FernGully: The Last Rainforest / YMMV

FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue

Accidental Innuendo: Goanna's (voiced by Tone Lōc) song, "If I'm Gonna Eat Somebody (It Might as Well Be You)" sounds pretty sexual out of context.
Adaptation Displacement: Very few people realize this movie was based on a book by Diana Young.
All Animation Is Disney:
- Tends to fall victim to it quite a bit due to its (mostly) quality animation. Muddling things further was that Disney got the distribution rights to the movie through the 20th Century Fox movie and TV library buyout in March 2019^note.
- It's also mistaken for a Don Bluth movie due to its similar art style and the false assumption that any non-Disney film made during The Renaissance Age of Animation was made by him.
- It doesn't help that Disney did try to interfere with production in a roundabout way; Jeffrey Katzenberg asked Robin Williams not to take part because he worried it would interfere with marketing for Aladdin. Williams was already cross at Disney going back on their promise to de-emphasize his presence in the marketing of Aladdin, and he was especially not happy that they were now interfering in a film they had no production stake in whatsoever.
Alternative Character Interpretation: Because of his insanity, whenever Batty Koda "switches channels," he could be hallucinating in some fashion. The 'acid' parts of the "Batty Rap" could be interpreted as him seeing things, hearing voices in his head and speaking to himself. On the other hand, the wires and antenna could very well send radio signals to his brain, and his emotions and thought process are affected by the "channel" he's on. (If it's a cheery channel he's in a good mood, if it's a consumerist channel he acts like a sales person, if it's a patriotic channel he's ready for war, etc.)
Anvilicious: Like many environmental cartoons of its time, the film isn't exactly subtle about its messages regarding deforestation and pollution. Even the Robin Williams character spouts off morals!
Awesome Music: The movie's score, especially when the spirits of the trees are summoned and when the rainforest is restored by the seed of light.
- "Batty Rap", creepy and chock-full of Nightmare Fuel though it might be — especially since Robin Williams sang the song himself.
- And of course, you can't go wrong with Tim Curry hamming it up in his Villain Song "Toxic Love". Not for nothing, both this and the above song were written by Thomas Dolby.
- Guy's cover of "Land Of A Thousand Dances" isn't no slouch either.
- "A Dream Worth Keeping" by Sheena Easton, a perfectly lovely ballad that gives those big, bombastic end credit numbers in Disney movies a run for their money.
- The soaring and passionate "Some Other World" — Elton John's first foray into songwriting for animation. Not as well-known as his other works, but just as wonderful.
- "Life Is a Magic Thing," performed with great spirit by Johnny Clegg, makes for the perfect introduction to the world of FernGully.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The scene with the goanna singing rather erotically about eating Zak. Retrospectively a Trope Codifier along with All Dogs Go to Heaven because the Nostalgia Critic and Nostalgia Chick pointed it out.
Common Knowledge: Many people tend to interpret Hexxus as being a deity over pollution as a means of pointing out how Anvilicious the movie is. In actuality, Hexxus is a Destroyer Deity whose purpose is to cause mass destruction across the Earth, though, since Magi stated that he was spreading his poison long before modern technology existed, killing humans and animals alike with volcanic fire. Pollution could merely be just a way to speed up the process for him, rather than being his modus operandi.
Complete Monster: Hexxus stands in contrast to such a lighthearted setting. In the past, Hexxus caused a mountain known as Mount Warning to erupt like a volcano and destroy anything it touched, killing countless people and creatures in FernGully; this would also cause a majority of the humans to flee in terror and never return. Hexxus was finally defeated by the fairy priestess Magi Lune, but is released during the events of the film and manipulates the humans running a logging machine into heading towards FernGully so he can get revenge on the fairies for his imprisonment. Hexxus plans to pollute the entire world and destroy it, killing millions in the process so he can rule over the world as a Polluted Wasteland.
Critical Backlash: Even though the film gets a lot of flak for its Anvilicious Green Aesop, it has a fair amount of fans who enjoyed it as children.
Cult Classic: While still beloved by environmental groups and adults who enjoyed it as kids in The '90s, it's either unknown to or absolutely loathed by everyone else.
