(Here we go.)
Don't worry, I don't dread this movie. I actually really like it.
I couldn't have been much older than a toddler when I first saw this movie. My mother bought it waaaay back in the day when she was doing what any mother of a youngling would do: looking for entertaining videos and movies to keep her child calm, entertained, and stimulated for a period of time or two while she did other motherly duties. She slam-dunked on this one!
The story starts as three furlings are all running late to Furling Class, which I can only assume is a special tutoring school that may or may not be remedial or extracurricular. Whatever, I'm thinking too much into this. One of the students is a rambunctious field mouse named Abigail, who has a strong bond with her Dad. The second one is a food-loving hedgehog named Russell. He comes from a large family of one mother and a ton of siblings. Finally, there's Edgar, the slightly cowardly mole who has a bond with his mother.
Wait, does nobody in this cast have two parents?!
Not even Disney is that cruel!
They all make it to Furling class, where they're greeted by a young badger named Michelle, the teacher's (Cornelius) niece. A surprise was promised to them, and Michelle is (temporarily) worried that they won't get to see it. They all go in, and Cornelius lets out a prototype of a flying machine. In a scurry, the model gets broken. By the way, that's not the surprise. The surprise comes on an educational stroll.
Meanwhile, a man drives by and tosses an empty glass bottle on the street, leaving sharp shards behind. The furlings encounter the road and the shards and nearly get run over by a car. After redirecting the furlings, Cornelius leads them to the surprise... a boat.
I remember watching this with my
Mom when I got older, and asked her,
"Seriously? A boat was the surprise?"
Seriously, the boat paled in comparison
to a FLYING MACHINE PROTOTYPE,
but Mom did bring up a good point:
they are kids, and kids can
find anything really cool.
They take a ride down a calm river, or lake or something, but unfortunately a truck filled with gas starts going down the road. Remember the shards? They puncture one of the truck's tires, which sends the truck careening off the road.
Okay, I get the fact that they're teaching kids
not to litter, and that actions can have
consequences and that kids usually learn
through the most extreme circumstances,
but I'm gonna have to say that the chances
of that actually happening (based on no
research of my own here) are one in astronomical.
The driver is unscathed, and searches for help. Unfortunately, the truck gets damaged. The gas goes through the forest and starts killing all manner of flora and fauna.
The furlings get into trouble (again) when a series of events has them lose the boat. (You know, I'm quite sure this is definitely the remedial class.) Cornelius scolds them, but stops when he notices that the birds are not flying in their usual pattern. This is actually a good tip, guys, if you happen to notice wildlife. They flee home, but it's too late. The gas, though mostly dissipated, has destroyed a lot of the vegetation. Michelle starts running to her house, but doesn't come out. Abigail goes in after her, and sees that the gas has killed Michelle's parents.
Um.... that was heavy.
Believe me when I say
Your tiny child may not
get that on his/her own.
Abigail pulls Michelle out of the house without getting any damage herself, but Michelle's eyes and lungs are in bad shape. Cornelius explains that humans were the cause of what happened. When he was a furling himself, humans hunted badgers in the area. Cornelius and his sister (who we don't see again in the movie) escaped, leaving their parents to die at the humans' hands.
Okay, I forgive Disney of all of its
crimes against parenthood. Hanna-Barbera
has waaaaay too many missing parents in this flick!
Cornelius then sends the three furlings off to find herbs in a nearby meadow, so he could help revive Michelle. They have two days, though, and need to hurry.
Oh yeah, and then this tear-jerker lullaby:
Will whoever is cutting up onions stop?!
Also, check out this performance. It's pretty good.
Right. In. The. Childhood. Feels.
My mother and I concluded that Michael Crawford kinda sounds like Marty Goetz in this song.
They go off and have a grand adventure, facing natural and artificial obstacles along the way. They even run across a black bird church. No, I'm not even kidding. That is definitely a spoof of a black church. The hilarious part was... I was afraid of the preacher.
Little bit of history about me: I grew up in a historically NORWEGIAN church. Very low-key, and I'm pretty sure the church was just starting its integration (it's fully integrated now: there's some of EVERYBODY in there!), and I had the epitome of white pastors (prematurely white-haired in his 30s) who was very soft-spoken. I was unaware at the young age of 2 or 3 that black preachers existed, or race itself. I didn't know that preachers could even be high-energy, even at a funeral! That's right. A funeral.
I say all that to say... the preacher voiced by Ben Vereen scared the DICKENS out of me when I was a kid. Mom said I would run out of the room and peek around the corner to make sure he was gone. Obviously now.... Mom and I are just a touch scared of him. Lol. We do love that scene, though. Oh, and oddly enough, I was used to Gospel music, so.... I was scared of him, yet loved the music. Weird conundrum.
I'm not going to tell you how it ends, because I've been beating myself up over the fact that I've been giving you guys spoilers in a lot of my posts. Just know that it will really get your emotions.
I love this movie. It holds so much sentimental value to me, and it's a great movie and my Mom and I love every moment of it. My Mom isn't even a fan of animated movies!
The music is great, the characters are charming, the story is great for kids to follow, and there's practically nothing that would greatly offend your kids. It might scare them a bit at times, but it's overall harmless. Some may not like the pro-environmental message, but in my opinion, it's actually the best way to present it. It shows the good and the bad in nature and in civilization, and shows how sometimes bad things happen and that we learn to move forward with completely changed lives.
This is about as good a film as you can get, in my opinion. I like films that challenge kids' minds while still being a good family film, like Fantastic Mr. Fox, or another animal-themed movie that I'm gonna write about next week.
🎶 Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh........ 🎶
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