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Big news for anyone who was traumatized by the evil goo Hexxus in 1992: FernGully: The Last Rainforest is getting a live-action remake thanks to Amazon MGM Studios, according to a report from The deadline.
Writer, director, and actress Marielle Heller will pen the new script and direct. Heller previously directed and adapted the script for Nightbitch (where Amy Adams plays a girl who turns into a dog), The Diary Of A Teenage Girl, and the Tom Hanks who leads the biopic of Mr. Rogers. He has also starred in many movies, including The Queen’s Gambit and the 2021 spoof series MacGruber.
In case you missed it the first time, FernGully: The Last Rainforest is a weird animated movie centered around the plight of some fairies in the Australian rainforest, complete with an accidental miniaturized lumberjack, an oozing pollution demon voiced by Tim Curry called Hexxus and a manic bat (Robin Williams gave it his all) called Batty Koda. This is the first feature film from former Disney Studios animator and Tron artist Bill Kroyer and features a soundtrack with the Elton John track Some Other World and Williams performing the unforgettable Batty Rap.
In 2018 IGN’s reviewer gave the re-release of FernGully: The Last Rainforest (Family Fun Edition) a lukewarm 6. “A slightly less glamorous tale that might serve better as a nostalgia trip than a modern-day tale,” says David McCutcheon. “Where the film succeeds in being charming, it comes across as dull and boring to others. The overarching moral story of saving the rainforest is just politics shoved between colorful moving frames. Wrap in some cliché musical numbers that range from the traditional to the aforementioned hippity-hoppity scat, and you’ve got an animated feature you can really taste.”
Despite a poor performance at the box office in 1992, the movie was good enough to get a sequel in 1998 with FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue, although it’s worth noting that none of the original cast returned; it’s direct-to-video, without even an Elton John bop on the soundtrack.
Rachel Weber is IGN’s Head of Editorial Development and an older millennial. He has been a professional nerd since 2006 when he started the UK’s Official PlayStation Magazine, and has since worked for GamesIndustry.Biz, Rolling Stone and GamesRadar. He likes horror, horror movies, horror games, Red Dead Redemption 2, and his Love and Deepspace boyfriends.
