FernGully: The Last Rainforest is a 1992 animated film produced by Kroyer Films, Youngheart Productions and FAI Films, and distributed by 20th Century Fox, and is based on the children's book of the same title, written by Diana Young. It is directed by Bill Kroyer with the screenplay by Jim Cox.
It takes place in an Australian rainforest (though, strangely, none of the humans even try to fake an Australian accent). Within is the titular Magical Land, "FernGully", which is inhabited by a wide variety of Fairy Creatures. They are led by the wise Magi Lune (Grace Zabriskie), who is currently teaching her young protege, Crysta (Samantha Mathis), the secrets of the forest. Here, Fairies believe that humans are extinct, having been last seen fleeing an attack by the spirit of destruction, Hexxus (Tim Curry). One day, while enjoying the forest with her suave boyfriend Pips (Christian Slater), curious Crysta ventures outside FernGully, and accidentally discovers a human logging operation. After meeting an insane fruit bat named Batty Koda (Robin Williams), and accidentally shrinking one of the humans, Zak (Jonathan Ward), down to her size, Crysta has to face the recently and accidentally released Hexxus, who lives off pollution and threatens to destroy the forest.
FernGully did only moderately well at the box office, at least in comparison to that other animated film featuring Robin Williams that was released in 1992, but it wasn't really a bad movie; it just oozed Aesop from every available pore.
Like most other animated films of this time period that had any kind of success, FernGully spawned one very cheap Direct to Video sequel titled FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue, for which none of the original cast reprised their roles.
Also, this movie is not a prison break movie.
These films provide examples of:
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Tropes A to D
- 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: The Leveler, first when Hexxus emerges and later when Batty and Zak fly around it.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: The two cassowary birds that exchange greetings with Crysta are about as nice and non-confrontational in the film as the Gecko from Geico is. Not only are their book versions in this scene verbally butting heads, but indeed, real-life cassowaries are dangerously territorial.
- Animal Testing: Batty Koda's entire backstory. Being tested on has also made him crazy as a result.
- Anthropomorphic Personification: Hexxus, the Avatar of pollution. He resembles a cloud of oil smoke with glowing red eyes and a brown mouth.
- Artistic License – Biology: Apart from the fact that trees don't have a nervous system and can't feel pain, the bark is made of dead cells anyway. Zak carving on it would be no more painful than trimming your fingernails.
- Award-Bait Song: "A Dream Worth Keeping."
- Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: Most younger female fairies, including the protagonist Crysta, wear a midriff-baring top and skirt combo, whereas male fairies tend to be shirtless, wearing loincloths.
- Big Bad: Hexxus.
- Big Eater: Zak's coworker Tony. One scene shows him devouring an entire slice of cake in one bite. Another example is
the singing goanna. - Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Shortly after being shrunk, Zak encounters a giant lizard who sings a sexual song about how he wants to eat him. The lizard is voiced by Tone Loc.
- Later in the film, toxic gas that is killing the rainforest takes on a human form and sings a sexual song about how much he enjoys being toxic. The gas is voiced by Tim Curry.
- Bittersweet Ending: Zak has to leave the fairies and go back to his own people, and it's implied he and Crysta will never see each other again. But he leaves with a new-found respect for what he once thoughtlessly destroyed, and tells his friends that "things have gotta change."
- Blatant Lies: Zak tells Crysta that the crosses sprayed on the trees are a ward of protection, instead of being an advert to the logging crew to chop the thing down.
- Blob Monster: Hexxus has the basic form of a blob of sludge, but he regains his gaseous form when he drinks enough diesel exhaust from the Leveller.
- Body Horror:
- Hexxus gets a tree grown out of him. Twice. The second time is much more graphic. Considering the roots burst out of his chest and fuse him into the trunk, it's got to hurt.
- That...thing with the electric wires sticking out of Batty's head is a more minor example, seeing as it's implied to be permanently attached to him.
