FernGully: The Last Rainforest

FernGully: The Last Rainforest is the first film in the FernGully series and was the most popular as compared to it's sequel FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue. FernGully was made in April 10, 1992, and in Australia on September 17, 1992. FernGully was written by Jim Cox, and was based on the same book by Diana Young.

Plot

The film tells the story of FernGully, a rainforest near Mount Warning, Australia, remains identical to the original version. A curious fairy girl named Crysta saw a part of the world she and her friends (Pips and the Beetle Boys) never seen before beyond FernGully and believes humans dwell on the nearby mountain Mount Warning. But the wise sprite of the forest and Crysta's motherly figure, Magi Lune, says humans are now extinct. In the opening scene, she says that they fled, driven away by the attack of an enemy known as Hexxus, the spirit of destruction and all that is toxic to nature, never to return and presumed dead; Hexxus was defeated by Gaia, the spirit of the Earth and the fairies and imprisoned inside a tree. Crysta mentions a black cloud that she saw rising near the mountain, and Magi identifies it as smoke, but nervously dismisses Crysta's speculation that the smoke might be Hexxus, saying "There isn't a force in nature that could release him, and there are no poisons here on which he can feed. Hexxus is trapped for all time." It is implied that Magi shares Crysta's fears, but is afraid to say so openly.

By the time, Usagi, Ami, Rei, Makoto, Minako, Mamoru, Sakura, Syaoran and Meiling travel to Australian rainforest on a free trip from a clothing company who want Minako to design some new clothes for them with Earth Day coming up. Usagi tries to find a fairy, ending up join an Australian elephant patrol led by Captain Colonel. Crysta, Pips and the Beetle Boys soon found out when Usagi's friends, Mamoru and Sakura enter their world. Magi arrives and reveals that Usagi is in fact the Moon Princess. According to Magi, some years prior to the events of the film, Hexxus, an evil spirit, appeared. He rose out of the Earth's core and rained down poison, destroying much in his wake and killing countless living creatures, including humans. He was finally defeated by Gaia and the fairy priestess Magi and imprisoned inside an enchanted baobab tree, which he remained trapped in for many years.

Befriending a mentally unstable yet comical fruit bat named Batty Koda who has been experimented on by humans and now has wires and antennas fused into his head, Crysta heads to Mount Warning where she finds dead trees all marked with red aerosol paint crosses, which mark them for cutting. The camera then pans through the trees to reveal the source of the smoke, which turns out to be the exhaust from a huge tree leveler. Crysta finds male humans, and accidentally shrinks one named Zak in trying to prevent him from being crushed by a tree. He gets stuck on a spiderweb on the tree that's just about to go through a tree shredder. She tries to get him off, but can't when Batty swoops in, grabs them both off of the spider web and blames Crysta for her almost getting killed, because she did not listen to him.

Zak goes on a wild adventure with Crysta and Batty, nearly getting eaten by Lou a hungry Goanna lizard, and unexpectedly falls in love with Crysta. However, Zak doesn't understand why everyone's so concerned about going green. Meanwhile, Zak's superiors cut down an enchanted baobab tree that Zak had inadvertently painted an X mark on while trying to spray a fly that was buzzing around him. Unfortunately, this turns out to be the tree Hexxus is trapped in, and the cutting down and processing of the tree by the lumbermill-like leveler machine releases him. Determined to get revenge upon the fairies of FernGully (specifically Magi Lune) for imprisoning him, Hexxus apparently gains power from the pollution, specifically the energy and smoke produced by the Leveler, as he can be seen "drinking" from it like a liquid. He manipulates the lumberjacks and their tree leveler into tearing down the rainforest in the direction of the fairies by the next morning, thereby destroying the very fabric of their world. He does this under the vocal disguise of their boss.

