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| Directed by Chris Buck and Kevin Lima; Voices include Tony Goldwyn, Minnie Driver, Rosie O’Donnell, Glenn Close, Lance Henrikson, Wayne Knight, Nigel Hawthorne, Brian Blessed, Alex D. Linz, and Joe Whyte |
The simple way to take on Tarzan is that children will love it, adults merely might. Tarzan seemed to me to be just a chance for Disney to wink back at a few of its previous films (Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King for the most part) not to give us another terrific piece of storytelling like Beauty and the Beast or a whole lot of fun like Toy Story.
This is actually the first time the Edgar Rice Burrows story has been animated, which is shocking considering that according to the Boston Globe’s Jay Carr this is the 48th time its been brought to the screen. This filming has a little more of a period spent with Tarzan (Goldwyn) being raised by a recently childless gorilla (Close). We learn how domineering the gorilla tribe’s male (Henrikson) is to the rest. There enters a young gorilla that grows up with Tarzan (O’Donnel) that is his best friend, along with a young elephant (Knight). After disgracing his family many times, Tarzan is finally disowned when he brings a group of Europeans to the gorilla nest: Jane (Driver), a girl he saves and falls in love with, Porter (Hawthorne), her professor father, and Clayton (Blessed), a poacher highly interested in this nest and its inhabitants.
I did find Tarzan’s animation to be slightly mesmerizing at times,a surprise considering its feeble looking trailer. I also enjoyed the music by Phil Collins. It was not his best, but it did fit the film in the same way Elton John did with The Lion King. The problem with Tarzan is that it is straight forward for younger children, lacking a real try at complex storytelling to keep from confusing. That was one of the great things about Beauty and the Beast and Toy Story: that they gave children what they wanted while delivering enough for the parents. I find Tarzan to be marginally enjoyable but a far cry from Disney’s Mulan last summer.
