 |
|
|||||||
| Directors | Chris Buck & Kevin Lima | |||||||
| Producer | Bonnie Arnold | |||||||
| Associate Producer | Christopher Chase | |||||||
| Story | Edgar Rice Burroughs | |||||||
| Screenplay |
Tab Murphy, Bob Tzudiker & Noni White |
|||||||
| Songs | Phil Collins | |||||||
|
|
||||||||
| MAIN CAST VOICES | ||||||||
| Tarzan | Tony Goldwyn | |||||||
| Jane Porter | Minnie Driver | |||||||
| Kala | Glen Close | |||||||
| Terk | Rosie O'Donnell | |||||||
| Professor Archimedes Q Porter | Nigel Hawthorne | |||||||
| Clayton | Brian Blessed | |||||||
| Kerchak | Lance Henrikson | |||||||
| Tantor | Wayne Knight | |||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| BACKGROUND | |||||||||
• Following in the
successful tradition of their "classic" animated films of
recent years like Alladin,
Hercules
& Beauty
and the Beast, the Disney studio first began story development
of Tarzan in January 1995. In June 1996, experienced
Disney animator Glen Keane (Pete's
Dragon - 1977; The
Little Mermaid - 1989) was approached to animate the principal
character. Keane, who was on leave  studying
in Paris was excited by the project but wanted to use the Paris Disney
animation studio, which had done key scenes for The
Hunchback of Notre Dame and Hercules.
The majority of the other character animation, including Jane,
was done in California and Keane and his colleagues transferred their
rough drawings back and forward electronically via a computer system
called the "scene machine". Keane based a lot of the
ape-man's dynamic movements on his son's extreme sports videos and
he also endowed Tarzan with the characteristics of numerous animals,
including a leopard, snake and baboon. One other new digital
innovation was "Deep Canvas", software that allowed the
two-dimensional characters to interact with a three-dimensional background
in a way never seen before. Composer/drummer Phil Collins
was approached to provide songs for the film in mid-1995, in March
1996 a team of key artistic personnel travelled to Africa for two
weeks of sightseeing, sketching and photography, and animators attended
lectures on animal biology and visited numerous zoos. The recording
of the actors voices was accomplished over 1997 and the film was finally
released on 18 June 1999. (Green) In 2001 and 2002 Walt
Disney Television Animation produced 39 episodes of an animated series
based on this film, The
Legend of Tarzan, which covered the exploits of Tarzan, Jane
and the Professor living in the jungle together following the events
of the film. |
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| MOVING PICTURES A - DEVELOPMENT | |||||||||
| Click on the image below see a demonstration of Deep Canvas: | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| PLOT - Note: Spoiler warning | |||||||||
 •
Kala, a female gorilla whose baby has been killed by a leopard, adopts
an orphaned human baby and she resolves to raise him as her own. The
baby grows into an energetic and agile youth but he is tormented by
his differences from the other apes and his inherent inadequacies.
When Tarzan becomes an adult the tension between he and Kerchak,
the leader of the gorilla troop, increases when Tarzan proves his
superiority by killing Sabor the leopard, the gorillas' incessant
antagonist. Tarzan's life suddenly changes when a group of white
people enter his world and he discovers there are other creatures
like himself. He is attracted to Jane, the daughter of Professor
Porter, a scientist keen to study gorillas in the wild, and she is
attracted to him. Clayton, a despicable white hunter who is
acting as their guide, betrays the party and captures and imprisons
Tarzan before returning to the jungle to capture the gorillas for
zoo specimens. Tarzan escapes to protect the gorillas, Kerchak
is killed defending his family and Tarzan battles Clayton to the death
amongst the jungle creepers. Both Jane and Professor Porter
decide to stay in the jungle with Tarzan permanently. |
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| MOVING PICTURES B - ACTUALISATION | |||||||||
| Click on the image below to see the trailer for this film: | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| LOBBY CARDS | |||||||||
| Click on the image below to view a set of French lobby cards for this film: | |||||||||
 |
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
SOURCES |
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
This independent, fan-based analysis of the Tarzan material is copyright © 2002-2007 Paul Wickham
This page updated January 2008