Show Notes - FernGully - Childhood Remastered

FernGully: The Last Rainforest- Episode 28

1992 Australian-American animated musical fantasy film, directed by Bill Kroyer.
Released April 10, 1992 in North America, & September 17, 1992 in Australia
- was originally supposed to be released November of 91 but was pushed back so as not to compete with beauty and the Beast. instead it went up against Rockadoodle
- The screenplay written by Jim Cox, adapted from a book of the same name written 15 years prior by Diana Young.
- Budget of $24 million & a Box office of $32.7 million
- Released to home video 4 months later in August of 1992. Home video Sales were strong, with about five million units sold by 1998
  - At $10 a VHS that’s $50 million!
- 71% on Rotten Tomatoes
- Direct to Video sequel in 1998 called: FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue
  - Which has no reviewer score on Rotten Tomatoes but has a viewer score of 35%
  - And uses none of the original voice casting
This movie also had a dedication to: “Our Children and Our Children’s Children”.

Director

Bill Kroyer
Started teaching at in 2009 and is Currently the head of the Digital Arts department at Lawrence and Kristina Dodge College of Film and Media Arts at Chapman University In Orange California
In 1977 he worked for Disney and worked as an animator on Fox and the Hound
- Later left because he didn’t want to work on The Black Cauldron
He and Jerry Rees were the main animators for the CGI sequences in Tron
- Jerry Rees is best known for the Emmy-nominated animated film The Brave Little Toaster (1987).

Produced by

Peter Faiman
- Was the Director for 1986’s Crocodile Dundee
- Produced the famous TV show from the 80s and 90s: A Current Affair
- Guided the launch of FX (TV network) in 94’
- co-ordinating director for the opening and closing broadcasts of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games
Wayne Young
- Associate producer: Australia for Crocodile Dundee
Kroyer Films
- one of the earliest studios to combine computer and hand drawn animation
- Mostly did title and ancillary animation for movies and TV shows
- They did do the character designs for Widget the World Watcher (1990)

Music by

Alan Silvestri
- Frequently collaborates with Robert Zemeckis
- Has composed for movies like the Romancing the Stone, The Back to the Future trilogy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and Forrest Gump, Contact, Cast Away, Predator & Predator 2, The Abyss, Stuart Little, The Mummy Returns, Lilo & Stitch, The Polar Express , Night at the Museum. As well as the superhero films Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, and the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War.

Voice Cast

Samantha Mathis as Crysta
- Was Princess Daisy in the 1993 “Classic” Super Mario Bros.
Jonathan Ward as Zak
- Random parts in Charles in Charge & , The Beauty and the Beast TV series and some other stuff
Tim Curry as Hexxus
- Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the 1975 cult film The Rocky Horror Picture Show
  - Originated the role in In the first London production of the stage show in 73’
- Original West End production of Hair, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the 1980 Broadway production of Amadeus, the Pirate King in the 1982 West End production of The Pirates of Penzance, Alan Swann in the Broadway production of My Favourite Year and King Arthur in Broadway and West End productions of Spamalot from 2005 to 2007
- Rooster Hannigan in the 1982 film adaptation of Annie
- Darkness in the fantasy film Legend
- Wadsworth in the mystery comedy film Clue
- Pennywise in the horror miniseries It
- Nigel Thornberry on the animated television series The Wild Thornberrys.
- Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island
- Cardinal Richelieu in the 1993 reboot of The Three Musketeers
- Taurus Bullba in Darkwing Duck for 3 episodes
- MAL in Captain Planet and the Planeteers
- Skullmaster in Mighty Max
- Dr Anton Sevarius in Gargoyles,
- Bloth from The Pirates of Dark Water (1991–1993)
Christian Slater as Pips
- First known for the movie Heathers
- Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country – Excelsior Communications Officer
- Producer and title character in the new TV show Mr. Robot

