“Every actor has to make terrible films from time to time, but the trick is never to be terrible in them” said the great Christopher Lee and Tim Curry probably followed that advice better than any actor barring Lee himself.

Which is not to say that Fern Gully is terrible. It’s a well animated, tonally uneven, achingly sincere environmental parable suffering from a chronic case of Aladdin envy but there are worse things in this life. But this movie (Curry’s first animated feature role) is a great showcase of Grand Theft Curry, the phenomenon of Tim Curry walking into a project and just running away with it. He is the best thing in this movie and it’s not even close.

Fern Gully takes place in the titular Australian rainforest which is ruled over by lovely fairies living in harmony with nature. But a logging company starts cutting down trees including one which just happens to contain Hexxus, the imprisoned spirit of destruction voiced by one Timothy James Curry.

The joy here is that Curry gets to play all his greatest hits. Hexxus starts off as a little, almost cute goo creature, transitions to a lantern jawed, breathy-voiced smoke monster and ends as an absolutely terrifying burning black skeleton. It’s an escalating rollercoaster of comedy, sensuality and menace. It’s basically a speed-run of his entire career in one movie.

Oh, and he gets the best song in the whole movie and audibly orgasms twice.

If they didn’t want him to, they shouldn’t have hired him.

Evil, Sexy, Evilly Sexy or Funny Accent?: Yes.