''FernGully: The Last Rainforest'' is a 1992

animated Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby image, still images are manipulated to create Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on cel, transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and e ...

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), charac ...

fantasy film Fantasy films are films that belong to the fantasy genre with fantastic themes, usually Magic (paranormal), magic, supernatural events, mythology, folklore, or exotic fantasy worlds. The Film genre, genre is considered a form of speculative fic ...

directed by

Bill Kroyer William Kroyer is an American director of animation and computer graphics commercials, short films, movie titles, and theatrical films. He and Jerry Rees were the main animators for the CGI sequences in '' Tron''. From 2009 to 2021, he served as ...

in his

feature directorial debut This is a list of film directorial debuts in chronological order. The films and dates referred to are a director's first commercial cinematic release. Many filmmakers have directed works which were not commercially released, for example early work ...

. Scripted by Jim Cox and adapted from the "FernGully" stories by Diana Young, the film is an Australian and American venture produced by

Kroyer Films Kroyer Films, Inc. was a pioneering animation studio formed in 1986 by animator Bill Kroyer and his wife Susan Kroyer and is one of the earliest studios to combine computer and hand-drawn animation. Kroyer Films became dormant after 1994 and was ...

, Inc., Youngheart Productions, and

FAI Films FAI Films was an Australian film production company known for the 1992 animated film '' FernGully: The Last Rainforest''. Name The studio was owned by the Australian company Fire and All Risks Insurance (later FAI Insurance), founded by Lawren ...

, and distributed by

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the ...

. It stars the voices of

Samantha Mathis Samantha Mathis (born May 12, 1970) is an American actress and trade union leader who served as the Vice President, Actors/Performers of SAG-AFTRA from 2015 to 2019. The daughter of actress Bibi Besch, Mathis made her film debut in '' Pump Up ...

Christian Slater Christian Michael Leonard Slater (born August 18, 1969) is an American actor. He made his film debut with a leading role in '' The Legend of Billie Jean'' (1985) and gained wider recognition for his breakout role as Jason "J.D." Dean, a sociopath ...

, Jonathan Ward,

Robin Williams Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and comedie ...

Tim Curry Timothy James Curry (born 19 April 1946) is an English actor and singer. He rose to prominence as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the musical film '' The Rocky Horror Picture Show'' (1975), reprising the role he had originated in the 1973 London, 1974 L ...

, and

Grace Zabriskie Grace Zabriskie (née Caplinger; born May 17, 1941) is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Sarah Palmer in ''Twin Peaks'' (1990–1991; 2017) and its film prequel '' Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me'' (1992), Lois Henrickson in ''B ...

. The film is set in an

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

rainforest Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...

inhabited by

fairies A fairy (also called fay, fae, fae folk, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, generally described as anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic, found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Cel ...

, including Crysta, who accidentally shrinks a young logger named Zak to the size of a fairy. Together, they rally the fairies and the animals of the rainforest to protect their home from the loggers and Hexxus, a malevolent pollution entity. Wayne Young, the film's producer, said that the film was "blatantly environmental", although he made an effort to avoid "preaching". ''FernGully'' was released in North America on April 10, 1992, to mainly positive reviews, and was generally considered a moderate financial success at both the box office and in home video sales. In 1998, it was followed by a

direct-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, television series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strat ...

sequel, '' FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue'', although none of the original voice cast reprised their roles.

Plot

Crysta is a curious young fairy who lives in FernGully, a secluded rainforest east of

Mount Warning Mount Warning ( Bundjalung: ''Wollumbin''), a mountain in the Tweed Range in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia, was formed from a volcanic plug of the now-gone Tweed Volcano. The mountain is located west-south-west of ...

. The fairies of FernGully once lived in harmony with humans, who are believed to be extinct after having been driven away by the evil spirit of destruction, Hexxus. Crysta is the apprentice of Magi Lune, the fairy tribe's leader, who ended Hexxus' reign by sealing him inside a tree. One day, Crysta explores a new part of the forest and meets Batty Koda, a

bat Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...

who was experimented on by humans, giving him a manic and deluded personality, and an electric device sticking out of his head. Crysta accompanies Batty to investigate the humans' potential return. She meets Zak, a young teenage logger whom she inadvertently shrinks when she tries saving him from being crushed by a falling tree, although she does not know how to restore him to normal size. After she rescues him from being eaten by Lou, a hungry

goanna A goanna is any one of several species of lizard of the genus ''Monitor lizard, Varanus'' found in Australia and Southeast Asia. Around 70 species of ''Varanus'' are known, 25 of which are found in Australia. This varied group of carnivorous r ...

