*A Toxic Text* Once Upon a Forest

I first watched Once Upon a Forest when I was much younger, and it was a movie that didn't attract much notice. I remembered though that in the beginning of the film, the characters were faced with a crisis when a truck hauling a trailer full of gas wrecks and the gas finds its way to the homes of the animal characters. The cartoon shows both the plants and animals reactions to the gas. Birds flee. Flowers wilt. This is an example of a betrayed eden in the way that the chemical was introduced to the environment and upsetting the natural balance of the forest.

The film received a lot of criticism when it was released in 1993. And a Washington Post article said "And though the humans are redeemed (somewhat) and the woodland parents reunited with their youngsters, the filmmakers -- director Charles Grosvenor and producers David Kirschner and Jerry Mills -- employ shameless shock tactics to send their save-the-earth message. It's true than human beings are polluting and destroying the planet, but does anyone really think that the way to help children love nature is to teach them to hate mankind?"

Another review for Variety comments that civilization is portrayed as the source of evil. That the film creates an us against the world feeling.

While the plot of the film does seem a bit dark for children, it does openly show and/or discuss a massive amount of families that were killed or split apart, the idea that there is a children's film that is conscience of the dangers of pollution and or toxic elements.

Here's two links for the beginning of the film. It really begins about 13:30 minutes into the first part and continues shortly into the second.

Part 1

Part 2

13:30