The best film I've seen in a while

Rating: Null/10 (13 July 1999)

Maybe it's because I'm not ordinarily a big fan of Disney, but I'm surprised to see people saying that _Tarzan_ isn't as good as _The Little Mermaid_, _Aladdin_, etc.... Those were great kids' movies - this is just a great movie, period. I was very skeptical at first; I've always liked the Tarzan character, but have never really liked the way he's been done on screen. Still, the trailers caught my attention enough to check it out - it seemed closer to rich, dimensional Japanese animation (which I love) than standard Disney stuff. I thought I might like it... but I *loved* it. I could have lived without the comic relief characters - but the writers were clever: the story couldn't move forward without them, making them a bit more than "a little something for the kids".
The choices made by the writers were excellent - Clayton was an unusual villian; his job was not to be outright evil at all times, but to prod Tarzan into making bad choices - Tarzan's inner turmoil made him his own worst enemy, which I find much more interesting than the evil spells of the typical Disney villain. The focus on the ape family, and especially the mother-child bond were well done and very emotional. It's very rare that an animated character is as expressive as Kala, Tarzan's mother; at times, the look of pain or fear of losing her son in her eyes is so vivid, she's almost hard to watch. I thought the romance was convincing without being the absolute center of the story (I usually can't figure out *why* Disney characters fall in love, but here I actually saw chemistry). And the changes to the original story were good calls. Ordinarily, I don't like it when the ending is changed (like in _The Little Mermaid_), but here it worked for me. It was exactly what I wanted.
Oh, and I thought it was great that it wasn't a traditional musical, too. The last thing I wanted to see was Tarzan swinging through the trees singing. The Phil Collins soundtrack, which I was seriously skeptical about, fit well. I won't even bother mentioning my nitpicks, because they all take the story too literally, and that does the film a disservice. I absolutely recommend this one - it's the best movie I've seen in a very long time. It even surpasses *my* favorite Disney film of all time, _Alice in Wonderland_. 10 stars.