From: jfl@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Juan F Lara)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.animation
Subject: Re: Ferngully: my impression
Keywords: CC Ferngully Muggle
Date: 12 Apr 92 00:24:06 GMT
Reply-To: jfl@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Juan F Lara)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Columbia University


     I saw "Ferngully, the Last Rainforest" this Saturday.  Here's my review
of the film.



                        FERNGULLY, THE LAST RAINFOREST

     I'm really glad that I skipped watching "Something Fishy" on this the same
day that I went to see "Ferngully".  The combined effects of that tasteless 
episode with this mediocre movie would've been just toxic for me.
     We open to the fairy Crysta ( Samantha Mathis ) learning magic from the 
elder Magi Lune ( "Twin Peaks"'s Grace Zabriske ).  But Crysta is fascinated 
with "human tales" and wants to explore outside her magical forest, against 
the advice of the other fairies, of course.  And in fact, she reaches the for-
est's edge, where she takes a liking to a young forest worker named Zak.  But
then she accidentally shrinks him down to her size, and now has to bring him 
back to Magi to correct the spell.
     A local critic pointed out the similarities to this set-up with the set-up
to "The Little Mermaid".  I've never seen TLM, but I think I can believe what 
this critic says.  FG has the difference in that the human enters the non-hu-
man's world instead of the other way around, but I still get the feeling that
what I see here I could see better in TLM.  Crysta herself seems like a second-
rate Ariel carbon-copy.
     At least the artwork lives up to expectations.  The Fox people did a su-
perlative job in drawing the flora of the forest.  Colors are brilliant and 
trees and flowers are drawn with intricate detail.  The background always has
an original and imaginative look to it.
     On this rich background we watch bland characters go through a dull 
script.  Apart from the Ariel similarities, Crysta just doesn't have a person-
ality.  Zak is an uninteresting dude of a guy reminiscent of a toned-down Teen-
age Mutant Ninja Turtle.  Zabriskie doesn't put a lot of feeling to her role 
as Magi.  And Crysta's fairy boyfriend Pips ( Christian Slater ) is a bit of a 
wild one, but not much.  Robin Williams plays the only character with charisma,
Batty Coda.  He escaped from a research lab that implanted an antenna in his 
head, causing him to go into wild and funny ramblings.  But even his schtick,
mostly about all the nasty things people do, gets annoying fast.  All of this
adds up to an excruciatingly boring first half of no action and inane dialogue.
     As a matter of fact, the concept of the fairies is bungled badly.  Pips is
a fairy and Zak is a city boy, but they both talk like they grew up together.
There isn't anything to Crysta to distinguish her from an American teenage 
girl.  As comic relief, FG has the four insect-like creatures you see on the 
poster riding black beetles.  In fact they ride them like a biker gang, com-
plete with motorcycle buzzing.  The fairies' world is supposed to be an exotic
and alien world, but their characterizations negate this.
     Oh, and meanwhile :-), we meet the evil Hexxus ( Tim Curry ), a toxic de-
mon that recalls the Smog Monster from Godzilla movies.  Released from a tree,
he possesses a gigantic tree leveler and heads straight for Ferngully.  Inside
he feasts on gas and exhaust, and even sings the praises of "Toxic Love".  
Here it's fun to hear Curry belt the song out in his Frank-n-furter voice.  But
the lyrics, about people's greed and compliance in pollution, are the film's
preachiest moments.  The song, and the film, is just unbearable here.
     When Hexxus finally confronts the fairies, the film finally picks up.  The
climax is pretty fast-paced, and has outstanding animation and design.  But 
even here, I just couldn't get very involved.  It left me cold.

     Miscellaneous comments:

     The songs as a whole don't fit well into the film.  Batty tells his story
in a house music song that's fun to hear on its own but doesn't seem right in 
the film's context.  There's a silly scene of Zak teaching the fairies how to 
jam down to some rock-n-roll.  And Tone Loc has a purely peripheral hip-hop
routine as a Goanna trying to eat Zak.  The only song I liked was the love-
theme song that accompanies the scene where Zak and Crysta dance on water and
kiss, though Zak and Crysta themselves generate no sparks.
     Some more voice trivia:  Cheech and Chong are together again here, playing
a Spud-and-Frye like pair of forest workers that waste the duo's talent.  I 
could've sworn I also heard Jim Cummings use his Monterey Jack voice for an
emu, but I didn't spot him in the credits.
     
     "Rock-a-Doodle" aims at kids.  "Ferngully", by contrast, ambitiously aims
for a work of art that will appeal to all ages.  But it misses, badly.  So, 
though people will deride me for this, I liked the kiddie show better.  "Fern-
gully" is the type of film that makes you appreciate films that just want to 
make you laugh.
     People will flame me for trashing "the Last Rainforest".  But I don't 
care. :-)

     All IMHO :-)

To Everyone -

Juan F. Lara

"Come Along.  You Belong.  Feel the Fizz."
 - Profound Wisdom from the Cola Cult