New in home cinema: this forgotten fantasy cult film was the model for ‘Avatar’

“Pocahontas,” “Dancing with Wolves” and, and, and. Since the release of ‘Avatar – Departure for Pandora’, James Cameron has faced accusations that he used a variety of other stories for his mega-blockbuster. And the master director makes no secret of it. One of the films that ‘Avatar’ creator James Cameron openly cites as inspiration for his Pandora adventure: “Ferngully – Christa and Zak’s adventures in the rainforest“.

The film will finally be released on DVD and for the first time on Blu-ray on September 29, 2023! Fans of the film and beautiful collector’s editions can also enjoy it Limited edition in the media book* We’re looking forward to it, but we’ll have to wait a little longer. The limited edition including DVD and Blu-ray will be released on October 20.

Sampled from a new 4K master for the new release, the film shines in a whole new splendor on DVD and Blu-ray (with improved picture and sound quality). Alternatively, the film is also available in streaming, at least in the well-known version on Amazon Prime Video*.

And in case you’re wondering how the cartoon actually inspired James Cameron’s hit: Well, in it, humans threaten to cut down the rainforest and destroy the wondrous Ferngully, home to many magical creatures – while the love between a human and an elf should avert the catastrophe. If the story of Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) doesn’t immediately come to mind…

This is “Ferngully – Christa and Zak’s adventure in the rainforest”

“Ferngully” was released in German cinemas in 1993 and attracted almost 140,000 people to local movie theaters – even though it clearly lost out to the animated competition. While more than six million tickets were purchased in Germany for ‘Aladdin’ in the same year, director Bill Kroyer still left his mark on pop culture with his film: his feature debut mainly inspired his special effects work (including on ‘Tron’ and ‘The Green Mile.” “) Famous filmmakers created the biggest blockbuster of all time. And both with a great wealth of visual ideas that bring the mystical world of Ferngully to life, but especially in terms of content.

“Ferngully” is a magical country in the middle of the rainforest. Here, far from civilization, various magical creatures lead a peaceful life in harmony with nature – such as the young elf Christa (voice in the original: Samantha Mathis), who one day meets the human boy Zak (Jonathan Ward). Or rather, she saves his life.

After marking a tree that will soon be turned into kindling by humans, Zak himself is in danger of becoming a victim of the steel giant rolling in to clear it. The only problem: when Christa tries to save him, she shrinks the boy to her size. It’s the beginning of an unusual friendship between a human and an elf, which soon becomes more. But is their love strong enough to save the rainforest?

‘Ferngully’ brought together stars like Christian Slater (as Elf Pips), Tim Curry (as the villain Hexxor) and Robin Williams (as Batty Koda) and was well received by the trade press, even convincing legendary critic Roger Ebert. Nevertheless, the film ultimately failed to gross more than $32.7 million. Considering its $24 million production cost, “Ferngully” wasn’t exactly a hit.

Nevertheless The film became extremely popular and became an audience favorite, especially in home theaters and even led to a sequel in 1998: “Ferngully 2: The Magical Rescue” was no longer produced for the cinema, but released directly for the home theater as a direct-to-video sequel.