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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)
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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 1 Synopsis 2 Cast members 3 Soundtrack 4 Reaction 5 Environmentalism 6 Censorship 7 External links

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 named Crysta (Samantha Mathis) 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 (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 beaten up 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 then previous attempts before Zak's arrival. 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 their leveler 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 like Magi did by allowing Hexxus to eat her, and uses her powers from inside him to grow flowers to 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, from a flower soon after. Crysta resizes Zak to be normal 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.

• 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 Lōc as Goanna
• Townsend Coleman as Knotty

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.

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

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 as of today. 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]}. The film was a flop compared to Disney's Aladdin.

• In light of this movie, proceeds were donated towards environmental projects aimed at preserving rainforests.
• The Smithsonian Institute provided informational assistance for the movie.

• 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.”

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

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. One of Hexxus' lines (in which he calls the pollution "mother's milk") was not cut.

• FernGully: The Last Rainforest at the Internet Movie Database