* * *
Deforestation threatens the creatures who dwell within the magical realm of FernGully.
Starring Samantha Mathis, Christian Slater, Jonathan Ward, Robin Williams, Tim Curry
Written by Jim Cox
Produced by Peter Faiman, Wayne Young
Duration 76 minutes
Myth: Christian Slater and Samantha Mathis have only co-starred in two feature films.
Reality: Between teenage rebellion fable PUMP UP THE VOLUME (1990) and muted but fun John Woo actioner BROKEN ARROW (1996), they both lent their voices to FERNGULLY: THE LAST RAINFOREST. Slater and Mathis play a pair of fairies, zipping in mild flirtation around an idealised rainforest of bright colours and anthropomorphised animals.
Mathis (the lead) plays the stock kids’ animation character of the youngster who dreams of a life outside their restricted community. Seriously, when will they drop this trope? It’s still going strong today, in things like SMALLFOOT (2018) and STRANGE WORLD (2022).
In this particular case, despite being warned to "never go above the canopy", Mathis can’t resist wondering what’s really out there and takes regular peeks, specifically wondering if human beings really exist or if they are merely the stuff of bedtime stories.
Slater, meanwhile, gets the short shrift in a disappointingly small part – he should have insisted on the role ultimately played by Jonathan Ward (see below).
Myth: FERNGULLY has an ecological subtext.
Reality: What’s it called when the subtext is actually on the surface and not at all buried underneath? Oh, that’s right. No, there’s no ecological subtext here – it’s FERNGULLY’S actual text.
You see, it had been assumed by the forest-dwellers that if human beings were actually real and not just the stuff of legends, they would be no threat to them. Then reality comes crashing through in the shape of enormous bulldozers, hellbent on reducing the trees that the adorable (and in some cases make-believe) creatures use as homes into someone’s dining room set.
Myth: Robin Williams made his animated debut playing a hyperactive genie in ALADDIN.
Reality: Before he signed on to be the blue lamp-dweller, he’d already agreed to play Batty Koda in FERNGULLY, a bat who knows that humans do exist because he's come from outside the forest where the two-legged ones have been using him as a lab rat.
Williams is (surprise surprise) the comic relief, and definitely used this as a warm up for the higher-profile part – he's all non-sequiturs, celebrity impressions, shouting, accents and anachronistic pop culture references.
Mercifully, his performance never reaches the irritating ‘heights’ of his more famous Disney role, where he would display so many symptoms of ADHD you wanted to force-feed him Ritalin through the screen.
Myth: Only Bart Simpson was saying ‘don’t have a cow’ in 1992.
Reality: Jonathan Ward, as a human lumberjack on whom Mathis uses her forest powers to shrink down to fairy size when he accidently wanders into FernGully, sprouts this nonsensical catchphrase at least once. He also has wavy blonde hair, rides a leaf down a tree trunk like a snowboard, and uses words like ‘bodacious’ and ‘tubular’.
Did I mention that this film was released in the early ’90s?
Myth: FERNGULLY is an American feature.
Reality: Actually, it was a co-production between the USA and Australia; primarily Yank voice talent but set in an Aussie rainforest.
It joins the ranks of other lauded Australian animations, in the great tradition of ... um ... well … did they ever do a cartoon version of Skippy the Bush Kangaroo?
Myth: Tim Curry essayed a wide variety of roles in ’90s movies.
Reality: He always played a snooty shit.
And unlike the meddling hotel concierge in HOME ALONE 2 (1991), or Cardinal Richelieu in THE THREE MUSKETEERS (1993), or Mr Jigsaw in LOADED WEAPON 1 (also 1993), or the duplicitous Romanian philanthropist in CONGO (1995), or Long John Silver in MUPPETS TREASURE ISLAND (1996), here he is literally the embodiment of evil: a dark spirit of the forest or somesuch, resembling a sentient oil spill in appearance, whose role in this affair is to encourage the humans to destroy FERNGULLY ... for reasons I never quite discerned.
As ever, Curry has a great time hamming it up as the dastardly antagonist, and even gets to belt out a musical number like he’s still in THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW.
Myth: DANCES WITH
WOLVES was James Cameron’s biggest influence for AVATAR.
Reality: Plot-wise, AVATAR is DANCES, for sure. But the same basic story is present in FERNGULLY, with the addition of the tree-hugging sensibility. Although it comes from a different perspective this time: we follow one of the natives, not the interloper.
Fellow animated effort EPIC (2013) is also cut from the same cloth, as is Ed Zwick’s 2003 Tom Cruise-starring THE LAST SAMURAI.
Myth: FERNGULLY was a flop.
Reality: It actually did modestly well, plus it birthed a no-stars sequel.
And there were rumours recently of a live-action remake, allegedly set to feature Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jim Carrey and Emma Thompson, which turned out to be bollocks. But someone went as far as to knock up a fake poster, so the desire is clearly out there.
Myth: FERNGULLY is a pretty mediocre and inconsequential cartoon feature film.
Reality: Look, it’s no THE LION KING or BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, or even a ROBIN HOOD or a THE SWORD IN THE STONE. And yes, it piles its agenda on with a shovel.
But it’s a charming enough yarn that has more on its mind than the standard be-yourself-and-find-your-own-path tedium that represents the usual thematic depth that young viewers get targeted at them.
And so, when it ends with a title card saying, ‘For our children, and our children's children,’ the sentiment feels properly earned.
Three stars out of five.
Valid use of the
word ‘last’? I’m all for using hyperbole to help make a
point and deforestation is clearly a very real thing. But there are definitely still at least some rainforests
left out there.
What would a movie called THE FIRST RAINFOREST be about?
According to the National Science Foundation (that nation being the USA): "Ancient
Denvers [was] the first rainforest. Time period: 64 million-years-ago in the
Early Paleocene (Cenozoic)." Little chance that it was under much threat
from JCBs back then.
Previously: THE LAST HOUSE
Next time: THE LAST PICTURE SHOW
Check out my books: Jonathanlastauthor.com
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