Tarzan (1999 film)

Disney's Tarzan was the first Tarzan film to be animated.[5] Thomas Schumacher, the President of Walt Disney Feature Animation, expressed surprise that there weren't any previous attempts to animate a Tarzan film, saying, "Here is a book that cries out to be animated. Yet we're the first filmmakers to have ever taken Tarzan from page to screen and presented the character as Burroughs intended."[4] He noted that in animated form, Tarzan can connect to the animals on a deeper level than he can in live action versions.[4]

Following work on A Goofy Movie in late 1994, Kevin Lima was approached to direct Tarzan by studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg who desired to have the film animated at a Canadian-based satellite television animation studio, in which Lima was reluctant to do because of the animation complexities being done by inexperienced animators. Following Katzenberg's resignation from the Walt Disney Company, Lima was again contacted about the project by Michael Eisner, who decided to have the film produced through the Feature Animation division by which Lima signed on.[6] Following this, Lima decided to read Tarzan of the Apes where he began to visualize the theme of two hands being held up against each other.[7] That image became an important symbol of the relationships between characters in the film, and a metaphor of Tarzan's search for identity. "I was looking for something that would underscore Tarzan's sense of being alike, yet different from his ape family", Lima said, "The image of touching hands was first conceived as an idea for how Tarzan realizes he and Jane are physically the same."[4] Following his two-month study of the book, Lima approached his friend, Chris Buck, who had just wrapped up work as a supervising animator on Pocahontas, to ask if he would be interested in serving as co-director. Buck was initially skeptical but accepted after hearing Lima's ideas for the film.[8] By April 1995, the Los Angeles Times reported that the film was in its preliminary stages with Lima and Buck directing after Disney had obtained the story rights from the estate of Edgar Rice Burroughs.[9]

Tab Murphy, who had just finished work on The Hunchback of Notre Dame, was attracted to the theme of man-versus-nature in Tarzan, and began developing a treatment in January 1995. For the third act, Murphy suggested that Tarzan should leave for England, as he did in the book, but the directors felt that it was incompatible with their central theme of what defines a family. In order to keep Tarzan in the jungle, the third act needed to be restructured by redefining the role of the villain and inventing a way to endanger the gorillas.[4] In this departure from Burrough's novel, a villain named Clayton was created to serve as a guide for Professor Archimedes Q. Porter and his daughter, Jane. In addition to this, Kerchak was re-characterized from a savage silverback into the protector of the gorilla tribe.[7]

In January 1997, husband-and-wife screenwriting duo Bob Tzudiker and Noni White were hired to help refocus and add humor to the script as a way to balance the emotional weight of the film.[7] Comedy writer Dave Reynolds was also brought on to write humorous dialogue for the film.[10] "I was initially hired on for six weeks of rewriting and punch-up", Reynolds said, "A year and a half later, I finished. Either they liked my work, or I was very bad at time management."[4] One challenge the writers faced was how Tarzan should learn about his past. "When Kala takes Tarzan back to the tree house, she is essentially telling him that he was adopted", Bonnie Arnold, the producer for Tarzan, said, "This is necessitated by him encountering humans and recognizing he is one of them."[4] As a way to explore the feelings in that scene, Arnold brought in adoptive parents to talk with the story team.[4] Another issue was the inherent and overt racism in the original Edgar Rice Burrough's Tarzan. The writers consciously chose to not include any African characters in order to avoid this topic.

Brendan Fraser auditioned twice for the title character before portraying the lead role in George of the Jungle.[11] Tony Goldwyn auditioned for the title role as well, and according to co-director Kevin Lima, Goldwyn landed it because of "the animal sense" in his readings, along with some "killer baboon imitations".[12] For the signature Tarzan yell, Lima and Buck desired the traditional yell, although Goldwyn faced difficulties with providing the yell stating "It's really hard to do, physically." Co-star Brian Blessed ultimately provided the yell.[13] Terk was originally written as a male gorilla, but following Rosie O'Donnell's audition, Terk was re-characterized as a female.[14] Furthermore, Woody Allen was initially cast as the neurotic elephant Tantor. However, Katzenberg persuaded Allen to leave the project for DreamWorks Pictures' Antz and in exchange, the studio would distribute his next four films. Agreeing to the deal, Allen departed from Tarzan in 1996 and was replaced by Wayne Knight.[15]