- Broken Aesop: Averted - at first you're concerned that the movie is going to tell you that the fairies can take care of it. But Magi Lune is very explicit that with damage this extreme, there's very little she can do to fix it. Zak tells his friends that things have got to change.
- For all the times the first movie tries to show nature as beautiful and humans as destructive, the true villain of the film wasn't the humans, or even something created by them, but a living being who's polluting the forest so he can eat. Life is literally toxic to him, and pollution is his only sustenance. So basically, in a movie about how wonderful nature is, they made the bad guy a natural being whose nature is to feed on nature itself.
- Then again, the first movie makes it clear that nature consists of a balance of creation and destruction. A little destruction is okay as long as it's tempered with creation. Hexxus is a problem because he's bordering on being an Omnicidal Maniac (mind that he sung about having shopping malls built), though it's sure he is nasty enough to pollute nature something awful given the chance. It's worse in the book, where that version is confirmed for wanting to wipe out all life with a pollution World-Wrecking Wave to create his own graveyard Villain World. The film also never claims that humans are destructive per se, just greedy, thoughtless, and/or short-sighted, which can lead to unwittingly causing more destruction than the world can recover from.
- But Now I Must Go: They may have sealed Hexxus for good, but humans can still cause damage. Which is why Zak has to go.
- Check, Please!: Uttered by Batty.
- Clipped-Wing Angel: Hexxus unveiling his stronger form doesn't help him much. Before he can even unleash his destruction, Crysta and the other fairies infect him with plant growth and seal him in another magical tree.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Deconstructed with Batty; his eccentricity is a result of Animal Testing done to him in the past, which has also left him with a grudge against humans.
- Comically Missing the Point: After Goanna eats Zak, we get this exchange from him and Batty:Crysta: Y-You can't eat him! He's a human!Goanna: What's a human?Batty: Delicious and nutritious, tastes just like chicken!
- Compact Infiltrator:
- When first released from the tree, Hexxus initially takes the form of a tiny blob of brown slime, allowing him to sneak around the Leveller by pouring himself down pipes, climbing out of smokestacks, and oozing through gratings - eventually giving him the opportunity to trick the Leveller's operators into doing his bidding.
- In the finale, Zak's shrunken status gives him an advantage when the Leveller needs to be shut down before Hexxus uses it to destroy Fern Gully: not only is he the only ally of the fairies who knows how to switch off the machine, but he's small enough to be pushed through the closing window of the cab.
- Consuming Passion: There really is no way around it, the Goanna's song about eating Zak is oozing sexual undertones from every pore.
- Covers Always Lie: The kind of purple cloud with an evil face on the cover barely resembles Hexxus, the villain. He never appears in-movie as any color or shade other than near-black, at least.
- Creator Cameo: One of the workers that reports to the Leveler, the one that says "Finito, good buddy," is the director Bill Kroyer. Ralph, who checks in on him over the radio, even calls him Willy.
- Crisis Catch And Carry: As the denizens of FernGully flee for their lives from Hexxus, Zak rushes back to rescue Bark after the latter is knocked off his beetle.
- Cross-Cultural Handshake: In this case, Zak ends up introducing Crysta and Pip to shaking hands as a greeting; just seeing him extend his arm towards them, they do the same without even attempting to grasp his hand or arm back.
- Crowd Song: If you'd like to see a bunch of magical beings dance to "Land of a Thousand Dances" for no reason at all (save a walkman playing the tune), have we got a movie for you!
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: Despite being an eccentric bat throughout the film, he turns out be right when Zak agrees with his point about humans destroying the forest.
- Deadpan Snarker: Batty Koda, usually around Zak.
- Deranged Animation: Anything involving Hexxus, but especially Toxic Love where he generates multiple heads that devour each other, moves around in technicolor gears, swipes, smashes coins, etc.
