FernGully: The Last Rainforest

FernGully: The Last Rainforest is a 1992 Australian-American animated film directed by Bill Kroyer, produced by Peter Faiman and Wayne Young, and written by Jim Cox based on a book of the same name by Diana Young. It is a film with a strong environmental theme. The film features the voice talents of Jonathan Ward as Zak, Samantha Mathis as Crysta, Tim Curry as Hexxus, Robin Williams as Batty Koda, and Christian Slater as Pips.

The film was released in the United States on April 10, 1992 and in Australia on September 17, 1992, and received mixed to positive reviews. In 1998, the film was followed by the direct-to-video sequel, FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue.

Plot
A curious fairy girl named Crysta sees a part of the world she has never seen before beyond FernGully, a rainforest near Mount Warning, Australia. She believes humans dwell on Mount Warning, but the wise sprite of the forest and Crysta's motherly figure, Magi Lune, says humans are now extinct, driven away by an attack by Hexxus, the spirit of destruction and all that is toxic to nature, never to return and presumed dead; Hexxus was defeated by the fairies and imprisoned inside a tree. Crysta mentions a black cloud that she saw rising near the mountain, and Magi identifies it as smoke, but dismisses her speculation that the smoke might be Hexxus.

Befriending an uncoordinated and comical fruit bat named Batty Koda who has been experimented on by humans and now has wires and antennas fused into his head, Crysta heads to Mount Warning where she finds dead trees all marked with red aerosol paint crosses, which mark them for cutting. The source of the smoke is the exhaust from a huge tree leveler. She finds male humans, and accidentally shrinks one named Zak in trying to prevent him from being crushed by a tree. Batty swoops in and rescues Zak and Crysta caught in a spider web on that tree.

Zak goes on a wild adventure with Crysta and Batty, dodging a hungry Goanna lizard named Lou, and begins to fall in love with Crysta. Meanwhile, Zak's superiors cut down an enchanted baobab tree that Zak had inadvertently painted an X mark on as he tried to spray a fly bothering him, discovering too late that Hexxus has been released from the tree. Seeking revenge upon the fairies of FernGully for imprisoning him, Hexxus gains power by feeding on the pollution, specifically the energy and smoke produced by the leveler. He manipulates the lumberjacks and their tree leveler into tearing down the rainforest in the direction of the fairies by the next morning.

Eventually, Zak tells the truth about who he his and how the humans are destroying FernGully. The fairies join forces and fuse their powers together, creating a protective tree cage. Magi sacrifices herself, giving her power to the fairies and Zak, leaving Crysta and the other fairies to defeat Hexxus. Zak turns off the leveler, making Hexxus lose all the energy he was gaining from it and disappear, but he soon rips out of the machine as a giant fire-breathing skeleton creature made of oil. Crysta seemingly sacrifices herself like Magi did by allowing Hexxus to devour her completely, and uses her powers from inside him to grow a seed she had with her, imprisoning both Hexxus and the leveler inside a new tree with help from the fairies led by Pips. Soon afterwards, she emerges, unharmed and alive, from a flower. Crysta sadly resizes Zak to normal size and he sets off with his fellow lumberjacks, Tony and Ralph, to try to stop the destruction of the rainforests. Crysta takes Magi's place after finally learning how to control her powers.

Cast

 * Jonathan Ward as Zak Young
 * Samantha Mathis as Crysta
 * Tim Curry as Hexxus
 * Christian Slater as Pips
 * 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
 * Neil Ross as the Elder

Production
Originally supposed to be released in November 1991 but the release was delayed to avoid the competition with Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Production time was greatly reduced by the use of computer animation to create elements such as flocks of birds that would have taken much longer to animate traditionally.

The "FernGully" forest depicted in the film was actually based on Australia's rainforests. The cartoonists who worked on the film spent time in the real rainforests to help inspire their drawings.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack album was released by MCA Records with the following songs:

Track listing
The score of FernGully was composed by Alan Silvestri.

Reception
The response for the film from both critics and the public was mixed to positive. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film an approval rating of 69% based on 13 reviews (9 positive, 4 negative). Film critic Roger Ebert gave it three out of four stars, saying the film was visually "very pleasing," told a "useful lesson", "and although the movie is not a masterpiece it's pleasant to watch for its humor and sweetness." The Austin Chronicle added that the film was "funny, pretty, touching, scary, magical stuff." Janet Maslin of The New York Times had an unfavourable impression of the film, describing it as "[a]n uncertain blend of sanctimonious principles and Saturday-morning cartoon aesthetics". FernGully grossed $32,710,894 worldwide, including $24,650,296 from the United States.

Some reviewers have commented that the 2009 film Avatar used thematic and plot elements from FernGully: The Last Rainforest.