Rating: 
Summary: Some good old jungle magic
Review: I'm one of those people who hate it when characters in Disney cartoons suddenly burst into song for no reason at all. My wife on the other hand loves all Disney cartoons.
So you can imagine my surprise when I first saw this version of Tarzan. No unnecessary songs and those that do feature in the movie are by Phil Collins whose music has always been a personal favourite.
What about the movie itself? Well, I've seen many cinematic retellings of the Tarzan legend, including the camp Johnny Weismuller serials of the 1940s and the serious version made in the 1980s with Christopher Lambert, but this one ranks right up there with the best.
The animation is superb and so is the production design. The Deep Canvas process (explained in detail in the special features) is a great breakthrough is adding detail to complex backgrounds.
The soundtrack and the effects are great too. Kudos to the producers for using lesser known actors to provide voices for the characters, unlike other animated Disney ventures.
If the movie is so great, why does this two-disc collector's edition get only four stars from me?
Well, for one, the movie is edgy unlike other Disney cartoons but not edgy enough. The abandoned ending, included in the special features, is much better than the actual ending. Other big letdowns are the special features, which are too short and not in anamorphic widescreen.
In this section, Phil Collins stands out again, with his demos and music videos.
Rating:
Summary: Good If Not Outstanding
Review: One of the things about watching a Disney animation feature is that
you have a pretty good idea of what to expect: the plots will be safe
as milk, noncontroversial, and the artwork / production values will be
silver or gold standard. That's what's expected of them, and they
have no way of changing it.
DISNEY'S TARZAN fits that mold. Of course, the story is perfectly
familiar, since it's been filmed so many times: a family is washed
ashore on a remote coast of Africa, with the parents losing the
struggle for survival and leaving behind a helpless infant boy. The
boy is adopted by a troop of apes, and grows to manhood to become a
king of the jungle, swinging through the trees on vines. And then,
one day, his own sort of people appear in the jungle, including among
their number a young woman named Jane. This is a surprisingly durable story, and it clicks along as well as
could be expected for its age. Of course, like I said, the story has
to be basically safe, as well as slightly moralistic. This leads to a
running subplot about Tarzan's troubled relationship with his ape
"father" -- in this variant of the story, the apes are gorillas -- who
refuses to accept him as his own, and of course, Tarzan's dealings
with the humans, not all of whom are up to any good. Anyway, this sort of thing is probably fine for kids, but most adults
will find it predictable -- Tarzan will be reconciled with his
"father" in the end, and the bad guys will get theirs. (Is this
giving anything away? I think not.) The safe predictability being
part of the ground rules for a Disney animation movie, this is no
cause for objection, but it does lead to the question of what there is
in the movie for the adult watcher. Actually, a fair amount. The animation is typical Disney quality,
meaning top or near top of the line. (Anime fans tend to knock Disney
but almost any anime producer will weep in envy at the production
quality and the resources it implies. Incidentally, I *am* an anime
fan.) There are visually clever bits, such as a first-person view of
swinging through the jungle, basically a video sequence for a
virtual-reality thrill ride that might give a few watchers a little
queasiness. Another nice bit is that the real star of the show turns out to be
Jane. These days, the tendency is to make the female characters
two-fisted heroines, which admittedly is preferable to the helpless
damsels in distress of the old times, but it still gets tiresome.
Jane takes an endearing middle path: she's a proper English girl, but
she has an eccentric streak and a lot of curiosity: "Teach me how to
speak gorilla!" Of course she's a little quirky, what other kind of
girl would fall for a jungle man swinging through the trees? Last but not least, there's the outstanding Phil Collins soundtrack.
I'm not big on emotionally charged music, my tastes more running to
cyber colors or cool jazz, but I had to admit that Collins' tunes won
me over, and in fact the theme song, "You'll Be In My Heart", won him
an Oscar. I actually preferred the upbeat "Son of Man" and
particularly "Strangers Like Me" myself, but the Oscar was
well-deserved. So I judge this good, if not wildly memorable. Incidentally, DISNEY'S
TARZAN follows the live-action GREYSTOKE: LORD OF THE APES movie in
taking a Jane Goodall / Diane Fossey view of primate behavior that is
not apparent in, say, the Johnny Weismuller Tarzan flics. Another incidental item is that there were complaints about the title:
DISNEY'S TARZAN ... uh, so what happened to Edgar Rice Burroughs? But
obviously Disney just wanted to differentiate their version of the
Tarzan myth from all the umpteen other film versions. Yeah, it was a
bit tactless, people can get offended if they like, the rest of us can
watch the movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Anyone else notice....
Review: ....the shadow of the dead body hanging in the noose?! Probably not....most folks set their kiddos in front of a Disney movie hoping for some quiet time. Do the world a favor: toss the movies, better yet, toss the TV and read a book with your children!
