Rainforest Animals

VHS cover

Rainforest Animals is the fourth episode of the third season of Amazing Animals. The plot revolves around Henry travelling to the rainforest in order to find a chocolate plant. It first aired on the Disney Channel on 5th May 1998.

## Episode

### Episode outline

Click for the full transcript for Rainforest Animals.

Henry is extremely upset and obese, as he has run out of chocolate. When the narrator says Henry may be overreacting a bit, Henry starts searching his house. When he starts looking through potted plants, the narrator tells Henry that both the plants and chocolate originate from the rainforest. Henry immediately asks what are they waiting for, before his weight makes him fall through the floor. Suddenly, he finds himself tumbling down towards the rainforest, before a parachute opens and he drifts slowly down. The narrator explains to Henry that rainforests are very wet environments, with lots of plants and more animals than anywhere else in the world. Henry says he will not breathe easy until he finds a chocolate plant, leaving the narrator exasperated.

#### First cartoon

* Gorilla, who is dressed as Tarzan, comes out of his treehouse and announces himself to the jungle by yelling and beating his chest. He starts swinging between vines, but accidentally grabs the tail of Rattlesnake, who was sleeping on a branch. They both fall down, with Rattlesnake getting trapped on a branch. Gorilla falls into the river below, where he is then chased by Crocodile. Rattlesnake laughs as he watches Gorilla get chased away.

The narrator finds Henry tangled up in his parachute in the canopy. Henry asks a python for directions to the chocolate, but the snake starts to hypnotise him. Henry snaps out of it as the narrator explains how the chocolate plant doesn’t grow in the canopy. Henry is unable to free himself from the parachute, so says he will stay there for a while. The narrator tells Henry that there are lots of interesting things in the canopy, but Henry thinks anything he can’t eat isn’t interesting. The narrator explains that over half of all plants and animals live in the rainforest, and most of those live in the canopy. The rain is important in the canopy, as there are no lakes or rivers, and instead water gathers in plants. Henry encounters some of the strange canopy creatures, like the vine snake and umbrellabird, before asking the narrator why these animals don’t just go down to the ground. He responds by saying that many canopy animals are so well-adapted to life in the trees that they can spend their entire lives in the trees. A tamandua and a tree porcupine are shown meeting on a tree branch and having to find a way past one another.

#### Second cartoon

* Gibbon is directing jungle traffic at an intersection using a whistle (the other animals include Rhinoceros, Tiger, Squirrel, Pigeon, Parrot, Lizard, Rattlesnake, Gorilla, Tortoise, Fish and more Gibbons). He is distracted by a female Gibbon and blows several times on his whistle with excitement. He realises his mistake just before he is run down by animals coming from all directions.

Henry has freed himself from his parachute and is looking for a way down to the forest floor. He decides to do what he would do in a building, taking an ‘elevator’ inside a hollow tree. He passes a lemur and several tropical birds before landing on the forest floor. Henry is happy because he is in the place where the chocolate plant grows, but notes how different the forest floor is to the canopy. The canopy is so thick it blocks out most of the sunlight. Henry encounters some forest floor animals, including leaf-cutting ants carrying leaves to their underground nest and a jaguar, which turns down a tree porcupine, peccary and baby coatis in favour of catching a large fish.

#### Third cartoon

* Bear catches a fish and Tiger runs over to try and scrounge it for himself. Bear makes Tiger try to catch his own, but each of Tiger’s attempts bring up litter. Bear ends up laughing so much at Tiger that he falls into the river. His fish is thrown up into the air and Tiger catches it for himself.

The narrator now reminds Henry of his news report. His report is about how rainforest animals have gone on strike to protest against their flooded working conditions, following too much rain in the rainforest. Henry as a reporter on the scene is cut off by rising water levels – Fish appears in this segment. After going back to the studio, the narrator tells Henry that his report was wrong. While parts of the Amazon rainforest do flood, the animals adapt rather than go on strike. Land animals, like tapirs and snakes, get around by swimming while animals from the rivers including fish and river dolphins move into the flooded forest. Henry now dresses up as a treasure hunter and finds an old Mayan temple. He goes in looking for treasure and escapes the traps of the temple, including a rolling boulder, darts firing from the walls and a pit of snakes, in a homage to Indiana Jones. He reaches the end chamber, with a piece of treasure that the narrator thinks could be solid gold. Henry takes a bite out of it and spits it out, as it is actually a 2,000-year-old Easter egg. While the Mayan civilisation died out around 1,000 years ago, people such as the Piaroa Indians do still live in the rainforest. The narrator tells Henry about jungle products such as hardwood, sugar, spices, nuts, rubber and, as Henry is keen to remind him, chocolate. However, the rainforest is then shown being cleared by people. When the narrator tells Henry that an area of rainforest the size of 1,500 tennis courts is cleared every minute of the day, Henry is shocked and upset. When the narrator tells Henry that the cleared land will only be fertile for a few years, he calls it a catastrophe.

