Tarzan

Movie added on: November 18, 2008

Tarzan is a 1999 animated feature film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures on June 18, 1999. The thirty-seventh film in the Disney animated features canon, it is based on the story Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and is the only major motion picture version of the story Tarzan property to be animated. It was also the last “bona fide” hit before the Disney slump of the early 2000s making $171,091,819 in domestic gross and $448,191,819 worldwide, outgrossing its predecessors Mulan and Hercules. To date, it is the last film based on the fictional character Tarzan to have had a theatrical release, and also currently holds the record for being the most expensive Disney animated film, with a budget of $150 million. It was also the first Disney animated feature to open at #1 since Pocahontas. It is the last movie that belongs to the Disney Renaissance.

  • Directors : Chris Buck . Kevin Lima
  • Release Date : 18 June 1999
  • Genre : Animation | Adventure | Drama | Family
  • Tagline : An immortal legend. As you’ve only imagined.
  • Runtime : 88 min

Cast

  • Tony Goldwyn : Tarzan
  • Minnie Driver : Jane Porter
  • Glenn Close : Kala
  • Brian Blessed : Mr. Clayton, the Gorilla Hunter
  • Nigel Hawthorne : Professor Archimedes Q. Porter

Official Sites :-

In the late 1880s off the coast of Africa, a young couple and their infant son escape a burning ship and land on the unexplored rainforests of Africa, where they craft themselves a treehouse in which to live using salvaged ship parts(“Two Worlds”). Meanwhile, a gorilla couple named Kerchak and Kala are traveling with the rest of their group when their infant son is killed and eaten by a leopard named Sabor. The next day, the still-heartbroken Kala hears a distant child’s cry and, following it, stumbles upon the treehouse. She enters the treehouse to find it trashed, and blood covered paw prints on the floor. Although the infant has survived, both his parents are dead. Kala rescues the baby from a still-hungry Sabor and returns with it to the rest of the group, but Kerchak despises the boy for his appearance. Nevertheless, Kala decides to raise the boy as her own, naming him Tarzan (“You’ll Be in My Heart”).

A few years later, Tarzan makes friends with feisty young female gorilla Terk and an elephant named Tantor (“Son of Man”). Despite his inability to compete with the rest of the gorillas, Tarzan perseveres and eventually grows into a strong, capable, and gorilla-like man. When Sabor attacks the group again, Tarzan successfully fights with and kills him, earning Kerchak’s respect. Tarzan then notices a group of humans arriving: Professor Porter and his daughter Jane, who have traveled to Africa in search of gorillas, along with their hunter guide Clayton. Jane then has an encounter with a horde of angry baboons, who chase after her. Jane runs towards a cliff and tries to jump to the other side, only to be caught mid-leap by Tarzan. She screams as she is taken to a branch, where she demands to be put down. Read more