The animators were split into two teams, one in Paris and one in Burbank. The 6000-mile distance and difference in time zones posed challenges for collaboration, especially for scenes with Tarzan and Jane. Glen Keane was the supervising animator for Tarzan at the Paris studio, while Ken Duncan was the supervising animator for Jane at the studio in Burbank. To make coordinating scenes with multiple characters easier, the animators used a system called a "scene machine" that could send rough drawings between the two animation studios.[4] Meanwhile, following production on Mulan, two hundred animators at the Feature Animation Florida satellite studio provided character animation and special effects animation where the filmmakers had to discuss their work through daily video conferences among the three studios.[16]

Keane was inspired to make Tarzan "surf" through the trees because of his son's interest in extreme sports, and he began working on a test scene. The directors expressed concern that Tarzan would be made into a "surfer dude", but when Keane revealed the test animation to them they liked it enough to use it in the film during the "Son of Man" sequence, with movements inspired by skateboarder Tony Hawk. Although Keane initially thought that Tarzan would be easy to animate because he only wears a loincloth, he realized that he would need a fully working human musculature while still being able to move like an animal. To figure out Tarzan's movements, the Paris animation team studied different animals in order to transpose their movements onto him. They also consulted with a professor of anatomy. This resulted in Tarzan being the first Disney character to accurately display working muscles.[4]

To prepare for animating the gorillas, the animation team attended lectures on primates, made trips to zoos, and studied nature documentaries, with a group of animators also witnessing a gorilla dissection to learn about their musculature. In 1996, the animation team went on a two-week safari in Kenya to take reference photographs and observe the animals. On the trip, they visited Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda to view mountain gorillas in the wild, and get inspiration for the setting.[4] In 2000, Chris Buck repeated the journey accompanied by journalists to promote the film's home video release.[17]

To create the sweeping 3D backgrounds, Tarzan's production team developed a 3D painting and rendering technique known as Deep Canvas (a term coined by artist/engineer Eric Daniels).[18] This technique allows artists to produce CGI background that looks like a traditional painting, according to art director Daniel St. Pierre.[18] (The software keeps track of brushstrokes applied in 3D space.)[18] For this advancement, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded the creators of Deep Canvas a Technical Achievement Award in 2003. After Tarzan, Deep Canvas was used for a number of sequences in Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001), particularly large panoramic shots of the island and several action sequences. Expanded to support moving objects as part of the background, Deep Canvas was used to create about 75 percent of the environments in Disney's next major animated action film, Treasure Planet (2002).

Disney Consumer Products released a series of toys, books, and stuffed animals for Tarzan, partnering with Mattel to produce a line of plush toys and action figures.[27] Mattel also produced the Rad Repeatin' Tarzan action figure, but discontinued it after complaints regarding the toy's onanistic arm motions.[28] Continuing its advertising alliance with McDonald's, its promotional campaign began on the film's opening day with several toys accompanied with Happy Meals and soda straws that replicated the Tarzan yell.[29] Disney also worked with Nestle to create Tarzan themed candies, including a banana-flavored chocolate bar.[30] In early 2000, Disney partnered again with McDonald's to release a set of eight Happy Meal toys as a tie-in for the film's home video.[31] They also offered Tarzan themed food options, such as banana sundaes and jungle burgers.[32]

On February 1, 2000, the film was released on VHS and DVD. The DVD version contained bonus material, including the "Strangers Like Me" music video, the making of "Trashin' the Camp" featuring Collins and 'N Sync, and an interactive trivia game.[33] A 2-Disc Collector's Edition was released on April 18, 2000. It included an audio commentary track recorded by the filmmakers, behind-the-scenes footage, and supplements that detailed the legacy of Tarzan and the film's development.[34] Both editions were placed in moratorium on January 31, 2002 and placed back into the Disney Vault.[35] On October 15, 2005, Disney released the Tarzan Special Edition on DVD. Tarzan's first Blu-ray edition was released throughout Europe in early 2012, and on August 12, 2014, Disney released the Tarzan Special Edition on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD.[36][37]

Pre-release tracking indicated that Tarzan was appealing to all four major demographics noticeably for the first time for a Disney animated film since the release of The Lion King.[38] The film's limited release was on June 16, 1999,[1] and the wide release followed on June 18, 1999, in 3,005 screens. During the weekend of June 18–21, Tarzan grossed $34.1 million ranking first on its opening weekend notably grossing higher than Mulan and A Bug's Life in their respective box office weekends,[39] and ranked second in Disney animated box office openings behind The Lion King, which earned $40.9 million.[40] By August 1999, the domestic gross was projected to approach $170 million,[41] whereas in the following month, Disney executives expected the film to gross between $450 million to $500 million worldwide.[42] Ultimately, the film closed its box office run with $448.2 million worldwide.[1]

