'FernGully The Last Rainforest'
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| ‘FernGully: The Last Rainforest’ By Hal Hinson Washington Post Staff Writer April 10, 1992 | ||
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"FernGully: The Last Rainforest" is an animated feature with political agenda -- a didactic cartoon. But that doesn't interfere with its being a whopping good time. The message here is a simple one -- an evil is being done to the natural wonders of the world, namely the rain forests -- and it's dealt with in simplistic, kiddie terms. All that's needed is a little magic and faith in the miracles of creation. Isn't that on the shelf right next to the Lucky Charms?
The naivete of this ecological primer can be easily forgiven because it's so benignly innocent and so softly pedaled. It's a gentle, entertaining commercial for environmental awareness.
The film is set in a verdant paradise -- filled with fairies, singing lizards, an insect motorcycle gang and one slightly askew bat (Robin Williams) -- which is being threatened by a smoke-belching, tree-eating machine called a Leveler. The principal character is a foxy young fairy named Crysta (Samantha Mathis), who despite the urgings of her fairy master, Magi Luni (Grace Zabriskie), frequently drifts off into a pubescent fog. Her mind, as they say, is not on her work.
Once, though, while dreamily floating above the forest canopy, she spies a curious pillar of black smoke in the distance, and, intrigued, flies over to investigate. What she discovers is a shock. Not only does she see the monstrous Leveler, but humans too. According to forest legend, the humans fled centuries ago and are thought to be extinct. The humans here aren't really seen as malicious demons. The filmmakers -- director Bill Kroyer and screenwriter Jim Cox -- have rather cleverly sidestepped the issue of human evil. Or at least individual responsibility. The human characters are rather hapless and bumbling, especially a young sun-burnished California blond named Zak (Jonathan Ward), whom Crysta, in a panic, shrinks down to fairy size.
A good portion of the story is devoted to Zak's indoctrination into the ways of the fairies and the glories of FernGully. Also, there's something of a budding romance between him and Crysta, which turns her fairy boyfriend, Pips (Christian Slater), green with jealousy. But before any real lovey-dovey stuff can develop, the threat to the forest must be dealt with. Unwittingly, the humans have unleashed an ancient volcanic demon called Hexxus (Tim Curry), who once before tried to destroy Fern Gully until Magi was able to trap him in a tree. Now that he's been released, and gaining strength from the toxic exhaust of the Leveler (prompting a song titled "Toxic Love"), he sets out to take his revenge on his fairy enemies.
It's only by virtue of a human-fairy coalition that Hexxus is overcome and FernGully is once again out of danger -- but his spirit, though imprisoned, is still alive. Zak must be returned to the humans' world to sound the alarm for others who might greedily destroy the place he's grown to love. He, along with the teeming masses of popcorn-munching kiddos in the audience, is the new Whole Earth messenger.
Moral lessons aside, the animators do a marvelous job of making the forest seem like a candy-colored Eden. As dazzling as it is, the film may not have the gravity and depth that the Disney animators achieve -- it's flatter, less dimensional -- yet the palette is brighter and the aura of enchantment is still there. The songs, as well as Alan Silvestri's score, are more influenced by rock than Tin Pan Alley, which is something of a mixed blessing. You do get Tone Loc, as an omnivorous striped lizard, singing "If I'm Gonna Eat Somebody (It Might as Well Be You)," and Robin Williams, who supplies the wigged-out personality for the Batty Koda, doing his inspired "Batty Rap," but beyond that the songs don't stick much in your mind.
Most of the characters are blandly conceived in that Mattel assembly-line way, though at times Crysta does resemble a cartoon Joan Jett. She's got a little funk in her. Tim Curry's smog monster is genuinely and deliciously scary (perhaps too much so for some younger toddlers). Williams's bat is by far the picture's most memorable creation, chiefly because, well, he's Robin Williams in bat drag. I'm not sure how much of his nerve-jangled, channel-switching patter the kiddie audience actually caught, but they loved every minute he was on screen. Even out of the inkwell, he steals the show.
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