- Outside of it he was initially an eyeless sludge with a mouth that was constantly shifting his form into long-necked, serpentine, and even a cobra, then a blackened skeleton, next a strong-jawed blackened wraith, and finally, a skeletal demon wearing a sludge coat while with the interior of his coat being coated by flames.
- Despair Event Horizon: Crysta and Zak are in a dark place when the former learns the truth about what the humans have done to the forest.
- Destroyer Deity: Hexxus is described by Magi Lune as the primordial spirit of destruction in the intro who was initially birthed out of Mount Warning. He feeds off of anything that is toxic to life, especially human-based pollution. His whole purpose is to destroy the forest and create a Polluted Wasteland in its place.
- Deus ex Machina: Batty plays this role early in the film, appearing out of nowhere to rescue Crysta and Zak from a woodchipper at the last second.
- Disney Death:
- Batty, who is hit with a large piece of debris and taken out of the final fight. Luckily, after being restored to his normal size, Zak manages to find and revive him.
- Later, Crysta seems like she may not have made it after flying directly into Hexxus' mouth. She is later found unharmed after Hexxus is imprisoned once again.
- Duck Season, Rabbit Season:Batty: Nobody cares about me.
Zak: I do, Bat-Man!
Batty: You sure?
Zak: I'm positive.
Batty: Only fools are positive.
Zak: Are you sure?
Batty: I'm positive!... I fell for it! I should have known!
Tropes E to L
- Evil Is Hammy: Hexxus, but what would you expect from a singing villain voiced by Tim Curry?
- Evil Laugh: Hexxus loves to do this. It gets creepy when starts to sound demonic and distorted towards the end of "Toxic Love".
- Evil Laugh Turned Coughing Fit: Hexxus has a laugh at the end of his extended song that ends with a dry cough. Can be seen as a satire, but actually justified, as Hexxus is the embodiment of pollution.
- Evil Slinks: Hexxus moves this way through the entire movie, but never more so than in his show-stopping "Toxic Love" number.
- Evil Tastes Good: Just listen to Hexxus in the "Toxic Love" number.
- Faerie Court: Magi Lune as the fairy equivalent of the Wise Woman; her powers greatly surpass those of other fairies. Crysta's father acts as the spokesman for the fairies gathered around Zak's tape player.
- Faeries Don't Believe in Humans, Either: The fairies are surprised by the arrival of Zak, arguably more so than he is to them. Crysta's father actually says to her, "Don't you think you're a little old to believe in human tales?" Also played with—it's not that they believe humans never existed, as they're certain they did and indeed, they've interacted with them many ages ago. However, humans left the rainforest at some point and this led the fairies to believe that mankind had died off. Indeed, when Batty mentions humans we get this exchange:Crysta: It's okay...there are no humans.
Old Fairy: They're long gone.
Older Fairy: Vanished!
Even Older Fairy: Definitely extinct. - Fairy Sexy: Crysta and many of the background young female fairies. If this trope could count for males, then Pips definitely.
- Falling-in-Love Montage: Crysta and Zak get one late in the movie.
- Fanservice: Crysta's outfit, if you're into that. Or Pips', for that matter.
- Fantastic Racism: Batty seems to hate humans in both movies, but very much distrusts them with hardly any exception. Really does – his experiences in the lab means that he sees them as monsters without feelings, "numb from the brain down" to the point that it'd be advisable to kill one. Admittedly, he has a damn good reason...
- Fear Is the Appropriate Response: Just found out the boss that has been ordering you over the radio to work double-shifts leveling trees so you can get to a specific gully in the forest by morning, is actually an Elemental Embodiment of destruction made of your tree harvester's fumes? Don't worry. We, or at least a good number of folks would scream or at least bolt out of the machine faster than you can say "What happened?" too.
- Fertile Feet: Crysta does this near the end of the movie, and uses it directly against Hexxus.
- Foreshadowing:
- When Hexxus regains his full power at the beginning of "Toxic Love", he appears as a black skeleton with fangs. At the end of the film he takes on this form again, wreathed in flames.
