Hexxus

Hexxus is the dark, ancient, and evil spirit of destruction and the main antagonist in 20th Century Fox's 1992 animated feature film FernGully: The Last Rainforest.

He was voiced by Tim Curry.

Overview
Hexxus is the dark, ancient, and evil spirit of destruction and all that is toxic to nature. As such, his only goal is to cause destruction, decay, and death in any way he can to FernGully and all of its inhabitants, and to kill off all of the Earth's creatures by transforming the world into an uninhabitable toxic wasteland after he has taken complete power and control over it as the primordial embodiment of destruction and pollution, and will stop at nothing to exact his revenge on the fairies of FernGully by means of manipulating humans to help him in his evil plan.

Origin
Hexxus first appeared on Earth in ancient times when the balance of nature shifted. He rose out of the Earth and rained down poison, destroying much in his wake and killing countless living creatures, including humans. He was finally defeated by the fairy priestess Magi Lune and imprisoned inside an enchanted baobab tree, which he remained trapped in for hundreds, if not thousands or possibly even millions of years.

FernGully: The Last Rainforest
The movie's main male protagonist Zak's superiors cut down the enchanted tree that Zak had unwittingly painted an X mark on marking it to be cut down. Unfortunately, this turns out to be the tree Hexxus is trapped in, and the cutting down and processing of the tree by the mobile lumbermill known as "The Leveler" releases him. Determined to get revenge upon the fairies of Ferngully (specifically Magi Lune) for imprisoning him and seeing the useful potential of the human machine, Hexxus decides to take control of it and use it to exact his plan.

He manipulates the lumberjacks and their tree leveler into tearing down the rainforest in the direction of the fairies by the next morning, thereby destroying the very fabric of their world. He does this under the vocal guise of their boss. Sometime latter, upon reaching Ferngully after having successfully destroyed much of the rainforest, Hexxus reveals himself. With Magi gone (having sacrificed herself to give her power to all the other fairies), it is up to Crysta and the other fairies to defeat him. He and the leveler chase the fairies and drive them into their home tree despite the several valiant efforts of Crysta, Zak, and Batty to stop him. Hexxus scares the lumberjacks off and takes control of the machine. Just as Hexxus is about to kill off all the fairies, Zak turns off the leveler, causing Hexxus to lose the energ that he was gaining from it and disappear, but he soon rips out of the machine as a giant demonic skeleton creature made of oil that breathes fire.

Crysta seemingly sacrifices herself like Magi did by allowing Hexxus to devour her in one bite, and uses her powers from inside him to grow a seed she had with her to again imprison Hexxus (together with the leveler) inside a new tree with help from the fairies led by Pips. In the last moments, Hexxus can only watch in horror as the enclosing roots seal, thereby imprisoning him again, and hopefully forever.

Personality
True to all he embodies, Hexxus could very much be considered the dark side of nature itself. He is extremely forceful and truly menacing towards nature. At the core, he relishes destruction, decay, and death, and has nearly destroyed the entire rainforest in the past with his omnipotence and deadliness. As a result, he is feared by the fairies of FernGully and all of the other inhabitants of the beautiful rainforest. Hexxus is truly evil, nasty, wicked, greedy, bitter, violent, pompous, sinister, malicious, loathsome, conceited, eccentric, persuasive, bloodthirsty, despiteful, vindictive, monstrous, uncaring, selfish, devilish, baleful, cocky, vile, mean, scary, callous, cunning, inimical, fiendish, arrogant, nefarious, deceptive, sarcastic, villainous, diabolical, mysterious, deceitful, ruthless, scandalous, aggressive, egotistical, treacherous, manipulative, temperamental, unscrupulous, prejudicial, iniquitous, heartless, impatient, destructive, traitorous, powerful, dangerous, oppressive, merciless, hateful, sneaky, sinful, vain, and cruel, so he utterly loathes the beauty of nature and all living things and vows to do away with them all to no end until the world is an uninhabited, polluted, and desolate wasteland that is under his complete control, showing his extreme hunger and lust for gaining power.

