FernGully: Las aventuras de Zak y Crysta

20th Century Fox's animated fantasy film might have been lost in the early/mid-1990s, but its message remains timeless and its substance underrated. Beautiful animation, fitting voice actors and well-thought musical numbers all weave a wonderful story about an Australian rainforest inhabited by fairies, one of which befriends lumberjack Ward who is unwittingly playing a part in destroying FernGully. Mathis is perfectly sweet as the curious fairy who tries to guide her new human friend into understanding the damage his kind is inflicting on the natural world, and what a great importance it is to preserve nature; Williams is hilarious as Batty Koda, though his role now seems sort of like an underwhelming version of Genie from ALADDIN; and Curry is chilling even as a cartoon character! ***½ (out of four)

When I was a kid I loved this movie, and I still enjoy it to this day. The colors and animation are wonderful. Anybody could enjoy this movie. I don't get the low rating. Robin Williams and Tim Curry have the greatest voices for the film. They both add a lot to the film. I would highly recommend this for a family film. Also just for the kids as well. It has catchy toons, nice animation, and a fun story to tell. Also, another addition is that it does have great morals. So, parents don't have to worry. Whenever I babysit my little cousins, this is a movie I'd let them watch on any day. I wish there was a possibility to get a higher rating. But sometimes you just have to deal with it. I feel like this movie deserves at least a 7.0. We can only hope, right?

8/10

I remember loving this when it first came out and I was only about 10 years old. I recently came upon a couple of the books that I had saved of the movie and that got me thinking back on this. I haven't seen it in years, but I just bought it and can't help but love it. I love the visuals, colors and overall look of the film. And of course, Robin Williams as Batty Koda was hilarious. In describing humans, "They walk around like 'Hi Helen!'" I love the message most of all, and it does a good job of representing the greed and destruction of our times through images, actions and dialogue. I especially love how the fairy Crysta is so in touch with nature and its feelings that she can touch a tree and we literally see its energy flow into her. She shows this to the human, Zak, who, like every other human, is out of tune with nature and its feelings. Gradually, though, he too feels it, and all it took was for someone to wake him up to it. That's all it takes for us, too. We needed something like this movie to be made in order to wake some of us up to what we're doing. It may sound cliche or like a lecture, but it's one that needs to be said and for that I'm thankful to Ferngully and the people behind it who believed enough in the message they were attempting to get across. I read it loud and clear.

FernGully is a non-Disney cartoon fairy tale about the importance of protecting forests. It is about a human male shrunk to fairy-size; he learns about fairies, their forest habitat, and soon finds a logging crew he was working with is now threatening their home.

I remember watching FernGully as a kid, I really liked Batty (voiced by Robin Williams) and his song. Rewatching this now, Batty wasn't as hilarious as I remembered but he is one of the better characters of the movie. An insane bat with a radio wired into his head by human scientists, he is quite colourful. The other pretty good character is the villain Hexxus (Tim Curry), who also has a catchy song. He's a poisonous being who apparently thrives on destruction. A shape shifter, he too is well imagined.

Beyond this the fairy characters Crysta and Pips (Christian Slater) and the human Zak are kind of flat. One thing that surprised me is how skimpy Crysta's clothes are (they reveal her hips and midriff)- but I'm not going to pass judgement on whether that's appropriate. Besides flat characters, at times watching this I longed for something more adult. The story was clearly aimed at children. At times this story isn't fully developed- why exactly did Magi disappear? Moreover, the animation is lacking compared to Disney films. Still, 18 years after it came out, families will likely continue to find FernGully enjoyable and its environmental message remains important.

I hate getting a film you loved as a child and watching it as an adult only to find it's completely lost it's magic over time. Having pushed all my videos to the back of a dark cupboard, I hadn't actually watched the film in years until I bought it last week on DVD.

Ferngully has it's problems, some of the songs were written with the days music heavily in the forefront so they haven't really stood the test of time. The overall message of taking care of the environment will seem heavy handed to an adult, although I remember feeling inspired by it as a child.

That aside I cannot vault the voice acting, Tim Curry, Robin Williams, Christian Slater, Samantha Mathis, they all deliver great performances. The animation is terrific and looks very much like Disney movies of the time. The stories hero's are compelling to watch, you really do care about what happens to them as it progresses to the climax, all this is woven together with touching little moments in the animation and a clever and funny set of supporting characters.

Will children today enjoy it? I'd say let them watch it, everyone has their own tastes and preferences and it's no different with children. They'll either like it or they won't.

I'm not sure if an adult who missed it as a child will enjoy it, again I think it depends on the person, but if this was a part of your childhood, it might be worth seeing it again I think it still definitely has a place in my heart.