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Tarzan Trivia

  • A teapot and set of teacups in the explorers’ camp bears a sharp resemblance to Mrs. Potts and her teacup children from Beauty and the Beast (1991). When Tantor sees them, he is scared that they may come to life. Terk responds “Pull yourself together. You’re embarrassing me. These things aren’t alive.” In Beauty and the Beast (1991), of course, they are.
  • “Deep Canvas”: The brand-new technique created by Disney for use in Tarzan, which allows 2D hand-drawn characters to exist seamlessly in a fully 3D environment.
  • Minnie Driver largely ad-libbed the breathless speech in which Jane tells her father and Clayton about meeting Tarzan for the first time.
  • When the gorillas pick up Professor Porter and turn him upside-down, a beanbag toy of Little Brother from Disney’s Mulan (1998) falls out of his clothes.
  • In the original Edgar Rice Burroughs novel, Tantor was an old bull elephant disliked by the denizens of the jungle, Sabor was a lioness, and Terkoz (presumably “Terk”) was a male ape and Tarzan’s arch nemesis within the troop. Also, Kerchak murdered Tarzan’s family. The producers changed it not only to make him more sympathetic, but also in recognition of the scientific fact that gorillas are never that aggressive.
  • The song “Son of Man” sung by Phil Collins talks of Tarzan as the Son of Man. The actor Brian Blessed who does the voice of Clayton, Tarzan’s enemy, played Peter, a disciple and friend of Christ in the TV-movie _Son of Man (1969) (TV)_. Son of Man being Jesus in this case, who first used this expression of himself.
  • During Turk’s musical trashing of the explorer’s camp, two apes mimic the bump-bump step seen in the classic Disney short In the Bag (1956).
  • The movie went back into the Disney vault on January 31, 2002. Typically, this means the VHS and DVD versions of the movie were pulled from store shelves on this day, and the movie won’t re-appear in either format for 10 years.
  • When one of the gorillas takes Clayton’s gun to examine it, he holds it up and stares down the barrel, in exactly the same pose as one of the apes at Disneyland’s “Jungle Cruise” attraction.
  • Tarzan has been adapted from its book many times over the years and is second only to Dracula in the adaptation chart.
  • Even though Clayton (first name William in the book) is a villain in the movie, he and Tarzan are actually cousins according to the original story from Burroughs. William being after Tarzan in line of succession and therefore wouldn’t not want him to be alive.
  • This film contains numerous references to the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan films (Tarzan the Ape Man (1932), et seq). These include a “Me Tarzan, You Jane” introduction scene, Tarzan wrestling with crocodiles, and Jane’s costume at the end of the film resembles the clothing worn by Maureen O’Sullivan in the Weissmuller series.
  • The boat that Clayton and his team use to get from the freighter ship to the jungle when they are going to hunt the gorillas is the same type of boat used in the “Jungle Cruise” rides in Disney’s theme parks.
  • To see how Tarzan’s body would move while sliding down a log, the animators based his movement on that of pro skateboarder Tony Hawk while on his skateboard.
  • Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen were both seriously considered for Clayton before Brian Blessed auditioned for it, the directors felt his deep booming voice would be perfect for he character.
  • Rosie O’Donnell accomplished a life long dream in this film, she had always wanted to voice a character in a Disney animated movie.
  • In the film, Jane Porter and her father are from London. In the novel, they are American citizens.

Tarzan Mistake

  • When Tarzan fights with the leopard, it scratches his chest. However after they fall into the pit and Tarzan comes out carrying the dead leopard, the scratches on his chest have amazingly healed. [It is a long-standing Disney tradition that no evidence of violence is shown on screen. Still a mistake, but there's why].
  • When the humans are capturing the gorillas, Clayton fires about 15 rounds on his shotgun. This is pretty impressive, considering this is the early 1900′s.
  • When child Tarzan jumps in the lake with the elephants the water is only up to the elephants’ feet, but the underwater shot shows the elephants swimming.
  • When Kala (Tarzan’s ape mother) finds baby Tarzan at the house on the tree she also finds a portrait of his dead parents which has the glass broken. Later on the film, the glass is perfectly OK before Tarzan steps on it and breaks it once again.
  • During the song “You’ll be in my Heart”, lemurs are shown in the tree that Kala and baby Tarzan are in. “Tarzan” is set somewhere in Africa’s equatorial jungle, as this is the only place gorillas live. Lemurs are native to the island of Madagascar.
  • After Tarzan fights the leopard, and at the point when the gorillas and him run off, the dead leopard is missing.
  • When Tarzan decides to become the new leader of the apes, his hair is waving in a strong wind, but the rain is pouring straight down.
  • When Clayton is drawing on the chalkboard his shotgun is leaning against it. After Tarzan takes the chalk and draws all over the chalkboard, the gun has disappeared.
  • When Tarzan says “A hair?” and Terk replies “Yeah, a hair”, their hair is blowing in different directions with the same current of wind
  • When Jane and Tarzan return to the camp and the ape knocks Jane down, she picks up a ladle. The first ladle is bent and then the next shot shows a straight ladle, and then the bent one is back.
  • In the scene where Jane is telling her father about Tarzan, and Clayton calls it a “girlish fantasy”, Tarzan jumps into the camp. Throughout the entire scene, Jane’s hair was slightly tied back, but when Tarzan comes very close to her and says “Jane”, it’s down. The next shot it’s slightly up again.