He is also shown to take great sadistic pleasure in the suffering, greediness, and death of all living creatures, killing them off without even batting an eye about it at all. Hexxus (at least in his smoke form) usually talks in an extremely respectful, talkative, selfless, clever, kind, polite, lenient, charming, easygoing, courteous, optimistic, benevolent, loquacious, nonchalant, sympathetic, appreciative, compassionate, enthusiastic, thoughtful, rapturous, positive, friendly, gentle, tender, calm, quiet, certain, and sensual fashion with a rather sophisticated air, and the pleasure he derives from pollution seems to be almost sexual in nature. However, he also shows great fear when the situation turns against him, such as when Zak turned off the leveler and then when he was imprisoned once again, only this time for all eternity.

Hexxus is also shown to be an exceptional master manipulator, able to influence others from the shadows, and he also seemed to hold some great admiration for humans, describing them as "wonderful creatures, so clever and helpful", possibly because he and humans share much in common, as they both cause destruction to nature and its creatures, although humans may not be aware of the harm they unknowingly cause. Nevertheless, he only sees them as a means to an end and, like all other living creatures, Hexxus takes great sadistic pleasure and delight in their deaths just the same. He also demonstrates extreme overconfidence and enjoys cruelly taunting and mocking his prey to no end; however, his own supercilious arrogance is ultimately his greatest flaw, as it caused him to be sealed away by the fairies for the second and presumably last time, ending his cruelty and destruction of FernGully hopefully forever.

Powers and Abilities
As the dark side of nature, Hexxus wields as variety of abilities and powers. He can change his form, which presumably depends on what type of poison or toxin he is currently feeding on, for example: Zak's red spray paint (a shapeless blob of black ooze), the smog produced by the Leveler (a humanoid shadow of black smoke), the oil in the Leveler (a giant flaming skeleton-like beast draped in ooze like a cape), or anything else.

He has been shown to be able to mimic seemingly any voice. He is also able to breathe fire, both in his smoke and fire forms. His smoke form also appears to be able to cast bolts of acid. Hexxus can also possess machines, such as when he merges with the Leveler and also takes control of it once he scares off its human operators. As stated by Magi Lune, Hexxus can rain down his poison which presumably is his deadliest ability, for Magi states that during his first rampage, the impressive forest was "nearly destroyed and many lives were lost".

Aside from those abilities, Hexxus also seems to have some level of omniscience or omnipresence. Because as is hinted many times in his song, "Toxic Love", it seems that, despite being imprisoned for countless years, Hexxus was still fully aware of how much humans and civilization had evolved over the millennia. Thus he, at least partially, understood the concept of machines, human greed, human work (shifts, breaks, and all) and was aware of human things like shopping malls, cocktails, and anything else. Furthermore, he apparently also knew both the voice and even the personality of the lumberjacks' boss when he mimicked him over the intercom. The fact that he is a spirit further adds constructive plausibility to this theory. Indeed, Hexxus himself has stated that he "sees the world and all the creatures in it".

Trivia

 * The name "Hexxus" is probably derived from the word "hex", meaning a harmful curse.
 * Hexxus's goals are the same with Mandrake from the 2013 computer-animated film, Epic, both are evil creatures with their hatred of the beauty of the forest, tired of living in the shadows, and determined to destroy it as their new kingdom.
 * Hexxus is often considered to be the best character in FernGully. Tim Curry's voice gives a very darkly sensual charm to the lord of pollution (especially during his signature song, "Toxic Love"), making him stand out among the other characters who are mostly considered fairly bland (with the possible exception of Batty, voiced by the late Robin Williams).
 * The full version of "Toxic Love" is longer than the one that appears in the movie. It may have been cut due to both time constraints and age-inappropriate content (such as the line "I feel good, a special kind of horny.").
 * The first tree in which Hexxus was trapped was small and completely rotten, permeated to the core with the spirit's filth. However, the second seems to be green and alive. This could be taken to mean that the new seal is better and less likely to be broken, but it is also possible that the first tree only became tainted after centuries of housing Hexxus.