Now that you have seen it... Let's talk about this a bit. It's stunning, it's gorgeous, it looks like nothing you've seen before. It has your heart speeding, the Phil Collins song is cool, gosh it's the cat's meow just all the way around.
I agree. I'm dying to see... THAT movie. That movie is exactly what I want to see, a balls to the wall TARZAN film minus the cutesy poo and the annoying voiced Bronx accented Rosie O'Donnell ape.
I've seen TARZAN, in fact I've seen two different versions, and believe me, animated films change a lot through their various stages, I just hope that it continues to change between now and release. TARZAN is my favorite of the modern Disney animated films. Glen Keane's work animating that ape man is just unmatched. I've never ever seen character animation so dynamic and powerful.... he's a true master at the absolute heighth of his abilities and it is STUNNING.
The story of the film is great, the music is their best ever, the romance between Jane and Tarzan is PERFECT. But it has that damn GREASE-IS-THE-WORD hairstyled girlrilla named Rosie O'Donnell that acts like the biggest ingrown hair on your ass you've ever seen. Between the first print and the second print I saw, her performance was... toned down a bit, and what I'm hoping is that they can slowly and surely remove the eye and earsore that Rosie's character bleeds in a nearly mortal wound on screen.
Believe it or not, this isn't an anti-Rosie O'Donnell bit. You see I've enjoyed her work on film. They always cast her perfectly. Her television show, while quite lite, is enjoyable... hell ROBOGEEK swears by it. If I ever had a part for her, I'd give it to Garofalo, who can usually do everything Rosie does, but with more subtlety and heart. You see, in TARZAN, Rosie represents the shiny penny that reminds you this film was minted in 1999, though in the film... well it is a period piece. Everytime she speaks, every syllable... it's a jarring reminder that you are watching a 1990's film.
This is the danger with celebrity voice casting in an animation film. It's something that... perhaps has gotten a bit out of hand recently. In vintage DISNEY animation well the voices are so.... just part of the story. It's not like the seven dwarfs were voiced by Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant, Clark Gable, Groucho Marx, Spencer Tracy, Charles Laughton and Charles Chaplin as Dopey. No... And as a result... well, it's seemless, there are no dates on the characters' faces.
I believe I understand the need for Celebrity Casting, it's to... how do you say it... Well, it's to sell the film. It's so you don't have to put animators on Talk Shows... Which personally I'd love it if they did. I'd stay up to watch GLEN KEANE on any and every show on television. BUT John Q Public wouldn't. So, having Robin Williams, Eddie Murphy, Rosie O'Donnell... well it just helps your film with television air time. Groovy, I get it.
But now Disney owns ABC and can do weekly 30 minute programs about it's future feature animation if they want to.
The one thing this trailer does tell me though is this... Disney obviously knows how to sell the movie. They know what the public wants to see. They know what every male boy man thing wants... TARZAN, at the same time the touch on the alleged female points of the romance... Though the gal I saw the film with was going gaga over that oh so wonderful physique of TARZAN's. (I've got about 20 billion sit ups to go baby)
Just about every single last one of you are going to go GAGA over this film, and the one negative thing you'll come away with is... "God... why was Rosie O'Donnell an ape?"
This TARZAN is pretty darn great, but you know what? With a little tweaking and some downplaying of Rosie's character it could just do PHENOMENAL business. It will quite simply... kick your ass.
Why am I griping so loudly about this? Because I love soooo much of this film, it works sooooo completely when she's not talking, I just.... sigh.... Ya know... "A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes" I heard that somewhere.
SUMMER 1999 is going to be amazing if everything holds together. With Universal's MUMMY and Disney's TARZAN and Warner Brother's EYES WIDE SHUT and that Independent film coming out around Memorial Day.... well gosh, that should be just about awesome. Of course if perchance SUPERNOVA and WILD WILD WEST hit as well.... kick ass.
P.S. Sir Etch-A-Sketch... What's going on my friend?
