Today's video topic is all about the OTHER
1992 animated feature with a character voiced
by Robin Williams.
Good morning Vietnam!
No, not that movie.
That's a joke right? Maybe. I get it.
If you're interested in hearing this artist
ramble about one of the best and most underrated
animated films of the early 90s and why we
didn't get more Robin Williams cartoon characters
than we did, well then stay tuned, because
that's where we're headed.
Hello, and welcome back to Jenna Gets Creative!
Today I'm participating in a mini group collab
with some of the other Art Addicts Alliance
members on the theme of FernGully, as in the
1992 animated film about Australian rainforest
fairies fighting against deforestation.
I'll be drawing Batty, the quirky escaped
lab animal voiced by none other than Robin
Williams, and I will be shocked if no one
else in the collab also draws him. The other
wonderful channels participating in this collab
today are Weblight Dreams, Aurora's Art World,
and TheLoriFiles. I'll link to them in the
description and the pinned comment, so do
go check them out after this if you haven't
already. I predict Lori will be doing something
much more broadly related to the theme of
the film than fan art, Weblight Dreams probably
HAS done fan art, either a detailed piece
of her favourite character or a collage or
multiple small pieces of the main characters,
and I have no guess on which direction Aurora
will be taking this. But either way, if I'm
the only one drawing Batty, I'll be very surprised.
It's Robin Williams, as a bat, and he raps!
The name is Batty. The logic is erratic.
So if you aren't familiar with FernGully:
The Last Rainforest, this film was based on
Diana Young's novel by the same name and produced
by Kroyer Films, Youngheart Productions, FAI
Films and 20th Century Fox. That last one
on the list probably means this is technically
now a Disney property, along with all those
dark but beautiful Don Bluth films and The
Simpsons. So if you're watching this at a
time when my channel in general is monetized
but this particular video isn't, that's probably
why.
FernGully the setting is a rainforest in Australia,
which is home to a colony of fairies. The
protagonist is Crysta, a young fairy woman
and apprentice of Magi, the colony's magical
wise woman who, at some point in the distant
past, imprisoned the toxic entity Hexxus within
a large tree to protect the forest and everything
in it. Crysta is learning to control her powers,
and one day when she's out hoping to investigate
Batty's claim of having been experimented
on by humans, she comes across a logging crew
and accidentally shrinks one of the loggers
down to fairy size as a side effect of saving
him from a falling tree. This is Zak, the
blond heartthrob type who doesn't take anything
too seriously until this life changing adventure
he's about to have with Crysta changes his
world view. Crysta takes Zak back to the fairy
colony and shows him around the forest, inadvertently
makes her fairy suitor Pips quite jealous,
and eagerly learns about modern human indulgences
from Zak. Meanwhile Zak's superiors Tony and
Ralph cut down a large, gnarly, blackened
and misshapen tree back where Zak had been
working, releasing Hexxus. Hexxus infuses
himself into the workings of the logging machine,
sings the film's best number "Toxic Love,"
[music]
and then proceeds to set the forest on fire
while the logging operation continues encroaching
on the fairies' home. Long story short Zak
and Batty stop the logging operation, Magi
sacrifices herself to protect the fairies,
and Crysta implants a seed into Hexxus kamikaze
style in order to regrow his tree prison,
which conveniently also engulfs the logging
machine. Crysta is revealed to have survived,
everybody's happy, she restores Zak to human
size, and the loggers leave the forest.
I've looked up the voice cast for the film,
and I don't immediately recognize the two
leads as actors I've watched in other things
since. Crysta is voiced by Samantha Mathis,
and Zak is voiced by Jonathan Ward. There
are big names among the cast, though. Fairy
loverboy Pips is voiced by Christian Slater,
Hexxus is voiced by the fabulous Tim Curry,
a pair of bumbling comic relief fairy characters
named Stump and Root are voiced by Cheech
and Chong, and my personal favourite character
Batty was voiced by Robin Williams.
But just think, humans back in the forest.
Yup, there goes the neighbourhood. Be nice,
Batty. First thing, all these trees go. Then
come your highways, then come your shopping
malls, and your parking lots, and your convenience
stores, and then comes- Price check on prune
juice, Bob. Price check on prune juice.
