FernGully: The Last Rainforest was released back in 1992 when Disney wasn’t the only animation company in the US. It follows a young precocious fairy (with a dash of 90s ‘tude) named Crysta (Samantha Mathis) as she becomes the defender of her jungle home from the likes of an evil ooze demon named Hexxus (Tim Curry). Along the way she receives help from a lab-tested bat named Batty (Robin Williams), Christian Slater as a fairy as himself and a construction worker turned environmentalist, Zack (John Ward).
Receiving mixed reviews at the time, FernGully is mostly remembered for its intense environmental themes. However, I believe there are five reasons why we should acknowledge this film as a seminal piece of animation, or at the very least something that we can watch with a couple of beers and enjoy.
1. Robin Williams’ vocal workout as Batty
Released only eight months before Robin Williams’ classic voicing of the Genie it’s obvious that Batty was an experiment and a precursor of what was to come.
He had the best lines such as, “Human tails? Humans don't have tails. They have big, big bottoms that they wear with bad shorts. They walk around going, ‘Hi, Helen’,” and his manic behavior is disturbing in a wonderfully hilarious way.
2. Tim Curry as sexy scary Hexxus
If Dr. Frank-N-Furter and Pennywise had a deliriously evil child it would be Hexxus, the oily villain that takes the time to sing one of the freakiest and funkiest animated songs of all time, “Toxic Love.” Never has black oil turned me on so much.
3. Environmentalism has never been so Fascist
And we thought Al Gore was preachy. Its “All humans are bad and nature is good mantra,” is quite overdone today, but the imagery of disastrous human treatment towards the environment is still shocking even by today’s standards.
4. It’s timelessness...oh wait Tone Loc’s in this?
Unlike many classic Disney 2D films and Pixar, FernGully had a few instances of shameless modern references: a sequence where the human Zak teaches the fairies about rock ‘n’ roll and 90s lingo like “bodacious” and the aforementioned Tone Loc appearance as a lizard that raps before he eats his prey.
And yet these references seem very light compared to any current animated film and even the highly regarded Shrek series (Fairbucks…really?).
5. Great preparation for Cameron’s Avatar this winter
Incase you weren’t blown away by a giant blue Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana, the nearly wordless and senseless teaser and the anticipation of James Cameron’s first fiction film since Titanic watch FernGully to get a better idea of what the plot might resemble. Yeah.
Yes, FernGully: The Last Rainforest isn’t a perfect film. It is overly sentimental and incredibly predictable, but it holds up as an entertaining, potent and quirky film that stands out amongst the sanitized kids films of today.
Oh yeah if these reasons didn’t convince you I have two words: Knife fight. Oh yeah.
Link:
FernGully: The Last Rainforest on IMDB
