Ferngully – Environmental Movie for Kids

Yesterday I reviewed a book for kids that helps bring awareness to environmental issues. Today I thought I would discuss a movie that does the same. The movie is Ferngully – The Last Rainforest.

It follows the story of Crysta, a fairy that lives in one of the last rainforests. She and her fairy family live in relative peace and harmony under the safety of the rainforest canopy. It is their job to help plants and trees grow. One day Crysta meets Batty (voiced by Robin Williams)  a blind bat and he tells her about how “humans” have kept him in a lab and done horrible things to him in the name of science. Against Batty’s advice Crysta goes above the canopy just to take a look and she sees a smoke cloud coming from the forest not far away. Upon investigating she finds that humans (loggers) are cutting down trees.

This is when she meets Zak, a young man that has been hired for the summer to mark trees for the loggers to cut. Thinking Crytsa is a bug he tries to spray her with his spray paint and inadvertently marks an old, ugly looking tree that is actually the home of the imprisoned Hexxus. Hexxus (voiced by Tim Curry) wants to destroy the rainforest and all the creatures that live in it and was stopped in the past only by the actions of the fairies. He is represented as a slimy, talking oil slick and when the loggers cut his tree, he is released.

Zak of course has no idea what he has done until a mishap with Crysta’s fairy magic shrinks him until he is only 3 inches tall! Only then can he really see the destruction that he is contributing too and the devastation to the eco system of the forest and all the creatures that find shelter in it. Crysta shows Zak all the ponds, streams, trees, plants, animals and color of the forest and the importance of each through the eyes of the creatures that inhabit it. Zak and Crysta team up to stop Hexxus and the loggers before it is too late.

The characters are hilarious in this movie and the soundtrack is awesome with songs from Elton John, Sheena Easton, and of course Tim Curry. I am a huge Tim Curry fan. :) I know some parents had some issues with the words and lyrics….such as when Tim Curry mentions “Mother’s Milk” or sings his song “Toxic Love” which if you look up the lyrics he says the word horny but I never caught that in the movie. I wasn’t concerned about it (singing Toxic Love as I type this) but be advised.

Oil and grime…poison sludge
Diesel clouds and noxious muck
Slime beneath me…slime up above
Ooh you’ll love my (ah-ah-ah) toxic love.

When this movie came out in 1992 some parents were up in arms about the message that humans are destroying the earth. Personally I feel that it might just be reality slapping us in the face.

My kids and I love this movie and it is great for introducing your kids to the cause of environmentalism in a way they can understand.

Some other movies with environmental themes your kids might like: March of the Penguins, Happy Feet, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Ferngully 2, The Lorax, Ice Age – The Meltdown.