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Disney's "Tarzan" |
"Tarzan" Walt Disney Productions. Director: Kevin Lima & Chris Buck. Writer: Ted Murphy, Bob Tzudiker & Noni White based on the novel "Tarzan of the Apes" by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Cast: Brian Blessed, Glenn Close, Minnie Driver, Tony Goldwyn, Nigel Hawthorn, Lance Henrikson, Wayne Knight & Rosie O'Donnell. USA 1999. The mouse tackles the second most filmed property in cinema history, after Dracula, by taking Burroughs' king of the apes into the animated forum for the first time. Retelling the classic tale of an orphaned boy, reared by apes, who is thrown into the midst of an identity crisis, by the arrival of a rather attractive specimen of his own species. The mouse throws in the now traditional feisty females, dastardly villain, comedy sidekicks and song and dance routines, before completely changing Burroughs' dénouement. It's astounding that Tarzan has never undergone the animation process before and the story is so ideally suited. For the first time in the white ape's long and distinguished screen career, the apes can actually talk, and the man himself can perform feats of acrobatics that poor old Johnny Weismuller could only dream of. The jungle itself is brought vividly to life by the mouse's new deep canvas process which gives each leaf a lushness never seen for real, before setting the king of the swingers loose on it to swing, swoop and surf his way across the verdant vegetation. The opening sequence which sets the scene for the rest of the story is one of the most powerful pieces of film that the mouse has produced since Bambi's mother got the bullet. With the death of the future lord of the ape's parents and the slaughter of a young Gorilla cub at the paws of a leopard this may prove too much for the younger members of the audience. While the tree house encounter will have even those who are old enough to know better on the edge of their seats. And when the ape boy finally grows up we get to sit back and watch as an old-fashioned love story blooms in the verdant undergrowth. The cast list is a veritable who's who of Hollywood talent with the apeman himself portrayed by the one you've never heard of, Goldwyn. For those of you still wracking your brains Knight guest stars in "Seinfeld" and "Third Rock from the Sun" while Henrikson leapt to minor stardom as the android in "Aliens" before going on to star in "Millennium". Goldwyn does a reasonable enough job of holding the show together while everyone camps it up around him. Driver is mercilessly prim as the ditzy Jane, Hawthorn bumbles and buffoons with the best of them as her father and Blessed does what he does best as their trigger happy tour guide. While the anthropomorphised animals are more human than the humans, Close comes over all maternal as the jungle boy's adoptive mother, much to the chagrin of Henrikson's silver backed pack leader. O'Donnell and Knight provide the prerequisite comic relief as the hairless ape's pals Terk the feisty young female gorilla and Tantor the neurotic elephant respectively. Learning from the lessons of the excellent "A Bug's Life" not to mention the appalling "Prince of Egypt" the mouse refrains from forcing it's character's from bursting in to song. The music instead being supplied by a brief Terk lead Stomp session in Jane's camp and five songs from ageing popster Phil Collins. The songs themselves are tolerable although still far too prevalent for my own tastes. Following off the back of "A Bug's Life" this film shows a surprising about face returning to an older more craftsman like form of animated story telling. The jokes have been dropped and the comedy sidekicks relegated to the back ground while the mouse has finally given it's writer's a shot at old fashioned storytelling. This production shows a welcome return to the mouse's traditional values, admittedly these are colonialism and cynical commercialism, but at least they are done with style. |