Once Upon a Forest

Once Upon a Forest is a 1993 animated adventure film produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and distributed by 20th Century Fox. 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.

The film is about a trio of "Furlings" – the story's term for young anthropomorphic animals – who go on an expedition to cure a friend that has been poisoned by chemical fumes. 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, they go on a trip through the forest, 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 poison gas becomes overturned after it receives a flat tire from the shattered bottle and releases its contents upon Dapplewood, during which the truck’s driver soon reports the incident to the local authorities.

When the animals 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 to save the now-comatose Michelle, but cannot do the same for her parents, who are found dead in their kitchen. That night, the Furlings seek refuge at Cornelius’ residence after finding their own houses deserted, believing everyone else to have 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 from her coma, Cornelius needs two specific herbs – lungwort and eyebright. With resources in the nearby meadow destroyed by the gas and limited time before Michelle’s condition becomes irreversible, the Furlings set out to find another meadow the next day.

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

The Furlings manage to get the lungwort after a dangerous flight up the cliff, then steer their airship back for Dapplewood. After bringing Cornelius the herbs upon their return, a group of human workers and the animals, thinking the humans mean them harm, escape. Edgar gets separated from the group and gets caught in an old trap. When one of the workers finds him, the animals are surprised when he frees Edgar and destroys the trap, revealing that the men are disposing of the gas, having responded to its tank truck driver’s issued report. The group, especially Cornelius, now see the good in humankind.

Once Michelle is given the remedy, she appears unresponsive the next day, but eventually awakens from her coma when a tear shed by Cornelius falls on her. Cornelius then sees the Flapper-Wing-a-Ma-Thing and is amazed by the Furlings’ independence just as their families and many Dapplewoodites arrive, the latter of whom explain that they fled to safer places for survival against the gas as they reunite with their children. As Cornelius becomes the now-orphaned Michelle’s caretaker, she asks her uncle if anything will ever be the same again. Cornelius assures her that it will if everyone works diligently in Dapplewood’s restoration, just like the Furlings did to save her life.

Cast

 * Michael Crawford as Cornelius, a badger who is Michelle's uncle, as well as her caretaker following her parents' deaths, and the teacher of the Furlings. Crawford also acts as the film's narrator.
 * Ellen Blain as Abigail, a sweet and brave young wood mouse and the leader of the Furlings.
 * Florence Warner as the adult Abigail (in the song, "Once Upon A Time With Me") / The Balladeer (credited as Florence Warner Jones)
 * Benji Gregory as Edgar, a young mole and the planner of the Furlings.
 * Paige Gosney as Russell, a young hedgehog and the doer of the Furlings.
 * Elisabeth Moss as Michelle, Cornelius' maternal niece who becomes comatose after inhaling poisonous gas.
 * Ben Vereen as Phineas, the leader of a flock of religious wrens.
 * Will Estes as Willy, a tough but sensible young vole who grows a liking for Abigail.
 * Charlie Adler as Waggs, an inconsiderate squirrel who acts hostile towards the Furlings.
 * Rickey D'Shon Collins as Bosworth, a young wren who is on the verge of death after becoming stuck a puddle of oil, but he is saved by the Furlings.
 * Don Reed as a marshbird
 * Robert David Hall as the driver of the crashed tank truck that released its stored poisonous gas upon Dapplewood.
 * Paul Eiding as Abigail's father
 * Janet Waldo as Edgar's mother
 * Susan Silo as Russell's mother
 * Angel Harper as Bosworth's mother
 * Benjamin Kimball Smith as Russell's brother
 * Haven Hartman as Russell's sister

Production
Once Upon a Forest was conceived as early as 1989, when the head of graphic design at ITV Cymru Wales, 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.

At the suggestion of Liz Kirschner, wife of the film's producer David Kirschner, 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 wrens. 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.

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.

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]". Work on the animation was in the hands of Wang Film Productions in Taiwan; Lapiz Azul Animation and Matias Marcos Animation of Spain; 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.

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. 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 Tails 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.

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).

DiC's feature production unit created to produce this film and Here Come the Littles (1985), was spun off into another unit under parent company Walt Disney, No further theatrical animated films were produced by DIC itself (Disney would license a live-action film adaptation of Inspector Gadget before being dissolved in 2008).

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". 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. The film holds rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on  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".

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. On October 28, 2002, it premiered on DVD, also available on VHS in the UK with the content presented in fullscreen and widescreen formats. The original trailer was included as the only extra on the Australian Region 4 version.

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.

Music
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. The soundtrack, released by Fox Records, has been out of print since its publisher went out of business in the mid-1990s.

Songs
Original songs performed in the film include:

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. Many elements of the game stayed faithful to the original source material. None of the original voice actors reprised their roles as the voice acting was recorded in Canada.