Review of Anastasia / Fern Gully The Last Rainforest

Introduction

Twentieth Century Fox isn`t the first name that comes into mind when you think of animated movies. Fox Animation was a studio in its own right for only a few years before Titan AE bankrupted it. The films it made often rivalled Disney for cute characters and family friendly storylines, but with more of a contemporary edge. This particular double pack is of interest, as it has a film from early on in Fox Animation`s life, Anastasia (1997) and another Fox funded animation Ferngully: The Last Rainforest from even earlier (1991), and it is an opportunity to see how the quality improved. I`ve marked each film individually in each category.

Ferngully is a magical forest tended by fairies. They have a long history where the forest was saved from the evil Hexxus, who was imprisoned in a tree. At this time, the humans who used to live in the forest left and faded into myth and legend. Crysta is heir to these legends and is being taught so that she can assume guardianship of the forest. But Crysta is a carefree fairy who neglects her studies in favour of fun and exploring. One day, a bat that escaped from an experimental lab comes to the forest. Batty Koda tells of the wasteful and cruel humans who experimented on him, but Crysta only hears the tale of the magical creatures that left the forest long ago. She promptly goes in search of the humans and finds a logging company intent on tearing up the forest. Assuming the tree felling machines to be monsters, she rescues a worker called Zak from them and in the process shrinks him down to the size of a fairy. While she takes him on an adventure of her magical world, the tree fellers inadvertently release Hexxus from his ancient prison. Hexxus possesses the tree felling behemoth and sets about destroying Ferngully. Zak and Crysta must battle Hexxus to save the magical forest. 5/10

Anastasia is the story of the last of the Romanovs. The young Anastasia is orphaned when Rasputin`s curse is enacted on the Russian Royal family during the bloody revolution. Surviving an attempt on her life by Rasputin, who perishes in the waters of a frozen river, Anastasia and her grandmother flee for their lives. They are separated trying to board a train and Anastasia is knocked down. Ten years later, young Anya is old enough to work and is shown the door of the orphanage where she has lived. She remembers nothing of her childhood and the only link to her past is a pendant with an inscription telling her to go to Paris. She soon learns that to leave Communist Russia for this dream is a difficult thing and is advised to seek the help of a young man, Dimitri who can provide her with forged papers. Going to the old Palace where Dimitri resides, faint memories awaken in Anya, but when Dimitri and his friend Vladimir set eyes upon Anya, they are taken aback with her resemblance to the missing member of the Romanovs. They see a chance to set into motion their plan of presenting a fake Anastasia to her grandmother and reaping a financial reward. They easily persuade Anya to take part in their scheme, especially when she wishes to remember her own past, and they set about coaching her to be Anastasia during their trip to Paris. But their trouble is only beginning, as Rasputin isn`t dead. His decaying form is residing in limbo, where he watches and plans his revenge, for he has realised what even Anya has not, the true Anastasia has returned and with the aid of his faithful sidekick, Bartok he will wipe out the last of the Romanovs. 8/10

Video

Ferngully is presented in a 1.85:1 anamorphic ratio. The first thing that strikes you is that the trailer is 2.35:1. A cropped picture is no way to earn brownie points if you pardon the pun. The transfer itself is adequate, and there are no signs of artefacts of any kind. The film itself is another matter. The animation is simplistic and the characters are not very detailed. The backgrounds could be described as individual and stylised with the feel of an oil painting. I feel that they too lack detail and often come across as a mish-mash of colours. The colours themselves are chosen from a very pastel palette and this doesn`t help the film stand out. Occasionally a particular cel used in the animation will appear faded for a few frames. On the whole this film looks forty rather than ten years old. 4/10

Anastasia is presented in a 2.35:1 anamorphic ratio. This is a great transfer, clear and colourful with a sharp image. There is no sign of any print damage and the whole spectacle comes across very well on DVD. The animation is a mixture of traditional and computer imaging and allows for a more majestic and dynamic spectacle. The animation is good, but the backgrounds are wonderfully sumptuous. The characters are a little simplistic but more than rival Disney for style. Don Bluth has oodles of experience with feature length animation and it certainly shows here, where he directs with Gary Goldman. 9/10

Audio

There are a wide variety of soundtracks on Ferngully. As well as a DD 5.1 English track, there are DD Surround tracks in German, Italian and Spanish, and DD Stereo tracks in Dutch and French. All these languages have the requisite subtitles also. The English track has the surrounds used well to convey the effects, but unfortunately the dialogue was occasionally buried in the music and background noise. The music is tame and forgettable but the songs are quite bad. To cap it all off, Elton John belts out one of his raucous ballads over the end credits. 6/10

