williams), a fruit bat humans experimented on. His experience left him with an antenna on his head, a constantly-changing personality, and a hatred of all humans. The other fairies believe humans are extinct, but Crysta agrees to check this out.

She discovers a lumberjack, Zack (Ward), helping his buddies cut down trees for a new highway. When a tree nearly falls on him, she shrinks him to save him...but can't figure out how to change him back. Meanwhile, his buddies have cut down the tree that imprisoned Hexxus (Curry), the spirit of pollution and waste. Hexxus targets FernGully, laying waste to all before him. Zack can't bring himself to admit that it was humans who freed Hexxus, but he may not have a choice when the fairies have to defend their homes against this oily menace.

The Animation: Absolutely gorgeous, and probably the best thing about the movie. The animators actually went to Australia to learn more about the rain forests there, and it's obvious they did their homework. Each frame bursts with life, light, and color, from the well-integrated CGI flocks of tropical birds to the lush,  hand-drawn flowers and trees. "Dream Worth Keeping," with its glowing fungi and glittering backdrops, is particularly stunning.

The Song and Dance: My family used to watch this quite a bit in the early 90's. It's funnier than I remember, partially due to Williams' wild and creative improvisational riffs (seven months before the release of his more famous role in Aladdin), but mostly thanks to a script that's better than most people give it credit for. Some of Ward's lines are hilarious as he tries to deal with his change in size and his odd new friends who think humans were long gone from this world.

If nothing else, this features one of Tim Curry's best performances as the evil pollution spirit who wants to obliterate everything in his path. He's so over-the-top, he outshines everyone but Williams by a wide margin. Indeed, many fans of the film cheer more for him than for the fairies.

Favorite Number: Williams' "Batty Rap" shows just how batty this rodent went after humans got into his head. This stream-of-consciousness song gives Williams a chance to really go to town with his many references and breathless lunacy. "Dream Worth Keeping" is a slightly syrupy Sheena Easton ballad, but it does accompany a lovely sequence with Crysta showing Zak the forest and its beauty and falling in love with him. Curry scores with "Toxic Love," which was so sexually-charged, it had to be cut down before release in order to get a PG.

Two routines seem a tad out-of-place. A lizard (Tone Loc) tries to eat Zack, to the tune of "If I'm Gonna Eat Somebody (It May as Well Be You)." It's not a bad number, but the lizard is never seen, nor heard of again after Crysta saves Zach from becoming his meal. Likewise, the fairies' routine to a cover of "Land of 1,000 Dances" comes out of nowhere and serves no function, other than introducing the fairies to more of the human world.

Trivia: This was a passion project of producer Wayne Young, whose ex-wife Diana Young wrote the original FernGully book in 1977. Most of the money from film was donated to various environmental causes.

Though by no means a record-setter, it did well enough at the box office to warrant a direct-to-video sequel, FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue, in 1998.

What I Don't Like: While the side message on the dangers of animal testing still comes across thanks to Williams' performance, the main one about the damage to the environment caused by pollution and human negligence is well-meaning but muddled and and annoyingly preachy. Having a "toxic spirit" be the one who causes the damage is too obvious and kind of takes the easy way out, no matter how much fun Curry has with the role. And speaking of Curry, he and Williams pretty much leave anyone else in the dust. Ward isn't bad as sarcastic Zach, but Mathis is too cutesy as curious Crysta, and Christian Slater just sounds bored as her jealous fairy guy friend Pips.

The Big Finale: It's too dark for young guys, but older kids who can handle some of the scarier elements and have any interest in nature or saving the Earth, or folks who grew up watching it on video or cable in the 90's, may find much to enjoy in this one if they can get around the pushy message.

Home Media: Easily found in all formats, often for under 10 dollars.

DVD
Blu-Ray
Amazon Prime