FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue

FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue is a 1998 American animated film, and a direct-to-video sequel to FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992). It was produced by Wild Brain Productions and distributed by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment through the CBS/Fox Video Label. It was directed by Phil Robinson & Dave Marshall and written by Chris Fink and Richard Tulloch.

Plot
Two FernGully fairies leave the rain forest to save three baby animals from poachers.

Why It Isn't a Magical Rescue

 * 1) Noticeably cheap animation that's a complete and utter cut-down from that of the original movie. The character animation is stilted, the color palette is notably much duller, the lighting is ridiculously intense and completely ingulfs every scene that it's present in (in what's most likely a desperate attempt to make the film look brighter and save it from looking drab and boring due to the washed-out color scheme) and the overall animation itself looks eerily reminiscent of some of the direct-to-DVD Disney sequels, particularly Belle's Magical World and Milo's Return.
 * 2) Speaking of the direct-to-DVD Disney sequels, this movies has an almost shocking amount in common with a majority of those movies. In the sense that the only reason that they even exist is, not to tell a new compelling story with the characters of the original, but rather for the sole purpose of milking as much money of the original movie's success as possible using nostalgia bait. And this is blatanly evident in the movie for more reasons than one.
 * 3) The movie's overall road trip rescue story is pretty unoriginal, even for the 1990s. As both archetypes have already been done countless times before in both old and new forms of media respectively.
 * 4) * Not only does it feel cliched, but the story itself doesn't reveal anything new about FernGully, it's inhabitants, or the world that this film franchise takes place in in the slightest. Making the story feel hollow and even more shallow than it already is (an issue that will discussed in further detail in later points).
 * 5) None of the actors from the first movie reprise their roles. And therefore, this film features a new voice cast including Laura Erlich (replacing Samantha Mathis as Crysta), Harry Joseph, Gary Martin (replacing Goanna, as well as playing Mac), Matt K. Miller (replacing Robin Williams as Batty), Digory Oaks (replacing Christian Slater as Pips) and Westin Peace.
 * 6) * Not only do none of the original voice actors return here, but the voice acting here is noticeably poor. As it sounds like none of the vocal performances sound like they had any real effort put into them. Even from talented and noteworthy actors who's talents are wasted here.
 * 7) The songs here aren't just forgettable, but they're also poorly-written, unoriginal, and barely have any role in the movie's actual story (as they don't play any part in really adding anything to nor progressing the film's plot). Sure, this was also vaguely present in mh:greatestmovies:FernGully: The Last Rainforest with it's own songs, but they were still moderately decent or even good at times. Not to mention that they're nowhere near as pointless and equivalent to filler as they are here.
 * 8) *The first of the songs, "Here in FernGully" is little more than a generic "introduction to the world that the movie takes place in" song that fails at even doing that (i.e., it doesn't do anything in terms of helping the worldbuilding).
 * 9) *The next song "We Belong" is the song that takes place right after the baby animals have been captured by the Poachers and Pips and the bug gang have been sent out to get them back. And, you guessed it, it's terribly pointless and feels like it shouldn't be in the scene due to how much it wrecks the dark and serious tone that it tries to set up (which was already falling flat on it's face in the first place, but that song is what truly made it fall apart).
 * 10) *The third/penultimate song of the film, "Funner Than The Funnest Fun", on top if it's already unoriginal and laughable title (a good indicator to the song's overall quality at it) is the song that plays over what is already one of the most outright frustrating scenes in the movie (the one where Pips and his bug gang get distracted by the carnival). And yes, it only serves as salt to be rubbed in the already open wound and to really reinforce that moment of "Ha Ha! Pips isn't doing what he's supposed to be!".
 * 11) *The fourth and final song, "Wanna Be Back Home/We'll Make It If We Try" is possibly the worst example of a song only added into the movie for the sake of filler (and that's really saying a lot). It follows the baby animals singing about how much they want to be free from being trapped by the poachers, and later on Batty given them hope that they will find their way back home, in spite of the fact that nobody would just burst out into song in a situation where their lives are on the line. Not to mention how the lyrics are downright laughable like "I'm so small, so afraid, I'm so lonely and so sad".
 * 12) **On that subject, right after the song, the baby animals all act scared, and Batty tells them what the Poachers are potentially gonna do with said baby animals after the baby koala ask him what's gonna happen to them, making the whole song feel very pointless.
