Classic ’90s Cartoon Being Remade in Live-Action (And the Jokes About It Write Themselves)

by

Recently, it’s become popular in Hollywood to remake classic cartoons and animated movies as live-action films. Disney has been leading this trend, with their latest releases being 2025’s Lilo & Stitch and the upcoming Moana in July. However, Disney isn’t the only studio doing this – Universal remade How to Train Your Dragon last year, and now Amazon MGM Studios is joining in. The animated classic they’ve chosen for a live-action remake is already sparking a lot of humorous reactions from fans.

Marielle Heller, the director of films like A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood and Nightbitch, is set to write and direct a live-action remake of the animated movie FernGully. While the project is still early in development, many fans are skeptical about whether FernGully will work as a live-action film. They’ve also been joking that the premise is similar to Avatar, which was previously nicknamed a “live-action FernGully”.

There are Big Plans for FernGully (And Big Challenges)

Turning the animated film FernGully: The Last Rainforest into a live-action movie will be quite a feat. The original, directed by Bill Kroyer, centers around Crysta, a fairy who lives in the Australian rainforest and has never met a human. When loggers arrive, she encounters a young man named Zak who is magically shrunk down to fairy size. Seeing the forest from this new perspective, Zak understands the devastating impact humans are having on the rainforest, and he joins forces with Crysta to save it. They’re joined by a comical, talkative bat named Batty, voiced by Robin Williams, and must also contend with Hexxus, a villain who thrives on pollution and is voiced by Tim Curry. FernGully is a visually stunning and heartwarming story with an important environmental message, and remains a cherished classic.

Adapting a well-loved film is always difficult, and this project faces a particularly high bar. The character of Batty is incredibly iconic, so any new version needs to be done perfectly. There’s also a question of whether a live-action FernGully can succeed, especially given the existence of James Cameron’s Avatar. When Avatar came out in 2009, some people criticized it for having a story very similar to FernGully. It was even jokingly called “live-action FernGully.” Now that a real live-action FernGully is in the works, many fans are wondering if it’s even necessary, since we’ve already seen a live-action version of a similar story. As fans have pointed out online, “A live-action FernGully already exists—it’s called Avatar.”

Even though people are already excited about the live-action FernGully movie, it’s just the first step in a much larger plan. Producer Jon Sheinberg announced they’re hoping to create a whole world around the film, including music, merchandise, and video games.

We’re not just aiming to create another movie here. What we really want to do is pay tribute to a truly iconic film and make sure its incredible story, music, and message reach as many people as possible, in every way we can. It’s about building on something special and sharing it with a new generation – and beyond!

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!

https://comicbook.com/movies/list/7-coolest-fantasy-movie-swords-that-arent-sting-or-anduril-from-lord-of-the-rings/embed/#

Read More

2026-04-18 03:42