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Nature calls in Ferngully: the Last Rainforest, one of the best of the non-Disney animated features of the 1990s. Based on the Ferngully stories by Australian writer Dian Young, and directed by Disney-trained animator Bill Kryor, Ferngully is set in a magical world within the rainforest, where dwells a race of winged tree fairies who are responsible for nurturing “the harmony of all living things.” Crysta, the most fetching fairy since Tinkerbell, defies orders to not fly above the treetops. Much to her amazement, she discovers that humans are far from extinct, as she had been led to believe. They are, in fact, poised to strip-mine Ferngully and obliterate any vegetation standing in the path of a massive tree-clearing machine called the Leveler. Crysta is compelled to save one of the humans, Zak (Jonathan Ward), from a falling tree by shrinking him down to fairy size. From this new perspective, he gets a change of attitude about the forest he was thoughtlessly destroying. The stellar voice cast includes a pre-Aladdin Robin Williams as the aptly named Batty, a scramble-brained fugitive from a science testing lab (giving Williams wide license to riff). Tim Curry gets down with his bad self as Hexxus, a demon spirit of pollution unwittingly liberated by the humans (his song, “Toxic Love,” is a stylized animated tour de force). The Jimmy Buffet-penned food chain anthem, “If I’m Gonna Eat Somebody (It Might as Well Be You”), is sung by a striped lizard voiced by Tone Loc. Christian Slater is the voice of Pips, Crysta’s fairy boyfriend, who gets unexpected competition from Zak for Crysta’s affections. The Family Fun Edition is a two-disc set geared both to children and to animation buffs, with games and music videos as well as “making of” segments, audio commentary, and script-to-screen comparisons. Ferngully is an ever-timely ecological fable. It’s ironic, though, that the traditional cel-animating process used to produce it is now as endangered as the rainforest. Donald Liebenson

All Movie Guide

A man finds himself living among the animals and enchanted spirits of the rainforest, and learns of the true consequences of human destruction in this animated adventure. Crysta (voice of Samantha Mathis) is a young fairy who is being tutored in the powers of magic by the older and wiser Magi (voice of Grace Zabriskie) in an Amazon rain forest. While their home was once on the verge of destruction thanks to the evil spirit Hexxus (voice of Tim Curry), the demon has been trapped inside a tree, and Crysta is free to play with her friends Batty Koda (voice of Robin Williams), a bat who escaped from an animal testing facility, and Pips (voice of Christian Slater), who has obvious romantic intentions toward the attractive young sprite. However, a clear-cutting crew destroys the tranquil peace of the rainforest, and when Crysta sees a runaway logging machine about to run over lumberjack Zak (voice of Jonathan Ward), she saves his life by shrinking him to her own size. However, Crysta isn't able to bring Zak back to his normal size, so he's forced to live among the forest creatures and learn first-hand the devastation the humans have brought to this world -- especially when the loggers accidentally free Hexxus from captivity. Mark Deming

Product Details

• UPC: 024543205159
• Source: 20TH CENTURY FOX
• Region Code: 1
• Presentation: Pan & Scan, Wide Screen
• Language: English
• Editions: Special Edition
• Time: 1:16:00
• Sales Rank: 1,736

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Funtastic Adventures Box Set
• Ferngully: the Last Rainforest / All Dogs Go to Heaven

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