Archives: A
- E F - N O
- Z Posters Message
Boards
Who
We Are and Why We Do What We Do
BLU-RAY DVDs:
Batman Begins
Black Hawk Down
Blade Runner
Casino Royale
Dark Knight
District Nine
Defiance
Fast and Furious
Fast and Furious movies set
Fifth Element
The Hangover
Incredible HULK
Inglorious Basterds
Iron Man
Kill Bill 1 & 2
James Bond Ultimate v1
James Bond Ultimate v2
James Bond Ultimate v3
Julie & Julia
Moon
Public Enemies
Rambo box set
Silence of the Lambs
Sin City
This is Spinal Tap
Terminator
Terminator Salvation
Terminator 2
Top Gun
Total Recall
300
Transformers: Revenge of Fallen
Ultimate Matrix coll
Twilight
Underworld
Watchmen (dir cut)
X-Men Trilogy
X-Men Wolverine
BLU-Ray for family DVDs
Bolt
A Bug's Life
Cars
Chronicles of Narnia set
Coraline
Ghostbusters
Harry Potter & Chamber of Secrets
& Goblet of Fire
& Order of Phoenix
& Prisoner of Azkaban
& Sorcerers Stone
Ice Age/Alvin + Chipmunks set
The Incredibles
Jungle Book
Juno
Kung Fu Panda
Monsters Inc
Nightmare Before Xmas
101 Dalmatians
Pinocchio
Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy
Pixar short films
Ratatouille
Santa Clause
Santa Clause 2
Sleeping Beauty
Spiderwick Chronicles
Sleeping Beauty
Snow White & 7 Dwarfs
Star Trek motion pictures set
Star Wars Prequel Trilogy (1-3)
Star Wars Trilogy (4-6)
Transformers SE
Wallace and Gromit
Wall-E SE
We're Kidlet Safe
Search engine
by FreeFind
click to search site
Now in Release:
2012
A Perfect Getaway
The Blind Side
A Christmas Carol
An Education
Fifty Dead Men Walking
Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
Invictus
Is Anybody There?
It's Complicated
Loss of a Teardrop Diamond
The Lovely Bones
My Sister's Keeper
New in Town
Nine
Pirate Radio
Precious
The Proposal
Red Cliff
The Road
Shrink
St. Trinian's
The Strip
Surrogates
Taken
The Uninvited
Up in the Air
Young Victoria
DVDs on Sale:
Aliens Quadrilogy (set)
An American in Paris
Batman
Begins
Blade
Runner
Coraline
The Dark Knight
Day the Earth Stood Still
Defiance
Die Hard collection 1-4
District Nine
Last Days of Fillmore West
Fast & Furious movies set
Forrest
Gump
Gone
With the Wind
The Hangover
Alfred Hitchcock set
Indiana
Jones trilogy
Inglorious Basterds
Iron Man SE
Lord
of Rings 12 discs
Marx Bros set
Ultimate
Matrix set
Milk
Monty
Python - Holy Grail
Moon
Public Enemies
Sin City
South
Park Movie
Star
Wars Trilogy (1-3)
Star
Wars Trilogy (4-6)
Terminator Salvation
Up
Wall-E
Watchmen - Ultimate cut
Woodstock
X-Men
Trilogy
X-Men Origins Wolverine
DisneyPixar & family DVDs Looney
Toons
Alice
in Wonderland
Bambi
Beauty
and the Beast
Beverly Hills Chihuahua
Bolt
Cinderella
Coraline
E.T.
Harry
Potter yrs 1-4 set
Harry Potter
& Chamber of Secrets
& Goblet of Fire
& Prisoner of Azkaban
& Sorcerers Stone
& Order of Phoenix
Kung Fu Panda
The
Lion King
Mary
Poppins 45th LE
Pinocchio
Ratatouille
Santa Clause
Santa Clause 2
Shrek Trilogy
Simpsons Movie
Spider-Man Trilogy
Star Trek movies set
Star
Trek TOS (TV)
ST:TNG complete tv set
Star Wars Trilogy (1-3)
Star
Wars Trilogy (4-6)
Wallace and Gromit
Wall-E SE
Golden Age DVD
Volume
1
Volume
2
Volume
3
Volume 4
Volume 5
Volume 6
Rocky & Bullwinkle DVD
Season
1
Season
2
Season
3
Popeye the Sailor DVD
v.1 1933 - 1938
v.2 1938 - 1940
v.3 1941 - 1943
75th anniversary coll.ed.
