Here we go with another quick look at TARZAN, a movie that I enjoy quite a bit, though it ain't quite as good as it could have been. (Had Rosie and the damn Pink Elephant didn't exist!) Anyway... Onto the review....
hey harry, saw tarzan, and will now sound off
Tarzan
I saw the film about a week ago so my memory isn't ultra-fresh but hell, who cares?
i was a little excited about the film waiting for this film. since the first trailer, honestly. what excited me so much was that Disney had its first manly hero in a while - a guy who could bust some ass on the bad guys. i know hercules was that but that movie was just such a..... cartoon. beast in beauty and the beast was the last real badass hero, but he turns into a little psuedo-androgynous pretty boy at the end, which made me miserable.
don't get me wrong - im all for subversion of the patriarchy and all that, but i want heros i can relate to, too. and i thought tarzan would be it.
Did i get what I wanted? Kind of. Sure, he's pretty rugged, can swing with the best of them and wrestle giant apes, but his strength mysteriously dissappears when he has two pirate ruffians grab his arms. Hmmm.... gorillas can crush human bones and he wrestles a giant one to the ground but he cant struggle away from two beefy humans? Very hmmm... SO i was dissapointed on that front.
Also dissapointed was I (Yoda syntax, I apologise) in the length of the film. it's over just as you're really ready to rock. i thought mulan had the same problem - big battle sequence and rush rush rush - it's over.
It was likable, though - Tony Goldwyn as Tarzan doesn't do anything 6 billion actors couldnt have, but so what (I still think Mr. Lamberts Tarzan in Legend of Greystoke stands as the best ever, though)? he doesnt suck. Minnie Driver as jane is ludicrously charming. her voice as pleasant to listen to as her freckled self is to look at. lance henrikson as the grand gorilla of sorts is great, masterful. his voice is undeniabluy wonderful and it adds depths to his character that would definately not be there without him. glenn close (in her 2nd tarzan voice-over job, in case you've forgotten - the 1st being Greystoke, where she overdubbed all of the atrocious Andie McDowells lines) is fine, nice and all....nothing more to say there. thats about it for the worth mentionings - oh! Rosie. okay, prepare for this. she's not that bad. yeah, she's kind of obnoxious with her new york patois but how many of those sidekick type characters in disney have always been slightly annoying? she only sortof sings once... and not really anyway.
the animation is tight and the swinging, sliding, tarzan meets extreme jungle navigation stuff is very fun, cool, etc.... and the animations on the animals is cool, too, althought this main character elephant is a little more "wackily" animated than everybody else. tarzan was cool, even if his chin is damn pointy...
the movie doesnt stick with you, though. maybe if you see it with a packed house (there was all of about 20something in a multi-hundred theater when i saw it) it'll be more fun, but.... i dont know. it's missing something... soul, i suppose. that element that was in lion king, toy story, a bugs life - that thing that fills with with wonder and makes you cheer and all that and laugh at shit you normally wouldn't. you know what im talking about. tarzans alright, but it doesn't have soul.
MC Chill Wizard B
