Tarzan (1999)
A Movie Review by Mark O'Hara
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I recommend Disney's Tarzan for a number of reasons.
First, my family liked it a lot. My wife and kids and I all sat fascinated by the animation. The computer-assists grow sharper by the movie: here we have a startlingly three-dimensional jungle, limbs and vines passing the camera with fresh realism. Many of the characters - Wayne Knight's Tantor, for instance - are drawn as charming throwbacks to traditional animation; the elephants are reminiscent of the military marchers in The Jungle Book. What's most exciting is the way the camera follows Tarzan's agile ranging among the trees. He zips and zooms, cuts and caroms, surfs and slides. American amusement parks are always trying to build a better roller coaster, and Disney has built the ultimate (as of the last year of the century) ape man. Tarzan is always likable and, even though his hi-jinks defy physics, he always keeps the eye occupied.
Edgar Rice Burroughs' story moves smoothly at the start. We watch a husband, wife and baby abandoning a burning ship. They land on some part of the African coast, where they build an extensive tree dwelling and, presumably, the parents die by the claws and teeth of a large cat. Discovered by a compassionate and large-eyed gorilla (Kala, voiced by Glenn Close), the English baby becomes part of the extended clan. Although the silver-backed leader Kerchak (Lance Henrickson) is against keeping the child, as he is not of their kind, the boy grows and becomes friends with most of the surrounding animals, especially his two pals, this film's versions of sidekicks. They are Tantor, done with a slightly silly, adenoidal voice by Wayne Knight, and Terk, a young female gorilla with a Don King 'do and a Brooklyn attitude (supplied ably by Rosie O'Donnell). Both of these voices are delightfully distinguishable, by the way, as is the threatening rasp of Henrickson as Kerchak.
Something else we loved was the human side to Tarzan. We are attracted to his character mostly, I think, because he is an outcast, fully accepted neither in the world of the jungle, nor in the less civilized society of humankind. Tarzan frequently feels excluded from his clan, and is thrilled to find Jane (Minnie Driver), the English woman who has accompanied her father, Professor Porter (Nigel Hawthorne), and the hunter Clayton (Brian Blessed). Of course the main conflict is supplied by the white man's encroachment upon the natural habitat of the apes. What's rather predictable here is that Professor Porter himself has come merely to observe gorillas, whereas Clayton - and his boatload of mercenary thugs - are armed with rifles and the cages that will transport as many apes as possible back to the zoos and laboratories of Western civilization.
Small moments make most of the difference. Directors Chris Buck and Kevin Lima cause Tarzan's basic conflicts to evoke our sympathy again and again. There's one scene in which the jungle hero has heard the reports of rifles and gone to investigate. We watch as he picks up a shell casing, sniffs and then tastes it. It's foreign and unsavory, of course, and a fine example of the main fight going on in the narrative. Another moving scene occurs when Tarzan places his palm against Jane's - and sees that hers is a comparably-sized, human hand. These brief moments sketch character without using speech, a feat difficult to do even when using live actors.
As the voice of Tarzan, Tony Goldwyn performs well. He's heroic without showing off - his job the equivalent of a good writer telling a story with a transparent prose style. Minnie Driver is very expressive, especially in the frantically-paced scenes in which Tarzan rescues her from vicious baboons. Finally, the voice of Phil Collins is quite pleasing in the background. It's a pleasure that none of the animals themselves breaks into song: the story relies on the musicianship of a proven soft-rock star. Another aspect of language handled cleverly is the English spoken by Tarzan while he is with the gorillas, versus the English he learns from Jane and her father. It's more believeable than the scenes in which Pocahantas suddenly speaks fluent English to John Smith; it also makes good use of linguistic jokes, as when Tarzan connects the name "Clayton" with the gunshots intruding upon the quiet jungle.
Only The Lion King used a story original to Disney writers. I find it ironic, therefore, that their Renaissance continues with reliable stories like Tarzan. I hope they keep doing it, though, because there are not enough good G-rated movies around, and because it makes good sense, after all, to go with a good thing.
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