- During Magi Lune's monologue to Crysta at the very beginning of the film, she says "I won't be around forever." She gives up her life force to empower Crysta and the other fairies for the final fight against Hexxus.
- Four-Fingered Hands: Sported by the more cartoony characters, like the Beetle Boys and Ralph and Tony. Zak, Crysta and most of the fairy characters have hands with normal five fingers.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus:
- When Crysta first flies up out of the canopy, for a split second, the black cloud rising out of Mount Warning is shaped exactly like the Grim Reaper. Obviously implying that pollution is deadly...
- During the same scene, just before the silhouette of the falcon is seen through the canopy, it can be very briefly seen flying behind Crysta.
- When Crysta first flies up out of the canopy, for a split second, the black cloud rising out of Mount Warning is shaped exactly like the Grim Reaper.
- Glass Smack and Slide: Zak once falls into the logging machine's windshield and slides down as his coworkers watch.
- Glowing Flora: At some point, Zak and Crysta are seen hopping on several bioluminescent shelf fungi.
- G-Rated Sex: The "clasping hands together and making them glow" scene.
- Green Aesop: The very name of the movie is a dead giveaway.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Pips's jealousy towards Zak.
- Greeting Gesture Confusion: Zak offers a handshake to Crysta. Unfamiliar with the concept of shaking hands, she just sticks her hand out at Zak's face.
- The Grim Reaper: Hexxus' true form seems to be a giant burning skeleton with a cloak of tar. He's specifically mentioned to be the ancient embodiment of destruction, but it wouldn't take a leap of faith to infer that Hexxus' purpose is to bring about the end of life itself.
- Hands Looking Wrong: In the finale, the Leveler is shut down, depriving Hexxus of exhaust to feed off, destroying his gaseous body, and forcing him to assume his One-Winged Angel form: a giant cloaked skeleton made of Ominous Obsidian Ooze and fire. Hexxus briefly looks down at his now-solid hands, turning them over as he realizes that he's at full strength, and then looks up with an absolutely monstrous Slasher Smile.
- Healing Hands: Done by Zak to Crysta after Crysta accidentally touches his match and burns her hand.
- Heroic BSoD:
- Crysta has a major one when she learns that the humans are destroying the forest. Seconds later, she has another one when Magi gives up her life force to empower her and the other fairies.
- Zak gets a brief one shortly after Crysta turns her back on him for his lies.
- Magi Lune lapses into a troubled and depressive state upon realizing that her magic is no longer strong enough to counter Hexxus's destructive powers.
- Hope Spot: Zigzagged. After Zak succeeds in turning off the human's logging machine, Hexxus chokes from the lack of pollution (oh, the irony) and withers away. It seems the fight is over, but then he regenerates into an even stronger form that's essentially The Grim Reaper made of fire and tar. Then Crysta finds another way to defeat Hexxus by using the forest's magic to reseal him inside another magic tree.
- Humans Are Cthulhu: Apparently all they, for some time thought as nonexistent, do is create pain and pollution and destruction. But they're not all bad, because they also have boom boxes!
- Humongous Mecha: The Leveler. It's a bulldozer, a timber harvester, a tractor, and an automated factory all in one. It has two huge arms with giant claws for hands, chainsaws on its "elbows", and a "mouth" with backwards-facing "teeth" that pull unfortunate trees inside it, all topped off with a control room that looks like a single wide cyclopes-like eye. Basically, take Gigan and turn him into a vehicle.
- Idiosyncratic Cultural Gesture: Crysta seems to recognize that Zak offering his hand while introducing himself is a form of greeting, but not knowing the context, offers her hand at Zak's eye level while introducing herself.
- Ignorant About Fire: Crysta has never seen fire or flames, and is enthralled a match that Zak lights. Then she tries to touch it, promptly burning herself.
- Incredible Shrinking Man: Zak is shrunk down to fairy size for most of the movie thanks to Crysta.
