Welcome to part 37 of my project to review every film in the Disney animated canon! Last time, I reviewed Mulan. Here, I will review the final film of the Disney Renaissance, Tarzan, released in 1999. Despite the generally positive reception the film gets, it doesn't seem to be discussed as much as most of the other Disney Renaissance films. Do I think it's a weaker Disney Renaissance film, or can it compete with the others? Let's see with my review.
The film starts with a couple with a baby escaping their ship once it is destroyed by a storm at sea. Arriving at an African jungle, the couple builds a treehouse to live in.
Meanwhile, in another part of the jungle, a family of gorillas composed of Kerchak, Kala, and an unnamed baby gorilla are having a great time being a family, but unfortunately for them, tragedy is about to strike. One night, while his parents are sleeping, the baby gorilla wakes up to chase after a frog, but runs into a vicious leopard named Sabor. Kerchak and Kala quickly appear to rescue their son, but are too late as he is killed by Sabor. The two become depressed by their son's death, but the next morning, Kala hears the baby in the treehouse crying, because Sabor happens to be killing his parents at that moment. Kala runs off to the treehouse to discover what is making the sound. This whole introduction scene has a song sung by Phil Collins called "Two Worlds" playing, and fortunately, Tarzan easily has one of the best Disney soundtracks of all time. "Two Worlds" is a phenomenal song, and being able to establish everything as well as showing off how epic Sabor will be (more on her in a little bit) makes this up there with "Circle of Life" and "The Bells of Notre Dame" for one of Disney's best opening songs and openings as a whole.
Inside the treehouse, Kala discovers the dead couples' remains and the baby, who is still alive. She immediately takes a liking to the baby, but her affection is short-lived as Sabor appears to kill them. As the two fight over the baby, Sabor gets tangled in a rope and Kala heads off with the baby to the other gorillas. Much like the soundtrack being one of Disney's best, the animation in this film is also one of Disney's best as well, arguably being the best. The film is GORGEOUS. It is consistently phenomenally animated throughout the whole film, and certain moments in particular really done out. In this scene, the first few seconds of Sabor chasing Kala and the baby with the two animals jumping outside the treehouse are extremely impressive and is one of these special moments. Speaking of Sabor, she is awesome! She's pretty similar to Shere Khan, except take out his charisma and dialogue and increase his already threatening vibe, and she's even more dangerous than him. Every scene featuring this leopard includes a lot of epicness and fantastic animation, this fight being a great example.
Kala shows the baby to the gorillas, and while most of them are intrigued by the baby, Kerchak isn't so pleased. Fearing that both having a human will put their family in danger, and that the baby won't replace their dead son, Kerchak is unwilling to let Kala adopt the baby. When Kala tells him that Sabor killed his parents and there are no more humans, Kerchak reluctantly lets her keep the baby, but says he won't be able to replace their son. While we haven't got to the film with this character yet, Kerchak is very similar to my least favorite Disney character. They both try to actively distance themselves from their sons, and since I absolutely despise the later character, you're probably expecting me to really hate Kerchak. Surprisingly, I actually really like Kerchak, and this film does the "uncaring father" subplot a ton better than a later Disney film will do. What makes the character work so well is that his motives for why he acts the way he does are understandable. He's not a villain or a despicable person (in the beginning of the film, you can clearly see that Kerchak really enjoys being with the baby gorilla), and I see him more as a person who's too blinded by the death of his original son that nothing can replace him because he loves him so much. He clearly values the safety of the gorillas above all else, and he does get good character development as the film goes on. He's well-written, and despite his flaws, Kerchak is a genuinely likable character.
Naming the baby Tarzan, Kala sings a song to him to calm him down as they settle down for the night. The song is called "You'll Be In My Heart", and while a better version of it will play in the credits, this song is really good. I haven't really talked about her yet, but Kala is probably the best mother figure in any Disney film. She may not be as complex as Kerchak, but Kala is incredibly likable and someone who would make a fantastic mother for anyone.
Several years later, Tarzan is now a kid, and seen as an outcast by his father and most of the other gorillas. His best friend is a female gorilla named Terk (How many of you thought Terk was male growing up? I'm one of those people.), who jokingly suggests making him grab an elephant hair in order to fit in with her other friends. Much to Terk's chagrin, Tarzan takes it seriously, and ends up meeting a young neurotic elephant named Tantor, as he accidentally causes a elephant stampede because Tantor thinks he's a piranha. Tarzan is pretty similar to Mowgli, but unlike him, Tarzan actually has a character, and his attempts to fit in with everyone make him genuinely likable, and leads to good drama when he's an adult. Terk and Tantor are a lot of fun as well (also, does young Tantor remind anyone of Hathi Jr.?).
