Disney's Tarzan - at last!

Rating: 8/10 (11 August 2007)

I wasn't so very surprised that Disney were putting their hands on Tarzan when I first heard about this project. It's a enjoyable movie, not absolutely perfect, but it's one of Disney's most stable films.
The songs of Phil Collins are great (I know many don't like the songs in the film, but I personally love them) and the case that he sings the songs himself were a good choice. The score of Mark Mancina is also good.
The films is very dynamic, have a lot of elements of action, romance and comedy in the same way that Disney did in the early 90's and comparing to the films after The Lion King, (even I liked those films) "Tarzan" is the feature who has the magic, family-friendly Disney-feeling too it.
The animation is gorgeous (SPOILER: even Kerchak is the only gorilla in the film who certainly looks like a real gorilla, the same color and etc. SPOILERS OVER). The deep canvas scenes are very impressive.
The story and the script works well, even the script is a little thin and it's suffers the same way like "Hercules" script did - too much information to tell in a short time. So some stuff are getting left behind for further development. The story is of course changed to fit a Disney movie, but still it remains true to the essence of the character of Tarzan.
HERE COMES AGAIN A SPOILER I don't quite sympathize with Kerchak (even I feel sorry for him for his lost of his child) cause he's so stubborn. Kala is a great mother character, even she seems a little oversensitive (for the same reason as Kerchak and it's sorry for her too) and I think the film should be more focused about Tarzan's feelings for Kala, instead than her feelings for him. But that's my opinion. To see a parent loose it's child in a Disney feature is quite heartbreaking, even it's just for a little second, but the film doesn't really focus about that.
SPOILERS OVER.
The humor in this film is sometimes funny, but also sometimes. Terk is a cool character, but Tantor (as a grown up) is pretty annoying. So is Professor Porter and the baboons. I found Jane pretty quirky at first, but watching the movie several times again, I must admit that she's a great and warm character. SPOILER AGAIN: Tarzan himself is almost in every scene, who is an exception in a Disney-film. SPOILERS OVER
The film have some wonderful, emotional moments without dialog, but in the third act the emotional scenes are getting too sentimental, which I didn't like.
The films action scenes works also well, the highlights in the movies are when the leopard Sabor is in the scenes. And he is a greater "villain" than Clayton. ANOTHER SPOILER: Don't get me wrong, Clayton is a good and enjoyable character, but in the story in a unit, he's doesn't quite fit in.
A LITTLE MORE SPOILER: Besides that, Tarzan it's a great movie. It's a kinda mixture of "Lion King" and "Pocahontas". "Lion King" because of the African setting, the animal rules etc and "Pocahontas" because of the clashes of two worlds (civilization vs nature).