Swing Tarzan Swing: Disney's 1999 Animated Take
Thursday, November 10, 2016 at 4:00PM We've reached the penultimate episode of our Tarzan series. Now sailing into Disney wilds...
by Nathaniel R
For over half a century in film and television storytellers didn't think Tarzan needed an origin plot but when the movies told it (Greystoke, 1984), it was as if everyone had always wanted to. Why not Disney then? Disney hadn't quite run out of classic fairytales to adapt by the mid-nineties but they were shifting their focus to boys. This was arguably due to their gargantuan back-to-back biggest-ever successes of Aladdin (1992) and The Lion King (1994), two animated features that deviated from their princess focus. Enter Hercules and then Tarzan. Neither were girly fairytales but both were still firmly embedded in fantasy and heightened enough for musical numbers.
Sort of.
By the time Tarzan rolled into town, Disney executives had clearly begun to wonder if audiences were done with the musical part of their Animated Musicals because Tarzan is only a musical in the sense that non-diegetic adult contemp ear worms keep popping up. They arrive without warning, with all the subtlety of a slasher movie jump scare.
how many storms at sea / shipwrecks has Disney animated now? The number seems high.
Tarzan begins with the shipwreck of the Greystokes (unnamed in the movie) and the ship has just barely exploded with fire nearly killing Papa Greystoke when Phil Collins is all "YOU'LL BE IN MY HEART..." (all caps intended) with a weird mix of soothing earnestness and anthemic bombast. It's quite distracting. Though Tarzan (1999) is the only Tarzan picture to ever win any Oscar (Best Original Song), the Oscar-winning part of it is nearly its biggest weakness.
You know the origin story so Disney whizzes through it stopping in its tracks only for two things, comedy and parenting. The comedy comes by way of the film's other main weakness, Tarzan's sidekicks Terk (Rosie O'Donnell dialed up to an 11 when the film needs a 7 at best) and the elephant Tantor (Wayne Knight). This animal pair doesn't drag the movie down s much as the gargoyles in Hunchback of Notre Dame do but then the movie around them isn't vastly superior and tonally opposed to them as in the former case.
In the first act we also establish Tarzan's relationships with his defacto adoptive parents, the stern disapproving patriarch Kerchak (Lance Henriksen) and the kind maternal Kala. Kala is voiced by Glenn Close; in just fifteen years from 1984 to 1999 Glenn Close went from dubbing Tarzan's lover Jane (Greystoke) to dubbing his ape mom which is some kind of blatant "Hollywood is a Jungle for Actresses" metaphor.
Still the Tarzan/Kala relationship almost makes the constant "You'll Be In My Heart" reprises bearable because it gives the movie its, well, heart. Or maybe it's that it's always a relief when you hear it and it's not Tarzan and Jane's song "Two Worlds"
It's not worth commenting on the film's villain Clayton except to say that its a weak effort for Disney (who often excel with villains) but par for the course with Tarzan films. As we've seen, the Tarzan franchise nearly always identify the villains immediately and never hides his or their evil even if Jane and her father have trouble seeing it -- this tradition goes all the way back to the Weismuller films. The only enormous misstep with the villain is calling him Clayton at all which is actually part of Tarzan's family name (John Clayton, Viscount Greystoke). Why muddy those waters for young viewers?
For all the unevenness of this particular Disney film, the film really finds its footing (so to speak) whenever Tarzan and Jane are paired and swinging around. Minnie Driver does terrific funny voicework as a proper British lady letting her hair down and Tarzan's slowed down movements and emotional responses/fascination in her presence are a pleasure to watch and a reminder of what we've lost with looser hand drawn animation. It's only a shame they don't let Minnie sing since her voice is more pleasant than Phil Collins's!
Tarzan films always reflect the era they're made in hard-to-miss ways so in this one that's all in Tarzan's physicality. He doesn't just swing from vines (the norm) but he surfs tree branches acrobatically and backwards like he's trying out tricks for the then newish and suddenly popular sport of snowboarding.
