FernGully

Yesterday I had the opportunity to see the movie FernGully. It was a wonderful animated movie made in 1992 with an environmental theme. For some reason I missed this film somewhere in my childhood and was glad for the chance to come and view with my son at the Riverside City College campus.

The film centers around a group of fairies and forest animals deep in the rain forest. They are so deep in the forest that they long ago stopped believing humans even existed. Crista (the principle protagonist of the movie), is a young fairy that is an apprentice of their clans medicine woman (or shaman), Magi. Christa, like many young adults, is curious and has yet to master the skills of her trade. Her curiosity has lead her to the discovery of humans entering the rain forest. The humans are in the forest for one reason... exploitation of course. The humans turn out to work for a logging company that has been charged with the clear cutting of the forest. The humans loggers end up accidentally releasing Hexxus (the primary antagonist), who ends up enlisting the unsuspecting humans into his service. Zak is a young man that is working with the loggers as a summer job. Zak and the other loggers are not maliciously destructive. They are the product of the expected selfish and uncaring behavior of humans that are uneducated in the matters of the environment. Crista, who is unable to control her fledgling powers, shrinks Zak to save him from calamity. Unable to change him back the two embark on a journey to Ferngully where Magi can change Zak back to his normal size. During the journey Crista teaches Zak how the forest is a living being that feels love and pain. In the end Hexxus ends up in Ferngully intent on destroying it. Magi in parts Christa with the knowledge of the power of a seed. Crista allows herself, along with a seed, to be swollowed by Hexxus. The seed grows into a great tree entrapping him inside it.

I believe the seed represents the seed of knowledge. Once planted inside someone it has the ability to grow and change someone from the inside. Where there is a lack of knowledge there can be no enlightenment. Where ignorance thrives often so does destruction and wastefulness. Once one because aware of the negative effect one has on their surrounding it becomes near impossible to ignore and thus promotes change. I believe it is the duty of all who have become "enlightened" to plant the seeds of knowledge in order to bring about global change.