Lou

Lou
Back and Face        Underbelly and Chin        Legs        Eyes        No Magic Trail
Species	Reptile
Gender	Male
Affiliations	Good, Neutral
Home	FernGully
Friends	Crysta, Zak Young

Lou (credited as the Goanna) is a supporting character in FernGully: The Last Rainforest and a minor character in FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue. He is a large blue Goanna, a carnivorous lizard who lives in FernGully. He is very strong, able to crush snail shells and tree branches in his mouth, and able to slash through a metal bear trap with his claws.

He was voiced by rapper and actor Tone-Loc in FernGully: The Last Rainforest, while in FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue, he was voiced by Gary Martin.

Personality

Lou's main motivation is his hunger, which he says is uncontrollable when he gets "the munchies" each day. He has no regrets eating smaller animals, believing it's natural because of his place in the food chain, calling his carnivore behavior "a basic inclination" and "a very primal need." He doesn't choose his prey out of malice, but because he has to either eat them or eat somebody else, so "it might as well be you."

Lou passes by three tree frogs while hunting Zak.

Once Lou sees a prey animal and decides he wants it for dinner, he will pursue it single mindedly, passing up other nearby small animals for his chosen target. But if something gets in his way while he's hunting, he will eat it without thinking twice, even if it's a plant. But he won't be satisfied until he catches his main prey.

Lou pauses to tease Zak about seeing him as "exotic stew."

However, despite his single minded determination, Lou acted very casual and playful while hunting Zak Young, singing and toying with him and seeming to not even chase him at top speed. Whether this was because Zak was an easy target, or Lou is an expert hunter who can catch anything smaller than him, is unconfirmed. But the fear/respect shown to Lou by some tree frogs and leeches during the sequence may mean the second option is true.

Lou has a deep dislike of domesticated animals, calling Boof "a toy for humans" and saying he should be left to die.

Lou and Crysta in FernGully 2.

Above everything else, however, Lou has a soft spot for fairies, saying that "any friend of a fairy is a friend of mine." He is a friend of Crysta and will do anything to help her, including protecting her from harm, releasing his prey and even helping a hunter's dog. If she needs him to do something he doesn't like, he will complain about it but will do it reluctantly.

FernGully: The Last Rainforest

Lou appears briefly as he sings "If I'm Gonna Eat Somebody". When Zak lands in front of Lou's claws, Lou begins singing about how he wants to eat Zak, swaying his long tail and flicking his forked tongue while approaching him. Zak runs away, barely able keep ahead, but then gets stuck to a snail, which Lou eats in one bite right as Zac breaks free. Zac then tries to hide from Lou behind a mushroom near a trio of tree frogs, but Lou finds him easily and keeps chasing him (to the frogs' relief).

Zak panics and just puts a leaf over his head, knees knocking. Lou picks him up leaf and all, and teases that he'll eat him like a sandwich. Zak slips free from the leaf, but falls into the nearby river, barely able to swim away from Lou's claw trying to grab him. Instead of swimming after him, Lou stays on land relaxing with his legs crossed, slurping water off his claw like Zak being in it made it "some exotic stew". Zak is carried down the river, which turns out to be full of leeches who join in Lou's song taunting him, and also want to eat him. They corner him against a bank that's next to a cliff, and he falls off.

But Lou actually went way ahead of Zac, and is waiting on a tree beside the cliff. He stretches out his tongue and Zac falls right onto it. Lou wraps it around Zac and carries him as he strolls along one of the tree's branches, unaffected by Zak's struggles. He finishes his song with "Welcome to the food chain!" and pulls Zak inside his mouth.

But before he can swallow him, Lou runs into Crysta and Batty Koda, and Crysta tells him he can't eat Zak because he's a human. Lou answers that he doesn't know what a human is, and Zak can be seen in Lou's mouth, screaming and struggling to avoid being swallowed whole. When Crysta tells Lou that Zak is her friend, Lou reluctantly spits him out. He grumbles to Crysta that "you owe me a free meal after this."

FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue

Lou is featured in FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue. The movie opens with a bunch of fairies dumping water on him as a prank. He also scares off Slasher who was chasing Crysta. Later, despite his bias against domesticated animals, he reluctantly helps Crysta remove a bear trap from Boof's front paw, slashing it apart with his claws and throwing it in the river.

Gallery

See Lou/gallery