Tremendous

Rating: 9/10 (21 June 1999)

I have already promised my 7 year old that he will see this movie as many times as he wants and may go a few more on my own. It is that good!
Granted there are a few things I would change, but overall the best thing Disney has done in years! Normally, my order of examination would be the story-which was ok in this film, not great but definitely better and closer to the original than most of their works in the past few decades it seems. The score, which is great. I must say I wasn't impressed with about half the soundtrack until I saw it with the movie. Then it all makes sense. I did have one minor complaint that there were a couple of times I thought it, and maybe the entire movie borrows a bit heavily on Lion King. But Disney generally tends to stock scenes and music, especially cranking out a new animated every year. What I am really going to rave about is the animation. Not only the Deep Canvas system used to generate the layouts, but the care given to alot of the hand drawn non-character animation. There were times I experienced almost a deja-vu from movies such as Fantasia, Bambi and the Jungle Book, in terms of the layouts. Hunchback had some dynamic effects, but it and many of its contemporaries could have used a bit more attention in terms of the canvas the entire movie is acted upon. In Tarzan, the jungle is as much a character of the movie as any standard character.
As far as the character animation goes, Glenn Keane has raised the standard for what a character should be by leaps and bounds! Between his animation and Tony Goldwyn's voice the character honestly breathes!!!! He is without a doubt the most vivid animated character I've ever seen. Unfortunately next to him, Jane seems a bit flat in a few spots though Minnie Driver's pert English miss is wholly enchanting. The villain is weak, and in truth we could have done without him, but he does help keep to the story. I just would have liked to see him approached differently.
Overall a new high for Disney---9