Tony Goldwyn, Minnie Driver, Glenn Close, Nigel Hawthorne and Rosie O'Donnell
Me Disney, you watch Tarzan!
It is once again that time of year... and those of you who are regulars to my site know that it is one of my favorite times of year. That's right, it is time for Disney's latest animated motion picture. I am a huge Disney fan and go to every animated offering they put out every year. So it was no exception that I was looking fowared to the release of Tarzan, Disney's **th Animated Feature. This film received mixed reviews... some saying it is a good addition to Disney's already impressive Resume, while others said it didn't live up to its predicesors. In my opinion Tarzan has elements that make both groups correct.
The "bald ape" known as Tarzan (voiced by Tony Goldwyn)
The story of this Tarzan is basically the same as Edward Rice Burroughs classic story, with a shipwreck and a human family trying to survive in the jungle of Africa. The problem is there is a jaguar (or cougar, or panther or whatever) that isn't very nice who slaughters the family (we of course don't see this because it is a Disney film) except for their baby boy whom a caring female gorilla named Kala (voiced by Glen Close, 101 Dalmations [live action]) rescues and begins to raise as her own son whom she names Tarzan (Alex D. Linz, One Fine Day, as the young Tarzan, and
Tony Goldwyn, Kiss the Girls as an adult). Tarzan has trouble fitting in with the other gorillas, especially the pack's leader Kerchak (Lance Henriksen, Frank Black on TV's Millenium), however he does make friends with Terk (Rosie o'Donnell, The Rosie O'Donnell Show and Sleepless in Seattle), the most energetic young gorilla in the pack and Tantor (Wayne Night, Newman on Seinfeld) a frady cat elephant. Everything is all fine dandy until Professor Archimedes Q. Porter (Nigel Hawthorne, Amistad), his daughter Jane (Minnie Driver, Good Will Hunting) and their guide Clayton (Brian Blessed, William Shakespear's Hamlet) show up to research gorrillas.
Jane Porter (Minnie Driver) is Tarzan's Love Interest
Tarzan is shocked to discover that he is not the only "bald ape" and is fascinated by Jane after her saves her from a pack of attacking baboons.Despite Kerchak's order to stay away from the humans Tarzan can't help himself and becomes a regular visitor to their camp where he learns some broken English and some of the wonders of our human world. He begins to favor the humans so much that he decides to leave with Jane when they go back to England. However Clayton decides that they are not leaving the apes behind. With the help of some of the ship's crew Clayton puts Tarzan, Jane and Professor Porter into the ship's prison and goes off to attempt to kidnap Tarzan's adoptive family. With some help from Terk and Tantor Jane and Tarzan escape and are off to rescue the gorilla's from Clayton's evil grasp.
Terk (Rosie O'Donnell) is Tarzan's Best Friend
Tarzan was an accomplishment for the boys (and girls) at Disney. It provides the blockbuster potential that they need to prove that Disney was still the "top dog" in the animated game, and they kept their streak of entertaining family movies going (the last bad feature Disney made was Pocahontas back in 1995). However they also didn't do much of anything to raise the bar in the animation game. The plot is fairly simple (not that it needs to be very complex for a kiddie movie), the characters aren't very developed compared to other Disney movies (for example Mulan in last years Mulan), and it didn't have a very impressive collection of what usually makes a Disney movie good (comedy characters and music). The main comedic character, Terk, really wasn't all that funny except for a few moments. The music was pretty good (composed and performed by Phil Collins) except that it was basically one song over and over and it wasn't the characters singing the songs which is something that is usually a great part of Disney films. The only real advancement was even more extensive use of computer effects of Tarzan "surfing" through the trees. As I said at the begining, Tarzan has its plusses and its minuses. In general the plusses outweigh the minuses, but they don't make Tarzan much different or better than many other Disney films.
