Once Upon a Forest

Last updated
Once Upon a Forest
OUAF poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Charles Grosvenor
Written by
Story byRae Lambert
Based onA Furling's Story [1] by Rae Lambert
Produced by
Starring
Edited byPat A. Foley
Music by James Horner
Production
companies
Distributed by 20th Century Fox [2]
Release dates
  • June 18, 1993 (1993-06-18)(United States)
  • October 22, 1993 (1993-10-22)(United Kingdom)
Running time
71 minutes [2]
Countries
  • United States [2]
  • United Kingdom [2]
LanguageEnglish
Budget$13–16 million [3] [2]
Box office$6.6 million (US)

Once Upon a Forest is a 1993 animated adventure film produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and distributed by 20th Century Fox. [4] Based on the Furlings characters created by Rae Lambert, the film was directed by Charles Grosvenor and produced by David Kirschner and stars the voices of Michael Crawford, Ellen Blain, Benji Gregory, Paige Gosney, Will Estes, Janet Waldo, Elisabeth Moss and Ben Vereen.

Contents

The film is about a trio of "Furlings" – the story's term for animal children – who go on an expedition to cure their poisoned friend. The film's environmental theme divided critics at the time of its release, along with the animation and story. The film grossed $6.6 million in the US against a budget of $13–16 million.

Plot

In a woodland area known by its anthropomorphic populace as Dapplewood, a quartet of "Furlings" – wood mouse Abigail; mole Edgar; hedgehog Russell; and badger Michelle – live alongside their teacher and Michelle's uncle, Cornelius. One day, the Furlings go on a trip through the forest with Cornelius, where they see a road for the first time. Russell is almost run over by a Range Rover and a man at the passenger's seat carelessly discards a glass bottle that shatters in the middle of the road. Later on, a tank truck carrying poisonous gas is overturned when it receives a flat tire from the bottle and releases its contents upon Dapplewood, after which the driver soon reports the incident to the authorities. When Cornelius and the Furlings discover that their home has now been ravaged by the gas, Michelle panics and runs to her home to find her parents, breathing in some of the gas that had been building up in there and becoming severely ill. Abigail risks her own life and saves the now-comatose Michelle, but cannot do the same for her parents, who are found dead in the house's kitchen. The Furlings seek refuge at Cornelius' house after they find their homes abandoned, believing everyone else had succumbed to the gas. Cornelius then tells the Furlings of his past encounter with humans that claimed the lives of his parents, hence why he is fearful of humankind. To create a home remedy that will allow Michelle to recover, Cornelius needs two specific herbs – lungwort and eyebright. With resources in the nearby meadow destroyed by the gas and only forty-eight hours before Michelle's condition becomes irreversible, the Furlings head off to find another meadow the next day.

After facing numerous dangers on their journey, such as escaping from a ravenous barn owl, aiding a flock of religious wrens and encountering intimidating construction vehicles that the wrens refer to as "yellow dragons", the Furlings make it to a meadow where the herbs they need are in an area of plains known as Oakdale. There, they meet two of its local inhabitants – Willy, a tough but sensible vole who grows a liking for Abigail, and Waggs, an inconsiderate squirrel who acts hostile towards the Furlings. After acquiring an eyebright, they discover that a lone lungwort is on a giant cliffside inaccessible by foot. Russell suggests they use Cornelius' invention, the Flapper-Wing-a-Ma-Thing, to get to the lungwort.

The Furlings manage to get a hold of the lungwort after a dangerous flight up the cliff, then steer the Flapper-Wing-a-Ma-Thing back for Dapplewood. After bringing the herbs to Cornelius upon their return, a group of humans appear and the quartet, thinking the humans mean them harm, attempt to get to safety. Edgar gets separated from the group and gets caught in an old trap. When one of the workers finds him, Cornelius and the rest of the Furlings are surprised when he frees Edgar and destroys the trap, revealing that the men are disposing of the gas upon responding to the issued report of the tank truck's driver. The quartet, especially Cornelius, now see the good in humankind.

