Deep Dive Disney: Wes Looks at Tarzan

Welcome back to Deep Dive Disney everyone. It’s a sad day for us as we’ve officially reached the end of the Disney Renaissance. Still, in my opinion, we’re going out on a high note with a film that I’ve absolutely loved since I was ten years old, Disney’s underrated classic, Tarzan. The film may be a bit polarizing to Disney nerds like myself but I personally think that this is an incredible movie with stunning visuals and a great story. Adapted from the book series by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan starts with a mother, father and child who end up shipwrecked on the coast of Africa. And no, despite what the tongue-in-cheek rumors spread by director Chris Buck would have you believe, Tarzan’s parents are not King Agnar and Queen Iduna, the parents of Anna and Elsa from Frozen, this was confirmed in Frozen II. However, if you are interested in learning what a crossover between the two where their rumored shared lineage is canon would be like, check out the YouTube show Fanscription by following this link. Getting back on track, after the baby’s parents are killed by a leopard, the baby is taken in by a family of gorillas and given the name of Tarzan. While Tarzan adapts to surviving in the jungle surprisingly well, especially once he reaches maturity, but still often feels like an outsider. Everything changes when Tarzan meets Jane Porter, an English woman on an expedition to Africa to study gorillas along with her father and a hunter named Clayton. Now, Tarzan has finally seen others like himself and becomes fascinated by them and their world. Now Tarzan must choose between protecting the only family he’s ever known or learning more about his true nature as a human being. Let us waste no further time and finally close out the Disney Renaissance. I hope you like Phil Collins because we're about to dive right into Disney’s Tarzan.

Main Character:

To me, Tarzan is a lot more like what Mowgli from The Jungle Book should have been. While Mowgli could barely climb a tree, Tarzan, even at a young age, is shown to have adapted very well to life in the jungle and is able to skillfully avoid life or death situations with ease. Tarzan’s need to be so adept at jungle survival skills may be an attempt to overcompensate for his shortcomings when compared to actual gorillas as well as to overcome the perception of him being different and thus not belonging that others, in particular his reluctant surrogate father, Kerchak, seem to hold. I actually do appreciate how Tarzan, while obviously saddened by others’ perception of him, doesn’t allow it to beat him down as we saw with Flik in our last film. Instead, he uses it to fuel his drive to improve. Honestly, I wish I could be a bit more like that. While he isn’t the strongest of the Disney heroes, that distinction probably still goes to Hercules, Tarzan is easily the most badass. Remember how I said that Simba was the first Disney protagonist to feel like he was just as intimidating and threatening as the villain back in our Lion King article? Well, Tarzan is kind of the human equivalent of that. While Tarzan is friendly and heroic, this is also a guy who can kill a leopard with his bare hands. I’d hate to run into him in a dark alley. The first half of Tarzan’s arc concludes when he kills Sabor. Not only has he proven himself a true master of his environment by conquering its deadliest predator, but he has also, albeit unknowingly avenged the deaths of not only his human parents, but also the first son of Kerchak and Kala, his adoptive parents. Honestly, the movie could easily have ended in a satisfactory way right there but the arrival of Jane and the others changes the game entirely. Now, Tarzan, who previously had believed that he was a unique entity, has come to the realization that there are others like him and it turns his world upside down. He can’t help but be curious about who these new creatures are and indeed what he really is. And no, unlike Mowgli, Tarzan doesn’t immediately see someone with a vagina and immediately abandon the only family he’s ever known with little more than a shrug and a dopey grin. Yeah, that still bothers me because it was infuriatingly stupid! Tarzan does everything he can to protect and do right by the only family he’s ever known, but he can’t help but be curious about these strangers like him. When Tarzan decides to leave with Jane for England, you know that it destroys him to leave his mother and his jungle home. Ultimately though, Tarzan is able to convince Jane to stay with him and the Gorillas and gets the best of both worlds.

Villain:

First thing’s first. Clayton is voice by the absolutely wonderful and oh so very loud BRIAN BLESSED. And yes, it’s BRIAN BLESSED in all caps because when’s you speak of such a man, there can be no lower case, there is only BRIAN BLESSED. You may remember BRIAN BLESSED from his various appearances in Kenneth Branagh’s Shakespeare films, his iconic role as Voltan the Hawk Prince in Flash Gordon which originated his “Gordon’s Alive” catchphrase or for that time he was so over-the-top he absolutely terrified the contestants on the British game show he guest hosted. It’s also worth noting that it was actually BRIAN BLESSED who recorded the Tarzan yell used in this movie because if there are three things that BRIAN BLESSED is good at, they’re acting, climbing mountains for fun and above all else, shouting!