- Interspecies Romance: Human/fairy. It doesn't work out.
- Irony: In Ferngully, Fairies have gone for so long without seeing a human being that they've come to see us as little more than "Human Tales".
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Pips. He's a tough, badass fairy that hangs out with a group of biker fairies/impish creatures that very openly distrust Zak multiple times, but he's mostly concerned about Crysta's safety and FernGully's survival, not to mention that he wants her for himself. Near the end of the movie, he ends up saving Zak from falling to his death and helps him get inside the Leveller. In the sequel, Pips even helps Crysta and her friends foil the poachers' plans.
- Large Ham: Hexxus. Tim Curry was enjoying himself immensely. Batty Koda also gets some hammy moments because... hell, it's Robin freakin' Williams. The man was made of ham.
- The Last Title: The title.
- Lineage Ladder: At the end of the movie, there's a message that says, "For our children and our children's children", which is a common point used to help promote environmental conservation since it reinforces the reality that ecological damage can last for long periods of time.
- Love Triangle: Zak/Crysta/Pips, to a certain extent.
- Lyrical Dissonance: "Batty Rap." Justified because Batty is, well, pretty much insane from the humans' experiments on him.
Tropes M to R
- Made of Evil: Hexxus is the semi-incorporeal manifestation of destruction and pollution that has to be sealed in a tree to be contained. He wants to turn the world into a polluted wasteland specifically because he lives off it.
- Magic Skirt: Both Crysta and Pips wear skirts that stay perfectly in place no matter what they're doing. There's even a scene with Crysta walking upside down and her skirt doesn't fall back an inch.
- Magic Misfire: How Zak gets shrunk. Crysta was trying to cast the spell that would merely make him see her (the same spell she used on Batty earlier) but she flubbed the incantation, granting him with fairy "size" instead of "sight".
- Malicious Monitor Lizard: Downplayed with Lou the goanna. He apparently enjoys playing with his food, as he sings an entire song about how he wants to eat Zak, but when he learns that Zak is Crysta's friend, he stops.
- May It Never Happen Again: When a logging outfit starts to clearcut a pristine forest, they unknowingly release the sealed evil in a tree that is Hexxus, the amorphous embodiment of destruction, desolation and death. Hexxus takes control of the Leveler, and rolls toward Ferngully. It takes almost every sprite and fairy in Ferngully to stop Hexxus, and seal him up once more inside a living tree.
- Meaningful Echo: Early in the film, Magi plants a seed in a withered strangler vine and asks Crysta to "help it grow." Towards the end, Pips uses the same line to help the spirits trap Hexxus for good.
- The Mentally Disturbed: Batty isn't exactly sane following his ordeal, as "Batty Rap" indicates.
- The Mentor: Magi Lune, though what she does and why Crysta is studying under her isn't really established.
- Mentor Occupational Hazard: Apparently whatever Magi Lune does requires that she die so her protégé can take on her power. Why this is necessary at all is never explained.
- Military Mashup Machine: A non-military example. The Leveler functions as both a mobile sawmill and a tree harvester.
- Mobile Factory: The Leveler can process trees into planks within itself.
- Missing Mom: Crysta's mother is never seen nor mentioned.
- Myth Prologue: The film opens with Magi Lune telling Crysta about the time when the spirits of nature lived in harmony with the animals and humans until Hexxus, the spirit of destruction, appeared and almost destroyed the forest. Magi Lune sealed him in a tree but the humans had already fled in fear and the fairies thought they went extinct (actually, they survived but lost completely their connection to nature).
- The Name Is Bond, James Bond: When Batty introduces himself to the fairies, he explains that "they used to call me Batty. Batty Koda."
- Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Despite the Australian setting, Zak speaks with an American accent.
- Nothing Is Scarier: What did those scientists do to Batty? We get a few unpleasant Noodle Implements in the full version of his rap, but that's about it. Then again, since there are two wires sticking out his head that short-circuit his thought processes when they touch, it's probably better if we don't know.
