Artist Date: Fern Gully

Today I was down and out with dysmenorrhea so I decided to go waaaaay back and do cheered me up as a kid. I had a cup of warm tea and watched one of my all-time favorite films, Fern Gully. Okay, so I never used to drink tea - but our laser disk was pretty scratched up from all the times I watched that movie. I even learned to use the laser disk player just so I could watch it everyday. 

Fern Gully has been on my mind lately, ever since I saw Avatar. Although the premise must have been used in other films and books before, this childhood favorite was the first to pop in my head. Watching the movie again, I realized the similarities are uncanny - even the plot is similar. I wonder if James Cameron consciously used Fern Gully as a peg, or if his inner child just kicked in and subconsciously fed him the story of an obscure animated film while writing Avatar. 

I guess Fern Gully has been one of my biggest inspirations as a kid. For a lot of kids in my generation, this movie may have formed our earliest ideas about environmental protection. And it may have actually worked. I like to think Gen Y is more environmentally aware then previous generations were when they were young adults and teens. That's something Avatar can only hope to achieve for the next generation of wide-eyed youth.