Once Michelle is given the remedy, she appears unresponsive the next day, but she eventually recovers from her condition when a single tear shed by Cornelius falls on her. Cornelius then sees the Flapper-Wing-a-Ma-Thing and is amazed by the Furlings' independence as their families and many of Dapplewood's inhabitants arrive, the latter of whom explain that they fled to safer places for survival against the gas as they reunite with their children. After Cornelius becomes Michelle's caretaker now that her parents' lives had been claimed by the gas, Michelle asks her uncle if anything will ever be the same again, but Cornelius assures her that it will if they all work diligently in Dapplewood's restoration, just like the Furlings did to save Michelle.

Cast

Production

Once Upon a Forest was conceived as early as 1989, when the head of graphic design at ITV Cymru Wales (at the time known as Harlech Television, HTV), Rae Lambert, devised an environmental tale entitled A Furling's Story as a pitch to the American cartoon studio Hanna-Barbera (owned by Turner Broadcasting since 1991), along with partner Mike Young. Thanks to screenwriters Mark Young and Kelly Ward, the project started as a made-for-TV film with The Endangered as its new name. [3]

At the suggestion of Liz Kirschner, the wife of the film's producer, The Phantom of the Opera's Broadway star Michael Crawford was chosen to play Cornelius. Members of South Central Los Angeles' First Baptist Church were chosen to voice the chorus accompanying the preacher bird Phineas (voiced by Ben Vereen). While filming the live-action references, the crew "was thrilled beyond [...] expectations [as the chorus] started flipping their arms and moving their tambourines", as Kirschner recalled. [3]

William Hanna, co-founder and chairman of Hanna-Barbera was in charge of the film's production as its executive producer. William told to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in May 1993 that it was the "finest feature production [we have] ever done", and was happy that the studio accepted his proposal. [3]

Kirscher spoke to The Dallas Morning News ' Philip Wuntch a month later on the diversity of the film's production services: "Disney has great animators, and the studio has them locked up for years and years. We got the best worldwide animators available from Sweden [actually Denmark], Asia, Argentina, Spain and England [actually Canada]". [3] Work on the animation was in the hands of Wang Film Productions in Taiwan; Lapiz Azul Animation and Matias Marcos Animation of Spain; [5] the Jaime Diaz Studio of Argentina; Denmark's A. Film; Phoenix Animation Studios in Toronto, Canada; and The Hollywood Cartoon Company. Mark Swanson Productions did computer animation for the "Yellow Dragons" and the Flapper-Wing-a-Ma-Thing. [6]

Because of time constraints and budget limitations, over ten minutes were cut from the film before its release. One of the deleted scenes featured the voice of Glenn Close, whose character was removed entirely from the final storyline. [3] [6] At around the same time, the studio temporarily changed the working title of The Endangered to the less-ominous Beyond the Yellow Dragons, for fear audiences would find the former title too sensitive for a children's film.

The film's advertising at the time promised a new masterpiece "from the creator of An American Tail ". The creator in question was David Kirschner, who served as Tail's executive producer, and actually did create the characters and the story of the film, but ReelViews' James Berardinelli and the Times Union of Albany found it misleading, hoping instead for the likes of Don Bluth or Steven Spielberg. [7] [8]

Hanna-Barbera's feature production unit created to produce this film and Jetsons: The Movie (1990), which also carried an environmental theme, was spun off into another unit under parent company Turner Entertainment, Turner Feature Animation, which produced The Pagemaster and Cats Don't Dance . David Kirschner remained as head of the division. No further theatrical animated films were produced by Hanna-Barbera itself (it would license live-action film adaptations of The Flintstones and Scooby-Doo before being dissolved in 2001).

Release and reception

The Miami Herald took note of the film's potential competition with Universal Studios' already-established summer hit, Jurassic Park ; the tabloid wrote that it did not have a chance to compete against the former despite calling Once Upon a Forest a "delightful family film". [9] Ultimately, Once Upon a Forest did poorly in theaters: after opening with $2.2 million at 1,487 venues, it made $6.5 million at the North American box office, just over half its budget. [3] [10] The film holds a 22% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 23 reviews. The critical consensus reads: "Inert animation and generically chipper characters rob Once Upon a Forest of any personality despite its well-intentioned message and critter appeal for very young children". [11]