Kala and Kerchak arrive at the scene of the incident, where Tarzan willingly confesses that it is his fault for causing the elephant stampede. Enraged because a baby gorilla almost got crushed by the elephants until he saved him, Kerchak tells Kala that he'll "never be one of us", which makes Tarzan sad. That night, Kala finds Tarzan and cheers him up, claiming that Kerchak doesn't understand that Tarzan isn't so different from the gorillas after all.
We then get another montage set to a Phil Collins song, "Son of Man". In this song, we see Tarzan, Terk, and Tantor grow up into adults. The song itself is epic and easily one of my favorite Disney songs. The montage and song ends with Tarzan surfing on some vines, and the animation in this brief scene is pretty revolutionary and may even be the best-animated moment in the entire canon. Combining the film's strengths in both animation and music, this scene is definitely a highlight of the film.
One day, as Tarzan is hanging out with Terk and Tantor (who both act largely the same as when they were kids; Terk being energetic and Tantor being afraid of everything), a certain someone shows up. That "someone" is Sabor. Kerchak fights off Sabor, but is knocked down by the leopard. Tarzan enters in to save his father, and then we get a good two minutes of nothing but epic action as Tarzan and Sabor fight. Wielding a spear throughout the fight, Tarzan and Sabor eventually fall into a pit. Tarzan comes out of the pit with Sabor, who has been killed by the spear, avenging not only the death of Kerchak and Kala's baby, but also the deaths of his parents. All the gorillas and Tantor celebrate Tarzan's victory, and after presenting Sabor's dead body to his father, Kerchak slowly starts to develop respect for his adopted son. The entire Sabor fight and the victory afterwards are two of the most epic moments in the entire animated canon, and are both highlights of the film. Unfortunately, this also comes with a downside of no more Sabor.
Just as Kerchak is about to give Tarzan words of respect, everything is halted by a gunshot in the distance. Knowing something bad is going to happen, Kerchak orders everyone to leave the area, but Tarzan decides to head off in the direction of the gunshot, curious of what the sound is. He ends up discovering a totally not evil hunter named Clayton, who is touring Archimedes Q. Porter and his daughter, Jane, through Africa. All of them discover gorilla nests, and as they head off, Jane is stopped by a monkey, who steals a book from her and ends up getting her chased by a bunch of baboons. Tarzan rescues her, and we get an awesome chase scene with some more epic vine surfing as they escape the baboons. Tarzan inspects Jane and discovers the similarities between them as he takes the glove off her hand to compare their hands and he starts to learn the human language (while Tarzan has been speaking like a human before this scene, he was always in the presence of animals, so I think it's justified why it seems a little odd). Hearing Clayton's gunshots in the distance, Tarzan takes Jane towards her camp. Speaking of Jane, I do enjoy her a lot as well, and coming back to this film, I forgot how funny Jane can be at times with her clumsy, yet eccentric behavior.
Terk, Tantor, and some other gorillas are looking for Tarzan, and end up discovering the human's camp (where Mrs. Potts and Chip can be found for some reason...). Intrigued by everything there, they destroy objects and mess around in the camp for the heck of it, singing a song composed entirely of gibberish called "Trashing the Camp". Remember in "I Wanna Be Like You" when Baloo and King Louie were singing gibberish? This song is pretty much that, but longer. While the film's weakest song, it's still awesome and really catchy.
Tarzan and Jane return to the camp, where Jane discovers Tarzan's relationship with gorillas. Kerchak also happens to be in the area, and thinks Jane is trouble, but quickly leaves as Clayton and Mr. Porter return. While Jane informs Clayton and her father of Tarzan and the gorillas, Kerchak warns everyone to avoid the humans. Tarzan protests against his father's orders, and shows up at the camp again, where Clayton tries to shoot him for thinking he's a wild animal. Wanting to find out the gorilla's location, we get a montage of Jane teaching Tarzan about the human world as the two slowly fall in love, set to the song "Strangers Like Me". Once again, the song is one of Disney's best, and the montage itself is very nice. It also helps that Tarzan and Jane do genuinely have chemistry with each other.
