Trivia
The "FernGully" forest depicted in this movie was based on Australia's rainforests. The cartoonists who worked on this movie spent time in the real rainforests to help inspire their drawings.
The original lyrics to the movie's song "Toxic Love", performed by Tim Curry, had obvious sexual themes/implications, and various verses from the original song were cut and or re-written to make the song more appropriate for a family movie. The original lyrics can still be found, but the song's full version was never used.
Robin Williams' first role in an animated movie. Later, he'd go on to voice Genie in Aladdin (1992), Fender in Robots (2005), Napoleon Cross in Everyone's Hero (2006), and both Lovelace and Ramón in the Happy Feet films.
In Spain, it was dubbed into Spanish entirely by comedian Ángel Garó, a single-handed feat that earned him entry in the Guinness Book of Records.
Sir Elton John's first involvement in an animated feature film. He composed and performed the song "Some Other World".
Zak's work permit, as seen in his wallet has the following information on it: Young, Zak P.O. Box 423 Byron Bay NSW 2451 Australia HT: 5'11" WT: 175 AGE: 16 EYES: BRN
Production time was greatly reduced by the use of computer animation to create elements such as flocks of birds that would have taken much longer to animate traditionally.
The rainforest is actually located in Australia, despite none of the characters having Australian accents.
The same year, Robin Williams starred in another animated feature film, Aladdin (1992), in which he provided the voice of the Genie.
Robin Williams provided 14 hours worth of improvised lines for Batty Koda. Director Bill Kroyer was so impressed with the voice work that he ended up tripling the screen time given to the character (which was originally supposed to be an eight-minute role).
Keeping with the environmental theme, the film's poster was printed on recycled paper, and merchandise used environmentally-conscious packaging.
The first theatrically released animated film to be composed by Alan Silvestri, who later went on to compose Lilo & Stitch (2002), The Polar Express (2004), The Wild (2006), Beowulf (2007), The Croods (2013), Scoob! (2020), and Raya and the Last Dragon (2021).
The only connection to Australia from which the rainforests were the kangaroos, cassowary and the platypus. You can hear Galahs and other birds in the background noise.
The "Batty Rap" sequence was animated digitally; it was the only scene where cel animation wasn't used.
Originally supposed to be released in November 1991, but the release was delayed to avoid competition with An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991) and Disney's Beauty And The Beast (1991). Instead, it was released on April 10, 1992, to coincide with Earth Day, which was held 12 days later.
Sir Elton John's first animated feature film for which he contributed to the soundtrack. He performed the end credits song "Some Other World". Sir Elton later collaborated with Tim Rice (which also featured Richard Anthony "Cheech" Marín) on the soundtrack of The Lion King (1994), and composed the soundtrack of Gnomeo & Juliet (2011), for which he also performed the song "Hello Hello" with Lady Gaga.
Christian Slater had briefly dated Samantha Mathis.
Tommy Chong's first theatrically released animated movie. Later, he'd go on to voice Stone the Pig in Hoodwinked Too: Hood vs Evil (2011) and Yax the Yak in Zootopia (2016).
The logo of apparel company Body Glove can be found amongst the handprints in the opening. (Look along the bottom for one with polygons inside of it).
A common criticism this movie faced, even to this day, is despite the message of saving the trees, it was an animated movie, where trees would have been used to make the paper to animate it.
Tim Curry's first role in a fully animated film, later as well as reprising his role as Nigel Thornberry in The Wild Thornberrys Movie (2002) and Rugrats Go Wild (2003), he'd go onto voice Drake the Adelie Penguin in The Pebble and the Penguin (1995), Rex Pester in The Rugrats Movie (1998), one of the sumo singers in Rugrats in Paris: The Movie (2000), and Von Talon the Falcon in Valiant (2005).
The second theatrically released animated movie for Richard Anthony "Cheech" Marín. The first being Oliver & Company (1988).
The de-foresting machine, "The Leveller", operates in a similar manner to the "Crablogger" from Thunderbirds (1965) season two, episode two, "Path of Destruction".
Robin Williams starred as Peter Pan in Hook (1991); and Tim Curry provided the voice of Captain Hook in Peter Pan and the Pirates (1990).
The song lyrics of "Some Other World" has differences. sometimes in the first verse it correctly goes "You stare through a tunnel of" but the incorrect one is "You fell through a tunnel" that is from the captions. Also "And you can't see the field of green" is correct but the incorrect one is "And you can't fee the field of grain." And finally the correct one "Be a miser with an empty hand" and the incorrect one "Feeding mouths with an empty hand."
