Tarzan - Review

After watching Aladdin recently, I decided to test my fate once again and see if another one of my favourite Disney films as a kid could stand the test of time. That film is Tarzan. As a kid, I remember seeing the Phil Collins music video to "Strangers Like Me" after the film on the VHS tape as a kid and instantly falling in love with not only Tarzan but with Phil Collins' music. 18 years later, Phil Collins is my favourite artist of all time... and Tarzan seems like an underwritten mediocre film. It sucks for me to say that because I loved it as a kid so much and there are things to like about this movie. For me, there were just too many missed opportunities. But first, the good stuff. The animation in this movie is really well done. Tarzan swinging on the vines and how he basically surfs on the trees is fantastic to look at. Add in the great Phil Collins songs, it's a great sight to see. I know many people that dislike the fact that Phil Collins is singing in the film as opposed to characters in the film singing about what they are feeling, but personally, I like the songs and how they are used. Tarzan is a likable character and Jane is one of my favourite female Disney characters because she is smart, very funny and actually useful to the plot and to the other characters. She has more to offer than just being someone for Tarzan to rescue. It makes sense for her to be rescued because she is a Victorian-era woman in the jungle. How else do you expect her to react? As for the missed opportunity I mentioned before, that missed opportunity was diving deeper into the inner conflict that Tarzan is dealing with. Does he belong with the apes where he grew up? Or does he belong with these new people he barely met but are humans like him? The film does touch upon it, but I feel like the film could have explored it a bit more in Tarzan's childhood and the romance between him and Jane. It's there, but not for very long. The film has to make room for annoying yet forgettable side characters (I don't even remember their names. Bad sign right off the bat. Disney can do it. Cogs worth and Lumiere, Timon and Pumbaa) and weak villains. Clayton is one of the most boring Disney villains with the same basic "greed" motivation. Nothing unique about him at all. Even Tarzan's father ape, Kurchak, is pretty flat and one-dimensional. When he finally has a change of heart, it doesn't have the emotional impact it should have. That's my main problem with this movie, it's emotional attachment. I feel like if they focused more on the inner conflict Tarzan has about where he belongs, then we would have been more invested in the scenes where our heart strings are meant to be pulled. You can show more of the inner conflict through exploring more of Tarzan's childhood and developing the romance between Tarzan and Jane some more, getting rid of the Clayton storyline and toning down the annoying attempts at comedic relief and having the cheetah who killed his parents, in the beginning, play the main antagonist role. The cheetah has a much closer connection to the apes and Tarzan than Clayton ever did. That way, when the exciting finale occurs (I will admit that this film does have some exciting sequences) we are totally invested because the film has developed our emotional attachment to Tarzan, Jane and maybe a couple of his closest ape family. So to be clear, I don't hate this movie. I am actually glad I was able to see it again because there are some good things about this film, it's just that it has some problems. I would recommend it to kids aged around 6-12. If you are a Disney fan or even a Phil Collins fan, you've probably already seen this movie, but as for me, I don't think I'll have the urge to watch this movie again for another 10 years, but I'll sure be listening to the soundtrack!