After seeing an idea of giving flowers to women on a slideshow on Jane's projector, Tarzan picks up some flowers for Jane as he heads back to the camp, only to discover them preparing to head back to England as their ship arrives. Jane offers to let Tarzan come to England with them, knowing that she'll never likely see him again, but Tarzan's attempts to convince her to stay don't work. Clayton convinces Tarzan that they can stay longer if he can lead them to the gorillas, which Tarzan agrees to. Knowing Kerchak will be a big obstacle, Tarzan has Terk and Tantor disguise themselves as Jane and Mr. Porter to distract Kerchak, who chases them through the jungle.
Tarzan takes Jane, Clayton, and Mr. Porter to the nesting grounds of the gorillas, where Jane meets Kala and the other gorillas. As Tarzan tries to teach Jane how to speak "gorilla", Terk, Tantor, and Kerchak show up. Tarzan tries to convince Kerchak to go easy on the humans, which it seems like he's going to do so at first, until he notices one of the gorillas playing with Clayton's gun. Tarzan restrains Kerchak down as the humans escape, which causes Kerchak to lose all respect he had for his son and he tells him that he betrayed the gorillas.
We then get one of the film's most emotional scenes, as Kala shows Tarzan the treehouse he first lived in and a picture of him as a baby with his human parents. Kala offers to let Tarzan choose between going to England or staying with the gorillas, and in the end, Tarzan decides to go to England. This scene is another highlight of the film, for not only showcasing Tarzan making his decision between being with humans or gorillas, but also for the atmosphere in the scene, with a soft instrumental of "You'll Be In My Heart" playing in the background. After he says goodbye to Kala, in the morning, Tarzan boards the ship to go to England. Goodness, this movie is so good. What could possibly be bad about it-wait...
On the ship, Clayton reveals to Tarzan that he is the villain and he wanted Tarzan to lead him to the gorillas so he can capture them and sell them for money. He locks Tarzan, Jane, and her father on the ship as he and his henchmen head out into the jungle to capture the gorillas. Clayton is easily the weakest thing about the film and the only blemish on an otherwise fantastic movie. Clayton's motivation is so generic, he isn't charismatic, interesting, fun, or enjoyably evil at all before and after the reveal, and what really doesn't help is that the twist that Clayton is the villain is EXTREMELY predictable. I was only like three years old when I saw this movie for the first time, and even the first time I watched it, I saw the twist coming from a mile away, and I think it's super obvious from the first second he's on screen that he's going to be the villain. If you're going to make him a twist villain and reveal him this late, then please make it less obvious that he's the villain. I find it weird that this film wanted to focus on him instead of the much more interesting Sabor. Unfortunately, Tarzan is the film where I feel like Disney villains start to go downhill, as these generic twist villains are going to start to be a lot more common from here on out.
Tarzan lets out a loud yell upon discovering Clayton's betrayal, which Terk and Tantor overhear. Terk is reluctant to help because of her being jealous of Tarzan ditching them, but Tantor snaps and orders Terk to help, as Tantor actually acts brave for once and heads through the water to Clayton's ship. Inside, Tarzan tries to break out, but fails until Tantor uses his weight to break the ceiling of the locked room. Everyone leaves the ship and heads off to the jungle to stop Clayton and save the gorillas.
Clayton and his henchmen capture the gorillas in nets and cages just as Tarzan arrives with his friends and a bunch of other animals, including the monkey and the baboons from earlier. Kerchak comes back onto Tarzan's side once his son frees him, and Tarzan frees Kala and the other gorillas as everyone else fights off the henchmen. Clayton shoots his gun at Tarzan, barely scratching his arm. Willing to protect his son, Kerchak steps in to save Tarzan, only to be shot by Clayton and wounded.
Clayton chases Tarzan up into the treetops where a storm begins and a bunch of vines await. Tarzan gets in possession of Clayton's gun, mimics a gunshot as he pretends to shoot Clayton, and destroys the gun. Clayton then gets out a machete as he tries to get Tarzan, but ends up getting tangled in a bunch of vines. Here is where we get the only thing that I and most people tend to remember about Clayton. He starts slashing the vines, unaware of one vine hanging around his neck like a noose. Tarzan warns him to stop, but Clayton doesn't listen and falls towards the ground with the vine around his neck, snapping it and leaving his dead body hung (If you look on a tree on the left side of the screen when lightning flashes, you can see the shadow of Clayton's dead body hanging). Even if Clayton is boring, I do like the fight between him and Tarzan, and his death is easily one of the most memorable deaths in Disney history, even if it is a bit disturbing to the shadow of his dead body.