Rotten Tomatoes reported that 89% of critics gave the film a positive review based on 105 reviews, with an average score of 7.56/10. The critical consensus reads that "Disney's Tarzan takes the well-known story to a new level with spirited animation, a brisk pace, and some thrilling action set-pieces."[43] Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 from top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 79 based on 27 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[44]

Entertainment Weekly compared the film's advancement in visual effects to that of The Matrix, stating that it had "the neatest computer-generated background work since Keanu Reeves did the backstroke in slow motion". They elaborate by describing how the characters moved seamlessly through the backgrounds themselves, giving the film a unique three-dimensional feel that far surpassed the quality of previous live-action attempts.[45] Roger Ebert gave the film 4 stars, and he had similar comments about the film, describing it as representing "another attempt by Disney to push the envelope of animation", with scenes that "move through space with a freedom undreamed of in older animated films, and unattainable by any live-action process".[46] Awarding the film three stars, James Berardinelli wrote: "From a purely visual standpoint, this may be the most impressive of all of Disney's traditionally animated features. The backdrops are lush, the characters are well realized, and the action sequences are dizzying, with frequent changes of perspectives and camera angles. No conventional animated film has been this ambitious before."[47] Desson Howe, writing for The Washington Post, claimed the film "isn't up there with Aladdin, The Lion King and The Little Mermaid, but it's easily above the riffraff ranks of Hercules and Pocahontas".[48] Todd McCarthy of Variety proved to be less amused by the animation, claiming it was "richly detailed and colorfully conceived, but the computer animation and graphics are often intermingled and combined in ways that are more distracting in their differences than helpful in their vividness".[49]

Lisa Schwarzbaum, who graded the film an A-, applauded the film as "a thrilling saga about a natural man, untainted by the complications of 'civilized' life, who can anticipate changes in the air by sniffing the wind — swings because the Disney team, having sniffed the wind, went out on a limb and kept things simple".[50] Peter Stack of the San Francisco Chronicle admired the film for tackling "meanings of family relationships and ideas about society, guardianship and compassion" and "cunning and greed and the ultimate evil", as well as remaining faithful to Burroughs's original novel.[51] Kenneth Turan of Los Angeles Times wrote that the "story unfolds with dangers as well as warm humor; a jungle jam session called 'Trashin' the Camp' is especially hard to resist. We may have seen it all before, but when it's done up like this, experiencing it all over again is a pleasure."[52] In similarity, Janet Maslin, reviewing for The New York Times, opined that "Tarzan initially looks and sounds like more of the same, to the point where Phil Collins is singing the words 'trust your heart' by the third line of his opening song. But it proves to be one of the more exotic blooms in the Disney hothouse, what with voluptuous flora, hordes of fauna, charming characters and excitingly kinetic animation that gracefully incorporates computer-generated motion."[53]

The Radio Times review was not positive, stating the film "falls way short of Disney's best output" and featured "weak comic relief". The review concluded, "Lacking the epic sweep of Mulan or The Lion King, and laced with feeble background songs from Phil Collins (inexplicably awarded an Oscar), this King of the Swingers may be merchandise-friendly, but it's no jungle VIP."[54] Michael Wilmington of the Chicago Tribune, while giving the film three stars, wrote that Tarzan "lacks that special pizazz that the string of Disney cartoon features from The Little Mermaid through The Lion King all had". He found faults in the film's politically correct storyline, lack of romantic tension between Tarzan and Jane, and the songs by Phil Collins, comparing them unfavorably with Elton John's "showstoppers" for The Lion King. He wrote "depriving the characters of big numbers weakens the movie".[55]

Ty Burr of Entertainment Weekly gave the soundtrack a B-, stating that it was awkwardly split between Collins's songs and the traditional score, was burdened by too many alternate versions of the tracks, and in some instances bore similarities to the scores of The Lion King and Star Wars.[56]

Tarzan was also nominated for 11 Annie Awards, winning one in the category for Technical Achievement in the Field of Animation. The award was given to Eric Daniels, who developed the Deep Canvas animation process for the film.[60] Phil Collins was nominated for a Kids Choice Award for his song "Two Worlds", but lost to Will Smith's song "Wild Wild West". Rosie O'Donnell, the host of the 2000 Kids Choice Awards, was nominated for her voicework as Tarzan's best friend, Terk. She won the award for Favorite Voice From an Animated Movie, beating out both Tim Allen and Tom Hanks, the voices of Buzz Lightyear and Woody from Toy Story 2.[61]

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

• 2004: AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:
  • "You'll Be in My Heart" – Nominated[62]
• 2008: AFI's 10 Top 10:
  • Nominated Animation Film[63]