Tarzan (1999)

Tarzan swings through the iridescent jungle swiftly, ending Disney’s Renaissance era with wild exuberance. Two worlds, one family. An innocent little boy, approximately four-years old, was escorted for the first time to a cinema complex. Politely requesting a bucket of sweet polystyrene popcorn, he walked into the dimly lit auditorium scavenging for an appropriate seat that would maximise his film experience. The trailers initiated, suppressing the inner excitement of the full feature that was yet to commence. Then, it happened. The Disney logo emerged. It was time. A family surviving a shipwreck, colonising an uncharted jungle whilst the emphatic voice of Phil Collins powered the narrative. A leopard savaging a baby gorilla, then brutally slaying the English couple, leaving only their i...

<em>'Tarzan'</em> is one of those films that I had always assumed I had seen, though evidently I hadn't and this was my first time watching. It's a cracker!

Phil Collins' music is tremendous, it truly adds a lot to the film - "Son of Man", which I already knew about, is a great song which works very well with the montage. Some of the editing is rather sharp, while the animation is pleasing on the eye.

Tony Goldwyn (Tarzan) and Minnie Driver (Jane) suit their respective roles nicely, as do Glenn Close (Kala) and Brian Blessed (Clayton). Rosie O'Donnell is the one I enjoyed most, as she portrays Terk - which isn't really a massive character, yet O'Donnell makes her memorable.

It does feature things you've seen from earlier jungle based films, like 1967's <em>'The Jungle Book'</em> a...

**A Disney production that promised much more than it delivered.**

Like any child born in the last few decades, I lived with Disney movies as a child. However, for some reason I don't remember, I was never attracted to this movie and I ended up never seeing it until today. Having seen it, I am really unimpressed.

The biggest problem I felt in this film is the poverty and lack of inspiration of the script, which is a loose adaptation of the original story, written by Edgar Rice Burrough. The characters aren't the best designed, there are a lot of annoying characters around here (Jane's father, the gorillas, and particularly Terk and Tantor, a very unhappy side character duo) and even Tarzan is poorly designed and uninteresting. The prevailing feeling is that the writing team didn't kn...

"Tarzan" is rescued from the clutches of a tiger and raised in a colony of gorillas. As he gets older, he bonds with the animals around him and ultimately, with a few reservations from the alpha "Kerchak", becomes an internal part of the family. Enter a group of British explorers determined to see gorillas and our hero see "Jane" for the first time: the love story begins. Their guide "Clayton" betrays them all - he wants to sell the apes for £300-a-head in Europe and a colourful, perilous battle of "civilisations" ensues. The animations are a bit simple, vey angular - but the characterisations are much stronger. It isn't just a love story with an happy ending; we are taken on their journey of self-discovery as they both introduce the other to their own, drastically, different worlds... Gr...