- Obliviously Evil: The humans we see working the Leveler aren't maliciously trying to wipe out entire habitats, pollute the water, cause trees pain, or leave animals and fairies homeless. They're Just Following Orders. It doesn't seem to occur to them that they are destroying life until they see the destroyed forest right in front of them.
- Oh, Crap!: An overabundance of them. To wit:
- Crysta gets one at the beginning of the film when she sees a wedge-tailed eagle heading straight for her.
- Magi when she becomes suspicious that the smoke near Mount Warning is Hexxus.
- Crysta when she touches her hand on a tree only to discover that she has spray paint from the "X" marking on it.
- Crysta has another one when she gets pursued by Zak after he accidentally sprays the tree containing Hexxus. Then again after she sees the leveller cutting down one of the trees and when she and Zak are about to get minced by the saw.
- Batty when he realizes that Zak's a human shortly before he crashes into a tree.
- Zak when he wakes up to see Crysta holding his pocket knife.
- Batty again when he comes to and sees Zak, causing him to fall out of the tree. He has another one seconds later when Zak pulls his pocket knife on him.
- Zak when he encounters Goanna for the first time.
- Batty when he is about to crash into a tree once again seconds after Zak gets dropped off by the Beetle Boys.
- Zak gets one when he realizes that the leveller has been poisoning the trees and water all along.
- Crysta when she realizes what the humans have really done to the forests.
- Zak, Crysta and the fairies when Hexxus and the leveller finally enter FernGully.
- Zak when he sees that the leveller is about to crush him shortly after he goes out to help.
- Zak and Batty when Hexxus uses the leveller's headlight to try and kill them.
- Tony and Ralph when they see Hexxus on the windscreen.
- Zak again when the vibrations almost cause him to fall to his doom.
- Crysta and the fairies when Hexxus begins to destroy FernGully. Seconds later, Hexxus gets one when Zak turns off the leveller.
- Zak, Crysta, Pips and the fairies get one when Hexxus reveals his true form.
- Hexxus at the end when Crysta and the fairies use their magic to help seal him forever.
- Omnicidal Maniac: Hexxus wants to destroy the rainforest, at least, in the movie (in the book, that version definitely wants to kill off all the Earth's creatures) by any means he can find, with a desire of turning it into an uninhabitable toxic wasteland. He's the primordial embodiment of destruction and pollution, so it's literally his purpose for existing in the first place.
- One-Winged Angel: After Hexxus' power source from human pollution is disconnected his smoke form dissipates, and it momentarily seems like he's defeated. Then he harnesses his own power and transforms into a giant, black, cloaked skeleton made out of fire and tar. It's hinted to be his real form, as it's glimpsed earlier in the film during his Villain Song.
- Opening Narration: At the beginning of the film, Magi tells Crysta about the fairies' relationship with the humans in FernGully and its eventual destruction:Magi: Our world was much larger then. The forest went on forever. We tree spirits nurtured the harmony of all living things, but our closest friends were humans. Then, as sometimes happens, the balance of nature shifted. And Hexxus, the very spirit of destruction rose up from the bowels of the earth, and rained down his poison. The forest was nearly destroyed, many lives were lost and the humans fled in fear, never to return. Most think they didn't survive. It was only by calling up the magical powers of nature, that I was able to trap Hexxus inside an enchanted tree, and save FernGully.
- Our Fairies Are Different: Fairies (or "tree spirits," as they call themselves), who serve as the guardians of the rainforest, are reminiscent of Tinker Bell, in terms of design.
- The Outside World: The fairies are convinced that FernGully is the entire world, and that humans are long extinct. Mage-in-training Crysta is so surprised to actually see a human that she fumbles a magic spell meant to warn him of danger. The spell instead shrinks the human to about three inches tall, which is fairy size.
- Passing the Torch: Towards the end of the film, Magi Lune passes her powers on to Crysta and the other fairies. And even Zak.
