Everything is jumping/cashing in on the green bandwagon. As more and more people care about the environment, more and more companies follow suit – even if it is just a marketing/survival strategy. Our clothes have gone green, our foods have gone green and now even our movies are going green! Well the fact is I’m not too sure about the ‘film and make’ itself being green but movies do have an eco-conscious theme to it. I suppose the most recent spectacular eco movie would be ‘Avatar’- (where being blue is being green) but as much as that movie was a touching and mesmerizing sight, I really have to admit I like Furry Vengeance more – so much more to be honest!
Avatar took on the eco message challenge by pitting the devastating results/anguish caused by mass destruction, i.e.: deforestation. It showed us a world so beautiful, one that we would die for and what happens to the life in/on it after corporate greed ruins everything. It instilled love for the environment in our hearts though a fear of loss – the loss of such tranquil beauty. I’ll admit the message is a powerful one but I would also have to say it had more effect on adults than it did children.
Fury Vengeance took the animals side of the story which I think was a very clever way of delivering the message. Basically the story tells us: These are the cute adorable animals that live in the forest. The forest is their home. Clearly they aren’t just dumb creatures, because they can think, they can feel and they have families just like you and I.
But the ingenious part is how they addressed the issue of ‘corporate green washing’ and ‘animal relocation’, which is much deeper and more specific. They emphasized again and again how a company competes in the market by calling itself green has an automatic advantage above its competitors but it doesn’t mean that they really are (on one hand sponsoring the local forest festival but on the other deviously making sure it has nothing to do with the forest but instead just about promoting the company) – hence green washing. And all the promises they make about relocating animals – on the surface everyone thinks it should be fine – no animals are killed. But the truth is relocation of habitat does kill animals and not in any way similar to the mellow dramatic sense of how a teenager feels when he’s uprooted from his city life and ‘relocated’ to the suburbs. Animals are very sensitive creatures and a change in environment be it just water could end up killing them.
So if you ask my vote for which is the better eco movie – then really I think Furry Vengeance wins hands down anyday!
