Two Worlds Collide: A Movie Review of Disney's "Tarzan"

Two worlds, one family. An orphaned boy (whose family was stranded on a tropical island) is taken under the wing of a mother gorilla who has lost a child. Thus, we have the song Two Worlds, from where we get those words.

SUMMARY

   The movie opens with a burning sailing ship and a family of three fleeing the wreck. They take a rowboat to a tropical paradise. After some exploring, the mother and father find a good place to build a home for them and their infant son. 

   During this, the audience is shown a pack of gorillas. A mother gorilla loses a young son to a beast of the jungle and is obviously heartbroken.

   With this introduction finished, the mother gorilla, Kala, stumbles upon the tree-top home of the human family. Among wreckage, she finds the baby lying in his cradle. Upon picking him up, she is attacked by a vicious cheetah. She eventually escapes with the baby, both unharmed.

   Kala adopts the baby and names him Tarzan, much to the annoyance of the gorilla leader (and her mate) Kerchak. 

   A few years go by, and we are shown a young Tarzan having wild adventures and doing a daredevil act, earning the friendship and even respect of his female gorilla "cousin" Terk. He also becomes friends with a little elephant named Tantor.

   The audience is then shown Tarzan growing into a young man and all the things he does to impress his adopted father Kerchak. An ultimate test comes, though, when the cheetah that attacked Kala years ago comes to harm the gorillas. Using a spear, Tarzan is able to kill the cheetah, earning respect and acceptance from Kerchek (well, maybe not quite...).

   One day, Tarzan finds creatures roaming the jungle. They all look similar to him, though they are dressed quite differently, not to mention their speech. He investigates further and eventually saves the female from a herd of ferocious baboons. 

   The female (Jane) and her father are on the island for scientific research, but their guide Clayton has some other nasty ideas in store...

   Tarzan befriends the humans and learns to talk like them, as well as being taught about the world they live in. Although, towards the end of the film, Tarzan is faced with a choice between his family of gorillas and the newly discovered world of the humans.

CONTENT

   For a G-rated cartoon, Tarzan seems to have an overabundance of violence. There are numerous shots fired from a rifle (some hitting people & animals, though just one death) and we are shown a gorilla die (I recall a brief shot of blood). Around the last half of the movie, a man gets entangled in vines and we the shadow of his limp body, as he was hung by the vines.

   Tarzan and Jane have a near-immediate romance. When the two first meet, a curious, yet innocent Tarzan starts to lift her dress, though she kicks him. I believe that there is only a kiss or two. Also, at the very end of the film, Jane can briefly be seen in a two-piece outfit, presumable made out of leather.

   There is no language in the movie.

   In the scene where Jane's father, a professor, first meets Tarzan, he says that Tarzan might be the "missing link." Younger children likely will not catch this, but it is still there in the film, assuming that there even is a missing link. Also, the song Two Worlds might possibly be a reference to evolution ("two worlds, one family"), though this is not stated.

   There is a song called Son of Man in the film and might seem like a reference to Christ (as he was called "Son of Man" in the Bible), but I personally don't think this was the case. Also, the song Two Worlds has a line that says, "Trust your heart, let fate decide, to guide these lives we see." As most Disney movies do, Tarzan has a "moral lesson" of "trust your heart."

   For its few drawbacks, Tarzan is a clean family adventure. I enjoy it no matter how many times I watch it. Although there are a couple of scenes which parents might want to be wary of with young children, the majority of the film is appropriate for all ages.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Length: 88 minutes

Rating: G

Directors: Chris Buck, Kevin Lima

Producer: Bonnie Arnold

Music: Phil Collins, Mark Mancina

Year of release: 1999

Primary audience: Children, family