 * 13) What's probable the main issue with the film is its pacing, as in the pacing is beyond horrible, despite Pips' and the Beetle Boy's goal to rescue the baby animals, they constantly (and we repeat, CONSTANTLY) get distracted by the human attractions, rather then saving the baby animals, and while they DO eventually rescue them, that does not happen until near the end of the film!
 * 14) This made even more worst by the fact that Poachers are dangerous people who kidnap and even sometimes KILL animals, and while that's thankfully not the case with the baby animals (as their being send off to a place on a boat), imagine what happens if that was the case as Pips and the Beetle Boys were too distracted by the attractions.
 * 15) To add insult to injury, Batty is the only one to not get distracted by the human attractions and wants to save the baby animals, and keep in mind, he's the bozzo who serve as the comic relief of the previous film, that shows how bad the characters are in this film. You know you've failed BIG TIME when THE FREAKING COMIC RELIEF character is able to take the job more seriously than the main characters itself!
 * 16) In a similar manner to Space Chimps 2: Zartog Strikes Back, Cars 2, and The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue (the latter of which being the film out of the three that, unironically, shares the most amount in common with this movie), it's another case of a sequel the shifts it's focus from the previous film's protagonist (Crysta in this case) to a side character who ends up being annoying, unlikable, and a major cut-down from the predecessor's main character, all the while shoving said protagonist aside in favor of the new, inferior one. And not only does this make it seem less like an actual sequel to the original film, but the new protagonist turns out to be either an inferior knock-off or an unlikable character, while the pre-existing side character gets flanderized badly for the role of main protagonist. And in this case, it isn't just Crysta who's shoved out of the picture, but Zak, the deuteragonist of the previous movie, doesn't even appear in this movie, nor does he even get MENTIONED!
 * 17) Speaking of the replacement protagonist for this movie, Pips is the one in question. A rather minor character from the original who was more of a "cool guy wannabe" than anything. And here he is badly flanderized to become even worse here than he was in the original. Now being an irresponsible and childish egotist who doesn't even seem like he cares about saving the baby animals that he's supposed to rescue here (as stated in the #6 entry). But he spends the majority of the movie being distracted from said task (along with the Beetle Boy's). Just to really put it into perspective, he had to be reminded of why he went out of the rainforest in the first place not once, but 3 times. The first time being in the carnival, the second one being when he met Budgie and stayed with her for the night, and the third and final instance being when he actually visited the carnival. One of those times in particular which he was actually completely oblivious to. And in the end, he simply has an undeserved moment where the realizes how selfish he was throughout the movie and in the end, he's hailed as a hero in spite of all the times he screwed up when he left to save the baby animals!
 * 18) *Not only is Pips an arrogant jerk, but the beginning of the movie has him saying that he's tired of simply spending his life in the forest and wants something more out of life. You know, the trope used for every Disney princess in history?
 * 19) *To add salt to the wound, Crysta appears during the climax of the film after saving the Poacher's dogs, and she's the one who defeats the Poachers and saves the baby animals.
 * 20) Also in a similar manner to The NeverEnding Story III, The Hunchback of Notre Dame II and The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue, the film has a more light-hearted and comedy tone in comparison to FernGully: The Last Rainforest, yes while that film also had its fair share of light-hearted and comedy moments, it had a good since of dark moments as well (alto to be fair, not to an extend as the latter's first three films' previous movies).
 * 21) Much like The Hunchback of Notre Dame II, the Lead Poacher is a very weak villain and a poor follow-up from Hecter from the previous movie, as while Hecter was a very intimidating villain with a neat concept of how he's a toxic gas with humanoid-like features (and later on gets a skeleton-like design after absorbing fire), the Lead Poacher is just a basic Poacher that you normally see in animal-focuses media, even the Lead Poacher's goal is nothing more then a basic "I wanna sell all the baby animals for money.", which is a weak plan in comparison to Hecter, who wants to destroy Ferngully.
 * 22) The other characters aren't particularly interesting either. As they've all been dumbed down to be bland and boring to the point where it's absolutely impossible to have them carry a movie. And the two new characters introduced here (Budgie and her grandfather) are just plain forgettable.
 * 23) Despite FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue being the sequel to FernGully: The Last Rainforest, it barley feels like a sequel to said movie, there are little-to-no call backs to the previous film and as stated before, Zak (or his two friends of that matter) does not appear or even get mentioned at all though out the whole film, and even Hecter (the main villain of FernGully: The Last Rainforest) does not even get a mention.