And did I mention that this film was released
in 1992? Because that's quite the important
real world plot point. Disney released their
animated film Aladdin in 1992, and as I think
we all know, that film also featured a zany
larger than life supporting character voiced
by Robin Williams: the Genie. Two animated
films released the same year featuring Robin
Williams, back when big names didn't carry
animated films. Of course Disney was very
displeased about this, but let's be honest,
they won the battle. If you're at all familiar
with 1990s animated films, you've seen Aladdin.
You love the Genie. You might not have heard
of FernGully. This is probably partly because
Disney actually boasted Robin Williams' involvement
in the project, whereas FernGully didn't,
but before you think that's Disney being smart
and the FernGully project being naive, stop
and consider the fact that Robin Williams
didn't reprise the Genie in Aladdin 2 because
of this move.
Side note, fellow animated film aficionados
are probably chomping at the bit to mention
the other animated competition for Disney's
Aladdin, The Thief and the Cobbler, but that
topic deserves its own video and fan art.
Let me know if you want me to circle back
on that in the future.
Robin Williams played the Genie because he
was impressed and amused by a sample animation
presented to him of the Genie character. Disney
wanted Williams from the start, so they animated
the Genie performing a recorded performance
of one of Robin's own standup routines. Williams
loved it and agreed to voice the character
for just $75,000 (a little under $140,000
in today's economy) with the understanding
that his name would not be used to market
the film, his character wouldn't take up more
than 25% of space on advertising posters,
and his voice would not be used in toys and
other merchandise. Well, Disney threw all
that out the window immediately. Genie takes
up a third or more of the space on most posters
for the film close to and during its theatrical
release, his voice clips from the film were
used in some toys, and although they did manage
to refrain from dropping names in their TV
and film preview trailers for the movie, anybody
who was watching animated film trailers in
1992 will tell you Aladdin trailers were basically
just 2 minute Genie memes. If you were familiar
with Robin Williams at that point, you knew
he was in the film. If you were a kid in the
90s your parents probably agreed to go see
Aladdin specifically because of Robin Williams.
Now Disney wasn't in any sort of legal trouble
for this major jerk move because Robin Williams
didn't get any of this in writing. He got
his revenge by not reprising his role in the
feature length sequel Return of Jafar or the
short lived Aladdin TV series, despite bribes
from Disney including a Picasso original valued
at over $1 million at the time in 1993. Eventually
Williams did return to the franchise for the
third film, Aladdin and the King of Thieves,
and I suspect the marketing team decided to
milk Williams' name for all it was worth at
that point, because I distinctly remember
trailers for that film and remasters of the
original that showed Robin Williams behind
the scenes, in the recording booth, delivering
lines for the role.
Uh very... Splendid, wonderful, glorious,
punctual! Let's blow this popsicle stand!
A door stop would be a fabulous career. (laughing)
Now back track to FernGully. The novel's author
was a fan of Robin Williams' standup acts,
and wrote Batty with the comedian in mind.
When it came time to adapt the book to film,
of course they reached out to Robin to voice
the character, and he did it because he believed
in the message the film had to offer. His
character, Batty, is the ever present metaphor
throughout the film of human invasion on nature
and how destructive that can be. Robin Williams
himself has always been critical of humans
and all our flaws, so it was a great fit.
The implant wires you see sticking out of
the side of Batty's head is meant to be a
TV antenna of sorts. I'm not sure if I just
didn't understand this all that well as a
kid, or if the film actually didn't do a very
good job of explaining it, but the idea is
that whenever the two protruding wires are
crossed and spark, Batty is literally picking
up TV signals and voicing whatever it is that's
being broadcast. In the movie it just kinda
came off as a gag that it was like changing
the channel on TV, but really Batty's brain
was just short circuiting. Either way, I can't
think of anyone else who could have voiced
that role as effectively as Robin Williams
did.
Genie is Robin Williams riffing and throwing
pop culture reference after pop culture reference
at the wall to see what sticks, all in the
name of being funny and supporting Aladdin.
Batty is just Robin. Crazy, raw, and sometimes
sad Robin, and it was absolutely perfect.
Human tails? Humans don't have tails. They
have big, big bottoms that they wear with
bad shorts. They walk around going "Hi Helen!"
If you haven't checked out the other ladies
who are doing this collab with me, be sure
to go check them out now. Again that's Weblight
Dreams, Aurora's Art World, and TheLoriFiles,
all linked down below. And if you've already
watched their videos today, well I'd appreciate
some more watch time. Here are some of my
other fan art videos on the left of the screen.
Bye guys!