Back on the ground, Tarzan goes over to Kerchak, who is slowly dying. Kerchak apologizes to Tarzan for his treatment of him, and tells him to take care of the gorillas, while calling him his son for the first time right before he dies. This scene is another highlight of the film, and it shows why Kerchak is a good character. Here, you can tell Kerchak is being 100% serious with his apology, and even if he didn't show it, he realizes that Tarzan will always be a son to him, even if he isn't just like his first son. However, due to the fact that a gorilla named Harambe died from a gunshot and has become a meme, this scene is now unintentionally funny due to that, but in reality, it is a powerful scene, even if it's hilarious in hindsight nowadays.
Eventually (presumably the next day?), Jane and her father say their goodbyes to Tarzan as they head back to England. Knowing of his daughter's love for Tarzan, Mr. Porter convinces Jane to let both of them stay in Africa, which she is delighted to do. To end off the film, we get some more epic vine surfing, a reprise of "Two Worlds", and the epic Tarzan yell. The credits of this film have "You'll Be In My Heart" played over them, this time being sung by Phil Collins instead of Kala's voice actress, Glenn Close. This version of the song is awesome and another classic song.
That's Tarzan, and as you can probably tell, I was very positive about this film. The animation and music are easily among Disney's best, the characters are great, it does the "uncaring father" plot right, and almost everything is incredibly good. The big "almost" is referring to Clayton, who is such a boring twist villain. Why the heck did they kill Sabor off so quickly for this guy? If it had a better villain, then this film would certainly be in my top ten. Unfortunately, the very weak main villain is a pretty big flaw. However, it would be in my top fifteen, the film is awesome, it has a ton to love about it, and it's a perfect way to end off the Disney Renaissance. I highly recommend it.
Favorite Character: Sabor
Favorite Song: "Son of Man"
Favorite Scene: All of the scenes with Sabor
Final Score: A+
Feel free to discuss Tarzan, agree or disagree on anything I said, or post any extra thoughts.
Next time, I will recap the Disney Renaissance, so stay tuned for that.
For this review's question:
Do you think this film handled Kerchak's relationship with Tarzan well?
The film starts with a couple with a baby escaping their ship once it is destroyed by a storm at sea. Arriving at an African jungle, the couple builds a treehouse to live in.
Meanwhile, in another part of the jungle, a family of gorillas composed of Kerchak, Kala, and an unnamed baby gorilla are having a great time being a family, but unfortunately for them, tragedy is about to strike. One night, while his parents are sleeping, the baby gorilla wakes up to chase after a frog, but runs into a vicious leopard named Sabor. Kerchak and Kala quickly appear to rescue their son, but are too late as he is killed by Sabor. The two become depressed by their son's death, but the next morning, Kala hears the baby in the treehouse crying, because Sabor happens to be killing his parents at that moment. Kala runs off to the treehouse to discover what is making the sound. This whole introduction scene has a song sung by Phil Collins called "Two Worlds" playing, and fortunately, Tarzan easily has one of the best Disney soundtracks of all time. "Two Worlds" is a phenomenal song, and being able to establish everything as well as showing off how epic Sabor will be (more on her in a little bit) makes this up there with "Circle of Life" and "The Bells of Notre Dame" for one of Disney's best opening songs and openings as a whole.
Inside the treehouse, Kala discovers the dead couples' remains and the baby, who is still alive. She immediately takes a liking to the baby, but her affection is short-lived as Sabor appears to kill them. As the two fight over the baby, Sabor gets tangled in a rope and Kala heads off with the baby to the other gorillas. Much like the soundtrack being one of Disney's best, the animation in this film is also one of Disney's best as well, arguably being the best. The film is GORGEOUS. It is consistently phenomenally animated throughout the whole film, and certain moments in particular really done out. In this scene, the first few seconds of Sabor chasing Kala and the baby with the two animals jumping outside the treehouse are extremely impressive and is one of these special moments. Speaking of Sabor, she is awesome! She's pretty similar to Shere Khan, except take out his charisma and dialogue and increase his already threatening vibe, and she's even more dangerous than him. Every scene featuring this leopard includes a lot of epicness and fantastic animation, this fight being a great example.
