My Review of Tarzan (1999)

 

Written by Tab Murphy And Bob Tzudiker And Noni White

Directed by Kevin Lima And Chris Buck

Tarzan: "No matter where I go, you will always be my mother."

Kala: "And you will always be in my heart."

Another Disney movie that I haven't watched before until last night. For some reason, I just decided to watch this one and I was pleasantly surprised it.

One of the last of the 1990s Disney movies, we open with a shipwrecked couple and their new born son in Equatorial Africa. It's not long before the couple are killed and the baby son ended up being raised by a gorilla named Kala (Glenn Close), much to the disapproval of her mate, Kerchak (Lance Henriksen).

The boy of course was Tarzan (Alex D. Linz/Tony Goldwyn). The latter often stoked Kerchak's disappointment while Kala loved him like he was her own son. Tarzan also befriended gorilla Terk (Rosie O'Donnell) and African forest elephant, Tantor (Wayne Knight). They made for a nice friendship group.

Cut to Tarzan being all grown up and realising that he's not the only human after all. There was the arrival of an expedition group comprising of Professor Archimedes Q. Porter (Nigel Hawthorne), his daughter Jane (Minnie Driver) and the rather treacherous William Cecil Clayton (Brian Blessed). Add a few henchmen for the latter and you have got your humans here.

With Jane, she's clearly the love interest for Tarzan and while not the best written love interest, there's a likeable enough chemistry between the pair. By the end of this movie, even her father recognised that her and Tarzan were meant to be together. 

As for Clayton, he's a nasty enough baddie. It took little for him to turn on Archimedes and Jane and he had no problem with capturing Tarzan or even causing the death of Kerchak. Like all Disney villains, he got a rather suitable comeuppance to boot.

- Clayton might have been the human villain of the piece but the leopard Sabor was responsible for the deaths of Tarzan's parents and Kala's son.

- Prior to Rosie O'Donnell's casting, Terk was intended to be a male character.

- Standout music: Phil Collins gave us You'll Be In My Heart, Two Worlds, Strangers Like Me and Son Of Man.

- Chronology: 1870s then 1890s in Equatorial Africa. Porter's crew were English.

Tarzan made for something of a decent adventure. While it doesn't hit in the same way for me that either Aladdin or Hercules did, it's a very enjoyable watch with a great soundtrack from Phil Collins.

Rating: 7 out of 10