The smartest move is how Disney navigates the tricky terrain (for them) of lust at first sight with a nearly naked man. Tarzan has visible nipples and, more rare, visible abs with a telltale squiggly line, which seems like a first. He's showing off more thigh and side butt than any Tarzan since Buster Crabbe. Jane likes him right away but she's also (quite reasonably) scared. They cut the tension with comedy but the comedy springs organically from this very naked physicality, especially when Tarzan wants Jane to listen to his heart.
Tarzan doesn't know from personal boundaries - this is his first human interaction
He doesn't know from personal space or consent, but he's also as innocent as a lamb. Jane's the one who finally makes the first move later in the film when she and her father decide to stay in the jungle. He's already in her heart, they're two worlds ---ARGH THESE SONGS! -- merging into one family.
Next Episode: The finale of our ten part miniseries as we revisit Alexander Skarsgård in The Legend of Tarzan (2016) now that the film has hit DVD and Blu-Ray
All Chapters:
Ch. 1 Buster Crabbe in Tarzan the Fearless (1933)
Ch. 2 Johnny Weissmuller & Maureen O'Sullivan in Tarzan and His Mate (1934)
Archive Extra: Tarzan the Ape Man (1932)
Ch. 3 Lex Barker in Tarzan's Peril (1951)
Ch. 4 Gordon Scott in Tarzan's Great Adventure (1959)
Ch. 5 Mike Henry in Tarzan and The Valley of Gold (1966)
Ch. 6 Bo Derek & Miles O'Keeffe in Tarzan the Ape Man (1980)
Ch. 7 Oscar loves Greystoke, The Legend of Tarzan: Lord of the Apes (1984)
Ch. 8 Casper Van Dien in Tarzan and the Lost City (1998)
Reader Comments (11)
Can you believe this fucking song took Aimee Mann's Oscar for Save Me, from Magnolia?
cal roth: I imagine it was Blame Canada and Save Me (either of which would have won that category in a WALK in a normal year) splitting the vote that allowed this light rock nightmare (even in Phil Collins' career it's a wide gulf from In the Air Tonight to his Academy Award winning Tarzan song) to take the win, because there's no other way I can imagine a majority of people with ears giving the win to that.
Wait--did you intentionally not name the actor who voiced Tarzan or did I just read the article too fast?
I would've gone with "Blame Canada", "Save Me", and that song from Toy Story 2 over that Phil Collins shit. I like Phil Collins but that was an awful song.
Nat, you'rr getting your songs mixed up. Two Worlds is the song.that opens the movie (and has the reprises), You'll Be In My Heart only appears once during the movie as a lullabye (and the full version in the closong credits), while the other songs are Son of Man and Strangers Like Me, which is the Tarzan/Jane song (and Trashing the Camp, if you count it)....
richter - you're right on the songs i forgot already but i JUST watched the movie before typing this so you're wrong about You'll Be In My Heart.
Very fond memories of this film. Must have watched it over a dozen times on VHS. Loved the soundtrack. Haven't revisited it in a long, long time though.
Here's what you said:
"Tarzan begins with the shipwreck of the Greystokes (unnamed in the movie) and the ship has just barely exploded with fire nearly killing Papa Greystoke when Phil Collins is all "YOU'LL BE IN MY HEART..." (all caps intended) with a weird mix of soothing earnestness and anthemic bombast..."
That's where you're wrong. The song playing in that moment is Two Worlds (which begins with "put your faith in what you most believe in")...
Here's the YouTube clip to prove it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3u1_181N7g
Natalie, Richer is right about the songs. You might have just watched the film but got the names of the songs mixed up. Two Worlds plays three times, in the beginning, then it resumes right after the fight with the leopard and then in the end of the film. You'll Be In My Heart plays after Kala has introduced Tarzan to the apes and they are alone. Then Son Of Man, then trashing of the camp if you count that and then Strangers Like Me. You'll Be In My Heart plays in the credits as well.
Aimee Mann "Save Me" I'll give you certainly as well as "Blame Canada," but the biggest travesty is the win over "When She Loved Me" from Toy Story 2. I think it's by far Randy Newman's Best nominated song other than "You've Got a Friend in Me."
The sequence where it's sung is spectacular. Shoulda won.
In terms of Tarzan, I actually like the movie quite a bit. I think the palette and movement of the film really bolster the lovely combo of Tony Goldwyn and Minnie Driver.
Test Comment