YMMV / Once Upon a Forest

• Adaptation Displacement: It was a book first.
• All Animation Is Disney: Besides being mistaken for a Disney movie, it is also sometimes mistaken for a Don Bluth movie, which it isn't. Its posters and trailers, which proudly proclaimed "from the creator of An American Tail" would have you think otherwise. It doesn't help that James Horner actually did compose the soundtracks for the first Land Before Time film along with this. (In a literal case of All Animation is Disney, 20th Century Fox would end up being bought by Disney, resulting in Disney technically owning the film despite having nothing to do with it and the 20th Century Fox branding still being on the print of the film.)
• Awesome Music:
  • "Once Upon a Time With Me".
  • "Please Wake Up." Michael Crawford reportedly burst into tears recording it.
  • The movie's full of beautiful James Horner scores. "The Forest" is a prime example. "The Accident" is also awesome for being one of the scariest pieces of music ever put in a children's film.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The part where the group comes across the flock of birds and has to save a young bird named Bosworth, who’s stuck in a mud puddle. The heroes create an elaborate device to save him, inspiring the crowd to excitedly burst into a gospel-influenced song about it. This section really doesn't contribute anything to the story, except comic relief and to introduce the concept of "the Yellow Dragons."
• Cliché Storm: The film is a pretty standard and straightforward Hero's Journey story, complete with obligatory Green Aesop.
• Cult Classic: Has a modest fanbase, mostly comprised of people who saw it within the first few years of release and still enjoy it now.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Phineas. It helps that he was voiced by Ben Vereen.
  • Also Edgar, who was the only character to get a limited edition plush made.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Edgar calls a car a "monster", which is what the Warrior Cats characters call cars and other vehicles ten years later.
  • On the topic of YA Xenofiction literature, the barn owl looks a lot like Metal Beak, save his iconic helmet and eponymous prosthesis.
• Inferred Holocaust: Though two deaths (Michelle's parents) are shown onscreen, the gas leak would have probably killed many more cute furry forest creatures than that...
• Moe: All of the main kid characters qualify, but especially Michelle who is a curious, cheerful, and adorable little badger, which makes her even more sympathetic and pitiful when a gas leak orphans and nearly kills her.
• One-Scene Wonder: Phineas, the pastor of the bird choir, Willy and Waggs from the meadow.
• Padding: The scene with the wrens sticks out the most. It's long, and even with it in there, the film clocks in at seventy-one minutes.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Hey, Bosworth is Vince and Tucker!
  • Also, Michelle is Peggy Olson and June/Offred.
  • One of the film's animators was Sergio Pablos, the man behind Despicable Me and Klaus.
• So Bad, It's Good: From Michael Crawford's Large Ham acting to yet another Green Aesop.
• So Okay, It's Average: The consensus for those who have actually seen it is that there is a lot to admire about it, but the story and characters are boring.
• Tear Dryer: The three main characters return with medicinal herbs within the two-day deadline to heal the stricken Michelle. However, after applying the herbs and resting overnight, Michelle remains unresponsive, and everyone presumes Michelle has perished from pulmonary failure. Cue lots of crying and hugging. One teardrop from her uncle Cornelius, however, awakens her, whereupon she's as vivacious as ever.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: Abigail is not immediately identifiable as a female for some, due to her tomboyish personality, Boyish Short Hair, and gender-neutral clothing.
• Viewer Species Confusion: While Cornelius is easy to identify as a badger, viewers sometimes mistake his niece Michelle for a skunk, because she lacks an adult badger's characteristic bulk.
• The Woobie:
  • Michelle, definitely. Losing your parents and being poisoned by toxic gas will make you one.
  • Cornelius certainly qualifies. He and his younger sister lost their parents when they were still kids, and then he loses his sister and brother-in-law at the beginning of the movie. It's even easier to feel bad for him, given that now Michelle is all the family he has left in the world and he can only sit there helplessly as she's slowly slipping away.
  • Also Abigail, when she starts feeling bad about herself for thoughtlessly leading the furlings into danger.
  • Edgar also has his moments of this.
  • Also Bosworth, the young wren trapped in the mud that the furlings save.

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