, Zak gains Crysta's trust and agrees to go with her to FernGully so Magi can unshrink him. Along the way, they bond by talking about their lives, but Zak hides the true reason for the humans' return. Meanwhile, the tree containing Hexxus, which Zak accidentally marked while using his spray can against a fly, is cut down and processed by his supervisors, Tony and Ralph, using a mobile

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

. Freed from his imprisonment, Hexxus quickly regains his powers by consuming the machine's polluting elements, and tricks Tony and Ralph into driving to FernGully. In FernGully, Crysta and Zak fall in love, to the envy of her friend Pips, but they soon discover the forest's destruction by Hexxus and the machine, exposing Zak's lie about the humans' intentions. Feeling betrayed, Crysta runs off as Zak comes clean. Magi sacrifices herself to give the fairies a chance to fight back, telling Crysta to remember what she has learned. The next morning, Hexxus and the machine arrive in FernGully. Knowing the fairies' fight is hopeless, Zak convinces Batty to help him stop the machine before it destroys them. Hexxus seemingly kills Batty and scares Tony and Ralph away, but Zak, with Pips' help, manages to access the machine's cab and disable it, cutting Hexxus off from the emissions he drew upon. With Hexxus still manifesting via the oil in the machine, Crysta takes a seed and allows him to devour her, causing a tree to start growing from inside of him. Pips and the other fairies use the powers Magi bestowed them with to re-imprison Hexxus, along with the machine, within the new tree at FernGully's border. With FernGully saved, Crysta reunites with Zak and succeeds Magi as head of the fairy clan. She gives Zak a seed, asking him to remember his adventure and its lessons, before solemnly restoring him to his human size. Zak finds and revives Batty, reunites with Tony and Ralph, and plants the seed as Crysta looks on. As the humans leave the forest, Crysta helps the seed sprout new growth for FernGully before playfully chasing Pips, with Batty following.

Voice cast

as Crysta *

as Pips * Jonathan Ward as Zak *

as Batty Koda *

as Hexxus *

as Narrator/Magi Lune * Geoffrey Blake as Ralph *

Robert Pastorelli Robert Joseph Pastorelli (June 21, 1954 – March 8, 2004) was an American actor. After he acquired a reputation as a skilled character actor in the 1980s and 1990s, Pastorelli's career went into decline after the death of his girlfriend under my ...

as Tony *

Cheech Marin Richard Anthony "Cheech" Marin (born July 13, 1946) is an American comedian and actor. He gained recognition as part of the comedy act Cheech & Chong during the 1970s and early 1980s with Tommy Chong, and as Don Johnson's partner, Insp. Joe Dom ...

as Stump *

Tommy Chong Thomas B. Kin Chong (born May 24, 1938) is a Canadian-American comedian, actor, musician and activist. He is known for his role/inspiration in the marijuana industry, his Cannabis (drug), marijuana-themed Cheech & Chong comedy albums and movie ...

as Root *

Tone Lōc Anthony Terrell Smith (born March 3, 1966), best known by his stage name Tone Lōc (), is an American rapper and actor. He is known for his raspy voice, his hit songs " Wild Thing" and " Funky Cold Medina", for which he was nominated for a Gr ...

as Lou (credited as Goanna) *

Townsend Coleman Townsend Putnam Coleman III (born May 28, 1954) is an American voice actor who has performed in many animated series and TV commercials beginning in the early 1980s. Among his most notable roles are Michaelangelo from ''Teenage Mutant Ninja ...

as Knotty *

Brian Cummings Brian Douglas Cummings is an American voice actor. He is known for his work in commercials, television and motion picture promos, cartoons and as the announcer on '' The All-New Let's Make a Deal'' from 1984 to 1985. Life and career Having begu ...

as Ock

Themes

In the book ''Disney, Pixar, and the Hidden Messages of Children's Films'', M. Keith Booker states that ''FernGully'' "focuses on the theme of the destruction of the Earth's rainforests. In this case the rainforest is located near

, on the eastern coast of Australia, but the theme is global, and the specific location is not particularly emphasized." Despite the environmental theme, Booker wrote that the film was "somewhat vague in its explanation of the dire consequences of rainforest destruction, and it addresses the economic impetus behind this destruction hardly at all"; the fact that the rainforest was saved at the end of the film "diminishes the urgency of its environmentalist message", and that the character of Hexxus "displaces the real blame for environmental destruction from its real perpetrators onto nonexistent supernatural perpetrators, further diluting the political message". The character of Batty was said to introduce "the secondary theme of animal experimentation, though with a light touch that presents this potentially horrifying motif as essentially humorous". In the book, ''Eco-Impacts and the Greening of Postmodernity'', Tom Jagtenberg and