All that out of the way, there’s not a whole lot to say about Clayton. He’s essentially a smarter and more intimidating version of McLeach from Rescuers Down Under He’s a greedy, unscrupulous poacher who cares more about money than he does the lives of others, human or animal. He’s not a bad character per se and he’s certainly several steps above someone like Radcliffe but Disney has definitely had stronger and more interesting antagonists. Many claim that Clayton is the first of Disney’s “Twist Villains” since he only really reveals his villainous nature and evil plan in the final act but I personally don’t buy that. Clayton makes zero effort to hide the fact that he’s a jerk and given how he’s designed he may as well have “I’m The Villain” tattooed on his enormous chin. Don’t worry, we’ll be getting a proper twist villain in our next movie.

Side Characters:

We’ll start with Terk. While a lot of people find Terk annoying since she’s voiced by Rosie O’Donnell, I don’t really mind her. Yeah, Rosie O’Donnell wouldn’t have been my first choice but it’s not like she does an awful job or anything. I actually appreciate he tomboy nature and how she genuinely cares about Tarzan even if she won’t always admit it. Tantor was also a lot of fun and Wayne Knight turns in a great performance as always. The two aren’t quite Timon and Pumbaa but they play off one another just fine.

Kala, Tarzan’s adoptive mother is a great character. After all these years of showing adoptive mothers as emotionally abusive sociopathic borderline supervillains, it’s really nice to have one who’s genuinely caring and places the happiness of her son above her own, even if that means losing him.

Surprisingly, I found Jane Porter to be my favorite character in the film. She has many of the admirable traits that other female Disney characters have such as kindness, curiosity and love for animals. However, I think I like Jane because she just seems to be a lot more grounded than her contemporaries. Her reactions to the weirdness around her are hilarious, but also realistic and she actually gets a lot more funny lines than you’d expect her to.

Finally there’s arguably the most polarizing character in the film, Kerchak, voiced by the great Lance Henrikson. A lot of people say Kerchak is a just a jerk who has an unearned redemption on his deathbed. While I agree that Kerchak’s arc could have been fleshed out a bit more, there’s certainly more to it than people realize. Remember, Kerchak and Kala had a biological son, a gorilla like them. When he was killed by Sabor, both Kerchak and Kala delt with their grief differently. While Kala took in Tarzan to fill the hope in her heart, Kerchak was insulted by the idea of replacing the one they lost with something that wasn’t even his own kind. In Tarzan, Kerchak only saw a reminder of what he lost, and he resented him for it for years. As we discussed, this resentment only inspired Tarzan to improve himself, and while we don’t see it, Kerchak would have been blind not to notice that. When Tarzan kills Sabor, the very predator that killed his real son, for the first time we see Kerchak begin to consider that he may have been wrong about Tarzan. He’s clearly hesitant to embrace him on the spot and is struggling to process these complex emotions but if things had kept going, he likely would have finally accepted Tarzan. Then the humans show up and change everything. Remember, Kerchak only agreed to take Tarzan in because he was assured that Tarzan was alone. Now that there are other humans involved, Kerchak’s fear is that Tarzan will choose them over the Gorillas, a fear that’s realized when Tarzan brings Jane to the nesting ground. However, when Tarzan returns to save the Gorillas from Clayton, that shows Kerchak once and for all that his loyalties are to his family and that Tarzan, whether he knew it or not, has been his son all along. Like I said, it could have stood to be a more fleshed out arc but it’s definitely there.

Songs:

Well, I’m about to lose all the credibility I ever had because, well… I actually really like the Phil Collins soundtrack. I get it, a lot of people don’t care for the music in this film because they feel like it doesn’t fit and they may very well be right but these are still really good songs and I’ve been a fan of Phil Collins’ music since I grew up listening to my dad’s genesis albums so I guess it just never bothered me the way it bothered other people. I absolutely love the soundtrack to this film, Phil Collins and all. Two Worlds is a great intro song that shows us the plight of both the humans and the gorillas and nicely sets up the dangers of the Jungle. You’ll be in my Heart is a nice and heartfelt lullaby. Son of Man perfectly demonstrates Tarzan’s growth as he comes of age. Even Trashin’ the Camp is a lot of fun despite being one of the weaker songs in the movie. Then there’s my absolute favorite, Strangers Like Me. Remember how the scenes I praised heavily in The Little Mermaid and Pocahontas, both films I disliked, were the ones where Ariel and Pocahontas were learning about this world they’ve never known and getting really excited about it? Well, this is an entire song sequence that’s nothing but that, and I love it. Not only is the song fun and energetic but we also get to see the sense of wonder as Tarzan learns about all the wonderful things he’s never known living in the Jungle his entire life. Every new thing Tarzan discovers the greater his enthusiasm grows. For the first time in his life, Tarzan is not alone, and he wants to learn all he can about what he really is. It’s a great song and part of an even greater soundtrack. I will stand by that even if some don’t have the same love for Phil Collins that I do.