Fox Video's original VHS and laserdisc issue of the film, released on September 21, 1993, proved successful on the home video market for several months. [3] [6] On October 28, 2002, it premiered on DVD, also available on VHS in the UK with the content presented in fullscreen and widescreen formats. [6] [12] The original trailer was included as the only extra on the Australian Region 4 version. [13]

Once Upon a Forest was nominated for an Annie Award for Best Animated Feature in 1993. It won an MPSE Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing. [14]

Music

Once Upon a Forest: Original Soundtrack Album
Film score by
James Horner
Released1993
Genre Film score, orchestral
Length67:18
Label Fox Records
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg link
Movie Music UKStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svg link

The score for Once Upon a Forest was one of several that composer James Horner wrote for animated films of the late '80s and early '90s. Three songs were written for it: "Please Wake Up", "He's Gone/He's Back", and the closing credits track, "Once Upon a Time with Me". The songs were performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, with contributions from Ben Vereen and Michael Crawford. [15] The soundtrack, released by Fox Records, has been out of print since its publisher went out of business in the mid-1990s. [16]

Songs

Original songs performed in the film include:

No.TitlePerformer(s)Length
1."Please Wake Up" Michael Crawford  
2."He's Gone/He's Back" Ben Vereen & Andrae Crouch Singers 
3."Once Upon a Time with Me" Florence Warner Jones  

Merchandise

Once Upon a Forest was adapted into book form by Elizabeth Isele, with illustrations by Carol Holman Grosvenor, the film's production designer. The tie-in was issued by Turner Publishing and distributed by Andrews McMeel, a month prior to the film's release ( ISBN   1-878-68587-2).

The multimedia company Sanctuary Woods also released a MS-DOS point-and-click adventure game based on the film, on CD-ROM and floppy disk for IBM computers; Beth Agnew served as its adapter. [17] Many elements of the game stayed faithful to the original source material. [18] [19] None of the original voice actors reprised their roles as the voice acting was recorded in Canada.

See also

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Events in 1911 in animation.

References

  1. ↑ Beck, Jerry (2005). "Once Upon a Forest". The Animated Movie Guide . Chicago Reader Press. pp.  . ISBN   1-55652-591-5.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Once Upon a Forest (1993)". AFI Catalog of Feature Films . Retrieved December 10, 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Beck (2005), p. 184.
  4. ↑ Lenburg, Jeff (2009). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons (3rd ed.). New York: Checkmark Books. p. 207. ISBN   978-0-8160-6600-1.
  5. ↑ Jury page Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine at ANIMACOR 2005. Retrieved March 27, 2007. (NB: Content is a machine translation from original Spanish Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine .)
  6. 1 2 3 4 The Once Upon a Forest Page Archived 2006-07-13 at the Wayback Machine . Retrieved July 6, 2006.
  7. ↑ Once Upon a Forest at ReelViews. Retrieved March 23, 2007.
  8. ↑ Once Upon a Forest Just Politically Correct (1993, June 18). The Times Union of Albany. Retrieved March 23, 2007.
  9. ↑ Once Upon a Forest Will Enchant Wee Ones (1993, June 19). The Miami Herald. Retrieved March 23, 2007.
  10. ↑ Once Upon a Forest at Box Office Mojo
  11. ↑ "Once Upon a Forest". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango . Retrieved October 6, 2021. OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  12. ↑ The film is the coming attraction (2005, February 19). Oakland Tribune . Retrieved March 21, 2007.
  13. ↑ DVD.net: Once Upon a Forest Archived 2007-09-02 at the Wayback Machine . Retrieved March 24, 2007.
  14. ↑ "21st Annual Annie Award Nominees and Winners (1993)". Annie Awards . Archived from the original on January 2, 2013. Retrieved January 28, 2016.
  15. ↑ Once Upon a Forest - James Horner | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic , retrieved 2021-05-01
  16. ↑ Once Upon a Forest Archived 2007-06-13 at the Wayback Machine at Movie Music U.K. Retrieved March 23, 2007.
  17. ↑ Profile for Beth Agnew Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine at WritersNet. Retrieved March 27, 2007.
  18. ↑ Once Upon a Forest Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine at CD-ROM Access. Retrieved March 24, 2007.
  19. ↑ Sheldon (2004), p. 164.
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