Powerful, beautiful and moving version, marred only by it's weak villain

Rating: 9/10 (14 February 2000)

Without a doubt, this is the most visually impressive animated movie Disney has ever created. In the entire visual history of animated films, this one stands head and shoulders with the best, and above most. The concept of incorporating all or part of the actual person's face and mannerisms who provides the voice for an animated character (which Disney pioneered), has been raised to near art form in this movie. The casting of voices for the characters is excellent, and adds greatly to the impact of the animated performances. Indeed it adds immensely to the entire movie. The visual richness in this film is absolutely awe inspiring.
I look for little things, that normally get overlooked, as a guide for how devoted animators are to bringing quality to the screen. For a small example of this, check out the scene (pretty early in the film) where boy Tarzan asks Terk if he can come with him to play. Terk says no, because `...you can't keep up'. The next scene Terk comes through a group of ferns and starts talking to his friends. Check out the movement of the ferns behind Terk, and also when boy Tarzan comes through them. They are incredibly detailed and are constantly moving (realistically). All this requires time, money and talent and NO WHERE in this film is that scrimped on.
Deep Canvas, the new technique created by Disney, adds immeasurably to Tarzan. This film wouldn't be NEAR what it is without it. Normally for animation to occur where we follow the action `into' the frame or toward and away from you, the background has to be redrawn continuously because (for instance) elements get larger as you move toward them. This, In contrast to action that moves side-to-side where the background can be drawn once and only character cells need be redrawn. Its like moving `into' a painting, rather than back and forth across the canvas (hence the name probably).
Animators rarely do much action `into' the frame, because the time and cost involved is very great. Deep Canvas uses backgrounds, hand drawn into the computer, to "computerize" (to an extent) this process. This not only greatly reduces the time and cost involved, but it also adds new tools at the animators disposal. Really, it allows the background to "come alive". It doesn't look computerized though, it looks like traditional animation. The technique resulted in many spectacular sequences in Tarzan. The scenes where he `surfs' the trees showcases just how awesome this new tool is. There is MUCH more to Deep Canvas than my over-simplified definition. There is MUCH to like in Tarzan... the visual lushness, excellent character animation and voice performances, the music (even if you aren't a Phil Collins fan, it's good) and it has an excellent sense of humor. It also shies away from the overly cute depictions of animals (as in Bambi) for more realistic ones which really took a big turn for the better in The Lion King. The sequences with babies and children (human and animal) and interactions between parent and child also rang very true, something else that began to really take off in The Lion King.
Some scenes are very powerful, and will rock even adults. One scene in particular comes to mind. Directly after the fight sequence with Sabor (the leopard), Tarzan does his traditional "Tarzan" yell. This raised the hair on top of my head. I have found myself watching this over and over again. It's just about as perfect as animation can get. The yell itself is new and fresh, not the traditional yell we have heard so many times before (which is great, but shows it's age). Tremendous power and emotion is translated by less than six seconds of screen time. You will feel yourself fighting back your own yell, or tears when you watch this.
Disney did so much right in this movie, but they continued one long, bad tradition. Which is the weak writing and casting of the villain. Indeed the whole conceptualization and portrayal of the antagonist in Disney films, including this one, needs a massive overhaul.
Alfred Hitchcock, above all others, understood how important the villain or antagonist was to a film. Hitch made the `heavy' attractive and intelligent. Often the villain was a much better person in most respects than the protagonist of the film, with only one fatal flaw marring him. The villain might be a person that you would really want as a friend or a lover, if it weren't for that ONE thing - which was a BIG thing, like he (or she) was a psycho or a traitor or a murderer. On one hand you wanted the `good-guy' to triumph, but you could identify with the villain and you often liked him more. Making the villain a desirable and multi-faceted character created incredible tension in the audience.
I mention all this because this is one area where Disney REPEATEDLY fails in it's animated films, and Tarzan is no exception. The anti-hero in Tarzan is one-dimensional, and we don't identify with him in any way. He is the `bad hunter', used often as a villain in recent Disney movies, e.g., Beauty and the Beast and Pocahontas. We are drawn into the way Tarzan himself is torn between his adoptive gorilla family, and his identity with the human race. This tension is well done in the film, in every way from the writing and casting to the actual animation of emotion. We aren't however, a bit drawn in by the antagonist of the film.
That aside, overall this film was GREAT. I loved it and anyone who likes animated films will love it too. Even if you don't like animation you will probably like this one. It far surpasses most if not all in recent memory. The only gripe I have is the cardboard cut-out villain. I long for more three dimensional antagonists that can get the audience thinking and emotionally involved in the struggle occurring on screen. Enrolling all the writers of the Disney animated movies in a college-level course on the films of Alfred Hitchcock could do WONDERS for their next projects. But that's about the only area where they need help. In every other way Disney is holding class, and all other feature animation studios could do well to sign up for a course or two.