TARZAN - DVD review

"Ah-ahyeah-ye-ah!" Or is it "Ah-a-ah-ya-ah-aha-haaa!"? Wait. Let me try that again: "Oh-ayo-eyo-eyoeyohhhh!" Whatever, you know the cry, and like most of the film it's just about perfect, the old, reassuring Johnny Weissmuller yell we all grew up with.

As expected from a Disney animated feature, the colors are wonderfully brilliant and clearly defined in this new version of "Tarzan," but what is most surprising is that the backgrounds are so gorgeously rendered. This is the first Disney cartoon in many years that harks back to the detail and richness of the studio's classic early work, like "Pinocchio." The backdrops are three dimensional in their realism, and so beautiful to behold that the plot seems almost insignificant.

Audio:
Add effectively ambient Dolby Digital Surround Sound and you get a heady mixture of audiovisual delights.

And Now, Back To Our Movie:
As it turns out, the plot is, indeed, inconsequential. It's the familiar Edgar Rice Burroughs tale of the boy raised in the jungle by apes, the arrival of Jane, their romance, and an adventure with greedy hunters. Flimsy as the story is, it doesn't matter because the picture quality is so good and the artwork so glorious, we don't care. The several action sequences are pretty exciting, though. Tarzan's fight with a leopard, his rescue of Jane from a pack of baboons, and his scrap with a villainous safari guide keep one engaged. And the depiction of Tarzan gliding through the trees like a combination surfer and skateboard champion is a pleasure to watch.

Of course, we have to endure some of Disney's close-to-terminal cuteness, too: Ever-so-sweet little monkeys and baby elephants, the hackneyed caricature of a befuddled old professor, the usual; although, to be fair, it's kept to a minimum compared to past releases.

One thing I did miss about this Disney project was a standout title song, something to remember, even whistle, afterwards. The closest we get is a tune called "Strangers Like Me," as unremarkable as the rest of the music. Phil Collins wrote the songs, so I guess he's the guy to blame. Along with Mark Mancina's pounding, semi-rock musical score, the combination gets tiresome fast. Maybe it will please a generation of youngsters brought up on MTV; who knows. A brief, jazzy interlude titled "Trashin' the Camp," sung by a gleeful band of gorillas, is momentary relief.

Extras:
Buena Vista finally deliver a few bonus items with this DVD, but they also see fit to precede their film with a multitude of ads and announcements. When you first press "play" you see several customary FBI warnings (Disney's paranoia about illegal copying always impels them to place these admonitions before rather than after the movie), followed by a series of promos for other Disney products. The disc will not allow one's going directly to the main menu at startup, but, fortunately, the offending preliminaries can be bypassed by using the "skip forward" button a number of times. Nevertheless, these shameless self promotions are unworthy of Disney or Buena Vista and a nuisance to the viewer who has just laid out a bundle of cash presumably to watch the film, not the ads.

Anyway, among the disc's extras, the song "Strangers Like Me" gets its own music video, and "Trashin' the Camp" gets its own behind-the-scenes studio session spot. There is a "Tarzan" interactive read-along for kids in the family, which can either be read by viewers or be read to them via an optional audio track. A "Tarzan" interactive trivia game comes with the package, one of those typical affairs where you have to choose the right multiple-choice answers about the film. When you're right, Tarzan does his famous yell; when you're wrong, a group of apes give you the raspberry. I don't know what the reward is if you win the whole contest. I missed one of the questions (I didn't know how many spots were on the leopard) and didn't have enough interest to go back and do the whole thing over again. For me, though, the highlight extra is a sneak peak at Disney's upcoming feature film, "Dinosaur." It appears to have been made partly live and partly through computer graphics, something like "Jurassic Park." If the movie is half as good as the clips make it out to be, it should be one of the most spectacular creations Disney or anyone else has ever produced. Let's see, what else is on the disc: English, French, and Spanish language tracks and Spanish subtitles; a generous thirty-six chapter stops; a theatrical trailer; and, oh, yes, a free "Tarzan" action-game demo for your computer, provided you have a DVD-ROM drive.

Video:
A 1.69:1 screen ratio wraps everything up, capturing all the beauty and wonder of the jungle landscapes. And did I mention that Disney animators make the characters' movements as fluid and graceful as any we have ever seen in a cartoon? "Tarzan" is a pleasure on the eyes, even if its music and adventure aren't as much to talk about.

Parting Thoughts:
It's best just to look at this "Tarzan" and not think about it too much. It's one of Disney's best modern animations.