FernGully: The Last Rainforest
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Directed by | Bill Kroyer |
| Produced by | FAI Films |
| Written by | Jim Cox Diana Young |
| Starring | Tim Curry, Samantha Mathis, Christian Slater, Jonathan Ward, Robin Williams |
| Music by | Thomas Dolby, Alan Silvestri |
| Distributed by | Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation |
| Release date(s) | April 10, 1992 (USA) |
| Running time | 76 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | NA |
| Followed by | FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue (1998) |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest is an animated feature produced by 20th Century Fox and released on April 10, 1992. It is a film with a fairly strong environmentalist theme. 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.
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
The film tells the story of Fern Gully, a rainforest near Mt. Warning, Australia. A curious and mischievous fairy named Crysta sees a part of the world she has never seen before beyond the rainforest and believes humans dwell on the nearby mountain. But the wise sprite of the forest, Magi Lune, says humans are extinct. Befriending a mentally unstable 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 crosses. She finds humans, and accidentally shrinks one named Zak to prevent him being crushed by a tree.
Zak goes on a wild adventure with Crysta and Batty, nearly getting eaten by a lizard, beaten up by Pips and his gang of idiot bugs, and unexpectedly falling in love with Crysta. All the while, Zak's superiors—lumberjacks to be exact—chop down an enchanted tree that releases an evil known as Hexxus (Tim Curry), the spirit of destruction, who wishes to get revenge upon Fern Gully for imprisoning him in the tree. He manipulates the lumberjacks and the leveller into tearing down the rainforest in the direction of the fairies. The fairies all join forces and fuse their powers together, creating a protective cage of a tree. Magi sacrifices herself to save the rainforest and it is up to Crysta and the other fairies to defeat Hexxus. Zak turns off the leveler, causing Hexxus to disappear, but he soon rips out of the machine as a giant demonic creature. Crysta seemingly sacrifices herself by allowing Hexxus to eat her, and uses her powers from inside him to grow flowers to imprison Hexxus inside a new tree with help from the fairies, thereby imprisoning him forever. However, she emerges, unharmed, from a flower soon after Hexxus' demise. Crysta resizes Zak to normal and he sets off with his fellow lumberjacks, Tony and Ralph, to try to stop the destruction of the rainforests.
[edit] Cast members
Starring the voice talents of:
- Tim Curry as Hexxus
- Samantha Mathis as Crysta
- Christian Slater as Pips
- Jonathan Ward as Zak Young
- Robin Williams as Batty Koda
- Grace Zabriskie as Magi Lune
- Geoffrey Blake as Ralph
- Robert Pastorelli as Tony
- Cheech Marin as Stump
- Tommy Chong as Root
- Tone Loc as Goanna
- Townsend Coleman as Knotty
[edit] Reaction
The response for the film was mixed, overall. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a score of 67% "fresh". However, FernGully performed poorly at the box-office, compared to Fox's later hit Anastasia, but both films were together released on the Family Fun Edition Pack sets. Critics reception of the animation was positive, but many found fault with the storyline, calling it slipshod and overly preachy[citation needed].
[edit] Trivia
- In light of this movie, proceeds were donated towards environmental projects aimed at preserving rainforests.
- The Smithsonian Institute provided informational assistance for the movie.
- 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. Also included in the soundtrack was Raining Like Magic by Raffi and Land of a Thousand Dances which was performed by Guy.
- FernGully was followed by a direct-to-video sequel, FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue, which featured none of the original voice talents.
- 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 has grossed $ 24,650,296 dollars in theaters and $ 8,060,598 dollars overseas.
[edit] Soundtrack
- "Life Is A Magic Thing" – Johnny Clegg
- "Batty Rap" – Robin Williams
- "If I'm Gonna Eat Somebody (It Might As Well Be You)" – Tone-Loc
- "Toxic Love" – Tim Curry
- "Raining Like Magic" – Raffi
- "Land Of A Thousand Dances" – Guy
- "A Dream Worth Keeping" – Sheena Easton
- "Some Other World" – Elton John
