Tarzan is a 1999 American animated adventure film based on the 1912 story Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation, it was directed by Kevin Lima and Chris Buck, from a screenplay by Tab Murphy and the writing team of Bob Tzudiker and Noni White, and is the first major animated film adaptation of the story. Tony Goldwyn stars as the titular character, alongside Minnie Driver, Glenn Close, Rosie O'Donnell, Alex D. Linz, Brian Blessed, Nigel Hawthorne, Lance Henriksen, Wayne Knight, and Taylor Dempsey. The film follows an orphan who is raised by a family of gorillas in Africa after his biological parents are killed by a leopard. Years later, he grows up into a man and meets other humans. He is soon torn between the choice of leaving with them or staying with his animal family.
Pre-production of Tarzan began in 1995, with Lima selected as director and Buck joining him the same year. Following Murphy's first draft, Tzudiker, White, Dave Reynolds, and Jeffrey Stepakoff (the latter two of whom received additional screenplay credits in the final cut), were brought in to reconstruct the third act and add additional material to the screenplay. English recording artist Phil Collins was recruited to compose and record songs integrated with a score by Mark Mancina. Meanwhile, the production team embarked on a research trip to Uganda and Kenya to study the gorillas. The animation of the film combines 2D hand-drawn animation with the extensive use of computer-generated imagery, and it was done in California, Orlando, and Paris, with the pioneering computer animation software system Deep Canvas being predominantly used to create three-dimensional backgrounds.
Tarzan premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on June 12, 1999, and was released in the United States on June 18. It received positive reviews from critics, who praised its voice performances, music, animation, and action sequences. Against a production budget of $130 million (then the most expensive traditionally animated film ever made until Treasure Planet in 2002), the film grossed $448.2 million worldwide, becoming the fifth highest-grossing film of 1999, the second highest-grossing animated film of 1999 behind Toy Story 2, and the first Disney animated feature to open at first place at the North American box office since Pocahontas (1995). It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song ("You'll Be in My Heart" by Phil Collins). The film has led to many derived works, such as a Broadway adaptation, a television series, and two direct-to-video followups, Tarzan & Jane (2002) and Tarzan II (2005). Due to licensing issues with Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., the use of these characters is limited.
Plot
In the 1890s, a British couple and their infant son are shipwrecked on the coast of equatorial West Africa. The couple salvage parts of the wreckage and build a treehouse, before being killed by a leopard named Sabor. Kala, a gorilla who lost her son to Sabor, discovers and rescues the orphaned infant from the treehouse, adopting and naming him Tarzan.
As a child, Tarzan lives in the jungle with Kala, befriending her niece Terk, and the paranoid elephant Tantor. Tarzan finds himself treated differently by the gorillas, including Kerchak, the troop's leader and Kala's mate. One day, Tarzan accepts a friendly dare from Terk, and accidentally triggers an elephant stampede. Infuriated, Kerchak declares Tarzan an outsider. Despite the harsh criticisms, Tarzan makes valiant efforts to improve himself as he grows. Years later, Tarzan protects Kerchak against Sabor's ambush and kills her, earning his reluctant respect.
Meanwhile, British explorer Archimedes Q. Porter, his daughter Jane, and their hunter escort Clayton arrive in Africa to study gorillas. Jane gets distracted by a baby baboon, and is chased away by an entire troop, until a curious Tarzan rescues her. Tarzan compares himself to Jane, and realizes that they are from the same species. He leads Jane back to her camp, where Porter and Clayton both take an interest in him. Despite Kerchak's orders to stay away from the humans, Tarzan repeatedly returns to the camp to know more about the human world, and begin a romantic relationship with Jane. But fearing Kerchak's fury, Tarzan refuses to take the trio to the gorillas.
The explorers' ship arrives to retrieve them. Jane persuades Tarzan to return to England with her, explaining he belongs to civilization, and not the jungle. When Jane rejects Tarzan's pleas, Clayton emotionally manipulates him into believing that if Jane sees the gorillas, she will choose to stay. Having fallen in love with Jane, Tarzan decides to disobey Kerchak by having Terk and Tantor distract the gorilla, so that he can safely guide the trio to the nesting grounds. Discovering the gorillas, the Porters excitedly mingle with them. But Kerchak returns and defensively attacks the humans, after noticing Clayton threatening a gorilla. Tarzan restrains Kerchak, allowing the trio to escape. Disappointed, Kerchak reproaches Tarzan for betraying the troop, causing him to flee in guilt. Kala takes Tarzan to the treehouse and reveals his past. Kala tells Tarzan that she will accept whatever decision he makes. Tarzan bids Kala a fond farewell, and boards the ship to England.
Upon boarding the ship, Tarzan and the Porters are ambushed by a group of stowaway poachers led by the traitorous Clayton. Aware of the gorillas' territory, Clayton reveals his plan to capture and sell all the gorillas for profit, imprisoning Tarzan, the Porters and the captain in the hold to prevent their interference. Terk and Tantor realise Tarzan is in trouble after hearing his yell from the ship in the distance, and they climb onboard to free the group. Tarzan races back to land to stop Clayton and his henchmen.