David McKie David McKie (born 1935) is a British journalist and historian. He was deputy editor of ''The Guardian'' and continued to write a weekly column for that paper until 4 October 2007, called "Elsewhere". Until 10 September 2005, he also wrote a sec ...

comment that radical views of

ecology Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their Natural environment, environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosystem, and biosphere lev ...

flourished in the film, perhaps because it was "aimed at a younger generation... and belong to relatively discredited genres". As Zak is shrunk to fairy size and integrated into the fairy world, more similarities rather than differences are implied with the nonhuman characters. Crysta is said to defeat the evil Hexxus "in the manner of classic western genre heroes", although with the key difference that her weapon is a seed rather than a revolver, allowing the produce of nature to share the heroic role with her.

Production

Producer Wayne Young said that his passion for the environment was his motivation for making the film, saying that the film was "blatantly environmental, although we have gone to a lot of trouble to avoid preaching. We also want it to be viewed as entertainment." The inspiration for ''FernGully'' came from stories written by his former wife, Diana Young. Diana first wrote the story of ''FernGully'' fifteen years before the film's release. Wayne said that the couple planned a film adaptation for five years, then spent "seven years of dreaming and hustling, followed by another three years of production". Wayne stated that their dream was not possible until the success of

Walt Disney Feature Animation Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS), sometimes shortened to Disney Animation, is an American animation studio that produces animated feature films and short films for the Walt Disney Company. The studio's current production logo features a s ...

's 1989 film, ''

The Little Mermaid "The Little Mermaid" (), sometimes translated in English as "The Little Sea Maid", is a fairy tale written by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. Originally published in 1837 as part of a collection of fairy tales for children, the story foll ...

'', which helped bring popularity back to animation. Hand-drawn scenes in the film were complemented by

computer animation Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating Film, moving images. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both still images and moving images, while computer animation refers to moving images. Virtu ...

, which was used to create elements, such as flocks of birds that would have taken much longer to traditionally animate. Kroyer stated that 40,000 frames of computer-generated graphics were used in the film, and that the use of such animation halved the production time. Most of the film's $24 million budget was spent on the animation and the soundtrack. ''FernGully'' is the first

animated film to use

digital ink and paint Traditional animation (or classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation) is an animation technique in which each frame is drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of animation of the 20th century, until there was a shif ...

. The film marked

's first animation role, with the character Batty Koda being created specifically for him. Williams provided fourteen hours of improvised lines for the part, which had been originally conceived as an eight-minute role. Director

was so impressed with the voice work that he ended up tripling the screen time given to the character. Williams would provide the voice of the

Genie GEnie (General Electric Network for Information Exchange) was an online service provider, online service created by a General Electric business, GEIS (now GXS Inc., GXS), that ran from 1985 through the end of 1999. In 1994, GEnie claimed around ...

in Disney's ''

Aladdin Aladdin ( ; , , ATU 561, 'Aladdin') is a Middle-Eastern folk tale. It is one of the best-known tales associated with '' One Thousand and One Nights'' (often known in English as ''The Arabian Nights''), despite not being part of the original ...

'' later in the year, receiving critical acclaim. Williams had already agreed to voice Batty Koda before being approached to do ''Aladdin''.

Jeffrey Katzenberg Jeffrey Katzenberg ( ; born December 21, 1950) is an American media proprietor and film producer. He served as chairman of Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios from 1984 to 1994, a position in which he oversaw production and busin ...

, then-chairman of Walt Disney Studios, tried to force Williams to withdraw from ''FernGully'', on the grounds that he did not want him voicing two animated characters around the same time, but Williams refused. According to Wayne Young, Disney repeatedly interfered with the production of ''FernGully'', twice taking over spaces that the producers had rented, by offering to pay more. When the producers eventually set up a studio in a former brewery in the

San Fernando Valley The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, Los Angeles County, California. Situated to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it comprises a large portion of Los Angeles, the Municipal corpo ...

, Disney attempted to purchase it. Katzenberg declined to comment on the issue when approached by '' Vanity Fair'' in 2017. The voice cast of ''FernGully'' agreed with the film's message, and worked for scale wages. The film marked the first time that both members of

Cheech & Chong Cheech & Chong are a comedy duo founded in Vancouver and consisting of American Cheech Marin and Canadian Tommy Chong. The duo found commercial and cultural success in the 1970s and 1980s with their stand-up routines, studio recordings, and fea ...

had worked together in six years, with the two voicing beetle brothers, Stump and Root.

said that "it was just like old times, but we only worked for two or three hours, had a pizza and split".

