Once Upon a Forest/YMMV

• Nightmare Fuel: The music becomes a lot scarier after the gas leak from the truck spreads into the forest, but this is taken Up to Eleven when Michelle runs off and eventually makes it into her house which is full of poisonous gas causing everyone to panic and Abigail runs in after her. Now keep in mind that Abigail is a young girl going down an underground passage full of deadly gas and when she finally makes it to the bottom, what's the first thing she sees? The dead bodies of Michelle's deceased parents. This is all while trying to reach and move her younger friend's body to safety, because she had been poisoned by the gas and was now unconscious and close to death herself as a result. This is why Abigail's bravery is so highly regarded by the others. This is a pretty intense scene for a G-Rated movie.
  • • The scene with the owl counts for this all too well.
• Adaptation Displacement: Apparently it was a book first.
• Non Sequitur Scene: The part where the group comes across the flock of birds, and has to save Bosworth. This section really doesn't contribute anything to the story, except to introduce the concept of "the Yellow Dragons."
  • The scene was probably inserted just to give Ben Vereen his One-Scene Wonder.
• Crowning Music of Awesome: "Once Upon a Time With Me". Just...that song.
  • I'm sorry, but it's got nothing on "Please Wake Up."
  • "The Forest" isn't too shabby either.
• Cult Classic
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Phineas. It helps that he was voiced by Ben Vereen.
  • Also Edgar, who was the only character to get a limited edition stuffed animal version made.
• Girls Need Role Models: Abigail is the strong female lead of the movie, and actually manages to pull it off quite well without completely giving in to the stereotypes. The film doesn't try to play up the fact that she's a female as something 'special' either.
• Fridge Horror: Cornelius and his younger sister, Michelle's mother, narrowly escaped the gassing that killed their parents. Years later, the sister met the exact same fate.
  • What's more, the audience is shown the flashback involving the younger version of Michelle's mother just minutes after she dies.
• Hate Dumb: There's quite a bit of criticism about the Green Aesop treating the humans as bad guys. Anyone who watched the movie knows that the humans immediately come back and clean up the mess the gas leak caused, and the gas leak is caused more by human carelessness than actual malice.
  • And even then, The human driving the truck CLEARLY SAYS, "Gas - I gotta get help!" before running out to get help - anyone would have done the same in his shoes! Stay behind, you run the risk of dying in the gas, too!
  • It largely has to do with people's knee-jerk reaction to anything with a Green Aesop, which is unfortunate when something that actually presents it reasonably comes along and is still immediately dismissed.
• So Okay It's Average
• Tastes Like Diabetes: Michelle is way too cute. You cannot resist.
• Tear Jerker: Oh yes...
  • Just TRY listening to Please Wake Up without shedding a tear. This troper damn near had to turn the movie off for a minute. It's flat out heartbreaking.
    • Even Michael Crawford himself had a hard time not crying while recording that song.
  • Michelle's Disney Death. Don't worry she recovers. Her parents on the other hand weren't so fortunate.
  • The end of the movie where all of the families are reunited, and where Cornelius tells Michelle that her parents are dead.
  • Cornelius and his sister's back story.
• Values Resonance: After things like the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, this film and it's Aesop are still particularly relevant.
• The Woobie: Michelle definitely - after all, she is orphaned and nearly killed herself by a toxic disaster.
  • Also Abigail, when she starts feeling bad about herself for thoughtlessly leading the furlings into danger.
  • Edgar also has his moments of this.
  • Also Bosworth, the young wren trapped in the mud that the furlings save.
  • Cornelius and his sister, especially since she dies in a similar fashion to their parents.