Films are something that we all look towards for escapism – the action, the humour, the romance, the animation. Sometimes these can hold so much more meaning then just an image on a screen and create narratives and memories in our own lives. Welcome to the sister article to Music Memories where we take a look at some of these personal stories attached to films.

Film: FernGully: The Last Rainforest
Original Release Date: 1992

What is it with the nineties – so many of the films and animations for children were depressing with moral messages. It wasn’t all animations but it was usually the ones that were not by Disney.

I was introduced to FernGully: The Last Rainforest by a family member when I was really young. I think because Robin Williams was in it, people may of automatically thought that it was a film that they expected to be a comedy.

It was weird watching the trailer after all these years as I forgot about a lot of the film, all i remember was there was fairies and a really scary villain.

The whole concept of the film is to create a moral message about the humans damaging the rainforest. I know it was a film I saw quite a few times.

I found with some films as a child they always made the villain scary – the oil creature in this film was horrible and I remember vividly the darkness that it created on this film.

The main star of the film was Robin Williams but it is funny that I never remembered he was in it because parts of the film are so dark. I vaguely remember the fight at the end and it was dark.

Facts About FernGully: The Last Rainforest

• The “FernGully” forest depicted in this movie was based on Australia’s rainforests. The cartoonists who worked on this movie spent time in the real rainforests to help inspire their drawings.
• The original lyrics to the movie’s song “Toxic Love”, performed by Tim Curry, had obvious sexual themes/implications, and various verses from the original song were cut and or re-written to make the song more appropriate for a family movie.
• Tim Curry’s original voice recordings were so eerie and sinister that it made children cry during test screenings
• Robin Williams provided 14 hours worth of improvised lines for Batty Koda.