Credit:Amazon.com
Director:
Chris Buck
Kevin Lima
Cast:
Tony Goldwyn …. Tarzan (voice)
Minnie Driver …. Jane Porter (voice)
Glenn Close …. Kala (voice)
Brian Blessed …. Clayton (voice)
Nigel Hawthorne …. Porter (voice)
Lance Henriksen …. Kerchak (voice)
Wayne Knight …. Tantor (voice)
Alex D. Linz …. Young Tarzan (voice)
Rosie O’Donnell …. Terk (voice)
Taylor Dempsey …. Young Tantor (voice)
Jason Marsden …. Additional Voices (voice)
The Movie
When Disney released Tarzan in 1999 the character already had a long and storied history. If you click on imdb.com and search for Edgar Rice Burroughs’ ape man, over a hundred titles pop up. Since his introduction in 1912’s Tarzan of the Apes, the character has simply been a part of popular culture. Unfortunately, the last three decades had not been good for him with the 1981 Bo Derek vehicle Tarzan, the Ape Man, being horribly cheesy, the 1984 Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes being horribly boring, and 1998’s Tarzan and the Lost City just being horrible.
Those who were big fans of the character must have been ecstatic in ’99 to see Burroughs’ character on screen done justice for the first time in years. Using a new technique called “Deep Canvas” Disney was open a new world in animation. From the first frames of the film, you can see Disney’s new method in action.
Tarzan’s origin is told in spectacular fashion. His parents are the only survivors of a violent ship wreck in which they land on the coast of Africa. The sequences are intercut with the introduction of the ape tribe, which will become Tarzan’s family. Tarzan’s father builds his family a treetop house that looks to be right out of Swiss Family Robinson when he and his wife are attacked and killed by a leopard named Sabor.
Directors Chris Buck and Kevin Lima construct an amazing visual sequence here, as the only words spoken are those on the soundtrack by Phil Collins. Tarzan is of course found by a tribe of gorillas, and adopted by a female named Kala (Glenn Close), who also lost a child to Sabor. The boy is treated as an outcast by his peers except for Terk voiced by Rosie O’Donnell.
Tarzan’s biggest obstacle to acceptance within the tribe is Kerchak (Lance Henriksen), the leader of the gorillas. Unfortunately, Tarzan doesn’t ingratiate himself very well as he is constantly causing trouble by accident. Kerchak, as well as many other elements during this early section encompass the biggest changes from Burroughs’ original mythology. Originally, it was Kerchak that killed Tarzan’s parents, but film makers felt that this would be too jarring for its young audience. Also there is an important element of family that Burroughs did not emphasize as much, but is crucial to the plot of this film. Also, gorillas have never been known to be as aggressive as they are in Burroughs’ novels.
In fact, Burroughs had never ever been to Africa, but thought of it as this vast, untamed wilderness where Tarzan could grow without the influence of man. The Africa from this film is even more of a wilderness as any mention of natives is dropped completely. This makes the arrival of British explorers that much more of an event within the film.
Just before that, an amazing sequence midway through the film pits Tarzan against Sabor. Deep Canvas is shown in all its glory as the two combatants fight a top a tree. The animation in the action sequences here is spectacular and even outdoes Disney’s previous work in Mulan or Beauty and the Beast. Tarzan is able to just stay so whimsical and light, much like the early serials that featured Burroughs’ hero, but then hit you with a totally unexpected emotional impact.
Once Jane, Tarzan’s traditional love, is introduced the film jumps up another notch entirely. The romance here is reminiscent of the best examples of love stories in adventure tales, including Raiders of the Lost Ark or The Empire Strikes Back. The love scenes are not mired in lots of dialogue or sequences where Tarzan is learning English. Instead, many of the sequences are done with a brilliantly paced montage, making Tarzan’s transformation very natural.
Film makers do a nice job with the gorillas, giving them a lot of personality. The animals can talk, but suspension of disbelief works because the animals are shown to not be able to speak to humans. It has to be said that Rosie O’Donnell does a nice job with voice-work here. Terk is an extremely likable character, with a smart-aleck sense of humor. Just goes to show that perhaps Disney can make any actor likable as both Gilbert Gottfried and Ellen DeGeneres have each had their only likable characters on screen in the studio’s animated picture.
Tarzan is an exhilarating spectacle from start to finish. No character has been adopted for screen as many times save for Dracula, and this Disney incarnation may be the Burroughs hero’s best outing. If you have avoided the film because you don’t want to taint the memory of Johnny Weissmuller or cringe at the thought of horrid musical numbers, Tarzan does nothing to offend the name in any way. With tons of humor and action, the film is a delight and a wonderful addition to any fan of animation or stories of people being raised by wild animals.
Score: 10/10
The DVD:
The Video
The film is presented in a stunning Anamorphic Widescreen in an aspect ration of 1.66:1. The colors are vibrant and the picture is crisp and clear. This is the third edition of this disc, and this is the best version of the movie you can get.
Score: 10/10
The Audio
The soundtrack here is available in Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 5.0. Either track is beautiful. The audio experience here is as good as the visuals.
Score: 10/10
SPECIAL FEATURES: Three All-New Games: Terk’s Tree-Surfing Challenge, DisneyPedia: Living In The Jungle, Deleted Scenes, Filmmaker’s Audio Commentary, Music Videos.
Three All-New Games: Terk’s Tree-Surfing Challenge – These games may be fun for kids, but anyone else will find them kind of boring.
DisneyPedia: Living In The Jungle – Same rules apply here. This is pretty much for kids and anyone else will probably be bored.
Deleted Scenes, Including An Alternate Opening – These deleted scenes are basically in a storyboard type format. The Alternate Opening is ok, but you can see why the film makers scrapped it as it doesn’t introduce Kala, which is a vital portion of the film’s opening. Another scene has a fight between the film’s villain, Clayton, and Tarzan on a riverboat, which would have been exciting in a fully finished format.
All-New Music Video Featuring The Wildly Popular Everlife, Music Videos Featuring Phil Collins and ‘N Sync – Unless you’re huge fans of the film’s soundtrack, you probably want to stay away from these videos, especially the one by “The Wildly Popular” Everlife.
Filmmaker’s Audio Commentary – Producer Bonnie Arnold and Co-Directors Chris Buck and Kevin Lima provide an excellent commentary here. They each speak about the different influences on the film, from the novels to Johnny Weissmuller. A really interesting portion of the commentary comes at the film’s beginning where they talk about how it took three years just to develop the opening minutes. Other portions of the commentary are spent defending particular artistic choices and variations from the novels as well as discussing how animation opens up this world that live action can’t come close to in many ways.
Score: 5.0/10