Kala shows the baby to the gorillas, and while most of them are intrigued by the baby, Kerchak isn't so pleased. Fearing that both having a human will put their family in danger, and that the baby won't replace their dead son, Kerchak is unwilling to let Kala adopt the baby. When Kala tells him that Sabor killed his parents and there are no more humans, Kerchak reluctantly lets her keep the baby, but says he won't be able to replace their son. While we haven't got to the film with this character yet, Kerchak is very similar to my least favorite Disney character. They both try to actively distance themselves from their sons, and since I absolutely despise the later character, you're probably expecting me to really hate Kerchak. Surprisingly, I actually really like Kerchak, and this film does the "uncaring father" subplot a ton better than a later Disney film will do. What makes the character work so well is that his motives for why he acts the way he does are understandable. He's not a villain or a despicable person (in the beginning of the film, you can clearly see that Kerchak really enjoys being with the baby gorilla), and I see him more as a person who's too blinded by the death of his original son that nothing can replace him because he loves him so much. He clearly values the safety of the gorillas above all else, and he does get good character development as the film goes on. He's well-written, and despite his flaws, Kerchak is a genuinely likable character.
Naming the baby Tarzan, Kala sings a song to him to calm him down as they settle down for the night. The song is called "You'll Be In My Heart", and while a better version of it will play in the credits, this song is really good. I haven't really talked about her yet, but Kala is probably the best mother figure in any Disney film. She may not be as complex as Kerchak, but Kala is incredibly likable and someone who would make a fantastic mother for anyone.
Several years later, Tarzan is now a kid, and seen as an outcast by his father and most of the other gorillas. His best friend is a female gorilla named Terk (How many of you thought Terk was male growing up? I'm one of those people.), who jokingly suggests making him grab an elephant hair in order to fit in with her other friends. Much to Terk's chagrin, Tarzan takes it seriously, and ends up meeting a young neurotic elephant named Tantor, as he accidentally causes a elephant stampede because Tantor thinks he's a piranha. Tarzan is pretty similar to Mowgli, but unlike him, Tarzan actually has a character, and his attempts to fit in with everyone make him genuinely likable, and leads to good drama when he's an adult. Terk and Tantor are a lot of fun as well (also, does young Tantor remind anyone of Hathi Jr.?).
Kala and Kerchak arrive at the scene of the incident, where Tarzan willingly confesses that it is his fault for causing the elephant stampede. Enraged because a baby gorilla almost got crushed by the elephants until he saved him, Kerchak tells Kala that he'll "never be one of us", which makes Tarzan sad. That night, Kala finds Tarzan and cheers him up, claiming that Kerchak doesn't understand that Tarzan isn't so different from the gorillas after all.
We then get another montage set to a Phil Collins song, "Son of Man". In this song, we see Tarzan, Terk, and Tantor grow up into adults. The song itself is epic and easily one of my favorite Disney songs. The montage and song ends with Tarzan surfing on some vines, and the animation in this brief scene is pretty revolutionary and may even be the best-animated moment in the entire canon. Combining the film's strengths in both animation and music, this scene is definitely a highlight of the film.
One day, as Tarzan is hanging out with Terk and Tantor (who both act largely the same as when they were kids; Terk being energetic and Tantor being afraid of everything), a certain someone shows up. That "someone" is Sabor. Kerchak fights off Sabor, but is knocked down by the leopard. Tarzan enters in to save his father, and then we get a good two minutes of nothing but epic action as Tarzan and Sabor fight. Wielding a spear throughout the fight, Tarzan and Sabor eventually fall into a pit. Tarzan comes out of the pit with Sabor, who has been killed by the spear, avenging not only the death of Kerchak and Kala's baby, but also the deaths of his parents. All the gorillas and Tantor celebrate Tarzan's victory, and after presenting Sabor's dead body to his father, Kerchak slowly starts to develop respect for his adopted son. The entire Sabor fight and the victory afterwards are two of the most epic moments in the entire animated canon, and are both highlights of the film. Unfortunately, this also comes with a downside of no more Sabor.
