Tarzan

Coming out in the middle of one of Disney’s lower periods, Tarzan surprised audiences with its grizzly tone, more realistic setting, and the complete different direction and mood from regular Disney movies at the time. Years later, though definitely suffering from problems that were common of kid’s movies at the time, Tarzan still succeeds in producing a thrilling ride for younger viewings and adults alike. In the 1880s, a British couple and their infant son are marooned on an island within Equatorial Africa, and the parents are murdered by a killer leopard named Sabor. By sheer coincidence, a mother gorilla named Kala (voiced by Glenn Close) who recently lost her child to the killer leopard, finds the human baby alive and decides to adopt him, even against the chagrin of her tribe and their leader, Kerchak (voiced by Lance Henriksen). Feeling out of place and shunned by his somewhat father, Tarzan (voiced by Tony Goldwyn) grows up unaware of his human heritage and learns to adapt and interact with the aggressive world he lives in. Things change when people come to the jungle, led by a gruff hunter named Clayton (voiced by Brian Blessed), an elderly scientist named Professor Archimedes Q. Porter (voiced by Nigel Hawthorne) and his daughter Jane (voiced by Minnie Driver). Once Tarzan interacts with them and discovers that he may in fact have finally found his true species, he and Jane hit it off as both start to introduce the other to their different ways of living, and he must decide between the love of his life and the place he calls home. Loosely based on the novel series by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the film features a lot of things that are great introductions to a character that many may not be aware of, while other parts are mediocre and should have been left out altogether.

In creating this film, a lot of attention was put on the fact that it was the first time the story of Tarzan was told in an animated fashion. While there have been several films done on the character in the past, nothing in the animated space was ever tackled, and that was an angle that Disney was hoping to capture, as the story had plenty of opportunities to thrive in the world of animation, and in many ways, it does. The story feels much darker and harsher than most Disney movies at the time, as although Disney can have a meaner edge to them in some of their films, this has an aggressive and even brutal bite to its environment and even visuals that elevates several moments in the film. The jungle is a savage place, so it only figures it would be portrayed that way, and that kind of brutality gives off a feeling of uncertainty and fear that keeps its younger audience on edge. The film is structured very nicely, balancing out various familiar elements of the Tarzan character into a singular story that, for the most part, conveys it in a interesting but still digestible manner. While not perfect, the script for this film handled by Tab Murphy (along with writing credits from Bob Tzudiker and Noni White) contains the right amount of action and heart to portray the cool factor but also the complex tragedy of his life situation as well. The issue comes from the fact that it doesn’t focus on the issues long enough that they feel complete. Tarzan’s inner struggle about his identity is discussed in the movie and they have some great scenes surrounding it, but most of them are quite rushed and don’t delve into the meaty parts of it. The first act of the film with him as a child could’ve been tackled with a lot of depth, but is instead played for comedic purposes with not very strong results, and once he matures into an adult, it doesn’t become as much of a factor anymore. It has redeeming moments like when he covers himself in mud to look like an ape, or when he touches a human hand for the first time, but its not doing as much as it could with it (especially within the animated space). The climax is also a little generic with basic comedic slapstick and even limited scale that doesn’t close the story off in a very engaging manner (which makes sense as it was a last minute rewrite in order to change the ending of the film). The direction by Kevin Lima and Chris Buck is serviceable, but their limited work in directing animated films (Lima previously directed A Goofy Movie, and this was Buck’s first directing job) means that while they get good elements, it not a perfect delivery.