CrankyCritic® movie reviews:
click for full size poster |
TarzanRated [G] |
IN SHORT: Sap-free Disney.
A bit of history: Disney allowed a minute or so of Tarzan, then in production, to be shown at the 1998 San Diego ComiCon. When the lights came up Cranky, and all the other toon-heads present, needed a couple of minutes to find where our jaws had dropped because what we saw looked like Burne Hogarth's definitive Tarzan artwork animated. The majority reaction was a double-edged sword. The positive was the hope that the rest of the flick looked as incredible as the tiny bit we saw. The negative was the dread that the Disney style would really screw up what is an American icon. San Diego was filled with folk who ate and breathed the work by Tarzan's creator Edgar Rice Burroughs, as well as the comic adaptations by Hal Foster and Hogarth. We toon-heads carry as much baggage into the movie theater as Tarzan and Disney do with their reps. For all of us, that baggage presents hurdles to overcome.
Cranky never does a note by note comparison with Source Material, and I'm not going to start now. Burroughs wrote "Tarzan of the Apes" 80 plus years ago, when the world was a much different place. Then, safaris were killing expeditions. Now, cameras have replaced guns. The problem facing this film's creators is that, whether it's big game hunting or animals killing for dinner, blood and death and killing is integral to the Tarzan universe. Any graphic representation would scare the popcorn out of the three year olds lugged to the theater by parents expecting "a Disney film," with all that the mandatory [G] rating implies. So how is Disney, which has a family friendly rep to maintain, going to deal with stories that are rife with killing?
They do very well, thank you. Fellow toon-heads who tromped over to the press junket were making comparisons to the Oscar nominated Beauty and the Beast. Cranky, who didn't like B&B, leans more towards The Lion King (and only if you focus on everything but the Hakuna Matata drek, which leaves the almost perfect "Circle of Life" and the breathtaking stampede sequences).
Long time readers know how I feel about this stuff . . . Disney could have chucked the singing and dancing jungle creatures and put Tarzan out under the Touchstone label, as they did with Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but they've never listened to me in the past and aren't about to start now. On all counts, Tarzan is a great Disney flick, remarkably free of all the cutesy stuff you may associate with their stuff. Yes, there's one singing and dancing monkey number -- Rosie O'Donnell insisted on a song -- but it's well integrated into the story with lots of visual gags. Some of the jungle sequences are too fast paced for my tastes, but that's probably because I'm an ancient old coot.
Disney's adaptation, by Bob Tzudiker & Noni White and Tab Murphy, has kept the origin and ape characters, Kala (Glenn Close as Tarzan's adopted mom) and Kerchak (Lance Henriksen) as well as the always important Jane (Minnie Driver). Almost everything else you want in a Tarzan flick, that being the vine swinging, and the Tarzan yell, is here. There's no Cheetah, though there is a little monkey pal who pops his head in once or twice, and Tarzan's ascension to Lord of the Apes has been modified slightly from its origin. In this story, which stresses family and non-judgmental values, the change fits. If you don't remember, or never read, the original, there's nothing bothersome about it.