- The Place: Ferngully, the last rainforest
- Plucky Comic Relief: Batty Koda's crazy and unpredictable behavior is often Played for Laughs.
- Polluted Wasteland: Hexxus's ideal environment, and what he wants to turn FernGully into.
- Punch-Clock Villain: The humans working "The Leveler" are not malicious about cutting down or polluting the rain forest. They're just doing their jobs.
- Puppy-Dog Eyes: When Crysta asks Zak if he has anything to do with the tree-eating monster (the Leveler), not only is she giving him the puppy dog face, but she's also standing on a branch full of mushrooms that resemble large, sad eyes, all looking at Zak.
- Reformation Acknowledgement: Zak tells the Fairies that the humans were the ones who have been cutting down the trees in the forest as Hexxus and The Leveler approach Fern Gully. The Fairies seem to be doing a Heel–Face Door-Slam, brushing past him. Batty, however, who has been very anti-human the whole film, acknowledges Zak's efforts.Batty: You know, Zak the truth doesn't always win friends, but it certainly influences people. You're not half-bad, for a homonid.
- The Queen's Latin: Batty gets some in when Zak changes his "channels", probably a Shout-Out to Robin Williams' own comedy bit about Romans with English accents.Batty: Oh Caesar, Emperor of Rome!
- Reclaimed by Nature: After Hexxus has been defeated, both he and his hijacked machine, the Leveler, get shrouded in flora. With the help of magic fairies, plants galore sprout around, into and through the Giant Mecha, breaking it with expanding stalks and tendrils. The whole conversion takes mere minutes.
- Running Gag: Batty Koda's consistent collision with trees (and anything) is a major running gag, and it even continues into the sequel.
Tropes S to Y
- Sapient Eat Sapient: We get an entire song about Goanna taunting Zak with his intent to eat him, because "if [he's] gonna eat somebody, it may as well be [him]". This implies no matter what Goanna eats, it'll be a "somebody" to him. And he's okay with that. Though, this monitor lizard will listen if a fairy tells him not to eat soemone.
- Scenery Porn: The very colorful, lush environments are actually based off of what the filmmaker and a group of animators saw during their trip to the Australian rainforests and are arguably the most researched part of the movie. For example, the scene where Zak talks about life in the city seems to exist for the sole purpose of showing off the beautiful glowing mushrooms growing on the trees.
- Screams Like a Little Girl: A frightened Batty does this in front of Pips' face making him jump back, after Pips teases him by telling him he loves his haircut.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- Crysta leaves Zak behind shortly after learning he lied to her about how the humans are destroying the rainforest.
- Tony and Ralph make a break for it after they see Hexxus in the flesh for the first time.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The villain Hexxus, who for ages was sealed into a tree, and was released when the tree was cut down. In the end, Crysta and her fellow fairies manage to create a whole new tree to recapture him.
- Shoo Out the Clowns: Batty's Disney Death at the climax should tell you that things are about to get real.
- Shout-Out:
- Batty quoting John Wayne, All About Eve, Star Wars, Tora! Tora! Tora!, Star Trek, etc. during the climax, when Zak is changing his "channels".
- The Leveler's design and function seems inspired by the Crablogger from Thunderbirds. At least, the two certainly look similar.
- Space Whale Aesop:
- "Save the wild places in the world, because that's where the Fairies live." Well, if it works, that's good with me.
- "Don't cut down trees or you may unleash an avatar of death that will destroy the world."
- Split Personality: Batty seems to have a world going on up there.Batty: (suddenly taking on a female voice and applying berry juice like lipstick) All of our cosmetics are non-carcinogenic (gets zapped) AHHHH!!!
- Stock Audio Clip: Batty's distinctive cry of "Ooooooooooooohhh nooooooooooooooooo!!!!".
- Supernaturally Marked Grave: Both of Hexxus's tree traps.
- Talking Animal: Batty, Goanna and most of the other rainforest animals.
