1. Industrialization & PollutionUNST 254Spring 2013

2. Ashley Lester: introductions, cultural aspects, & video clips.Cassandra Cicero: storyline, character analysis, & powerpoint.Jackson McIntosh: overview, technical analysis, & majorthemes. 3. LiteraryReferenceThis movie is based on thenovel by Diana Young. Thebook features the same name,FernGully: The Last Rainforest. 4. IntroductionFernGully is about the destruction of the Australian rain forest. This really hits home, becausedeforestation is causing the destruction of the world, as we now know it. The animated filmFernGully has brought this topic out into the public eye. FernGully is a story of a huge greedylogging company clear-cutting, or removing all the trees and burning the land. This is anexample of polluting the land and of an environmental disaster. The rain forest makes up abig part of supplying the world with water, not just its own environment. The industrializedworld is taking advantage of poor nations, with deforestation. This hazard of polluting theearth with oil from machinery to releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, is raising thetemperature of the earth several degrees, and may be causing a total collapse of ourecosystem. With 60% of the rain forest gone and all of it will be destroyed by 2020 the worldwill see an environmental change like never before. Is this a doomsday religious idea or arethere things happening on the earth that raises concerns about our environment? FernGullywith its magical fairies and trees that say "ouch," seems to allow for some religious ideas. Isour environment talking to us with its moans and groans over the devastation of theecosystem? How about the melting of the Polar Regions? Why arent governments takingaction about the nearly total depletion of ice and snow on Greenland? In 2010 nearly 40%was gone and 2011 nearly 90% was gone as last viewed on satellite imagining. The NorthPole melting is causing the extinction of the polar bear and the South Poles heat is causingblindness in fish and mammals alike. Is this a warning to stop the depletion of our naturalresources, especially rain forests? The worlds watering holes are being devastated bydeforestation, is the melting of the Polar Regions an attempt by our environment to correctitself? Other areas of the globe are being destroyed for the greed of the nations, largebusiness and the rich. Areas like Indonesia, Africa, and Canada are clear-cutting the forestsand ignoring the environmental strain that is putting on our ecosystem. Government andscience can already see the effects that man has put on the environment. Former VicePresident Al Gore, for example, has shown concern about our environment with the movieAn Inconvenient Truth, How can we help stop the depletion of our rain forestsworldwide? Can we as individuals call attention to the rain forest depletion? We should tryto solve this problem before it is too late. An animated movie like FernGully has helped showthe desperate need to keep the rain forest around. If an animated movie can show theworld not to destroy the rain forest just think how much more one individual will be able tomake a difference. 5. Overview FernGully: The Last Rainforest is an animated film that follows the adventures of Crysta a fairy and Zak, a human that was recently shrunken down to fairy size. When Crysta discovers a part of the forest she has never seen before, her curiosity gets the best of her as she begins to explore the new found land. When she arrives there, she discovers three humans in which she has only ever heard about in tales. Frightened by Zak, she shrinks him down to fairy size. Together they journey the rainforest until Hexxus, the films antagonist is introduced into the equation. Hexxus, an evil spirit with nothing but bad intentions tries once again to destroy the magical land known As FernGully. In an effort to save the rain forest, Crysta and Zak as well as the fellow FernGully natives must do whatever it takes to stop Hexxus. This film demonstrates how both deforestation and pollution harm the rainforest but all is not lost with effort to preserve the rainforest. 6. Video Clip Whatever Video youve got! 7. StorylineThe movie begins in FernGully, a magical rainforest which ishome to the faeries who protect it. Humans are only myths to thefaeries, and are learned about through stories and never seen. Themain character is Crysta a faerie driven by her insatiable curiosity.She is learning the magic of the forest by the faeries elder MagiLune. When a fruit bat crash lands in the rainforest, he befriends thefaeries and brings them a warning. Batty, the fruit bat, warns thefaeries of humans destroying the forest not too far from their home,near Mount Warning. Crysta, driven by her curiosity, decides toinvestigate the humans destroying the forest. There she meets Zak, ahuman who is part of the team who is destroying the forest. WhenCrysta is frightened by the tree leveler, believing it to be a monsterabout to attack Zak, she shrinks the human into a faerie size. Whilebeing faerie sized Zak is able to learn about all the damage thehumans are doing to the forest. FernGully has one enemy, Hexxus;he is the embodiment of pollution and seeks to destroy theirrainforest. The last time he was in FernGully he was locked in a tree,and the humans have set him free. Crysta, with the help of Zak,Batty, and the other faeries, defeats Hexxus before he can destroythe forest. The movie ends with Zak returning to his normal size andworking to help protect the forest. 8. Character Analysis Main Characters: Crysta is a free-spirited faerie, with Zak Young is a human who works as a an insatiable curiosity. She learnslogger for the company destroying magic from Magi, the faerie elder. the forest, and does not take his job She desires to learn about humans, seriously. He is ignorant of what his as theyre only a myth in FernGully. actions are doing to the forest, and is Her lack of control over her magic selfishly absorbed in his own life. leads her to a few accidents. She is Crysta opens his eyes to the the heroine of the film, her desire to consequences of his actions, by save her home and family fromshrinking him to the size of a faerie. Hexxus. She cares about the forest Once shrunk Zak is able to learn and the magic within it. Her lack of about the damage being caused to control over her magic leads her tothe forest. While there he teaches a few accidents. the faeries about humans and thehuman world. He helps protect theforest because he cares