Tarzan (1999 movie)

Tarzan is a 1999 animated movie based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' novel Tarzan of the Apes and made by The Walt Disney Company. It was the first Disney animated feature to start at #1 in the box office since Pocahontas. It was the first to have a production budget of $100 million since The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Plot
A British couple and their baby son has survived a shipwreck. They become stranded off the African coast near uncharted jungles. The couple builds a treehouse to live in. They are later attacked and killed by a vicious leopard called Sabor. Meanwhile, a family of gorillas are travelling to their feeding grounds. One of them is Kala, whose own child was killed by the leopard. She hears the cries of the orphaned baby. She follows the sound across the jungle to the treehouse. She finds the child there. Sabor attacks her, but Kala and the baby escape without being hurt. They return to the gorilla family. Kala decides to raise the child as her own. She names him Tarzan. That makes her mate Kerchak angry. He tells her the baby will never replace the child they lost.

As a child, Tarzan makes friends with several animals and other gorillas in the family. They include the female ape Terk and the male elephant Tantor. Tarzan has trouble keeping up. One day, Terk and her friends dare Tarzan to get a hair from an elephant's tail. The dare goes wrong when the elephants stampede into the gorilla territory and almost kill a baby gorilla. However, Tarzan is able to get the hair. After Kerchak tells Kala that Tarzan will never be one of the family, Tarzan runs off into the jungle. Kala consoles him. He keeps trying. He learns how to do things from the animals of the jungle. He becomes a muscular apelike man. One day, Sabor attacks the gorillas and Tarzan kills her. This makes Kerchak respect him.

A gunshot is heard. While the others go into the jungle, Tarzan decides to investigate. He sees a team of human explorers. The group includes Professor Porter, his daughter Jane and their hunter guide Clayton. They are in Africa looking for gorillas. Jane gets separated from the group. She is attacked by a troop of baboons. Tarzan saves her from them. He discovers that Jane and he are the same-humans. They go back to Jane's camp. Terk, Tantor and some gorillas from the troop are looking for Tarzan. They find the human campsite. They use the various items in the camp as instruments, and slowly destroy it. Tarzan and Jane arrive at the camp. When  Clayton and Professor Porter get there, Tarzan goes with the gorillas into the jungle. Kerchak warns the other gorillas to stay away from the humans, but Tarzan says that the humans are not dangerous. He secretly continues his visits to the explorers. He learns about the human world. He and Jane fall in love.

When the explorer's boat arrives to take them back to England, Tarzan is sad to see Jane leaving. Clayton tricks Tarzan into believing that Jane will remain in Africa forever if he shows her the gorillas. Tarzan persuades Tantor and Terk to lead Kerchak away from the explorers. The plan seemingly works and Tarzan leads the explorers to the gorilla nesting grounds. The explorers are happy to mingle with the apes, but then Kerchak arrives and attacks the humans. Tarzan restrains him to save the explorers and leaves the troop, having alienated himself. When Kala finds him, staring off into the distance, she takes him to the treehouse where she found him as a baby. Tarzan then decides to go to England with the explorers.

The next day, as the group board the ship, a mutiny occurs and Tarzan and his friends are captured and detained in the brig, but not before Clayton reveals that he came to Africa to capture the gorillas and sell them to a zoo. He and his goons then enter the jungle and start capturing the gorillas. Fortunately, Tarzan and his friends escape with the aid of several animals from the jungle. Together, they free the gorillas and retaliate against the poachers. Clayton then shoots Tarzan, but only grazes his arm. When Kerchak comes to the ape man's aid, Clayton shoots him, but fatally injures him. He then chases Tarzan into the trees where a fight ensues. Tarzan briefly holds Clayton at gunpoint, before destroying the hunter's rifle. Clayton then attacks the ape man with a machete and starts wildly hacking vines, not knowing that one of them is round his neck like a noose. Despite Tarzan begging him to stop, he cuts the vines and the hunter is quickly hung to death.

Tarzan then approaches Kerchak, who is close to death. Kerchak then asks Tarzan to forgive him for not realising he has always been a member of the gorilla troop and passes his leadership on to Tarzan, before succumbing to his injuries. The ape man then becomes the new leader of the gorillas. The next day, Jane and her father prepare to leave. Jane then realises she loves Tarzan and she and her father then decide to remain in Africa. Tarzan and Jane then embark on their new life together.

Main cast
 Tony Goldwyn (Alex D. Linz, young) as Tarzan, an orphaned human raised by gorillas. 
 Minnie Driver as Jane Porter, the daughter of the professor and one of the explorers. She later falls in love with Tarzan. 
 Glenn Close as Kala, Kerchak's mate and Tarzan's adopted mother. 
 Lance Henriksen as Kerchak, Kala's mate and the leader of the gorillas whose ape child was killed by Sabor. He is later killed by Clayton.
 Brian Blessed as Clayton. An intelligent and impatient hunter attempting to capture the group of gorillas. 
 Nigel Hawthorne as Professor Archimedes Q. Porter, Jane's biologist father. 
 Rosie O'Donnell as Terk, Tarzan's adopted cousin and Kala's niece. 
 Wayne Knight as Tantor, a paranoid elephant and one of Tarzan's friends.
 Phil Proctor as English Captain
 Mickie McGowan as Terk's Mother
 Phil Proctor as Elephant #1
 Rodger Bumpass as Elephant #2
 Jack Angel as Monkey
 Danny Mann as Baby Babboon

Television 
A spin-off television animated series named The Legend of Tarzan ran from 2001 to 2003. The series picks up where the movie left off. Tarzan is adjusting to his new role as leader of the apes following Kerchak's death.

Sequels 
Direct-to-video sequels:
Tarzan & Jane, released on July 23, 2002
Tarzan II, released on June 14, 2005, prequel to Tarzan

Awards
Tarzan won the following awards:
 2000 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for the song "You'll Be in My Heart" by Phil Collins.
 2000 Academy Award for Best Song for the song "You'll Be In My Heart" by Phil Collins.
 2000 Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media.

Annie Awards
Tarzan was also nominated for 11 Annie Awards, winning one.

Release dates

References

Other websites 
 

1999 movies
1999 animated movies
American family movies
American musical movies
Disney animated movies
English-language movies
Movies set in the 1880s
Movies that won the Best Original Song Academy Award
Tarzan (Disney)
Tarzan movies
Movies directed by Chris Buck