Tarzan (1999)
Disney Animated Classic Number 37
Starring: Tony Goldwyn, Minnie Driver, Rosie O’Donnell, Brain Blessed, Nigel Hawthorne, Wayne Knight, Glenn Close & Lance Henriksen
Directed by: Chris Buck & Kevin Lima
Rating: ★★★½
Coming directly after successful Disney classics Hercules and Mulan, Tarzan was, at the time, the most expensive animated movie ever made (until Treasure Planet) and was, sadly, the last of the Disney Renaissance movies, ending the run of modern classics that we all know and love. Tarzan was a major box office success, and it’s clear to see why: it has beautiful animation, is based on a very recognisable and famous character, has an interesting and endearing love story, a soundtrack made by a famous singer, and isn’t, unlike other Disney Animated Classics, stupidly bland or boring.
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| For Tarzan and Jane, it's love at first sight... |
Tarzan himself is very iconic: mainly known to most of us from his distinctive call (known as the ‘Tarzan yell’) which was made famous in the 1932 live action movie Tarzan the Ape Man. Tarzan, of course, is originally a literary character who was created by American author Edgar Rice Burroughs and was first introduced in All-Story Magazine 100 years ago in 1912. Eventually published as a book in 1914, Tarzan of the Apes, spawned many sequels and was quickly adapted to the big screen, although originally as a silent movie. Because of his success in several media, Tarzan is an enduring and beloved character who has lasted the test of time, so it certainly makes sense that if anyone was going to make a great animated movie about him, it was Disney.
Tarzanis set in a 19th century African rainforest, and chronicles the life of an orphaned human raised by gorillas. In a rather disturbing Disney opening, Tarzan’s (Goldwyn) parents are killed by an evil leopard and Kala (Close), the mate of Kerchak (Henriksen), the leader of the gorilla troop, manages to rescue Tarzan and decides to raise him as her own, since her own baby is also eaten by said leopard. Tarzan grows up believing that he is a gorilla but knowing he is different, a fact that his gorilla friend Terk (O’Donnell) and elephant friend Tantor (Knight) continuously point out to him. After growing to manhood, Tarzan bumps into a group of English explorers: Professor Porter (Hawthorne), his daughter Jane (Driver) and their guide Clayton (Blessed). Jane is soon attacked by a group of baboons and Tarzan saves her. They quickly fall in love, and Jane decides to teach Tarzan English and work with him to discover more about the rainforest. Of course, this doesn’t go down well with Kerchak; meanwhile Clayton has malevolent plans of his own…
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| The comic relief best friend characters Tantor and Terk are actually alright... |
The story is fairly light and simple, so it is enjoyable and exciting. The animation is astounding, and the backdrop of the rainforest is visually stunning. I really enjoyed the jungle setting as it looks great and gives the excuse to have lots of exotic and vibrant animals. The animators make the most of Tarzan’s famous vine swinging, and these moments add excitement and action to a film that has quite a soppy but bearable love story. The characters are great: Tarzan and Jane are the two strong central features supported by funny and useful comic relief. And of course, in true Disney fashion, it is also incredibly gruesome. Even though you don’t really see it, the death of the villain stays with you for quite some time, mainly because of how visceral and unpleasant it is.
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| Poor Clayton... Greed is many a Disney Villain's downfall... |
Even though I really liked Tarzan, and feel that it holds up as one of the better animated Disney classics, I had one quite major issue with it. And that of course, was the terrible soundtrack. Now I’m no fan of Phil Collins and I don’t have anything against him either, but the music in this film was just… awful. Unlike other Disney classics that we all know and love where the characters actually sing the songs themselves, here Phil Collins sings the songs over the top of the action on their behalf for some strange reason. So when Kala gets a chance to sing to her child, instead of doing so, which could have been a very sad and emotional moment (like in Dumbo) we hear Phil Collins screeching out the cheesy lyrics instead. This happens several times throughout the course of the movie. It doesn’t matter so much when Tarzan is swinging through trees in a montage, but it is horribly noticeable at other points. The songs themselves are really crappy: I didn’t enjoy any of them. TheLion King this isn’t. The songs don’t sound particularly African or jungle like, and even when some of the characters sing don’t sing to a song that is all about making noises out of various objects, it still isn’t very appealing. I really didn’t like any of the music, and for me, the soundtrack really did negatively affect my enjoyment of the movie. But luckily, the film is good enough that I could ignore the poor score and focus on the plot.
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| The vine swinging sequences are some of the movie's strongest features. |
I never saw Tarzanas a child, so I was impressed when viewing it now. It’s a very good Disney flick. Maybe I’m biased, since this is clearly aimed at boys, but I think that everyone would find something to enjoy about Tarzan, since it juggles the romance and the action equally enough to make it both heart-warming and exciting. Sure there are some terrible scientific inaccuracies with the plot- the most noticeable being the fact that Tarzan would under no circumstances be able to learn language, but still, this was originally written in the early 20th century, so I can let it slide.
Tarzanis a solid, well written, brilliantly animated and fun movie that deserves to be associated with the rest of the Disney Renaissance. It’s such a shame that, at this point in time, the good Disney output would come to an end, and we would have to suffer through almost 10 years of the Disney Dip to wait for the studio to put out something of this standard again. Tarzan signalled the end of our generations’ hopes, dreams and childhood… But at least we went out on top, swinging from jungle vines and screaming at the top of our lungs.
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