FernGully: The Last Rainforest
Short description
FernGully: The Last Rainforest is an animated fantasy adventure about a rainforest and the small magical creatures who live in it. The fairy Crysta, curious about the world beyond her home, meets Zak, a young human working with a logging crew. After an accident of magic leaves him the size of a fairy, Zak sees the forest as its inhabitants do and turns against the operation threatening to clear it. Freeing the trees, however, also releases Hexxus, a destructive spirit that had been sealed inside one of them; the fairies, Zak and the bat Batty Koda must face it together.
The film was directed by Bill Kroyer, his first feature as director, from a screenplay by Jim Cox, and was produced by Peter Faiman and Wayne Young. It comes from Australian and American production companies, among them Kroyer Films and Youngheart Productions with 20th Century Fox. The voice cast includes Samantha Mathis as Crysta, Jonathan Ward as Zak, Christian Slater as Pips, Robin Williams as Batty Koda, Tim Curry as Hexxus and Grace Zabriskie as Magi Lune, with 23 credited cast members and 105 credited crew.
Released in April 1992 and running 76 minutes, the film had a budget of 24 million dollars and took about 33 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 6.6/10 from around 37,000 votes, while on TMDB it has 6.4/10 from 663 votes. A critics' rating of 6.4/10 from 18 reviews places critical and audience response close together.
What's left behind the scenes
- Tim Curry (who voiced Hexacus) sounded so terrifying in the recordings that children at the previews began to cry. The actor had to re-record his lines.
- Krista's eye color changes throughout the movie. They are shown as green, aquamarine, and blue.
- Bats have poor eyesight, and in the film, the bat is constantly crashing into things. In reality, the bat shown on screen is a carnivorous bat (flying fox), which is diurnal and possesses excellent vision.
- Robin Williams recorded 14 hours of improvised voice-over for his character. His performance was so compelling that director Bill Kroyer tripled the character's screen time (which was originally only 8 minutes).
- Shortly after signing the contract with the authors of this film, Robin Williams was offered the role of the Genie in 'Aladdin,' and he accepted. When Jeffrey Katzenberg (head of Disney) found out, he ordered Williams to be removed from the creative team of 'FernGully: The Last Rainforest' on the grounds that the competing films were set to be released almost simultaneously. Williams refused to leave, after which Katzenberg stopped at nothing to complicate the production of 'FernGully...'. This situation became one of the reasons for Williams' split with Disney.
- The tropical forest shown in the cartoon is based on the Australian jungle. The artists specifically visited actual tropical rainforests.
- The use of computer animation significantly sped up the work on the film. Animating flocks of birds, for example, would have been much more difficult and time-consuming using traditional methods.
- Zak's eyebrows and sideburns constantly change color.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