#### Fourth cartoon

* Three Lizards are warming themselves around a campfire when a gust of wind blows the fire onto a bush. The first Lizard tries to put the fire out with a bucket of water, which doesn’t work, and the second carries in Elephant (who is wearing a fireman’s helmet) who tries to put the fire out with a spray of water, but that doesn’t work either. The third Lizard brings in Mouse, who blows a raspberry at Elephant and frightens him so much he jumps onto the bush and stamps the fire out. The third Lizard shakes Mouse’s hand and the other Lizards congratulate him for his idea.

Henry emerges from the temple with the treasure – a potted chocolate plant. But when he comes out, he finds the rainforest has been burned down. While Henry is concerned about the animals, the narrator tells Henry not to lose hope. There is still a lot of rainforests around and it can regrow, given time. The animals even help in the regrowing of the jungle, with species like the agouti burying nuts but sometimes forgetting where it left them – these forgotten seeds then grow into new trees. The narrator then shows Henry people who make a living from the forest without destroying it, by collecting nuts for sale. The narrator again reminds Henry there is always hope. Henry now does the Golden Gecko Awards. The bronze medal goes to the jaguar and the silver medal to the tree porcupine. But the Golden Gecko Award is given to the hoatzin. These clumsy birds resemble a bird-like dinosaur called Archaeopteryx, as the chicks hatch with claws on their wings to help them climb. If they fall into the water below, the chicks can also swim. Back in the rainforest, Henry has decided to leave behind his chocolate plant and plants it to help regrow the rainforest. The narrator is very impressed with Henry, and when Henry says there are more important things than stuffing your face, the narrator tells Henry he is amazing and is doing a great job saving the amazing rainforest animals.

## Animal species filmed for the programme

### Studio footage

* Green-winged macaw, *Ara chloropterus*
* Eastern grey squirrel, *Sciurus carolinensis*
* Domestic cat, *Felis catus*
* Indian rock python, *Python molurus*
* Red-lored amazon parrot, *Amazona autumnalis*
* Central American spider monkey, *Ateles geoffroyi*
* Ring-tailed lemur, *Lemur catta*
* Peach-faced lovebird, *Agapornis roseicollis*
* Green-cheeked parakeet, *Pyrrhura molinae*
* Tanimbar cockatoo, *Cacatua goffiniana*
* Toco toucan, *Ramphastos toco*
* Sun beetle, *Pachnoda marginata*
* Ribbon snake, *Thamnophis saurita*
* Chilean rose tarantula, *Grammostola rosea*
* African giant millipede, *Archispirostreptus gigas*
* White’s tree frog, *Litoria caerulea*

### Stock footage

* Strawberry poison-dart frog, *Oophaga pumilio*
* Silky anteater, *Cyclopes dorsalis*
* Blue-and-yellow macaw, *Ara ararauna*
* Black-headed uakari, *Cacajao melanocephalus*
* Red-bellied macaw, *Orthopsittaca manilata*
* Abia sister butterfly, *Adelpha abia*
* Agouti, *Dasyprocta sp*.
* Leaf-cutting ant, *Atta cephalotes*
* White-nosed coati, *Nasua narica*
* Red-eyed tree frog, *Agalychnis callidryas*
* Baird’s tapir, *Tapirus bairdii*
* Collared aracari, *Pteroglossus torquatus*
* Emerald toucanet, *Aulacorhynchus prasinus*
* Vine snake, *Ahaetulla prasina*
* Amazonian umbrellabird, *Cephalopterus ornatus*
* Resplendent quetzal, *Pharomachrus mocinno*
* Panamanian white-faced capuchin monkey, *Cebus imitator*
* Mexican hairy dwarf porcupine, *Coendou mexicanus*
* Guatemalan black howler monkey, *Alouatta pigra*
* Northern tamandua, *Tamandua mexicana*
* Amazonian giant centipede, *Scolopendra gigantea*
* Jaguar, *Panthera onca*
* Collared peccary, *Dicotyles tajacu*
* Giant catfish, Siluriformes
* Moose, *Alces alces*
* Masai giraffe, *Giraffa tippelskirchi*
* Red-tailed boa, *Boa constrictor*
* Pale-throated three-toed sloth, *Bradypus tridactylus*
* Silver arowana, *Osteoglossum bicirrhosum*
* Pink river dolphin, *Inia geoffrensis*
* Bornean orangutan, *Pongo pygmaeus*
* Blue-banded morpho butterfly, *Morpho achilles*
* Hoatzin, *Opisthocomus hoazin*

