FernGully - Le avventure di Zak e Crysta

Ferngully is an example of how to do an educational movie without being boring. It is the story of an Australian rainforest endangered by human development. Zak, one of the worker of a team that is destroying the forest to build a road is shrunk by a fairy (Chrysta) and introduced to the magical world that he was destroying.

The animation is good, with rich colors and gorgeous visuals of the forest. The characters are well designed and funny, the bat Batty being the most hilarious. The music is nice, too, with modern rhythms that mix well with the fast pace of the movie. The best song is the one performed by the bad guy, Hexxus, a literaly slimy demon, that perfectly represents the greed of modern society.

This is a little gem in the Disney-dominated world of animation. Don't miss it.

I remember watching this and the sequel as a kid and I have to say, this brings back good memories. Krista is a fairy that learns how to protect the woods. While doing so, she comes across a man who's part of a company cutting down trees. After saving him, she takes him to her home where two worlds collide.

As they try to figure out what's draining their woods, they deal with other characters such as Batty(Robin Williams) a bat that escaped a lab yet still had a machine on its head. The two begin to grow closer while also learning about each other's worlds.

The animation's so vivid. Even today it looks amazing. The characters are decent. Some of them seem a little recycled but to be fair, they still have their own identity. The message is simple yet powerful (and a little heavy handed). It's all about environmentalism. This's a movie I'd recommend you show your kids. It's cool, cute, funny, and has a decent message that couldn't be any more relevant today.

A band of fairies and their human allies must save a primeval rainforest from destruction by a conscienceless lumber company (not to mention a venomously evil entity voiced by Tim Curry). Though basically a Darwinian morality play dressed up in the more palatable medium of a kids' cartoon, FERNGULLY is actually an entertaining and thought-provoking animated masterpiece. Steeped in equal measures Australian mythology and modern-day politics, this movie proves that cartoons need not be about falling anvils and wascally wabbits. Watch out for Robin Williams, who is hilarious as always as a manic bat.

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.