TARZAN
Featuring the voice talents of : Tony Goldwyn, Minnie Driver, Lance Henricksen, Nigel Hawthorne, and Rosie O'Donnell

For me, the summer movie season has begun with the annual Disney animated flick! It normally starts on Memorial Day, but because of the a certain scifi flick, I have pushed my season back a bit and will consider Tarzan the first summer flick.

Well, it looks like the magic touch is back. I personally loved Mulan, but before that, the previous few movies were sadly written and sometimes animated movies. For me, the Lion King (although I'm still peeved about the whole Kimba/Simba thing) was the last great Disney flick until Mulan. Mind you, nothing will ever be as good as Beauty and the Beast (although I'm hoping they'll somehow reach that plateau again), but Tarzan brings back memories of Disney's greatest animated achievement. Like Beauty and the Beast, Disney has once again set a new standard in animation. Just when it seemed as though other companies were getting the upper hand, Disney has found a way (with its new toy, Deep Canvas) to seemlessly blend 3D animated backgrounds with the traditional hand-drawn character animations. I personally had a hard time distinguishing the 3D backdrops...I wouldn't be able to tell, if not for the camera movements. And of course, the animation is superb (I would expect nothing less from the same animation team that gave us the Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast).

I know there are people out there who don't care for the way they made Tarzan move (as in surfing/skating), but I think it turned out pretty cool. And taking a lesson from Japanese animation (read Anime), they upped their frame per second rate and created some great fly through sequences with the jungle swinging and fight scenes.

Aside from this wonderful animation, the story came out pretty good as well. Thankfully, they didn't change much (like turn what is supposed to be a 12 year old girl into a 19 year old sex symbol). They kept the story simple, and down to its basics. Tarzan's parents are killed, gorilla finds Tarzan and raises him. Later, other humans come to this "paradise untouched by man" and Tarzan must choose which family he belongs too (and in the process falls in love with Jane, of course). The love story between Jane and Tarzan is also kept simple...unlike most of Disney's flick, where the romance develops into sometimes sappy situations, both Tarzan and Jane shy away from the idea most of the time...an innocent love so to speak. And of course, there's no bumbling sidekick for the villain, and even Rosie O'Donnell's Terk isn't as annoying as...a certain floppy eared Gungan.

Like Toy Story, the most of the songs are not sung by the characters, but rather played over the visuals. Phil Collins has done a great job creating an atmosphere with the music that matches the movie and its premise so well. The opening song kinda brings back the "Circle of Life" type deal, but that's cool in my opinion, cuz I loved that opening anyway. And as usual, in-jokes were scattered throughout (look for Rafiki, Mrs. Potts, Chip, and a few others throughout).

I only had one problem with the movie, and that was the character development of some of the characters. Tantor (the elephant), Clayton (the bad guy), and a couple others just didn't get enough screen time to get an idea of why they're even in the movie. It's as though they were there, then because of time constraints, most of their scenes were cut out. Anyway, my first movie of the summer (so to speak) was great. Hopefully, that's a sign of good things to come.

-JoE-
©1999 JMR