 * 24) Because of this, FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue feels more like a stand-alone movie then an actuate sequel to FernGully: The Last Rainforest.
 * 25) The plot of the film is also a humongous rip-off of The Rescuers 2: Down Under, right down to the main villain of the film being a Poacher.
 * 26) Plot Hole: If Crysta has the ability to shrink people, why doesn't she use said ability to shrink the Poachers to their size so that they can not capture the baby animals (though to be fair, this was an issue present even in the first movie.)?
 * 27) Many weird and strange moments, one example is during the climax after Budgie's grandfather jumps in and tries to get the baby animals that are being lifted into a boat by the Lead Poacher, Budgie grabs on to her grandfather, which cause the latter's pants to be pulled down, and as Budgie climbs up her grandfather, Budgie's grandfather says a very buzzar line "Uh, this is no time to practice our act Budgie!", what kind of act requires Budgie to pull down her grandfather's pants???
 * 28) Any emotional moment the movie tries to have completely falls flat on it's face (mainly due to how outright shallow the movie is). The two main instances of this being Pips' farewell to Budgie, and the baby animals' reunion with their parents.
 * 29) * The former feels incredibly anti-climatic as there was no real chemistry between Pips and Budgie at any point during the film. They never really felt like they were truly bonding and even though the film wants us to feel sad when they have to say goodbye, it still doesn't feel earned because of they're lack of chemistry. Not to mention how the actual scene itself was really not something that could stir up emotions in anyone.
 * 30) * The latter of which, on top of not having an real heartwarming feel to it, had a line from a baby kangaroo saying to his mom "Hi Mom, what's for dinner?", which is absolutely ridiculous and out-of-place. As if the scene itself lacking any sort of emotional energy itself, that ridiculous piece of dialogue being inserted in that scene completely and irreversibly RUINS any potential of the scene being a heartwarming reunion at all!
 * 31) **Not to mention, it's completely unrealistic and even very selfish for someone to ask their mother whats for supper after they've just been reunited with their mother after being kidnapped and taken away from her, that would be like if a child just ask the parent what they got from a toy store after being rescued from a kidnapper.
 * 32) Misleading Title:
 * 33) Despite being named "The Magical Rescue", a large portion of the movie is dedicated to Pips doing anything but rescuing the baby animals, and instead getting distracted by whatever he can get distracted by.
 * 34) Also, despite the title name, FernGully barely appears in this film at all.
 * 35) In the Box-art, it shows Crysta next to Batty and Pips, given off an impression that she would be one of the main characters of the film, but as stated in the #7 segment, Crysta has been reduce to a smaller role.
 * 36) It feels somewhat unnecessary for a sequel, FernGully: The Last Rainforest had no set up for another film and already has a closing ending.
 * 37) The back of the box art stated of how Pips and the Beetle Boys "embark on an ultimate journey to rescue the baby animals.", which is somewhat not the case in this film.
 * 38) The ending is not only very poor and weak compare to the previous film, but it also feels a bit un-finish, as we don't even know what happens to the Poachers after Crysta defeats them.
 * 39) So far, it ultimately killed the FernGully franchise. As due to this movie's poor reception, the mere idea of any more sequels or installments of any kind in the series were, needless to say and so far, nonexistent.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) A few funny moments here and there. Namely one of the forest animals screaming "MY BAAABYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!! after the baby animals are captured by the Poachers.
 * 2) Batty is the only character to not get a character change, in fact, he's actually a lot better seeing as while Batty in FernGully: The Last Rainforest serve as the Comic Relief, here while he has his Comic Relief moments, he is much more matured, and (as stated in the first segment of the #6 article in the WIS segment) is the only one not to get distracted by the attractions and wants to save the baby animals.
 * 3) The idea of the fairies being distracted by attractions in the human world while in their mission isn't a bad one. But not only isn't it fleshed out in the slightest, but it's also terribly executed as well.

Reception
FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue received much worse reviews than it's predecessor. While not having a Rotten Tomatoes score, the film has a 34% audience score. While IMDb gave the film a 4.6/10.

Trivia

 * The film was originally going to be released direct-to-video in the United States in December 1997, but instead it was pushed back for March 1998.
 * Dan Castellaneta was considered to replace Robin Williams for the role of Batty in this movie before Matt K. Miller was selected.

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