Lessons learned from Ferngully – As a child, one of my babysitters decided that I was going to learn about saving the rain forest by watching the film Ferngully. After Ferngully she asked what I learned. These were my basic answers.
- Fairies can run around almost naked with no angry parents chasing them, and forcing them to wear clothes. Unlike real life.
- Hollywood must think children, and lumberjacks are stupid. I personally wouldn’t insult people that work with chainsaws all day. (Besides, I already knew that the rain forest should be protected. Where else could you find animals like the anaconda?)
- “To save the rain forest.” (People had already protected the rainforest at that time. Making the movie pretty much worthless.)
- Fairies other than flying (duh) ONLY make flowers, and trees grow. For being these amazing magical creatures, their powers are lame.
- Ferngully is boring.
- For a forest, there are not that many animals. Where are all the rain forest animals besides the parrots, and the bat?
- The weirdo bat is funny. (At the very least funny looking.) On a side note, it’s a vampire bat in drag, pardon my pun.
- If you torment the babysitter for forcing you to watch Ferngully. (I did.) They won’t babysit you for 2 years.
- If the fairies live in all the trees where are the flying squirrels? (My little sister, and I were upset about the lack of squirrels. The babysitter said they lived in other trees.)
(This happened during the film.)
Me: “If Ferngully is all about nature wouldn’t it include cute little animals like flying squirrels?”
Babysitter: “There are cute animal like the parrots.”
Me: “Squirrels are cuter … a lot of the fairies wear fur … They must have killed the squirrels to make their clothes!”
Little Sister: “Why would they hurt squirrels?” (She is crying and I’m about to cry.)
Babysitter: “No squirrels were hurt in the film. And you two are looking too deeply into a not important thing.”
Me: “Squirrels are important to nature.” (My sister and I have calmed down by now.)
Babysitter: “Just watch the movie.”
Me: “Fine, — squirrel hater.”
Babysitter: “I’m not a squirrel hater!”
Me: “Shhh, just watch the movie.” - You can never tell what tree holds an evil demon inside. So burn all the trees, and plant different trees there just to be sure the trees are demon free. Also I wanted the demon tree for a pet. It was a cool looking evil purple mist in the tree, and looked like the spirit tree from Disney’s Pocahontas— only male, and evil.
The lessons I’ve learned from watching Ferngully have kept friends laughing, and my former babysitter shaking when reminded of Ferngully.