It may not advertise it, but Anastasia has more than just the DD 5.1 English soundtrack. There are Surround tracks in Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish and subtitles in several languages. Unfortunately, you can`t switch these from within the film and have to go through a menu sequence that gets longer every time you use it. The surround itself is quite effective with action and atmosphere represented well through the speakers. The dialogue is always clear and the songs and music are very apt for the film. You`d be hard pressed to tell this apart from a Disney presentation, aside from the story and the characters of course. 9/10

Features

Ferngully comes with the theatrical trailer in the films original 2.35:1 ratio. That`s it. 1/10

Anastasia has a few extras to it and both children and adults are catered for. For kids there are 3 interactive puzzles that are basically Jigsaws that you create with your remote, and 2 sing-a-long songs or Karaoke for the less enlightened. I gave one a halfhearted bash and my family and neighbours agree that I have an amazing effect on vermin. Talk about humane pest control. There is a multi language clip reel that lasts some 6 and half minutes. It is a curiosity that you probably won`t visit more than once. Anastasia: A Magical Journey is a 23-minute making of, presented by Aaliyah. It`s a fairly nice affair, with interviews with the cast and creators and a look at the animation and voice recording, quite interesting really. Finally there is a 7-minute featurette, which although it does repeat some information also adds something new. The animated menus, while nice to look at do take a little long to change screens, but all in all the extras, though brief are a good mix for young and not so young respectively. 5/10

Conclusion

Ferngully is a very unsubtle ecotoon. The message of evil humans despoiling Mother Nature is pounded in with a sledgehammer and any moments of charm in the story are muted consequently. The voice talent is wasted by and large. Samantha Mathis and Jonathan Ward as Crysta and Zak are likeable but bland, and Christian Slater is almost unnoticeable as Pips. On the bright side, there is a cameo by Tone Loc as a lizard. Tone Loc has the best voice on the planet. Tone Loc should read the news, make station announcements, he should be the speaking clock, he should be the voice of God! But I digress, another notable character is Batty Koda voiced by Robin Williams. You get the feeling that Williams is test driving his Genie persona from Aladdin as his bat is just as wacky, wise cracking and fast talking, but without the abrasive edge. I did notice that my review copy stuttered on my Sony player at around 45:10 or Chapter 16, but on my DVD ROM it was fine so I assume it is only this particular disc. The saving grace to this film is that it is short, and there are moments of fun to be had beneath all the preaching and pontificating. The animation is a let down to be frank and I think only younger children will find sufficient entertainment in this. 5/10

The story of Anastasia is a tragic one, and almost legendary. The actual events were an awful culmination to a tumultuous upheaval in Russia. The revolution that finally installed the communists as leaders of the Soviet Union was a bloody affair with many factions and characters. One of the most enigmatic was Rasputin, a monk who claimed magical powers and had undue influence over the Romanovs. The end result is indisputable, the Russian Royal Family were rounded up and summarily executed. For many years afterward, rumours of a survivor, Anastasia kept on circulating, and many women appeared to claim the name, and the Romanov fortune. Even when I was young, there would be news stories about Anastasia, and I suppose that a sense of magic and myth grew up around the last surviving Romanov. That such a story would be ripe for cinema is no surprise, and indeed many films have been made. But what surprised me is the transfer to the medium of animation, especially Disney style films. This particular Anastasia almost pulls it off though. The story is compelling, if only through the tenuous link with history, and the characters are excellent. John Cusack and Meg Ryan voice Dimitri and Anastasia, and they are very good. Unlike Disney their characters are very contemporary and honest. The dialogue is sharp and witty and the magic is certainly there between the two characters. Kelsey Grammer provides the voice to Dimitri`s mentor, Vladimir and his is a wonderful expansive character around which the two younger characters orbit. Christopher Lloyd brings his inimitable touch to the madness of Rasputin and is aided by the bat Bartok, voiced by Hank Azaria. Bartok is a great sidekick and has some of the best lines in the film. But I`m of two minds about the film. I`m sure that the characters of Rasputin and Bartok are wonderful for the younger audience and they have a sense of manic unreality about them that is entertaining to be sure. Lloyd and Azaria`s performances are peerless in the role, but I personally wasn`t happy with the Rasputin`s vengeance subplot. The main storyline, where Anya searches for her past, and Dimitri and Vladimir try to con the Grand Duchess are entertaining in their own right, and the romance between Anya and Dimitri is very enjoyable. In fact when the two are interacting, I was hard pressed to distinguish the movie from a Meg Ryan rom-com. I felt that the Rasputin subplot was a distraction from this and it could have been a brave decision to ditch it all together. Nevertheless 8/10

A twin pack looks good on paper, two films for the price of one as it were. But that only works when both films are of reasonable quality. I`m afraid to say that Ferngully is a film that I won`t be watching again. Anastasia on the other hand is an enjoyable film. Perhaps with the advent of the double pack, the single release of Anastasia will drop in price.

Anyway adding up the marks and taking the average then rounding up the scores and adding the number you first though of, minus the square root of course. We get…