Superb animation, great characterization, a submersive experience

Rating: 8/10 (5 February 2000)

Tarzan is an old and familiar story brought to new life in this wonderfully animated feature. The characters burst into life as their personalities are well portrayed by all of the actors. When Tarzan first meets Jane, his innocence and curiosity reflect his personality from the very beginning of the movie. Tarzan's adopted mother Kala finds him and introduces the baby Tarzan (and the viewers) into the not only the lives of the apes, but their minds as well, which, like humans, are filled with humor, love, friendship, and decisions. Tarzan's cinematography is possibly the best, yet least gratified aspect of all. The camera doesn't just pan before a dead, unmoving, painted background, but instead [the camera] is moved and spun around and through the trees as Tarzan (and later Jane) tree surfs and swings through the trees. The camera is thrown around in a sudden but not a nauseating fashion in the beginning of the movie when it follows the jerky movements of a small lifeboat. The music is not just something that is heard in the background in this movie. It doesn't plainly follow the onscreen action. The music foreshadows an oncoming stampede of elephants, suddenly stops when the Jane tries to collect herself from being too forward, and builds suspense as Tarzan battles Sabor, a fiendish leopard. As Tarzan grows from a baby to a man, all his experiences submerse the viewer into a world brought to life by astounding animation, music that not only accompanies the action, but complements it, and characters so vivid that the viewer may believe that Tarzan's world is more than pictures imitating life, but life itself.