By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
When you think about classic animated films from the 90s, you likely think about major Disney hits like Aladdin, The Lion King, or (a personal favorite) A Goofy Movie. However, the House of Mouse wasn’t the only studio creating killer cartoons, and one of the best non-Disney offerings of that decade or any other is now streaming completely for free. The movie in question is FernGully: The Last Rainforest, a star-studded story about saving the environment.
FernGully: The Last Rainforest
FernGully: The Last Rainforest is a slick adaptation of the FernGully stories by Diana Young, and the film follows the misadventures of an inquisitive fairy. She lives in the titular FernGully and wants to learn more about the world by exploring the luscious greenery of the forest. Unfortunately, her woodland home is being threatened by loggers, and before the film is through, she’ll discover a much larger threat that all of her newfound allies (including a shrunken human and a lab rat of a bat) may not be able to stop.
While FernGully: The Last Rainforest is a film that audiences of all ages can enjoy, it will be particularly entertaining for those who grew up during the ‘80s and the ‘90s. That’s because the cast is full of that era’s most charismatic stars, including Samantha Mathis as our adventurous fairy and Christian Slater as her boy toy (or at least, toy-sized boy). The inimitable Tim Curry voices the Big Bad, and Cheech and Chong voice a couple of bugged-out beetles. But the real star of the show is Robin Williams, who gives his deranged singing bat the same manic charisma he gave the genie in Aladdin.
This movie encouraged audiences to work on cleaning up the planet. Unfortunately, FernGully didn’t clean up at the box office. Against a budget of $24 million, the film only earned $32.7 million. That meant 20th Century Fox took home some profit, but not enough to really justify going toe-to-toe with Disney (who was then a major competitor whose $28 million Aladdin earned over $540 million only seven months later).
Fortunately, this eco-friendly film made more of an impression on critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, FernGully: The Last Rainforest has a critical rating of 67 percent. In general, critics praised the film for its enchanting voice acting, heartwarming humor, and relevant message that never comes across as preachy or annoying.
Now, time to address the elephant (or should that be bat?) in the room: why should you watch a film that barely squeaked out a profit and barely kept its “fresh” rating? For one thing, FernGully is mandatory viewing for anyone who loves the late, great Robin Williams. His Batty Koda character steals every scene, and it’s fascinating to consider how much this earlier film helped Williams prepare for his iconic role as Aladdin’s genie.
Also, as mentioned before, FernGully is like catnip to ‘80s and ‘90s kids who grew up adoring this cast in other iconic films. Like, we’ve got Christian Slater and Samantha Mathis, romantic leads of the criminally underappreciated Pump Up the Volume, reprising their previous weird romance but now as interspecies cartoon characters. We’ve got Tim Curry, Rocky Horror Picture Show’s genderbending scene queen, playing a Big Bad Dirty Daddy who’s all about looting and polluting.
Plus, I have to agree with the critics that FernGully does a great job of not coming across as too preachy. The film’s message about saving the rainforest is certainly even more relevant now than it was decades ago, but that message never comes at the expense of telling a good story. And that story is such an entertaining teaspoon of sugar that you’ll barely notice the environmental message going down.
Will you find FernGully: The Last Rainforest as ecologically enchanting as I did, or is this a film that will leave you rootin’ for the pollutin’? You won’t know until you stream it for free on Tubi. But you better warn everyone around you that you’ll be repeating Robin Williams’ demented dialogue long after the credits roll.
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