it has its ups and downs

Rating: 7/10 (18 June 1999)

First, the film:
Disney strives for more realistic, 3d, lush backgrounds...and generally succeeds. Reversing an unfortunate trend, they also started putting a little depth to the characters themselves, but...
Col. Hathi and Kaa are not terribly realistic animals -- what are they doing in Tarzan?! And have there been any recent Disney males that did NOT have a nose defined by a 30/60/90 triangle?
It seems to me that Disney should return to some of the more stylized backgrounds to match their animation -- SLEEPING BEAUTY, for example, unless they are going to attempt to use the very contrast between realistic character and cartoon actor as part of the story.
Second, the music:
I found the "soundtrack" to be unexceptional, and the use of the pop star's music to be repulsive. Sorry, Phil Collins' fans, but it didn't fit. Either have a character sing it, or at least have it "in the style" of the film -- not in the style of a modern pop singer.
Third, the story:
I went into the theatre having never seen or read any other TARZAN stories or films. What was the story that they were trying to tell? It seems to me that there were several different stories -- fine -- but they failed to really tell any of them -- not so fine.