- That Reminds Me of a Song:
- The infamous "Land of 1,000 Dances" scene.
- Not to mention that Raffi song. (But at least it's short.)
- This Is Gonna Suck: Batty Koda's expression when Hexxus sends one of The Leveler's headlights at him and Zak towards the end of the film shows that he's aware it's going to hurt.
- Tomboy: Crysta would much rather prefer looking above the canopy, exploring, and goofing off and hanging out with Pips and his biker beetle gang than listen to Magi Lune's lectures. Her pixie cut is also evidence of her tomboyishness.
- Totally Radical:Zak: That sounds cool.Crysta: No, usually it's warm.Zak: Nah, nah... 'cool' means 'hot'.Crysta: What?Zak: Yeah. You know... bodacious.. bad.. tubular...Crysta: [Zak]'s a bodacious babe!
- Transformation Trauma: Crysta fails several attempts to fix Zak's size, turning him into various sizes and strange creatures during each attempt.Batty Koda: Oh, it's Darwin's Grab Bag!
- Taunting the Transformed: Shortly after realizing that he's been accidentally shrunk down to fairy size, Zak immediately demands that Crysta restore him to normal height. To her credit, she tries, but only manages to expand different parts of Zak's body so that he ends up looking like an increasingly comical array of animals until she finally runs out of energy, and throughout this scene, the slightly crazed Batty Koda (who hates humans) is treating the whole thing like a game of charades. And when Crysta offers to try again, Batty gleefully encourages her, much to Zak's horror.
- The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: Crysta looks absolutely nothing like her father; a short, fat, bearded fairy.
- Unlucky Childhood Friend: A lot of if not any interest Crysta may have had for Pips takes a back seat as soon as Zak shows up. Pips doesn't take it well at least at first. Whether he remains this is ambiguous; the two share a tender smile at the end but this may be bidding Zak farewell. Crysta flies off before anything more happens and Pips follows her like he always does. The sequel certainly did nothing with this.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Well, how were Tony and Ralph supposed to know the boss ordering them over the radio to level trees overtime and get to FernGully by morning was a level of rather 'planticidal' Anthropomorphic Personification of Destruction that just wanted to literally lay waste to all life to create his own pollution paradise?
- Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: While the film is a very colorful Scenery Porn, Hexxus is just nightmarish.
- Villainous Badland, Heroic Arcadia: Ferngully is a lush rainforest, while the tree where Hexxus is sealed in is black, twisted, bloated, dripping with oily vileness and sitting in the midst of a patch of completely barren land. The Leveler, a man-made machine possessed and used by Hexxus to do his foul bidding, also leaves a trail of devastation in its wake.
- Villain Song: The aforementioned "Toxic Love" for Hexxus. Possibly a reference to Tim Curry's role in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It sounds a good deal like "Sweet Transvestite".
- "The Villain Sucks" Song: "Batty Rap" by Batty Koda. Okay, not exactly "The Villain Sucks", but more along the lines of "Humans Suck", and Batty consistently views them as being evil.
- Vitriolic Best Buds. By the end of the movie, Zak and Pips have become this, though it's at a rather mild level.
- The Voiceless: Bark, the smallest Beetle Boy. He becomes Suddenly Speaking in the sequel, though.
- Was It All a Lie?: Zak lied to Crysta that humans can stop the monster (Leveler) that's destroying the trees. She didn't take it well when she learned the truth. Also, in how much devastation they caused, it's really starting to seem to her that Humans Are Bastards.
- Watch Out for That Tree!: It's a running gag that Batty Koda crashes into trees and windows. This is Truth in Television. Because fruit bats are just so massive, they have a lot of excess inertia when it does come time to stop, resulting in rather hard landings. That said, they probably don't land face-first into the trunk.
- Younger Than They Look: According to one of his credit cards, Zak is said to be sixteen years old. However, he looks and sounds more like he's in his early twenties.
