Film

FernGully: The Last Rainforest

FernGully: The Last Rainforest is a lush, early-90s eco-fable animated musical about shrinking down to fairy size and falling for a rainforest under threat from bulldozers and a smog-monster villain. It's earnest, occasionally trippy, full of catchy songs and a surprisingly grim eco-anxiety for a kids' film. Great for young children and anyone nostalgic for VHS-era environmental cartoons with a wickedly fun Tim Curry villain turn.

TMDb rating3.2

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love animated fables where small, bright creatures and a sincere environmental message share the same warm, mischievous heart, much like the Ghibli-flavoured worlds of Miyazaki's gentler films.

Skip it if you find cheerful, message-forward animation from the early nineties hard going, since its earnest tone and broad comic sidekicks can feel loud and sentimental.

What it asks of you: Under eighty minutes, it moves briskly and stays bright most of the way through, asking you to settle into a cartoon sincerity rather than hunt for subtle layers.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Avatar2009

Same bones, bigger budget: an outsider falls for a nature-worshipping people and turns against the corporation destroying their forest home. If FernGully's message stuck with you, this is the blockbuster-scale version.

But It's nearly three hours long, and the plot really is FernGully with blue people and better special effects.

Avatar poster

The Lorax2012

Dr. Seuss's own eco-parable, with a corporate villain even more cartoonishly evil than Hexxus and a bouncy soundtrack that'll get stuck in your head for days.

But It softens Seuss's bite considerably and leans hard into merchandising-friendly cuteness over genuine dread.

The Lorax poster

Pocahontas1995

Disney's own nature-spirit romance pits colonisers against wilderness, right down to a wise talking tree and a heroine who speaks the forest's language. Gorgeous watercolour-inspired animation throughout.

But Its handling of Indigenous history and the real Pocahontas has aged badly and drew criticism even at release.

Pocahontas poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from FernGully: The Last Rainforest

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Burning Season1994

FernGully turns rainforest destruction into a fairy-tale battle with a clear villain; this tells the true story of Chico Mendes, the activist murdered for organizing against Amazon deforestation — the same fight, without the fairy dust.

Raul Julia gives a towering performance as a man who organized poor rubber tappers against ranchers burning the Amazon, and paid for it with his life. It's the true story FernGully only gestures at.

But It's a sobering, sometimes bleak biopic with a violent real ending — nothing like FernGully's rescue-and-restore finale.

The Burning Season poster
More like this (8)

Epic2013

A teenage girl gets shrunk into a hidden forest kingdom fighting to survive rot and decay, with the same size-swap wonder and race-against-destruction plotting as FernGully.

But It's fairly forgettable — pleasant but thin, without a villain half as memorable as Hexxus.

Epic poster

Once Upon a Forest1993

FernGully's little-known cousin from the very same year: woodland animals, toxic pollution, a rescue mission, and a similarly heavy environmental conscience.

But It's obscure for a reason — the animation and songs are noticeably a rung below FernGully's.

Once Upon a Forest poster

WALL·E2008

Pixar's quieter, near-wordless take on humanity trashing the planet, this time with robots instead of fairies and love instead of magic. Genuinely moving.

But It's a slower, more melancholy film with far less dialogue — don't expect FernGully's bright chaos.

WALL·E poster

The Secret of NIMH1982

Don Bluth's darker, stranger animal-fantasy about small creatures fighting to save their home, with a mystical undercurrent and animation that still looks stunning.

But It's genuinely scary in places — more nightmare fuel than FernGully ever risked.

The Secret of NIMH poster

The Iron Giant1999

A different outsider-versus-industrial-machine story, with real tenderness beneath the sci-fi premise and a similarly big, warm heart.

But The environmental angle is more implicit — it's really about the Cold War and fear of the 'other.'

The Iron Giant poster

My Neighbor Totoro1988

Miyazaki's gentler vision of forest spirits and childhood wonder, with no villains at all — just pure, quiet reverence for nature.

But There's no conflict, no eco-message urgency — if you want FernGully's activist edge, this won't deliver it.

My Neighbor Totoro poster

Long Weekend1978

Same accusation FernGully levels at humanity — that we treat nature with careless contempt — but restaged as slow-burn horror where the wilderness turns on the people abusing it, instead of forgiving them.

A quietly unsettling Australian eco-horror about a couple whose camping trip goes wrong after they litter, shoot, and generally disrespect the land they're squatting on. Dread builds beautifully.

But It's slow, grim, and adult — a 70s art-horror mood piece, not a family film in any sense.

Long Weekend poster

Baraka1992

Released the same year as FernGully, Baraka makes the identical argument — industrial humanity versus the natural world — but with zero fairies and zero dialogue, just wordless, transporting footage of forests, factories, and everything in between.

A hypnotic, non-narrative documentary shot in 24 countries, pairing sacred rituals with strip-mining and assembly lines. It says everything FernGully says, just through pure image and music.

But There's no story, no characters, no dialogue at all — it demands patience some viewers won't have.

Baraka poster

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Recommended by

Avatar, Warriors of the Wind, The Plague Dogs, The Land Before Time, The Lorax, We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story, Epic, Once Upon a Forest, The Lorax, Robinson Crusoe, Thumbelina, The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course, Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Dot and the Kangaroo, A Troll in Central Park, Battle for Terra, Titanic: The Legend Goes On...