Memorable Scenes:

There are a lot of great scenes in this movie, but the one I’d like to talk about is the one where Tarzan and Jane first meet. It all starts when Jane finds a cute little monkey and decides to draw a picture of it in her sketch book. The monkey likes the picture and steals the sketch book much to Jane’s annoyance. Jane tricks the monkey and takes back her sketch only to have the monkey start crying. Jane turns around and suddenly there’s a massive army of angry baboons snarling at her. Jane is nearly chased over a cliff when Tarzan intervenes and saves her. Jane screams in terror, which is the appropriate reaction to being grabbed by the skirt by a flying naked man. What follows is a fun and chaotic chase through the treetops, Jane losing one of her shoes in the process. I just have to take a moment to say, any scene where Tarzan is surfing through the trees is absolutely beautiful and awesome. Supposedly, the modeled his movements in these scenes after professional skateboarder, Tony Hawk. Finally Tarzan gets Jane to safety as the Monkeys retreat, Tarzan appearing to tell them off in their own language. Jane is naturally losing her shit. She is now stuck in a tree with a crazy naked man who talks to monkeys and she’s only got one shoe, and to top it all off, it’s raining. Now that the Monkeys are gone though, Tarzan and Jane finally have a chance to get to know one another. Remember, Tarzan has never seen another human being before, at least not since he was too young to remember, so he’s not quite sure what to make of her. While we know Tarzan is obviously just curious and doesn’t know any better, I do love Jane’s reactions to Tarzan’s complete lack of understanding of personal boundaries, particularly when he straight shoves his head between her tits. Once Jane figures out what’s going on the interactions between them actually become really sweet as both clearly find the other fascinating. The later scene where Jane is explaining the ordeal to her father and Clayton with all these wild histrionics also gets a big laugh out of me.

Story:

So, honestly, this feels like a much better version of The Little Mermaid. Yeah, only took these people a decade to get it right. While Ariel’s curiosity about the human world could be seen as childish at best and selfish at worst, with Tarzan, we see how he gets to this point. All the scenes of Tarzan’s childhood are there to reinforce one thing, Tarzan, no matter how great at being an ape he becomes, will always be an outsider. When he learns that he’s not the only one of his kind, his curiosity is understandable. And while there is a strict father figure forbidding him from seeing the humans, there’s no Faustian pact with an evil witch, Tarzan just goes ahead and does what he feels he needs to do. Here, Tarzan isn’t just some airhead teenager leaving a life of comfort, he’s a human being who is realizing where he belongs for the first time. I guess it proves that a Little Mermaid type story can work, it just didn’t back in 1989.

The Dark Disney Factor:

This is certainly a film that does not pull its punches when it comes to the dark stuff. Let’s just say you’re not going to find any friendly singing bears in this jungle, only death. This is evidenced when Sabor manages to do what Frollo tried and failed to do back in Hunchback and off a child in the first five minutes. However, I know what you all really want. When I first instituted The Dark Disney Factor as a point of discussion, there’s a scene people have been begging me to talk about and, well, here we are, Clayton’s death. It starts with a pretty cool final showdown in the treetops. There’s this one great bit during the fight where Tarzan has Clayton’s rifle and is holding against the bad guy’s throat. Clayton eggs Tarzan on and dares him to shoot, telling him to “Be a Man.” Tarzan fakes him out by mimicking the sound of a gunshot (Tarzan’s ability to mimic sounds almost perfectly having been established earlier) and smashing the rifle while saying, “I’m not a man like you.” Then, Clayton pulls out his machete and the fight is on. Clayton is tough, but he doesn’t stand a chance against Tarzan while he’s got the home field advantage and ends up getting tangled up in the vines. As Clayton tries to cut himself free, one of the vines gets wrapped around his neck. Clayton ends up falling to the ground and… SNAP! Lightning strikes and all we see is the shadow of Clayton’s limp, lifeless body, hanging there. It’s a haunting and disturbing visual that has stuck with everyone who has seen this movie and to this day remains one of Disney’s darkest villain deaths.

Final Thoughts: I was pleasantly surprised by how much I still enjoyed Tarzan even all these years later. It's visually breathtaking, the soundtrack is fun, the characters are great and the action is some of the best I've seen in any of these films to date. But how does it stack up against the other films in the Disney Renaissance? Well, we're going to find out. Since we've officially covered all the films in the Disney Renaissance, I'm going to give this great era a proper sendoff. Next time, we rank all nine Disney Renaissance films from Best to Worst. See you then!