37 – Tarzan
So here we are at the final film of the
Disney Renaissance Era with 1999's Tarzan. The
story is about a baby who becomes orphaned and raised by apes. He
grows up and tries to prove that he is a good ape, despite his
appearance, to the alpha male in his group. He then meets a group of
humans that are there to study apes. He has to decide if he is going
to stay with his ape family, or go with his own kind.
Tarzan
is the young boy who grows up with the Gorillas. He feels very
different from his family and begins the story as a bit of an
outcast. He is, however, very eager to show that he's just as good as
his peers which gets him into some trouble. After some struggling, he
finally proves that he belongs to everyone but the alpha male of the
group, Kerchak. This really hurts him and makes him feel like he
really doesn't belong with the group. His adoptive mother, Kala,
tries to convince him otherwise which makes Tarzan try to prove
himself to Kerchak for years. When he is a bit older, he finally
meets some other humans that are there to study apes. There are some
really fantastic scenes where he learns from them by imitating what
they say and how they act. He finally feels like he might belong
somewhere but is still so different from the other humans he still
doesn't fully belong. He finds himself in a very difficult situation
where he has to choose whether he will stay loyal to his group or go
with the humans.
One of
these humans, Jane, is the daughter of Professor Porter who is there
to study the gorillas. She is very kind and fascinated by the jungle.
She meets Tarzan when he saves her from a baboon attack. She is much
less of an action girl like some of the other heroines in the Disney
Renaissance. She really grows to like Tarzan and starts struggling
with her feelings. She doesn't know if she should stay with Tarzan or
go back to where she thinks she belongs, England. Jane isn't the
greatest heroine of the Disney Renaissance but you really see how she
grows and comes to care about Tarzan. Their relationship definitely
feels less shoehorned than Mulan and Shang's. The relationship ends
up being central to the story because it adds conflict in whether
Tarzan should leave with them or if Jane should stay with Tarzan.
Clayton even uses his knowledge of Tarzan's feelings to take
advantage of him to get him to show where the gorillas are by saying
Jane will stay if Tarzan does.
Clayton
is an impatient hunter who is hired by the Professor to protect them
on their journey in the jungle. He later reveals that his real plan
was to capture the gorillas and take them back to England to sell. He
is very violent and quick to shoot his gun at anything that might pop
out at them. I don't think he was a fantastic villain but his reasons
for capturing the gorillas was good enough for me. It still would
have been nice to get more backstory about him since he just ends up
being yet another angry hunter villain in the long line of angry
Disney hunter villains. Sabor is a leopard and minor villain that
kills Tarzan's real parents as well as Kala and Kerchak's son. He
pops up every now and then and Tarzan really proves himself capable
when he gets in a fight with Sabor, protecting his group and
defeating her.
Kerchak
and Kala lose their son early on to Sabor. Kala later finds Tarzan in
the treehouse his family made shortly after they were killed by
Sabor. Kala then protects Tarzan from Sabor and brings him back to
the group to be her son. Kerchak can't accept him and thinks that
Kala is just trying to fill a hole left by the death of their son.
Kala is a really great mother to Tarzan and tries to reassure him
that even if they look different, they are still the same and still a
family. They really get some great scenes together. The standout
being when Kala sings a lullaby to the baby Tarzan. You really see
how much she worries about him when he meets the human group. She's
simultaneously worried that he'll get hurt and also worried that
he'll leave her. Kerchak, on the other hand, doesn't even accept
Tarzan as an ape, much less a son. He cared very deeply for his child
and it's clear that he isn't treating Tarzan like that just because
he's a jerk. He just has a much harder time seeing past Tarzan's
appearance.
Terk
and Tantor are Tarzan's friends. Terk is a fellow gorilla and doesn't
like Tarzan very much at first. When Tarzan tries to tag along he
challenges him to try to get an elephant hair, knowing that it's
incredibly dangerous and only a crazy person would try it. Tarzan,
eager to prove himself, does so and almost gets killed in the
process. This ends up getting Tarzan accepted by his peers for his
bravery and also where he meets Tantor, a young elephant. From then
on, Terk, Tantor and Tarzan are friends and are almost always
together. Terk and Tantor provide mostly comic relief but have some
really great serious scenes too. Terk is definitely not able to
articulate her feelings very well and gets angry at Tarzan for
abandoning them. Tantor is very paranoid and timid but cares a lot
about Tarzan and Terk. He later has a great scene where he slaps some
sense into Terk when Tarzan is in trouble and Terk still feels hurt
about being abandoned so she won't do anything about it. They were
really great characters and they definitely didn't take anything away
from the movie.
The
movie overall has a serious tone similar to Mulan. The
animation really takes a step up again, however. They really use some
great lighting and the jungle just looks amazing. There are some
fantastic exciting, sometimes funny, action scenes. The music, by
Phil Collins, is really great and he just did a fantastic job
capturing the emotions of the characters. It doesn't feel as musical
as some of the other movies, especially because the characters are
almost never the ones singing, but I thought it was a good choice for
this movie. The score is also really fantastic with clear, and very
cool, African influences. The music, overall, is just way more
consistently great compared to Mulan.
The themes in this
movie are really great too although they aren't really anything we
haven't seen before. A really big idea is the idea of family and how
it goes much deeper than blood. Tarzan loves Kala but never quite
feels like he belongs. Kala would do anything for Tarzan and it
doesn't matter at all that he isn't actually an ape. The characters
also really struggle with finding where they belong in the world.
Tarzan is the most obvious example of this since he isn't an ape but
tries so hard to act like one. When he meets humans, he finds that he
doesn't quite fit in with them either. Jane also struggles because
she falls in love with Tarzan and wants to stay with him but can't
seem to get over the fact that she thinks she belongs in England. She
doesn't even really state any clear reasons for it other than she
just thinks she belongs there.
This movie was a
really great end to this era. I really didn't have any major problems
with it and I think it stands up to the earlier movies in this era
like Aladdin and The Lion King. Having seen all the
movies in this era now, I have to say that my favorite is still
Beauty and the Beast. It'll be interesting moving on from here
since I'll be seeing movies that I'm less familiar with again.
37 down. 16 to go.
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