Music

The film's

score SCORE may refer to: *SCORE (software), a music scorewriter program * SCORE (television), a weekend sports service of the defunct Financial News Network *SCORE! Educational Centers *SCORE International, an offroad racing organization *Sarawak Corrido ...

was composed and produced by

Alan Silvestri Alan Anthony Silvestri (born March 26, 1950) is an American composer, conductor, orchestrator and music producer of film scores. He has received two Grammy Awards and two Primetime Emmy Awards as well as nominations for two Academy Awards and two ...

. It was released as an album and consisted of 14 tracks, running just under 44 minutes in length.

Soundtrack

The

soundtrack album A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television show. The first such album to be commercially released was Walt Disney's ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ( ...

was released by

MCA Records MCA Records was an American record label owned by MCA Inc. established in 1972, though MCA had released recordings under that name in the UK from the 1960s. The label achieved success in the 1970s through the 1980s, often by acquiring other ...

. Peter Fawthrop from

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

gave the album three stars out of five, commenting that the songs were "lighter and more pop-driven than Disney soundtracks from the '90s, but they are not childish". All songs on the soundtrack were performed in the film.

Release

''FernGully'' was released in the United States on April 10, 1992, and in Australia on September 17. The film was shown at the

United Nations General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; , AGNU or AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as its main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ. Currently in its Seventy-ninth session of th ...

Earth Day Earth Day is an annual event on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First held on April 22, 1970, it now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally through earthday.org (formerly Earth Day Network) includin ...

, April 22.

Box office

''FernGully'' grossed 32.7 million USD worldwide, including $24.7 million from the United States, and $3.4 million in Australia. The box-office performance was described as a moderate success, although it grossed below expectations, possibly because of its ecological message. Joseph Gelmis from ''

Newsday ''Newsday'' is a daily newspaper in the United States primarily serving Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI" ...

'', however, described ''FernGully''s box-office performance as "dismal", although he noted that it was the most successful recent non-Disney animated film. Co-executive producers, Jaime Willett and Josh Baran, who worked on the film's marketing, both spoke of the difficulties of getting attention to an animated film that was not produced by Disney, with Willett stating that box-office revenue would have at least doubled by simply having the headline, "Walt Disney presents", on the film. ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...

'' noted that the combined box-office gross of ''FernGully'' and the five other non-Disney animated films released in 1992 did not equal a third of the gross for Disney's 1991 film, ''

Beauty and the Beast "Beauty and the Beast" is a fairy tale written by the French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in (''The Young American and Marine Tales''). Villeneuve's lengthy version was abridged, rewritten, and publish ...

''.

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film has an approval rating of 67%, based on reviews from 18 critics, with an average rating of 6.4/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has a score of 67 out of 100, based on reviews from 15 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences surveyed by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is an American market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts from the data. Background Ed Mintz, who ...

gave the film a grade of "A" on scale of A+ to F.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

of the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...

'' gave it three stars out of four, saying that 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". Hollis Chacona from ''

The Austin Chronicle ''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demogra ...

'' added that the film was "funny, pretty, touching, scary, magical stuff". Conversely,

Janet Maslin Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, who served as a film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1977 to 1999, serving as chief critic for the last six years, and then a literary critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000, M ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' had an unfavorable impression of the film, describing it as "an uncertain blend of sanctimonious principles and Saturday-morning cartoon aesthetics", and "more run-of-the-mill than its subject matter might indicate". According to Wayne Young,

called the producers of ''FernGully'' to tell them that he loved the film.

Legacy

Wayne Young stated that portions of the film's gross would be donated to

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by a group of Environmental movement, environmental activists. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth to nurture life in all its biod ...

, the

Rainforest Foundation Fund The Rainforest Foundation Fund is a charitable foundation founded in 1987 and dedicated to drawing attention to rainforests and defending the rights of indigenous peoples living there. The fund provides support to indigenous rainforest peop ...

and the

Sierra Club The Sierra Club is an American environmental organization with chapters in all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded in 1892, in San Francisco, by preservationist John Muir. A product of the Pro ...

