1. FernGully: The Last Rainforest Industrialization & Pollution by Amanda Hammer, Jules Moon, and Leema Rahim UNST 254H, Popular Culture: AnimationBridging Cultures East and West Portland State University, Summer 2013

2. Storyline After discovering rising smoke on the other side of the forest, a fairy named Crysta decides to investigate the cause. Once at the location, Crysta sees a team of loggers leveling the trees in the area. One of the loggers, Zak, nearly gets hit with a falling tree but Crysta shrinks him to fairy-size just in time. During his time with the fairies, Zak comes to realize the destruction that he and other humans are causing. The other loggers level a tree that had been housing the spirit of destruction, Hexxus, who had previously wreaked havoc on the land. Crysta, Zak and the fairies work to defeat Hexxus and eventually imprison him within another tree. Zak returns to his normal size and decides he is going to work towards stopping the industrialization going on in the forest. 3. FernGully Sample Clip 4. Source Text The 1992 film FernGully is based on a series of childrens books written by Diana Young. Interestingly, the books were still unpublished when the film production began in 1990; the first book in the FernGully series was actually released only 9 days before the movie! Jim Cox, the screenwriter, is a Pacific Northwest filmmaker, having attended Evergreen in Olympia. Both the book and film are set in the real forest at the foot of Mount Warning, also known as Wollumbin, in New South Wales, Australia. 5. Protagonists Zak starts out as an ignorant human whose job is to help destroy the rainforest. He is brought into Crysta's home and learns to respect nature during this time. Zak decides that he must go back to the human world to teach people what he learned. Zak transforms as a person as he learns that his actions do have consequences. Crysta is a brave fairy and a free spirit. She loves the rainforest because it is her home. She is very curious, especially when it come to humans. Crysta is the heroine of the story. She protects her family and the rainforest out of courage and learns how to control her magic along the way. 6. Supporting Characters Batty Koda is Crystas friend. He was experimented on by humans, and often says odd things because of what the humans did do him. He is an example of how humans treat animals. Batty Koda is deeply afraid of people because he knows the bad things they are capable of. Magi Lune is Crysta's mentor. She is a wise elder fairy who has complete control over her magic. She warns the other fairies of the outside world because she knows how dangerous it can be. Magi Lune sacrifices herself in order to save the forest. 7. Villains Hexxus is the villain is this story. He wants to bring destruction to the forest. Pollution, which is caused by humans, is represented by Hexxus. The Humans are the ones who release Hexxus by cutting down the tree he was trapped in. Hexxus wished to destroy the beauty of the natural world, but was stopped by the fairies. Humans are represented as ignorant in this story. Two men control a machine that destroys the forest, but they do not really understand the harm they are causing to the environment. 8. Animation Style FernGully was created using a combination of traditional cel animation and computer animation. It is one of the first films to use digital ink and paint, in which hand-drawn outlines are scanned into the computer and filled in digitally. The animators also used computers to build 3D characters and print a sequence on peg hole paper, to be hand-inked without having to estimate proportions. The animation team made research trips to the Australian rainforests to ensure their depictions were accurate. 9. Australian Culture Ferngully takes place in a forest near Mount Warning in Australia. This mountain has cultural significance to the Australian Aboriginals. The paintings that Magi Lune discusses in the beginning of the movie are reminiscent of the paintings of spirits drawn by Australian Aboriginals. Australian Aboriginal Art FernGully Movie Art 10. Australian Environment The cartoonists spent time in Australia for inspiration. Zak is also Australian, though neither he nor any of the other characters have an accent. It is clear that the message of this movie is to stop the destruction of the environment. This related to the county of origin for the film. Australia, like all countries, has faced many environmental issues. Environment is very important to Australia's culture. Australia is known for its wide variety of animal species and natural beauty. In recent decades they have been facing a large amount of deforestation, pollution, and agriculture clearing. These environmental issues were the inspiration for the film FernGully. Mt. Warning in Australia Mt Warning in FernGully 11. Major Theme In FernGully, the major theme is how industrialization and pollution corrupt Earths natural environments. When watching the film, we are introduced to a world that exists only because we as humans have not manipulated it. As the film progresses, we see humans threaten this environment by leveling trees, experimenting on animals and polluting the area where life once thrived. FernGully employs ideas of teamwork and using good to destroy evil in order to overcome the imminent threat of the industrialization of a natural place. The main characters, Crysta, Zak, and Batty as well as the fairy and animal communities, work together to stop the tree levelers as well as the spirit of destruction, Hexxus, restoring the gully to its natural state. During this process we gain knowledge about the impact of our populating natural environments and the different ways we can lessen our effect on these places. 12. Fun Facts FernGully was directed by Bill Kroyer. Celebrity voicing includes Robin Williams, Tim Curry, Christian Slater, and Samantha Mathis. The film was presented by Olivia Newton-John at the United Nations General Assembly on Earth Day, April 22, 1992. Critical reception was overall positive and the film grossed $32,710,894 worldwide. The franchise ultimately included the 1998 direct-to- video sequel, FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue. 13. Works Cited "Environmental Problems in Australia: Issues with no End in Sight." WWF. n.p., n.d. Web. Accessed 08 Aug. 2013 FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992). IMDB. n.p., n.d. Web. Accessed Aug 2013. FernGully: The Last Rainforest. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Last modified 28 July 2013. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Web. Accessed Aug 2013. Hartl, John. Evergreen Tale -- Jim Cox And Jeff Dowd Bring Northwest Perspective To Making Of `Ferngully.' Seattle Times. 10 April 1992. Web. Accessed Aug 2013. ivanmarginal. "Discovering the Aboriginal Arts in Australia. bubblews.com. 08 Mar 2013. n.p. Web. 01 Aug. 2013. Kellerhals, Sandra. Spring Break Blog Post: Where Have I Seen This Before? History of Animation. 11 March 2010. n.p. Web. Accessed Aug 2013. "Mount Warning in the Tweed Coast Hinterland: Far North Coast of NSW, Australia." MtWarning.com. n.p., n.d. Web. 08 Aug. 2013. Starosielski, Nicole Movements that are drawn: A history of environmental animation from The Lorax to FernGully to Avatar. International Communication Gazette. 73.1-2 (2011): 145-163. Web. 28 July 2013.