That night, a miniature image of Queen Serenity appears before Crysta and Zak, and she says that she is Sailor Moon's mother who revived Luna and Artemis and sent them to watch over the Sailor Senshi. She grants Zak a wish in gratitude to spend one night before Earth Day and intends to send three spirits to see him. The three spirits will convince Zak to change his life, and they teach him to be more considerate to Mother Earth, each by showing the mankind's past, present, and the future. Zak is first visited by Sailor V, the Spirit of Earth Day Past. She shows him the past about the humans came to FernGully from the opening scene. Hexxus appeared from the core of the Earth and driven them away, presumed killing them; Hexxus was defeated by Gaia, Magi and the fairies and imprisoned inside a tree. Not long after the first visit, Princess Serenity, the Spirit of Earth Day Present arrives, surrounded by the flowery meadow. She shows Zak two events: First, The Elder was worried about his daughter's disappearance, when Pips sets off on foot in search of Crysta, he rallies the help of Colonel and his patrol to make a search party and then, Hexxus fooled Zak's superiors, Tony and Ralph, to head for FernGully by the next morning, and Serenity foretells tragedy if the human's hapless life does not change. However, just when Zak is desperate to know Crysta's fate, the Moon Princess suddenly vanishes. Finally, Prince Endymion, the Spirit of Earth Day Future takes Zak to the future and shows him what his future Earth Day will have in FernGully if the shadows remain unchanged. When he discovers that Hexxus has destroyed FernGully and killed all the fairies, including Crysta, Batty, Pips and Magi, Zak fearfully asks whether or not this future can be altered. He then spots Naru, Umino, Shingo, Mr. Tsukino and Mrs. Tsukino mourning for Usagi, who has been defeated by Hexxus (indicated by Naru placing the Orgel on her memorial marker). Endymion brings Zak to the Moon, where Luna, Artemis and the battle-worn Sailor Senshi see a defeated Sailor Moon lies on her deathbed. She passes the reins of leadership to Sailor Venus and hands her the Silver Crystal before she dies. After the Sailor Senshi leave, Zak and Endymion approach Usagi's body in a glass coffin, where Endymion lights a candles, revealing Usagi's secret identity as Sailor Moon, and sends Zak back on Earth Day morning.

Up until this point, all the fairies have not had a clue as to what danger awaits them. That is until Zak, having been given another chance, tells the truth about who he is and what the humans are doing in FernGully. Eventually, Sailor Moon tells the truth about Hexxus and he is destroying FernGully. She also reveals Sailor Mars is a trickster and lair.

Once the truth is revealed the fairies all join forces and fuse their powers together, creating a protective tree cage. Magi sacrifices herself (giving her power to the fairies and even Zak) and it is up to Sailor Moon, the Sailor Senshi, Crysta and the other fairies to defeat Hexxus. Sailor Mercury and Zak turn off the leveler, causing Hexxus to lose all the energy he was gaining from it and disappear, but he soon rips out of the machine as a giant demonic skeleton creature made of oil that breathes fire. Sailor Moon and the Sailor Scouts team-up and use all of their power to battle Hexxus. Crysta seemingly sacrifices herself like Magi did by allowing Hexxus to devour her in one bite, and uses her powers from inside him to grow a seed she had with her to again imprison Hexxus (together with the leveler) inside a new tree with help from the fairies led by Pips, thereby imprisoning him again. However, she emerges, unharmed and alive, from a flower soon after. Crysta sadly resizes Zak to normal size and he sets off with his fellow lumberjacks, Tony and Ralph, to try to stop the destruction of the rainforests. Meanwhile, Crysta takes Magi's place after learning finally how to control her powers. Sailor Moon uses Moon Tiara Stardust to erase all memories of the lumberjacks expect Zak about cutting down the trees and Moon Healing Escalation to restore all the rainforests. Usagi, Sakura and their friends celebrate Earth Day with Crysta, Pips, Batty and all the fairies.