for Crystaand the forest is important to her. Hegoes on to teach others the damagelogging causes to the forest and thecreatures living in it. 9. Character AnalysisBatty Koda is a fruit bat whomCrysta befriends after he crashSupporting Characters:lands in FernGully. After beingexperimented on in a lab facility,Batty holds a dislike againsthumans. The experimentationcauses him to crash into thingsand say random things; he has anantenna that receives radiointerference. He warns the faeries Magi Lune is the elder faerie ofof the danger they are in, FernGully. She teaches Crystabecause of the humansdamaging the forest. While about magic and the dangerslacking courage, he overcomesthe forest faces. Magi has ahis fear of humans to help the larger understanding offaeries save FernGully. Batty is humans, and refuses to shareanother example of the damagehumans are doing to theher knowledge about them.environment. She was originally responsible for trapping Hexxus the first time, and sacrifices herself the second time. 10. Character AnalysisVillain:Hexxus is the enemy of thefaeries in FernGully, and theantagonist of the movie. Hehas previously attackedFernGully and was caged ina tree by Magi. He bringschaos and destructionwherever he goes. He is theembodiment of pollution,and is released by theloggers when they destroyhis cage. He takes over thetree leveler and heads toFernGully to try and destroythe faeries rainforest. 11. Cultural Aspects Ferngully and Culture in Australia:The movie FernGully spurred me on to research the culture of Australia. The movie is set inthe beautiful Australian rain forest. What I found was the present day culture and theculture of the past, is of oral tradition, and was very interesting. From the time of the firstsettlers, who were convicts, set up a penal colony on the huge island, in 1788, the cultureof Britain became a part of Australia. The Church of England, a branch of the RomanCatholic Church has an interesting cultural idea involving FernGully. The fairies mentionedcould have very possibly been conceived from the idea, from the church, that thesewere mischievous angels sent to earth. They would only make themselves known to us ifhumans would need help. This is what happened with the fairy Crysta; she saved thehuman, Zak by shrinking him, as he is about to be killed by a falling tree. She would havestayed out of sight and would have never gotten involved with humans. The movieFernGully mentions the name, of a mountain, Mount Mourning that is in the Australian rainforest. Near Mount Mourning is the Kakadu National Forest. This area is loaded with theAboriginal culture. When Crysta is talking to Magi there are paintings like those of theKakadu stone paintings in Australia. These Aboriginal Paintings have been part of theAustralian culture since prehistoric, times, for more than 50,000 years. The Aborigines havecontributed to these paintings as late as 1986. One of the newer paintings, created in the1960s, is of an aborigine throwing a spear, by famed artist Nonjombolmi. Ferngully showsbeautiful colors of trees, landscape and animals alike. These trees and animals havebeen preserved by the Aboriginal paintings. They have painted pictorials of many of thesame birds, trees, turtles, catfish, wallabies, mullet, possums, Barramundi and turtles that isshown in the movie. 12. Cultural AspectsAn interesting part of the culture is the spirit paintings. Like the fairies of FernGullythe aboriginal culture have paintings of spirits, one such painting is of the RainbowSerpent dating back 23,000 years. Another painting is of the Namarrgan sisters,sisters that are spirits who live in the stars and are responsible for making people illon this planet. Maybe, the fairies of FernGully and these spirits, from prehistorictimes, were more than just imagination. Maybe the Aboriginal culture will help usdetermine weather the spirits and fairies are real, since the Aboriginal culture is theoldest on the planet, dating back 50,000 years? 13. Technical AspectThe magical world of FernGully was created by use of pictures thatwere painted as well as the use of computer animation for the moredifficult animation aspects. Computer animation consists of computersoftware that helps bring 2-D drawings to life. This is done byuploading key positions of characters and scenery into the softwareand allowing the computer to calculate the movements that wouldtake place in between the two positions. This process is known astweening. Although this process can be done by hand, it is muchquicker with the use of a computer. 14. Major Themes Industrialization and Deforestation: In the magical land known as FernGully, fairies take shelter as well as help continue the growth of the rainforests through magical fairy powers. While the film may be intended for children, its message may not be. A major theme that is demonstrated in the film is industrialization and its negative impacts on our environment. This is demonstrated in the film when three humans use the leveler to cut down and trim trees in the rainforest in miraculous time. 15. Major Themes Pollution: While deforestation is a major factor that contributes tothe loss of habitat in FernGully, pollution is also a contributingfactor. Instead of the typical trash on the ground example,pollution is demonstrated in the form of the antagonist known asHexxus. Hexxus, an evil spirit that uses common pollutions to bothtransform his appearance as well as for food. Upon eating thespray paint used to mark the trees, Hexxus takes shape as a blobof toxic matter. When he begins to feed off the smoke comingfrom the leveler, he takes the form of a silhouette of smoke. Lastly,when he eats the oil from the leveler, he then becomes a burningskeleton like creature with oil covering him. 16. Works Cited FernGully: The Last Rainforest. Dir. Bill Kroyer. Writ. Jim Cox and DianaYoung. 1992. 20th Century Fox. DVD-ROM. WWW. Raintree.com -The International Communication Gazette Rainforest Information Center-Christian Callahan- P.S.U Why I love Fairies-WWW. Why I Love Fairies-The Origin of Fairies-Taylorand Beauregaurd-2009-Culture of Australia WWW. Discovery Channel-How Stuff Works IMDb. "FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992)." 1993. Web. 12 Feb 2013.. Villains Wiki. "Hexxus." n.d.. Web. 13 Feb 2013.. http://www.buzzfeed.com/ashleybaccam/10-facts-you-may-not-know-about-ferngully-the-las HowStuffWorks "How Computer Animation Works"Roos, Dave. "HowStuffWorks "How Computer Animation Works"." 2008.Web. 20 Feb 2013. .