Sunday 25 June 2017

Mini Retro Review: Ferngully 2 (1998) #badmovies

Ferngully 2: The Magical Rescue
1998
Genre: Animated Direct-to-video/DVD





The original Ferngully wasn't one of the greatest animated movies, ever and it had nothing on Disney's Aladdin, but at least it was watchable, thanks to Robin Williams's inclusion as Batty Koda, as well as Samantha Mathis, Christian Slater and Tim Curry. In this straight- to- DVD fare, Ferngully 2 sees a bunch of baby animals being snatched by poachers, with Pip, Batty and the Beetle Boys venturing outside the rainforest and of whom set out to rescue them. 

The sequel has different voice actors - as none of the original cast members reprises their roles. The environmental theme isn't as in-yer-face as in the first film, but the story is mundane, was so dreary and not very interesting, & the direction is unimaginative and borderline stale. It just wasn't appealing.

Just like with The Return of Jafar, Robin did not voice his comic relief character, Genie, with The Simpsons Dan Castellaneta in his place. The replacement for Robin Williams, Matt Miller is, well, his Batty Koda just didn't sound right; even with the replacement actors, it's just not the same as it was before, and as much as it tries to recapture that, as well as the feel of the first film, its efforts are in total vain. That and his Batty is less fun too.

The animation and art style leans more towards Saturday morning cartoon fare and is still not of the quality that is seen in many '90s theatrical Disney movies, & the songs were not memorable and are even more forgettable.


Is It Worth Seeing?


Without the original actors voicing the characters, this is practically a needless sequel, - though with the biggest loss being Robin Williams, in all honesty, the producers shouldn't have bothered making it. I'd rather it never existed if they weren't prepared to bring Robin back. Which they had no intention to. 

Without Robin, Ferngully 2 is virtually redundant. 


Overall:

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