Cast of movie

Sailor Senshi

Stephanie Sheh as Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon / Spirit of Earth Day Present
Kate Higgins as Ami Mizuno/Sailor Mercury
Christina Vee as Rei Hino/Sailor Mars
Amanda Miller as Makoto Kino/Sailor Jupiter
Cherami Leigh as Minako Aino/Sailor Venus / Spirit of Earth Day Past
Michelle Ruff as Luna
Johnny Yong Bosch as Artemis
Robbie Daymond as Mamoru Chiba/Tuxedo Mask / Spirit of Earth Day Future
Wendee Lee as Queen Serenity

Cardcaptors

Carly McKillip as Sakura Kinomoto
Rhys Huber as Syaoran Li
Maggie Blue O'Hara as Tomoyo Daidouji
Nicole Oliver as Meiling Li
Richard Newman as Cerberus
Sam Vincent as Julian Star

Characters of FernGully

Jonathan Ward as Zak Young the love interest of Crysta.
Samantha Mathis as Crysta the main protagonist.
Tim Curry as Hexxus the main antagonist of the film and the new antagonist of Sailor Moon.
Christian Slater as Pips
Robin Williams as Batty Koda the deurtagonist.
Grace Zabriskie as Magi Lune
Geoffrey Blake as Ralph
Robert Pastorelli as Tony
Cheech Marin as Stump
Tommy Chong as Root
Tone Lōc as Goanna
Townsend Coleman as Knotty
Neil Ross as the Elder

Appearances

Transformation phrases

Attacks

Items

Soundtrack

The soundtrack album was released by MCA Records with the following songs:

Track listing

FernGully: The Last Rainforest – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
No.	Title	Artist	Length
1.	"Moonlight Legend"	Tetsuya Komoro	1:35
2.	"Life Is A Magic Thing"	Johnny Clegg (written by Thomas Dolby)	4:30
3.	"Batty Rap"	Robin Williams (written by Thomas Dolby)	2:52
4.	"If I'm Gonna Eat Somebody (It Might as Well Be You)"	Tone Lōc	4:01
5.	"Toxic Love"	Tim Curry (written by Thomas Dolby)	4:39
6.	"Raining Like Magic"	Raffi	3:18
7.	"Land Of A Thousand Dances"	Guy	2:58
8.	"A Dream Worth Keeping"	Sheena Easton	4:18
9.	"Some Other World"	Elton John (written by Elton John and Bruce Roberts)	4:42
Total length:			32:53

The score of FernGully was composed by Alan Silvestri.

FernGully: The Last Rainforest – Original Score and Sounds of the Rainforest
No.	Title	Artist	Length
1.	"Main Theme"	Alan Silvestri	2:24
2.	"Skylarking"	Alan Silvestri	2:28
3.	"Magi Lune's Cave"	Alan Silvestri	2:44
4.	"Xanthoreas"	Alan Silvestri	1:27
5.	"Crysta's Journey"	Alan Silvestri	3:00
6.	"Rainforest Suite"	Alan Silvestri	1:11
7.	"The Leveler"	Alan Silvestri	1:37
8.	"A Christmas Carol Deal/Going To FernGully"	Alan Silvestri	6:59
9.	"The Grotto Song"	Alan Silvestri	4:59
10.	"I'm Back Medley: Humans Did It All/The Holocaust/Sailor Mars' Intentions/Gather Everyone ..."	Alan Silvestri	4:26
11.	"The Battle for Old Highrise/The Recovery of Sailor Moon's Heart"	Alan Silvestri	3:30
12.	"Remember Everything"	Alan Silvestri	3:00
13.	"Spirit Of The Trees"	Alan Silvestri	3:39
14.	"Genesis"	Alan Silvestri	2:29
Total length:			43:53

Reused Footage

Batty shocked that Usagi and her friends at FernGully, same as Sebastian, he is a jaw-dropper. Goanna does the jaw-closing honors like Scuttle.
Crysta facepalming, like Alice.
Pips facepalms like Basil of Baker Street.
Like Genie, Batty hits his head while facepalming.

Trivia

The entire ghost sequence of the first FernGully film is a parody of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
Elliot and Colonel are based off of the elephants in The Jungle Book, particularly the scene where the elephants pile up on top of one another.
In the vision of the Spirit of Earth Day Future, when Sailor Moon dies, her Sailor fuku fades to gray, just as Generation 1 Optimus Prime did in The Transformers: The Movie.