Just as Kerchak is about to give Tarzan words of respect, everything is halted by a gunshot in the distance. Knowing something bad is going to happen, Kerchak orders everyone to leave the area, but Tarzan decides to head off in the direction of the gunshot, curious of what the sound is. He ends up discovering a totally not evil hunter named Clayton, who is touring Archimedes Q. Porter and his daughter, Jane, through Africa. All of them discover gorilla nests, and as they head off, Jane is stopped by a monkey, who steals a book from her and ends up getting her chased by a bunch of baboons. Tarzan rescues her, and we get an awesome chase scene with some more epic vine surfing as they escape the baboons. Tarzan inspects Jane and discovers the similarities between them as he takes the glove off her hand to compare their hands and he starts to learn the human language (while Tarzan has been speaking like a human before this scene, he was always in the presence of animals, so I think it's justified why it seems a little odd). Hearing Clayton's gunshots in the distance, Tarzan takes Jane towards her camp. Speaking of Jane, I do enjoy her a lot as well, and coming back to this film, I forgot how funny Jane can be at times with her clumsy, yet eccentric behavior.
Terk, Tantor, and some other gorillas are looking for Tarzan, and end up discovering the human's camp (where Mrs. Potts and Chip can be found for some reason...). Intrigued by everything there, they destroy objects and mess around in the camp for the heck of it, singing a song composed entirely of gibberish called "Trashing the Camp". Remember in "I Wanna Be Like You" when Baloo and King Louie were singing gibberish? This song is pretty much that, but longer. While the film's weakest song, it's still awesome and really catchy.
Tarzan and Jane return to the camp, where Jane discovers Tarzan's relationship with gorillas. Kerchak also happens to be in the area, and thinks Jane is trouble, but quickly leaves as Clayton and Mr. Porter return. While Jane informs Clayton and her father of Tarzan and the gorillas, Kerchak warns everyone to avoid the humans. Tarzan protests against his father's orders, and shows up at the camp again, where Clayton tries to shoot him for thinking he's a wild animal. Wanting to find out the gorilla's location, we get a montage of Jane teaching Tarzan about the human world as the two slowly fall in love, set to the song "Strangers Like Me". Once again, the song is one of Disney's best, and the montage itself is very nice. It also helps that Tarzan and Jane do genuinely have chemistry with each other.
After seeing an idea of giving flowers to women on a slideshow on Jane's projector, Tarzan picks up some flowers for Jane as he heads back to the camp, only to discover them preparing to head back to England as their ship arrives. Jane offers to let Tarzan come to England with them, knowing that she'll never likely see him again, but Tarzan's attempts to convince her to stay don't work. Clayton convinces Tarzan that they can stay longer if he can lead them to the gorillas, which Tarzan agrees to. Knowing Kerchak will be a big obstacle, Tarzan has Terk and Tantor disguise themselves as Jane and Mr. Porter to distract Kerchak, who chases them through the jungle.
Tarzan takes Jane, Clayton, and Mr. Porter to the nesting grounds of the gorillas, where Jane meets Kala and the other gorillas. As Tarzan tries to teach Jane how to speak "gorilla", Terk, Tantor, and Kerchak show up. Tarzan tries to convince Kerchak to go easy on the humans, which it seems like he's going to do so at first, until he notices one of the gorillas playing with Clayton's gun. Tarzan restrains Kerchak down as the humans escape, which causes Kerchak to lose all respect he had for his son and he tells him that he betrayed the gorillas.
We then get one of the film's most emotional scenes, as Kala shows Tarzan the treehouse he first lived in and a picture of him as a baby with his human parents. Kala offers to let Tarzan choose between going to England or staying with the gorillas, and in the end, Tarzan decides to go to England. This scene is another highlight of the film, for not only showcasing Tarzan making his decision between being with humans or gorillas, but also for the atmosphere in the scene, with a soft instrumental of "You'll Be In My Heart" playing in the background. After he says goodbye to Kala, in the morning, Tarzan boards the ship to go to England. Goodness, this movie is so good. What could possibly be bad about it-wait...
On the ship, Clayton reveals to Tarzan that he is the villain and he wanted Tarzan to lead him to the gorillas so he can capture them and sell them for money. He locks Tarzan, Jane, and her father on the ship as he and his henchmen head out into the jungle to capture the gorillas. Clayton is easily the weakest thing about the film and the only blemish on an otherwise fantastic movie. Clayton's motivation is so generic, he isn't charismatic, interesting, fun, or enjoyably evil at all before and after the reveal, and what really doesn't help is that the twist that Clayton is the villain is EXTREMELY predictable. I was only like three years old when I saw this movie for the first time, and even the first time I watched it, I saw the twist coming from a mile away, and I think it's super obvious from the first second he's on screen that he's going to be the villain. If you're going to make him a twist villain and reveal him this late, then please make it less obvious that he's the villain. I find it weird that this film wanted to focus on him instead of the much more interesting Sabor. Unfortunately, Tarzan is the film where I feel like Disney villains start to go downhill, as these generic twist villains are going to start to be a lot more common from here on out.
