Tarzan [2 Discs] [Includes Digital Copy] [Blu-ray/DVD]

Overview

Author Edgar Rice Burroughs once suggested that animation would be the ideal medium to bring his Tarzan to the screen, and 81 years after the first film about the famous ape-man, Disney brings us the first full-length animated film starring the King of the Jungle. After a disaster at sea causes their ship to sink off the coast of Africa, a British couple finds their way to shore with their infant son in tow. However, the parents are killed by a leopard, leaving the baby to fend for himself. The child is discovered by a gorilla named Kala (voice of Glenn Close), mate of Kerchak (voice of Lance Henriksen), the leader of the tribe of apes. While Kerchak is taken aback by the foundling and would just as soon leave him in the jungle, Kala's maternal nature is stirred. Kala and Kerchak take the baby with them, naming him Tarzan and raising him among their own. Although Tarzan (voice of Tony Goldwyn) grows up painfully aware that he's different from the apes, he comes to love and respect the gorillas and learns their ways, while they accept him into their tribe as he grows to adulthood. However, Tarzan's idyllic life in the jungle is changed forever by the arrival of Professor Porter (voice of Nigel Hawthorne), his daughter Jane (voice of Minnie Driver), and their guide, a hunter named Clayton (voice of Brian Blessed). The Professor and Jane have arrived in Africa to study the wildlife in its natural habitat, although Clayton would prefer to bag as many trophies as he can. When the explorers encounter Tarzan, they at first think they've discovered the missing link, although soon realize that he's as human as they are. Tarzan finds himself torn between his desire to be with his own kind (and the new, unfamiliar emotions that he feels for Jane) and his loyalties to the gorilla family that raised him -- especially since Clayton sees the apes not as friends but as prey. Dominated by fast-paced jungle action sequences, Tarzan also features voices by Rosie O'Donnell and Wayne Knight, as well as new songs by Phil Collins.

Product Details

Release Date:	08/12/2014
UPC:	0786936839142
Original Release:	1999
Rating:	G
Source:	Walt Disney Video
Region Code:	1
Language:	English
Time:	1:28:00
Sales rank:	11,259

Special Features

Deleted scenes; Research trip to Africa; The making of the music; "You'll Be In My Heart" music video performed by Phil Collins; DisneyPedia: living in the jungle

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Tony Goldwyn	Tarzan
Glenn Close	Kala
Minnie Driver	Jane
Rosie O'Donnell	Terk
Lance Henriksen	Kerchak
Brian Blessed	Clayton
Wayne Knight	Tantor
Nigel Hawthorne	Professor Porter
Alex D. Linz	Young Tarzan
Taylor Dempsey	Young Tantor
Jaron Löwenberg	Voices
Anke Engelke	Voices
Osman Ragheb	Voices
Michael Brennicke	Voices
Eva Mattes	Voices
Joachim Höppner	Voices
Heike Makatsch	Voices
Detlev Buck	Voices
Mark Mancina	Composer

Technical Credits

Tab Murphy

Noni White

Bob Tzudiker

Jase Blankfort

David Reynolds

Chris Buck	Director
Kevin Lima	Director
Bonnie Arnold	Producer
Tab Murphy	Screenwriter
Noni White	Screenwriter
Bob Tzudiker	Screenwriter
Ruth Lambert	Casting
Jase Blankfort	Screenwriter
David Reynolds	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

In an effort to take its familiar animation style one technological step further, Disney pioneered an effect called "deep canvas" for its big-screen version of Tarzan. The enthralling effect, which tricks the eye into seeing Tarzan's high-speed travels through the jungle in three dimensions, is just one reason to watch this surprisingly affecting tale of a misfit working to reconcile his differences from both apes and humans. At heart, it's an action movie, and a pretty hip one at that -- Tarzan's motions, as he surfs along serpentine tree limbs and hurtles through the vines, are modeled on those of skateboarders. Plus it has a handful of clever set pieces in which no less than a vicious tiger, a sadistic hunter, and a herd of stampeding elephants threaten the safety of the gorillas. Many of these are funny, too -- when the elephants debate whether a prankster Tarzan swimming in their drinking hole might be a piranha, one of them points out that it couldn't be because the piranha is indigenous to South America. But in a way that only Disney can manage, these moments alternate with Tarzan's genuinely touching attempts to earn his keep, such that when he lets out his trademark blood-curdling yell after vanquishing a foe, the swell of pride is contagious. The vocal work is unspectacular, outside of Minnie Driver as a teasingly proper Jane and Wayne Knight as a neurotic elephant. The film could benefit from a slightly smaller dose of Rosie O'Donnell's wisecracking. But the most visually advanced film that Disney had produced at the time is also one of its most loveable, and even Phil Collins' dutifully inspirational score gets swept up in the general joy.