Tarzan Review
In an effort to take its familiar animation style one technological step further, Disney pioneered an effect called "deep canvas" for its big-screen version of Tarzan. The enthralling effect, which tricks the eye into seeing Tarzan's high-speed travels through the jungle in three dimensions, is just one reason to watch this surprisingly affecting tale of a misfit working to reconcile his differences from both apes and humans. At heart, it's an action movie, and a pretty hip one at that -- Tarzan's motions, as he surfs along serpentine tree limbs and hurtles through the vines, are modeled on those of skateboarders. Plus it has a handful of clever set pieces in which no less than a vicious tiger, a sadistic hunter, and a herd of stampeding elephants threaten the safety of the gorillas. Many of these are funny, too -- when the elephants debate whether a prankster Tarzan swimming in their drinking hole might be a piranha, one of them points out that it couldn't be because the piranha is indigenous to South America. But in a way that only Disney can manage, these moments alternate with Tarzan's genuinely touching attempts to earn his keep, such that when he lets out his trademark blood-curdling yell after vanquishing a foe, the swell of pride is contagious. The vocal work is unspectacular, outside of Minnie Driver as a teasingly proper Jane and Wayne Knight as a neurotic elephant. The film could benefit from a slightly smaller dose of Rosie O'Donnell's wisecracking. But the most visually advanced film that Disney had produced at the time is also one of its most loveable, and even Phil_Collins' dutifully inspirational score gets swept up in the general joy. Derek Armstrong, Rovi
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