Yesterday we lost a comedy legend, the great and charismatic Robin Williams; and today's Cartoon Vault review looks at one of the animated features he starred in, Ferngully The Last Rainforest.
In a Rainforest in Australia, fairies have lived for centuries away from the world of humans and it is believed that humans are extinct thanks to a demonic being named Hexxus, that is until Crysta out of curiosity discovers that humans could in fact still be around as she sees in a distance black smoke coming from Mt Warning. Along with Batty, a deranged fruit bat who has escaped a science lab, they go and investigate the black smoke to find some humans cutting down the Rainforest; through a sudden reaction to a falling tree, Crysta shrinks a human male named Zak and along with Batty go on a crazy adventure which involves escaping the local wildlife, teaching the fairies human culture such as cheesy 90s music and going through the compulsory love scene between the lead characters with Batty providing the comic relief perfectly executed by Robin Williams.
Unfortunately a tree Zak accidentally sprayed earlier is in fact the tree Hexxus is sealed in, which is promptly cut down, releasing the rather flamboyant smog monster Hexxus, voiced by Tim Curry. By using the bulldozer to his advantage, Hexxus lays waste to the Rainforest but the fairy folk not willing to see their home destroyed, combine powers left by the elder fairy as well as having Zak stop the machine in order to end Hexxus' rampage. But before he can be defeated for good, Hexxus leaves us a sinister piece of Nightmare fuel as he transforms into a skeleton with a body of oil but when he consumes Crysta he's then consumed by a new sacred tree which finally puts an end to Hexxus.
Crysta comes out alive, resizes Zak and takes her place as the new leader of the fairies and so ends Ferngully.
Now this film is obviously a "Save the Rainforest" kinda film, during a time where supporting such a campaign was fashionable but it becomes a bit skewed when the fairies make growing new trees look easy, even in the face of a monster like Hexxus who looks like the personification of pollution that Captain Planet would be proud to fight. The plot struggles to get the message across and the experiences in the first half of the movie are confusing and add nothing to the story, in fact this film would be a write off if not for Robin Williams' performance as Batty to give us some brilliant comedy moments.
Robin Williams can create some bizarre characters whether it be the Scottish cross dressing nanny Mrs Doubtfire or the Blue Genie of Aladdin, if you removed these characters from the equation of their respective films then I doubt any of these films would see success and Ferngully is no exception.
"Cause you're only given a little spark of madness, and if you lose that, you're nothing" - Robin Williams 1951-2014 RIP