Rating: 
Summary: Shame about Phil Collins' Soundtrack
Review: I'll get my only serious gripe out the way first. Phil Collins' singing is a distraction in the movie but is mercifully restricted to the beginning and end of the film. Please, Phil, you don't have to literally sing what is happening on-screen. Otherwise, Tarzan is a complete triumph. I've been buying Disney DVDs right and left for my daughter and have become used to the trappings and visuals. For the first time, I was caught unawares. The visual depth and quality on this film are simply amazing. The film also makes terrific use of CGI. Reviewing Beauty and the Beast afterwards shows just how far the marriage of computer graphics with traditional animation has come. The story here is solid and faithful to the general idea we have of Tarzan. Disney almost blows it by augmenting Tarzan's vine-swinging with something that looks suspiciously like skating or snowboarding, but considering the primary audience, this is forgiveable. Characterization is second to none in this movie and I have to hand it to Disney, I don't think Jane has ever seen a more interesting iteration. Mini Driver is infectious as the vocal talent and I found myself attracted to a drawing in a way I haven't since The Little Mermaid first came out when I was 17 (ahem). Compared to recent releases from Disney's animation unit (not including Pixar productions), this is the finest work I've seen from the company in a long while.
Rating:
Summary: The ART of Animation
Review: In my mind, "Tarzan" is one of the best of the recent Disney features. In addition to its lush visuals and top-notch animation, the story is one of Disney's most solid. I also applaud them for stepping away from the straight musical format a little and puting the needs of the story before formula. As for the DVD, I bought it and I don't even own a DVD player. This may just be a testament to my insanity, but I think it also says something about the quality of this DVD. You can spend hours pouring over concept sketches of characters major and minor, listen to early demos of the music ("Son of Man, la la la la") and some music that never made it to the film, view leica reels of deleted scenes, read the original treatment, or see master animator Glen Keane talk about animating Tarzan. The running commentary by directors Buck and Lima and producer Arnold is quite enjoyable and never feels overly scripted. Dislikes and animation mistakes are noted along with the positive aspects of the film. And thanks to the explanation included, I finally understand how Deep Canvas works. This DVD is a must for the animation enthusiast, the Disney afficianado, the Glen Keane lover, or anyone who's just curious about the animation process.
Rating:
Summary: Tarzan!
Review: Not only did I love this movie I absolutly adored the animation. The water looked so real and same with the jungle. Very cool. The story begins when Tarzans parents escape from a burning ship and end up in africa. They build a tree house in a huge tree. While they are building two gorilla's Kala and Kerchak also ahve a baby and they seem to love it very much. Then (this is the part where it gets a bit gory) a leopard called Sapour kills Kala's baby and then climes into Tarzan's tree house and kills his parents. When Kala hears a cry and she climbs into the tree house and see's tarzan's parents lying dead in the corner with sapours footprints covered with blood. Well anyway now let's fast forward. Tarzan finds two friends Terk (a gorilla) and
tantor (an elephant).
When Tarzan becomes part of the ape family he kills sapour and tries to convince his stepfather kerchak to like him. That's when human's arivve in the seen. They are a small group with a clumsy professor, a hunter named Clayton and the professor's daughter Jane. When they meet Kerchak is not to happy about their arrival and scares them off. Then at the end of the movie Clayton kills Kerchack and fights with Tarzan in the trees. Eventually Clayton gets tangled up in vines and suffocates. The end.
Rating:
Summary: Better than average Disney
Review: Looks like Disney is trying improve on the standard Disney animation with Tarzan. The animation quality is excellent! DVD on a large screen TV is the best way to experience the results of the technology Disney developed to make this movie. Parents will appreciate the animation quality which in turn enhances the story and kids will simply like the animation because it's cool! The story follows the traditional Disney story line, but places a greater focus on positive messages(family, loyalty, respect and acceptance). As a result, this sets Tarzan a part from the standard Disney story line(exception Mulan). With the exception of Jane, Disney did a good job in matching actors to the characters. Unfortunately, Mimie Driver's voice and lines seemed to be out of place with her Jane Porter character. Maybe its all those Johnny Weismuller Tarzan movies I watched as kid. As with all Disney animation, music plays a major role. The scores written and sung by Phil Collins are excellent! However, there is one musical score(Trashin the Camp) which seems to be out of place in both the story line and music. Overall, this is a better than average Disney feature that hopefully is an indication of things to come for future Disney animation features.
Rating:
Summary: AWESOME MOVIE!!!!!!!!!!
Review: i am a disney movie collector and tarzan is one of my favorites among the disney collection.great animation great story.this movie is a must to get!!!!
Rating:
Summary: good movie, great music, lame dvd treatment
Review: I suppose we are meant to wait for Disney to give this a decent two-disc treatment. Right now there are few extras on the dvd (though the languages are rather amazing). The movie, the well-known tale from Edgar Rice Burroughs, is very well done, with terrific songs from Phil Collins, very nice voice work and delightful animation. There is some violence and four deaths, though they aren't bloody. Extras include a trivia game, a storybook version of the film with optional read-along, a Collins music video and a behind-the-scenes studio session with Collins. The film can be heard in English, Cantonese or Mandarin; and subtitles are available in English, Mandalay, Bahasa, Thai or Korean!
Rating: 
Summary: Not bad
Review: it's just one of those Disney movies. Nothing bad, nothing really good.
Pluspoints are in the music and the animation, which is Disney's best so far.
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