In a visual montage to one of Phil Collins' soundtrack songs, we see the well known origin of the Ape-Man: the shipwreck and survival of Lord and Lady Greystoke and their babe; their attempt to survive and, well off camera, the killing of the parental units by Sabor the leopard. As additional songs by Collins move the story forward in time, we see the adopted Tarzan (Alex D. Linz voices the kidlet and Tony Goldwyn is the adult) grow and frolic with happy ape friend Terk (O'Donnell) and elephant pal Tantor (Wayne Knight). For the most part unaware that he is of a different species, Tarzan grows and performs as well as any hairless ape could. He's not as fast and hideously hairless but, as he promises Kala, he endeavors to be "the best ape ever!" The sound of distant gunshots brings his world down when Tarzan discovers human scientist Professor Archimedes Q. Porter (Nigel Hawthorne) and his daughter Jane (Driver) on safari, wishing to observe gorillas in their native environment. Their trigger happy pointman, Clayton (Brian Blessed) has other ideas, as the going price for gorillas in this turn of the century story is £300 Sterling (about $1500 if my history and math hold up) a head.
Of the stellar cast, Minnie Driver's Jane stands out, at least to these ears. Tarzan still does the rescue bit, in a frenetic bit of animation involving a pack of baboons and the run for safety, in the deep jungle. Locking the story into the jungle setting allows the writers time to build a relationship between he and she, and shows how the out of place Jane eventually accepts her role in the saga. The five songs by Phil Collins -- Cranky's had the soundtrack CD pushed to eleven -- flat out rock. Collins' percussion (you do remember that he's a drummer, right?) drives the flick forward, and is well complemented by Mark Mancina's underscore.
As for the animation, you are hereby directed to the Cranky Critic® StarTalk pages, where supervising animator Glen Keane is queried. Also in those pages, interviews with stars Glenn Close, Tony Goldwyn and the ever popular Phil Collins.
On average, a first run movie ticket will run you Eight Bucks. Were Cranky able to set his own price to Tarzan, he would have paid...
$7.50
Tarzan's a very excellent and satisfying Disneyflick, endorsed despite my baggage. There's nothing here that will terrify a three year old and the bigger kidlets, through low teen-hood in the sneak Cranky attended, walked out as very happy campers.
|
|
BUY THE LATEST DVDs |
|
 Star Wars Trilogy (Widescreen) DVD (Full Screen) |
 Lord of the Rings Trilogy DVD |
 Marx Bros collection |
 Alfred Hitchcock Collection |
|
|
We're Kidlet Safe
Search engine
by FreeFind
click to search site
Now in
Release:
The Band's Visit
Definitely Maybe
Hottie and the Nottie
In Bruges
Iron Man
Be Kind Rewind
Rambo
Cloverfield
Mad Money
U2 3D
28 Weeks Later
Black
Book
Bourne Ultimatum
Brooklyn
Rules
Death at a Funeral
Evening
The
Ex
Fido
Georgia Rule
Grindhouse
Hairspray
Harry Potter - Phoenix
The Hoax
Hot Rod
I Know Who Killed Me
La Vie en Rose
License to Wed
Live
Free or Die Hard
Mr. Brooks
Next
No Reservatons
Ocean's Thirteen
Perfect Stranger
Pirates of Caribbean
Ratatouille
Rescue Dawn
Rush Hour 3
Severance
Sicko
Simpsons Movie
Slow Burn
Snow Cake
Spider-Man 3
Stardust
DVDs
on Sale:
300
Alice
in Wonderland
Batman
Begins
Bambi
Beauty
and the Beast
Blade
Runner
Bridge to Terabithia
Charlie
+ Chocolate Factory
Cinderella
E.T.
Fantastic
Four
Forrest
Gump
Gone
With the Wind
Harry
Potter yrs 1-3 set
Harry
Potter Azkaban
The
Incredibles
Indiana
Jones trilogy
The
Lion King
Lord
of Rings 12 discs
Mary
Poppins 40th LE
Ultimate
Matrix set
Miss Potter
Monty
Python - Grail
Napoleon
Dynamite
Pirates of the Caribbean
Pirates of the Caribbean 2
Shrek
Shrek
2
Sin
City
Sleeping
Beauty
South
Park Movie
Spider-Man
Spider-Man
2
Star
Wars Ep. 1
Star
Wars Ep. 2
Star
Wars 3 Full Screen
Star
Wars 3 l'box
Star
Wars Trilogy (4-6)
The
Island
War
of the Worlds
X-Men
X-Men
2