, as well as a special fund benefiting environmental projects administered worldwide by the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

, although he did not disclose exact figures. The film also inspired a 1992

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

Capstone Software Capstone Software was a subsidiary of IntraCorp, a Miami-based computer and video game company. Founded in 1984, Capstone created first-person games such as ''Corridor 7: Alien Invasion'', ''Operation Body Count'', ''William Shatner's TekWar'' an ...

and

IntraCorp IntraCorp was a Video game, game publisher based in Miami, Florida, founded in 1984. History In November 1985, IntraCorp released Love Quest which sold 10,000 copies. By 1992, the company employed 40 people. By 1994, the company had sales in ex ...

, called ''The FernGully Computerized Coloring Book''. In 1998, the film was followed by a

sequel, '' FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue''.

, which produced only ''FernGully'' and its sequel, was acquired by

HIH Insurance HIH Insurance was Australia's second-largest insurance company before it was placed into provisional liquidation on 15 March 2001. The demise of HIH is considered to be the largest corporate collapse in Australia's history, with liquidators e ...

in 1998. HIH closed in 2001. In June 2012, administrators for HIH placed advertisements trying to sell the rights to both films. In November 2021,

Shout! Factory Shout! Factory, LLC, doing business as Shout! Studios (formerly doing business as Shout! Factory, its current legal name), is an American home video and music distributor founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases, issued i ...

made a deal with Machine Media Advisors, acquiring worldwide distribution rights to the film. Some reviewers have commented that the 2009

James Cameron James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is a Canadian filmmaker, who resides in New Zealand. He is a major figure in the post-New Hollywood era and often uses novel technologies with a Classical Hollywood cinema, classical filmmaking styl ...

film, ''

Avatar Avatar (, ; ) is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means . It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearance" is sometimes u ...

'',

plagiarized Plagiarism is the representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 '' Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of anothe ...

thematic and plot elements from ''FernGully'', although others opined that it is simply one of many films to which ''Avatar'' is similar, or have dismissed the comparison entirely. The 2013 film, ''

Epic Epic commonly refers to: * Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation * Epic film, a genre of film defined by the spectacular presentation of human drama on a grandiose scale Epic(s) ...

'', was also said to have a plot similar to ''FernGully''.

Home media

Four months after the theatrical release,

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment 20th Century Home Entertainment (previously known as Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, LLC. and also known as 20th Century Studios Home Entertainment) was a home video distribution arm that distributes films produced by 20th Century Stud ...

, under its previous name, "Fox Video", released ''FernGully'' on

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

and

LaserDisc LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. It was developed by Philips, Pioneer Corporation, Pioneer, and the movie studio MCA Inc., MCA. The format was initially marketed in the United State ...

on August 26, 1992. Sales were strong, with approximately five million units sold by 1998, including 125,000 in Australia. Fox re-released the film on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

in 2002. Christopher Simons from

DVD Talk DVD Talk is a home video news and review website launched in 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman. History Kleinman founded the site in January 1999 in Beaverton, Oregon. Besides news and reviews, it features information on hidden DVD features known as ...

gave the 2002 DVD three-and-a-half stars out of five for both audio and video, although only one star for special features, noting that the only extras included were trailers for other films. A "Family Fun Edition" DVD was released in 2005. Special features included commentary with director

, art director

Ralph Eggleston Ralph Eggleston (October 18, 1965 – August 28, 2022) was an American animator, art director, storyboard artist, and production designer at Pixar Animation Studios. He won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for '' For the Birds''. ...

, and coordinating art director Susan Kroyer, several featurettes, including the original featurette from 1992, the music video for "If I'm Gonna Eat Somebody (It Might As Well Be You)" by

Tone Loc Anthony Terrell Smith (born March 3, 1966), best known by his stage name Tone Lōc (), is an American rapper and actor. He is known for his raspy voice, his hit songs " Wild Thing" and " Funky Cold Medina", for which he was nominated for a Gr ...

, as well as trailers and TV spots. Scott Weinberg from ''DVD Talk'' gave this version four stars out of five for both audio and video, and four stars for special features. For its 20th anniversary, ''FernGully'' was released on

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

on March 6, 2012, containing the same special features as the "Family Fun Edition". Aaron Peck from ''High Def Digest'' gave it 3 stars out of five for video quality, four stars for audio and three-and-a-half stars for extras. Brian Orndorf from Blu-ray.com gave the release three stars out of five for video quality, three-and-a-half stars for audio and four stars for special features. In 2022, for its 30th anniversary, ''FernGully'' received a new Blu-ray release by

Notes

References

External links

*
''FernGully: The Last Rainforest''
at

Don Markstein's Toonopedia Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...

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