## Credits

* Henry - Eric Meyers
* Narrator - Tom Clarke-Hill
* Writer - Alastair Swinnerton
* Script Editor - Rob Harvey
* Music - Sarah Class
* Original Title Music - David Poore
* Studio Director - Anne Neale
* Graphic Designer Director - Kate Finding
* Graphic Design Assistant - Chris Wreford
* Researcher - Matt Brennan
* Production Co-ordinator - Janelle Backes
* Post-Production Co-ordinator - Esta Porter
* Production Secretary - Mandy Vaughan
* Production Team - Steve Cronick, Sarah Davies and Dominic Weston
* Camera - Graham MacFarlane
* Computer Animation - Ricochet 4, Daniel Pearson and Matt McKinney
* Computer Animation Director - Henry Lutman
* Cel Animation - A for Animation
* Cel Animation Director - Mark Taylor
* Sound Editor - James Burchill
* Dubbing Mixer - Andrew Wilson
* Editors
	+ Offline - Vincent Pipe and David Warner
	+ Graphics - Sue Land
	+ Online - Sharon Stiles
* Producer - Jessica Wootton

## Home media releases

The VHS for Amazing Rainforest Animals was released on 22nd February 1999. The cover shows Henry peering through tropical leaves and wearing a pith helmet, and he is accompanied by a red-billed toucan, an Amazon tree boa and a Malayan tapir. An alternative version of the cover removes the tapir and replaces it with a red-eyed tree frog.

The spine of the VHS lacks any animal picture, while the back cover has a photograph of a flying green-winged macaw.

The blurb on the back cover of the VHS reads:

Which animal loves gardening? And which cat hates swimming?

“SUDDENLY EVERYTHING WENT GREEN!”

Henry travels to the home of over half the world's plant and animal species in RAINFOREST ANIMALS. He meets unexpected forest creatures, from prickly porcupines to pink dolphins.

Alternative Rainforest Animals VHS cover

**Cartoon Characters**: \* Eagles • Tyrannosaurus • Rattlesnake • Tiger • Squirrel • Lizards • Elephant • Bat • Fish • Camel • Gorilla • Caveman • Mole • Bear • Stickman • Chicks • Hen • Rooster • Owl • Chameleon • Tortoise • Crocodile • Frog and Toad •
• Parrot • Porcupine • Mouse • Whale • Rhinoceros • Beavers • Snail • Rabbit • Dog • Skunk • Spider • Octopus • Vulture • Woodpecker • Flea • Dung Beetle • Butterfly • Gibbon • Fly • Mosquito • Bee • Beetles • Crab • Pigeon • Carnivorous Plant • Lamb

**Voice Actors**: Eric Meyers • Tom Clarke-Hill
**Season One**: Tropical Birds • Animal Disguises • Nighttime Animals • Animal Appetites • Animal Survivors • Animal Senses • Animal Weapons • Animal Builders • Armoured Animals • Mini-Beasts • Animal Babies • Poisonous Animals • Animal Journeys
**Season Two**: Birds of Prey • Desert Animals (Amazing Animals) • Scary Animals • Animal Records • Animal Colors • Animal Mothers • Animal Pets • Seashore Animals • Animal Families • Endangered Animals • An Animal Year • Prehistoric Animals • Monkeys and Apes
**Season Three**: Animal Hunters • Animal Talk • Slimy Animals • **Rainforest Animals** • Animal Acrobats • Underwater Animals • Animal Neighbors • Giant Animals - Creepy Crawly Animals • Farm Animals (Amazing Animals) • Animal Changes • Extinct Animals • Animal Eggs
**Season Four**: Around the World • Polar Animals • Clever Animals • Underground Animals • Animal Helpers • Woodland Animals (Amazing Animals) • Mountain Animals • Backyard Animals • Tiny Animals • Animal Partners • Scaly Animals • River Animals • Animal Flight