Demographically Inappropriate Humour: When Hexxus is sitting above the cabin to the Leveller, the screen pans down and you see Ralph reading a magazine. He turns it vertically and both he and Tony gawk at what they see.
Do Not Do This Cool Thing: Even though Hexxus is an exceptionally vile Ecocidal Antagonist who wants to pollute the entire world, Tim Curry's memorable performance (especially in the Villain Song, "Toxic Love") gives the character a distinct coolness and sex appeal that unintentionally makes pollution seem the better alternative to the rest of the film's anvilicious Green Aesop.
Draco in Leather Pants: How many fans feel about Hexxus. This is what happens when you make the villain more dynamic and thus entertaining, if not likable than the rest of the cast save, for the most part, Batty (and have him voiced by Tim Curry). So much so that it's resulted in an accidental Broken Aesop; Hexxus is easily taken as the coolest character to the point that he actually can get viewers to root against the protagonists, and "Toxic Love" can make pollution seem so awesome it's probably responsible for spawning a group of future anti-environmentalists in that generation.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Pips has a large number of fanart dedicated to him — impressive for barely 10 minutes of film. This can be chalked up to his clear affection for Crysta (bonus points for seemingly not being returned, or not nearly as strongly), his rivalry with Zak, playing the pan flute, hair somewhat like that of Dave Mustaine from Megadeth, and subtle but strong character arc.
Evil Is Cool: Hexxus is one of, if not the most memorable aspect of the film thanks to his Nightmare Fuel-inducing design and a terrifyingly charismatic performance by Tim Curry. Many viewers have joked that the film's Anvilicious environment-protection message fell flat mainly because Hexxus was so damn entertaining that they wanted him to win against the considerably more plain and overly-sweet protagonists.
Genius Bonus: The backstory to Fern Gully and Hexxus' original defeat is essentially a retelling of the Gunditjamara story on Budj Bim's origins (with substantially less fairies).
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Although the film was a box office bomb in its native country of the United States, it was more successful in Japan.
Ham and Cheese: Tim Curry and Robin Williams were clearly both having a blast playing their respective characters Hexxus and Batty.
Ho Yay Shipping: Zak/Pips is a very popular pairing.
Just Here for Godzilla: A lot of viewers enjoy this movie just to see Tim Curry and/or Robin Williams ham it up as Hexxus and/or Batty Koda. (Yet another reason the sequel was so poorly received.)
Misaimed Fandom: Hexxus has a huge following. Just read the comments for "Toxic Love" on YouTube. But this is what happens when you let Tim Curry do speaking and singing parts for your villain character; he just might become a role model.
One-Scene Wonder: Tone Loc has a single musical number as Lou the goanna.
Rooting for the Empire: Many watchers sympathize with Hexxus, who (for the record) is the incarnation of pollution in a heavily Anvilicious cartoon about how life is precious and pollution evil. He's an abomination whose end game is to spread pollution and live in a world of toxins, a process that is liable for endangering all life, but that's what you get for casting Tim Curry as your main villain and main characters who can end up generally forgotten otherwise (save for comic relief Batty).
Visual Effects of Awesome:
- One of the few things in the movie that is more unanimously agreed to be positive. As the above All Animation Is Disney entry shows, it was so good that a lot of people thought it was either Disney or Don Bluth.
- This is especially true regarding Hexxus, who is beautifully animated.
- An aspect that has gone largely ignored is the film's use of 2D Visuals, 3D Effects; the Leveler itself, Batty's flapping wings, a flock of birds, and some shots through the foliage, were created with 3D models. This was done so seamlessly that few who have seen the film even realize it due to the cel-shading of the models, much like The Great Mouse Detective before it, averting Special Effects Failure. Rather than try to impress audiences with 3D visuals that would inevitably date the film even further (as many 90's animated films did), the effects were used to half the production time.
Ugly Cute: Batty Koda. To be expected, seeing as fruit bats can be seen as this in real life.
The Woobie: Batty Koda, especially taking into account the experiments he went through.

YMMV / FernGully: The Last Rainforest

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