With the Disney Renaissance coming to a close, it sure is great that Disney’s Tarzan closed the end of an era with a bang as it was successful at the box office and was greatly received by audience members and critics alike. Now that over two decades have passed, let's find out if Tarzan can still maintain what made it a hit back in 1999.
As a ship sinks somewhere in the sea, a married couple with their baby escapes and find themselves stranded somewhere in the jungles in Africa. Meanwhile a gorilla family is blessed with a baby but unfortunately the baby gets eaten by a leopard who also kills the human baby’s parents. The mother gorilla Kala (Glenn Close) and the human baby who Kala names Tarzan bump into each other and Kala decides to raise the human baby as her own despite the father gorilla named Kerchak (Lance Henriksen) feeling uneasy about Kala raising a human. Tarzan (Tony Goldwyn) grows up and has trouble fitting in with the other gorillas as a kid and when he becomes a young man, he finds a group of human travelers walking through the jungle. One of the travelers named Jane (Minnie Driver) is thrusted into an unfortunate situation until he is saved by Tarzan. A romance begins to bloom but one of the travelers has suspicious plans to use Tarzan to find the gorilla’s nest for reasons of greed.
The story of the film is loosely based on “Tarzan of the Apes”, but Disney has managed to inject a good dose of artistry and uniqueness to make it stand out from other versions. The main conflict at first starts with Tarzan learning to fit in with the other apes and shifts over to a blooming romance between Tarzan and Jane. Sometimes I wish the movie could have delved deep into Tarzan’s first conflict a little more than the movie has time for, but there are still many elements that make the beforehand mentioned problem more forgivable.
For one, the romance between Tarzan and Jane is very believable and they actually take time to develop their feelings for each other even despite knowing each other for a few days. I also like Kala as she embodies the spirit of being a true mother figure for Tarzan which can lead to some of the films most heartwarming and even heartbreaking moments. The side animal characters can sometimes overstay their welcome, Terk and Tantor especially, but they still provide enough comedic uplift to make their presence all the more appreciated. It’s also good to mention that their is a twist villain in the story and while it’s not super hard to guess who it is, I still give the filmmakers credit for giving enough of a reason for why the villain is doing what he’s doing as well as giving him a decent personality
The Animation in this movie is quite possibly some of the most large and creative animation in the Disney Renaissance since The Lion King. The colors of the jungle are vibrant and lush with a lot of greens and sometimes blues. They also make great use of showing Tarzan’s way of navigation through the jungle by not only swinging around on vines but also surfing on the tree branches which is really cool. The beautiful hand drawn animation is accompanied by computer generated effects to make some scenes look huge and expansive and they blend in rather smoothly with 2D effects. The music was composed by Mark Mancina who does a great job at combining jungle sounds with a traditional movie score. There is also the addition of songs in the movie, but unlike most Disney movies where the characters sing the songs, the songs are instead played over the story with music artist Phil Collins singing original songs he wrote for the movie. The great thing is that it’s not at all distracting as it helps move the story along and helps express the emotions for what the characters are going through.
Tarzan is a great way to close out the Disney Renaissance. While it’s true that there are some issues here and there, they still can’t bring down what is ultimately an outstanding piece of work from Disney Animation. It’s mostly well put together story, likable characters, beautiful animation, and spellbinding music make this another win from the house of mouse.
(Final Grade A-)