Batty's goofy musical number put FernGully on my radar a whiiiile back. My curiosity was reignited when it was mentioned during a fairy unit in one of my art history classes so I added it to my Mental Movie List for checking out. Unfortunately I discovered that this is one of those movies whose circumstances of production are much more interesting than anything that made it into the final product. Overall I felt like it told a pretty basic story in an uninteresting way with a couple pretty visuals here and there. I appreciate that it wanted to spread a positive environmental message, but it felt a bit confused and lacking in some nuance. For me personally it all ended up falling a bit flat. Also, I didn't even get to enjoy listening to Australian accents. Why even put these characters in Australia if I don't get to hear any Australian accents in this movie, man.

If you looked at nothing but Hexxus, the malevolent Pollution Entity, you'd think this film was about pollution, not deforestation. But why is deforestation all that Hexxus accomplishes? There’s at least an angle here with “cutting down trees means less clean air therefore pollution” but then why spend the movie focusing on how sad and hurt the trees are instead of, you know, the air... the effect on the wildlife... I also can't really vibe with the “never cut down a tree for any reason” message that this movie seems to imply by giving trees pain receptors. There's a difference between taking what one needs from their environment and taking excessively, and I feel like this movie could have benefitted by emphasizing this simple nuance. Instead, cutting trees is bad because trees feel pain. It's just overly simple. And I don’t even want to know what these characters would think of beavers.

Another example of this movie's lack of focus is actually my favorite character, Batty. An animal testing escapee is an interesting idea on its own and lends itself to some fun and unique character quirks, but my problem with it is that it ends up feeling disjointed because it never has anything to do with the story and the fairies don’t seem to care, either. Side note, it was insane whiplash to rewatch the scene where Batty raps about being abused right after seeing The Plague Dogs. My partner suggested that Batty be changed to a poaching victim, which would more closely align with the story’s deforestation angle (as animals are often poached as they are displaced) and I agree that such a change would have made Batty’s presence feel so much more meaningful to the story. To be clear though, Batty was easily the best part of the movie. Thank god Robin Williams recorded 14 hours of improv because he saved this movie honestly.

And I am really only put off by all of this because I believe in the potential of what this movie could have said had it been given a bit more nuance and focus. And I am certain that adding a bit more complexity would not have made the movie too difficult for a kid to understand.

Lastly if I can just complain about Zak and Crysta because what are we even doing here guys. I know that in every movie Boy Character and Girl Character must kiss and yet somehow I was still caught off guard when these two kissed in the hetslop caverns. Their romance serves literally no function at all other than to I guess give viewers a self insert with a hot fairy babe. What does Zak even do in this movie other than be confused listen to hot tunes and lie? Well, he does shut off the leveler at the end. And speaking of the leveler - man, I truly have nothing to say about Hexxus. His presence is so limited and I still don’t really get why he spends the whole movie restricted to this machine. But he is certainly there.

If there’s anything this movie does right by me, I appreciate that it doesn’t villainize its predator animals. I also love whenever conventionally “scary” animals like bats are placed in protagonist roles. As an aside - Batty’s design is so awesome and right up my alley. He’s gotta be one of the best animated bat characters I’ve seen, especially with the way his wings are constructed.

I’m probably being too hard on a movie that is primarily made to be silly entertainment but I have to be honest with my heart okay guys. And after watching it, I can completely understand why those who grew up with it would find it nostalgic because it really is more beautiful in memory than in reality. But if you didn’t grow up with it, I think it’d only be worth a watch if you’re super into fairies or animation history. Otherwise I found it kind of meh. That one starry cave background was pretty beautiful though.