Tarzan

<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> and, as expected yet still amusingly, 1997's <em>'George of the Jungle'</em>. The early scenes in-particular, which rely firmly on Collins' music - from the midway point it's more level, whilst also taking its own route with this type of story. I'm interested to find out where the two follow-up films go.

**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 know what to do with the task at hand and improvised something. To make matters worse, there are a lot of logic problems in this movie. For example, there is no exact notion of time that passes, so we are left with the idea that Tarzan learned the first human words in an almost instantaneous way. Another thing that doesn't make a lot of sense is the way Tarzan himself doesn't recognize the physical differences between himself and the gorillas he lives with, as well as the immediate similarities between himself and Jane. At some point, he will have seen his own reflection, will he not? I don't mean to say that the film is bad… but the truth is that I feel that Disney has already given us much better and more interesting work. Overall, I think the voice cast didn't do a bad job, with everyone involved doing their best and doing everything that was asked to the best of their ability. Personally, I didn't really like some of the options. Tony Goldwin, for example, voiced the film's central character in a relatively mediocre way, but his voice has nothing particular or charismatic about it (well, the character has been stripped of any charisma). For me, it was Glenn Close who stood out the most, but with very little to say, and Rosie O'Donnell is the one who pissed me off the most, with a very unpleasant voice. The strong point of the film is the elaborate visuals and the animation, very well executed thanks to the high quality CGI. I'm not sure, but perhaps this was one of the first films by the studio to use computer animation on a more regular basis. What is certain is that the look of the film is exquisite, it is a little different when compared to the older films of the mid-decade. And if it is a fact that Disney films have, in general, a very particular attention to the soundtrack and the songs, this film maintains that characteristic, having hired Phil Collins to write and sing several songs. Unfortunately, and even though the film won the Oscar for Best Song for “You'll be in my Heart”, I didn't really like any of them and I find the film's sound particularly bad.

"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... Great vocal efforts from Brian Blessed, Minnie Driver and Nigel Hawthorne add some extra fun and lots of pace to this action adventure complemented by a few good songs from Phil Collins.