FERN GULLY...THE LAST RAINFOREST
A film review by Ken Johnson
Copyright 1992 Ken Johnson
75 min., G, Animated/Fantasy, 1992 Director: Bill Kroyer Voices of: Tim Curry, Robin Williams, Christian Slater, Samantha Mathis, Richard "Cheech" Marin, Tommy Chong, Tone-Loc
In Fern Gully fairies fly around helping the plants grow. One fairy (voice of Samantha Mathis) gets curious about humans. She learns from Batty, a bat, (voice of Robin Williams) that there are humans nearby. She goes to see what they are like and, by mistake, ends up shrinking one. She brings him back to Fern Gully so his size can be fixed. Another fairy (voice of Christian Slater) gets jealous of the human getting all of Mathis's affections. The fairies find out from the human that other humans are going to be cutting down Fern Gully. They find out that evil Hexxus (voice of Tim Curry) is behind the cutting down of Fern Gully and try to stop Curry.
FERN GULLY...THE LAST RAINFOREST is a very good film with *important* messages behind it. One message is that our forests are important and should be protected. The other message is that testings on animals in labs is bad for the animals and shouldn't be done. I highly suggest that you go see this film, and if you have children you can bring them along too. They may miss the messages, but will enjoy the animation and the story. I give FERN GULLY...THE LAST RAINFOREST a five on a scale of zero to five. FERN GULLY is rated G which means it contains nothing objectionable.
The animation is well done. It is not nearly as good as what the Disney studios do, but I liked it better than what the Don Bluth studios do. Fern Gully is really colorful and looks like a very nice place. The land of the humans and the forest that has been leveled looked very dreary and sad. The tree-cutting machines, although they look quite comical, are drawn looking sinister with dark tinted colors.
The voice talent is from a good set of known actors/actresses. Tim Curry (THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW) plays the evil monster of smog, smoke, etc., that is out to level Fern Gully. Tim Curry seems to be on a roll with voices recently. He was a voice on the premiere of the television show "Capitol Critters", which I think is now extinct, the premiere of the television show "Fish Police", which I also think is extinct now, and an episode of "Dinosaurs". Robin Williams (HOOK) does the comical bat who has been used for too many human lab experiments. Christian Slater (PUMP UP THE VOLUME) is a macho, but jealous, fairy. Samantha Mathis (PUMP UP THE VOLUME) is the fairy of Slater's interests. Tone-Loc (THE ADVENTURES OF FORD FAIRLANE and a rapper) does the lizard that shows up early in the film. Richard "Cheech" Marin and Tommy Chong (a.k.a. the drug comedy team Cheech & Chong) do a drugless routine as Stump and Roots.
The music is okay, but not as good as the recent BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and THE LITTLE MERMAID. It does have a rock beat to it. At least the people who do the singing can sing (don't laugh, I have seen some musicals in which no one in the cast can sing). The movie is rather short (only an hour and a quarter in length), which is too bad because I really enjoyed the movie and wish that it had lasted longer.
Ken J. blj@mithrandir.cs.unh.edu .
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