Most of the characters are quite likeable and work well in this film, developing more from the original story and creating some pretty memorable faces. Tarzan is the typical wild man, with the crazy stunts and the primitive speech pattern, but his desire to learn about his true heritage and his emotional focus acting as the centre of the story makes him a likeable character to spend the film with. Glenn Close as the mother is also very likeable and sweet, and while there aren’t too many scenes between them, the relationship between her and Tarzan is very nice. Jane is a perfect example of how to do a damsel in distress stereotype correctly; she does always need to be saved all the time and she isn’t exactly a strong weapon wielding empowered female character, but she’s very energetic, passionate and interesting; she’s polite, but very eccentric, she’s clumsy, but has a good heart, and it also makes sense for a woman in the movie’s time period to not be used to this kind of environment. She’s got a lot of great lines and funny moments, Minnie Driver does a great job voicing her, she does contribute to the film outside of just being the love interest by helping educate Tarzan on the human culture, and while the romance between her and Tarzan is not particularly interesting, it works well enough in the story and the two do have chemistry, so that is at least a plus.  The side characters are mostly standard and even in many ways, kind of annoying, but since the movie does remember to keep the focus on Tarzan, they don’t take up too much screen time thankfully. Rosie O’Donnell as Tarzan’s best friend definitely feels like a stunt casting choice in response to the success of Robin William’s Genie (in that they get a famous comedian to voice a character just in hoping that they’d bring material to the character), but she just isn’t that kind of comedian and she can be a little grating at times. As an adult, she’s not funny, but harmless at least, but her as a child is honestly laughable in the wrong way. Others like Jane’s father, a germophobic elephant voiced by Wayne Knight, and Kerchak are also very standard and don’t do much outside of their one-note archetypes, but again, they aren’t terrible. The villain is unfortunately really boring, lacking anything interesting, and for a movie that wanted to play itself in a more grounded fashion, presents a character that’s very cartoonishly basic. His design isn’t memorable, Brian Blessed is a great talent but he doesn’t bring much to the role, he has no great lines, and outside of his death (which is awesomely messed-up), he leaves zero impression.

The animation in this film takes advantage of the jungle setting as well as the unique properties that come with a character like Tarzan from his design, movements and mannerisms, and produce animation that is vibrant, fluid and fast-paced to a level that isn’t normally seen in animated movies at the time. Though the location could get bland and repetitive very easily, it adds a wide variety of colors and lighting throughout that leads to some very pleasing locations and backgrounds that seem to extenuate the emotions of the characters very nicely. The character are very well designed, and each one whether human or animal have wonderful expressions that are just the right balance of composed and cartoony. The animation works especially well however in the action; its amazingly fast paced and creates some great set pieces that are incredibly creative, frantic in the best way possible, and are done in a way that fits the environment and the character of Tarzan. Seeing Tarzan literally surf on the trees on paper sounds incredibly lame and dated (it would literally make him the ”surfer bro” of the jungle), but the supervising animator for Tarzan, Glen Keane, knew how to make it appropriate, fitting and extremely cool to witness. The songs are an element that definitely don’t feel appropriate, with singer and songwriter, Phil Collins creating the songs for this movie. Its not done in a way where the characters sing at all in the movie, but instead its just Phil Collins singing his music in the background and it just feels so fake and ill-fitting for this story. On their own, they actually aren’t that bad; they have decent lyrics, the singing is nice, and the melodies behind them are, to their credit, pretty catchy, but for a story that actually could’ve benefited from a proper musical stance, seeing a pop singer just insert his own music as a trade for the characters, just feels like a bizarre and even dumb idea. Every number feels like a song that would play on the radio and you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference, and many scenes in the movie would have worked better if he just didn’t start singing through it (its bad when you could replace them with generic backing music and you’d get the same response). On the flip-side, the actual musical score by Mark Mancina is pretty good, they work very well with the environment with the fast-paced drums and whistles, capturing the booming nature of the tale while also featuring enough flavor and life to be energized and active.

Though suffering from unfinished ideas, a weak villain, and a distracting soundtrack, Tarzan is still a pretty good film that has held up quite well during a period where Disney was not only doing less than great, but was releasing material that wasn’t treated with this level of intensity and even in some areas, maturity. The environment is much more savage and gives the film a grittier edge, the two leads are very entertaining and likeable, the animation is gorgeous, the action is quick and effective, and it has its fair share of savage heart-pounding moments, but its not without a fair amount of thought, emotion and heart as well. It could’ve handled some of its moments a bit stronger, fleshed out more of its emotional complexities a bit better, and juggled the tone in a sturdy fashion as well as some of its unusual decisions (like getting a pop singer to sing over over your movie), but what does work about the movie is still relatively strong. Maybe not one of Disney’s greats, but an overall enjoyable film that is worth remembering. Check it out, have a swinging good time and wait to hear the familiar cry of everyone’s favorite jungle man.