Tarzan lets out a loud yell upon discovering Clayton's betrayal, which Terk and Tantor overhear. Terk is reluctant to help because of her being jealous of Tarzan ditching them, but Tantor snaps and orders Terk to help, as Tantor actually acts brave for once and heads through the water to Clayton's ship. Inside, Tarzan tries to break out, but fails until Tantor uses his weight to break the ceiling of the locked room. Everyone leaves the ship and heads off to the jungle to stop Clayton and save the gorillas.
Clayton and his henchmen capture the gorillas in nets and cages just as Tarzan arrives with his friends and a bunch of other animals, including the monkey and the baboons from earlier. Kerchak comes back onto Tarzan's side once his son frees him, and Tarzan frees Kala and the other gorillas as everyone else fights off the henchmen. Clayton shoots his gun at Tarzan, barely scratching his arm. Willing to protect his son, Kerchak steps in to save Tarzan, only to be shot by Clayton and wounded.
Clayton chases Tarzan up into the treetops where a storm begins and a bunch of vines await. Tarzan gets in possession of Clayton's gun, mimics a gunshot as he pretends to shoot Clayton, and destroys the gun. Clayton then gets out a machete as he tries to get Tarzan, but ends up getting tangled in a bunch of vines. Here is where we get the only thing that I and most people tend to remember about Clayton. He starts slashing the vines, unaware of one vine hanging around his neck like a noose. Tarzan warns him to stop, but Clayton doesn't listen and falls towards the ground with the vine around his neck, snapping it and leaving his dead body hung (If you look on a tree on the left side of the screen when lightning flashes, you can see the shadow of Clayton's dead body hanging). Even if Clayton is boring, I do like the fight between him and Tarzan, and his death is easily one of the most memorable deaths in Disney history, even if it is a bit disturbing to the shadow of his dead body.
Back on the ground, Tarzan goes over to Kerchak, who is slowly dying. Kerchak apologizes to Tarzan for his treatment of him, and tells him to take care of the gorillas, while calling him his son for the first time right before he dies. This scene is another highlight of the film, and it shows why Kerchak is a good character. Here, you can tell Kerchak is being 100% serious with his apology, and even if he didn't show it, he realizes that Tarzan will always be a son to him, even if he isn't just like his first son. However, due to the fact that a gorilla named Harambe died from a gunshot and has become a meme, this scene is now unintentionally funny due to that, but in reality, it is a powerful scene, even if it's hilarious in hindsight nowadays.
Eventually (presumably the next day?), Jane and her father say their goodbyes to Tarzan as they head back to England. Knowing of his daughter's love for Tarzan, Mr. Porter convinces Jane to let both of them stay in Africa, which she is delighted to do. To end off the film, we get some more epic vine surfing, a reprise of "Two Worlds", and the epic Tarzan yell. The credits of this film have "You'll Be In My Heart" played over them, this time being sung by Phil Collins instead of Kala's voice actress, Glenn Close. This version of the song is awesome and another classic song.
That's Tarzan, and as you can probably tell, I was very positive about this film. The animation and music are easily among Disney's best, the characters are great, it does the "uncaring father" plot right, and almost everything is incredibly good. The big "almost" is referring to Clayton, who is such a boring twist villain. Why the heck did they kill Sabor off so quickly for this guy? If it had a better villain, then this film would certainly be in my top ten. Unfortunately, the very weak main villain is a pretty big flaw. However, it would be in my top fifteen, the film is awesome, it has a ton to love about it, and it's a perfect way to end off the Disney Renaissance. I highly recommend it.
Favorite Character: Sabor
Favorite Song: "Son of Man"
Favorite Scene: All of the scenes with Sabor
Final Score: A+
Feel free to discuss Tarzan, agree or disagree on anything I said, or post any extra thoughts.
Next time, I will recap the Disney Renaissance, so stay tuned for that.
For this review's question:
Do you think this film handled Kerchak's relationship with Tarzan well?