That night, as Clayton and his henchmen begin capturing the gorillas, Tarzan, his friends, and the rallied animals intervene to scare away the henchmen and free the gorillas, including a caged Kala. Clayton mortally wounds Kerchak, and personally fights Tarzan through the rainforest canopy. While pursuing Tarzan across the dense vines with his machete, Clayton becomes entangled and desperately cuts through them, before accidentally hanging himself. Tarzan returns to the dying Kerchak who finally accepts Tarzan as his son, and names him the new gorilla troop's leader.
The next day, the Porters prepare to leave while Tarzan stays behind with the gorillas. As the ship's rowboat leaves shore, Porter encourages his daughter to stay with the man she loves. Jane jumps overboard, followed by her father. The Porters reunite with Tarzan and his family. Together they embark on a new life in the jungle.
Voice cast
Tony Goldwyn as Tarzan, a man raised by gorillas who finds his human roots. Glen Keane served as the supervising animator for Tarzan as an adult, while John Ripa animated Tarzan as an infant and a 7-year-old child. John Ripa studied the movements of young chimpanzees to use for young Tarzan's animation, while Glen Keane used the movements of a gibbon for the animation of adult Tarzan. Keane also watched his son Max Keane skateboarding and snowboarding and referenced surfers' movements to animate the scenes where Tarzan slides across tree branches. Brendan Fraser auditioned twice for the title character before portraying the lead role in George of the Jungle (1997). Goldwyn auditioned for the title role as well, and according to co-director Kevin Lima, Goldwyn landed it because of "the animal sense" in his readings, along with some "killer baboon imitations". Alex D. Linz as young Tarzan Minnie Driver as Jane Porter, the eccentric, feisty, benevolent, and intelligent daughter of Professor Porter. She is the first of the group to encounter Tarzan and becomes his love interest. Ken Duncan served as the supervising animator for Jane. Many of Driver's mannerisms and characteristics were incorporated into Jane's animation. The scene where Jane describes meeting Tarzan for the first time to her father and Clayton was improvised by Driver, resulting in Duncan animating one of the longest animated scenes on record. The scene took seven weeks to animate and seventy-three feet of film. Rosie O'Donnell as Terk (short for Terkina, a feminization of Terkoz merged with Teeka), Tarzan's best friend, a wisecracking gorilla. She is also Kala and Kerchak's niece, making her and Tarzan adoptive cousins. Michael Surrey served as the supervising animator for Terk. The character was originally written as a male gorilla, but after O'Donnell's audition, Terk was re-characterized as a female. Before changing Terk to a female, Chris Rock was offered the role, but turned it down. Glenn Close as Kala: Tarzan's adoptive mother, who found and raised him after losing her biological son to Sabor. She is also Kerchak's mate. Russ Edmonds served as the supervising animator for Kala. Brian Blessed as William Cecil Clayton, an intelligent and suave yet arrogant and treacherous hunter, who assists the Porters on their quest. Randy Haycock served as the supervising animator for Clayton, basing his design on Clark Gable and other film stars of the 1930s and 40s. Blessed also provided the iconic Tarzan yell for the title character. Lance Henriksen as Kerchak: Kala's mate and Tarzan's reluctant adoptive father, a silverback and the leader of the gorilla troop, who struggles to accept Tarzan since he is a human. Bruce W. Smith served as the supervising animator for Kerchak. Wayne Knight as Tantor, a paranoid and submissive African forest elephant, and Tarzan and Terk's best friend. Sergio Pablos served as the supervising animator for Tantor. Woody Allen was initially cast as Tantor, but Jeffrey Katzenberg persuaded Allen to leave the project and join DreamWorks' Antz (1998). Taylor Dempsey as young Tantor. Nigel Hawthorne as Professor Archimedes Q. Porter, an eccentric, short-statured scientist and Jane's father. Dave Burgess served as the supervising animator for Porter. This was one of Hawthorne's two final acting roles before he died in 2001. This is also the second Disney film Hawthorne starred in following his performance in the earlier Disney film The Black Cauldron (1985). Bob Bergen as Vincent Snipes, Clayton's lead henchman. Corey Burton as Butch Jones, one of Clayton's henchmen. Erik von Detten as Flynt, one of Tarzan and Terk's gorilla friends. Jason Marsden as Mungo, one of Tarzan and Terk's gorilla friends. Lily Collins as a baby ape Shane Sweet as a baby ape Debi Derryberry as various monkeys
Additional voices were provided by Jim Cummings, Hillary Brooks, Sherry Lynn, Chris Sanders, Tina Halvorson, and Jonnie Hall.
Production Development Disney's Tarzan was the first Tarzan film to be animated. Thomas Schumacher, then-president of Walt Disney Feature Animation, expressed surprise there had not been any previous attempts to animate a Tarzan film, saying, "Here is a book that cries out to be animated. Yet we're the first filmmakers to have ever taken Tarzan from page to screen and presented the character as Burroughs intended." He noted that in animated form, Tarzan can connect to the animals on a deeper level than he can in live-action versions.
In 1994, when A Goofy Movie (1995) was nearly finished, Kevin Lima was approached to direct Tarzan by then-studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg. He had desired to have the film animated through the Disney Television Animation division with a new animation studio established in Canada. Lima was reluctant to the idea because of the animation complexities being done by inexperienced animators. Following Katzenberg's resignation from the Walt Disney Company, Lima was again contacted about the project by Michael Eisner, who decided to have the film produced through the Feature Animation division, by which Lima signed on.