Robin Williams as Batty Koda
Died in 2014 at age 63
Started as a stand up comic & rose to fame as Mork in the TV series Mork & Mindy (1978–82)
Attained a full scholarship to the Juilliard School in 1973
- one of only two students to be accepted by John Houseman into the Advanced Program at the school that year; the other was Christopher Reeve
- They were Close friends and Williams paid many of Reeve’s medical bills and provided financial support after Reeve’s accident until his death in 2004
- Was encouraged to leave/ drop out of Juilliard by his teachers because they said that there was nothing left to teach him essentially saying he was too smart for them lol
- He was also well known for his Philanthropy
  - Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)
  - Dead Poets Society (1989)
  - The Fisher King (1991)
  - Aladdin (1992)
  - Good Will Hunting (1997)
  - Hook (1991)
  - Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)
  - Jumanji (1995)
  - The Birdcage (1996)
  - Night at the Museum (2006)
Grace Zabriskie as Magi Lune
Geoffrey Blake as Ralph
- Was in Contact, Young Guns, Forrest Gump and Cast Away.
Robert Pastorelli as Tony
- House painter from Murphy Brown
- Dances with Wolves
- Not sure if we want to discuss his suicide after being named as the prime suspect in the homicide of his girlfriend 5 years prior or not. It’s interesting but a bit of a downer
Cheech Marin as Stump
- Cheech & Chong comedy act & films
- Apparently they met in Canada while Cheech was dodging the Vietnam war draft
- Oliver & Company,
- The Lion King,
- Cars, Cars 2
- and Beverly Hills Chihuahua.
Tommy Chong as Root
- Leo on Fox‘s That ’70s Show
- From October 8, 2003 to July 7, 2004. He was a cellmate—or “cubie”—with “The Wolf of Wall Street” Jordan Belfort, and is given credit for encouraging Belfort to write his memoirs. They have remained friends ever since.
  - Basically got in trouble for selling bongs
Tone Lōc as Goanna
- “Wild Thing” and “Funky Cold Medina“
- Baby Pee Wee in Bébé’s Kids
Townsend Coleman as Knotty
- Michaelangelo in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987)
- The Tick (1994-1996)
  - A new Tick TV series on Amazon is in production but you can watch the Pilot episode
Danny Mann as Ash
- Hector from Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats
- Lightspeed in Transformers
- Backwoods Beagle in DuckTales
- Kaltag in Balto
- Ferdinand from Babe
Kathleen Freeman as Elder #1
- Played opposite Jerry Lewis in 11 films
- Was an actress for over 50 films
- Has a HUGE library of work

Miscellaneous show notes

Focuses on the theme of the destruction of the earth’s rainforests. In this case the rainforest is located near Mount Warning, on the eastern coast of Australia
Producer Wayne Young said his passion for the environment was his motivation for making the film, saying the film was “blatantly environmental, although we have gone to a lot of trouble to avoid preaching. We also want it to be viewed as entertainment.”
- The inspiration for FernGully came from stories written by his former wife, Diana Young.
- Diana first wrote the story of FernGully 15 years prior to the film’s release.
- Wayne said the couple planned a film adaptation for five years, then spent “seven years of dreaming and hustling, followed by another three years of production”.
- Wayne stated their dream was not possible until the success of Walt Disney Feature Animation‘s 1989 film The Little Mermaid, which brought popularity back to animation.
- Hand drawn scenes in the film were complimented by computer animation, which was used to create elements such as flocks of birds that would have taken much longer to animate traditionally.
- Kroyer states 40,000 frames of computer animation were used in the film, and that the use of such animation halved the production time. Most of the film’s $24 million budget was spent on the animation and the soundtrack.
The film marked Robin Williams‘ first animation role, with the character Batty Koda being created specifically for him.
- Williams provided 14 hours worth of improvised lines for the part which was originally only supposed to be an 8-minute role.
- Director Bill Kroyer was so impressed with the voice work he ended up tripling the screen time given to the character.
- Williams went on to provide the critically applauded voice of the Genie in Disney’s Aladdin later the same year.
- Williams accepted the role in FernGully because he agreed with the film’s message, as did the rest of the voice cast, who all worked for scale wages.
- The film marked the first time that both members of Cheech & Chong had worked together in six years, with the two voicing beetle brothers Stump and Root. Cheech Marin said “It was just like old times, but we only worked for two or three hours, had a pizza and split.
- Some reviewers have commented that the 2009 James Cameron film Avatar plagiarised thematic and plot elements from FernGully
There’s an alternative extended version of Toxic love with more sexualized lyrics where Curry sings about being horny: https://youtu.be/Cg-Wm25T6Qs
Some other world was Elton Johns 1st encounter with an animated film
The band Guy that sang land of 1000 voices for this soundtrack were the creators of the new Jack switch get style of music from the 80s & 90s and this was one of there final recordings https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_(band)
Johnny Clegg who sang the opening song https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Clegg