Barely Above Average

Rating: Null/10 (21 July 1999)

Tarzan is the latest offering in Disney's annual animated feature-film routine. So, based on those Disney movies that have preceeded this one, the viewer knows what to expect going in. And, suffice it to say, Tarzan does not stray from the usual, tried-and-true Disney formula. The plot is nothing new, kind of resembling Superman: the title character is born normal and is such until he is suddenly deposited in a new environment upon which circumstances his parents are killed. He is brought up in these new surroundings, and then, when he is older, he falls in love with a woman that he is not allowed to love or be with because he is too different from her. He ultimately tries to become like her to be with her, but this fails, and he returns, once and for all realizing his true self, to what he actually is (in this movie, an ape-man, not a civilized human). There are also the obligatory bad guys around to disrupt our hero's plans, but really are not essential to our hero's journey from the beginning of the movie to the end. Oh, there is also the one-note, "for-the-kids" character (this time voiced by Rosie O'Donnell) to provide comic relief; it wouldn't be a Disney summer offering without one. Sure the movie looks good, but the CGI does not blend seemlessly with the traditional animation. There is basically one eye-popping sequence in the middle of the movie where Tarzan rescues Jane from baboon-types. He does so in magnificent fashion: swinging, gliding, and careening from tree to tree, that plays out like a roller coaster ride at a theme park. This sequence alone makes the movie above average, but not much. Final grade: C+