I thought it incredible when I first learnt that the Tarzan franchise released another instalment to their catalogue of over 50 Tarzan movies because really, have we not had enough of this tired conceit of man-in-loin-cloth yodelling?
Did not Disney further enhance this false Tarzan image in 1999? Did not Hugh Hudson prove that another movie was unnecessary back in 1984 with 'Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes' which in my humble opinion was the only Tarzan movie made that remained partly faithful to the storytelling by Edgar Rice Burroughs? Ah, but 2016 will produce yet another Tarzan film, this time from David Yates.
Reinhard Klooss who directed the wonderful Animals United animated film not only directed but also wrote the screenplay for his offering of Tarzan. No doubt he's seen all the Tarzan movies, perhaps read the comic book versions but I'm betting he's never indulged in seating by a fireplace to read any of the 24 Tarzan classics by Burroughs.
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| Tarzan |
It is clear that his movie's many flaws suggest that it is inappropriately titled, distorting the image of Tarzan once again but perhaps not as cruelly as the Hollywood and Disney versions have done so in the past. This made-in-Germany Tarzan is as American as it gets since it is also based on previous 'Hollywood Tarzan' films and is certainly not the beloved and amazing character created by Burroughs some 100 years ago at around the same time when he wrote A Princess of Mars, on which Disney's John Carter of Mars was based. (see further comment re John Carter movie.)
The screen opens with an asteroid heading toward earth. I almost jumped out of my seat, thinking I had either got a defected disc or put in the wrong movie in my player! It turns out that Klooss wants us to know that his Tarzan would eventually have a connection with an energy/oil conglomerates' destruction of natural resources, which I have to admit is an important message to the young ones.
The storyline begins with an American named Greystoke (Burroughs' Greystoke was as English as Earl Grey tea) whose plane crashes in Africa, the only survivor being his son John Clayton. As I recall from my readings of the Tarzan novels some 40 years ago, he was actually marooned off the coast of Africa with Lady Greystoke who delivered an infant boy.
So in fact Tarzan was actually born in Africa. Be that as it may be, this movie's John Clayton is then raised by an ape called 'Karla'. If you're going to use the name Tarzan for your movie why not keep the original names of the apes as well? And where was Numa? Every story about Tarzan's childhood featured Numa the lion.
Another fact to consider is that Tarzan had a scar starting above his left eye that ran across the top of his head from a terrible attack with another ape when he was about the same age as Klooss' Tarzan whose face is as unmarked as a baby's bum. And so we have yet another Tarzan impostor. The narrator of the film tells us that an 'evil' ape wants to take over the tribe to which Tarzan has been adopted into.
I find this statement to be a form of cruelty to one of earth's higher creatures because there are no 'evil' apes, in fact there aren't even evil animals. Doesn't everyone know by now that apes likewise to man also have this 'dominion thing'?
As far as fantasy movies go, I enjoy them because you don't have to watch a movie scene containing more than 10 minutes of gun violence and unnecessary foul language which is exactly why I rated Peter Jackson's Lord of The Rings 10 out of 10.
I was so looking forward not to hearing a single gunshot or apocalyptic explosion in this Tarzan movie but I guess the director succumbed to the major market of movie-goer demands. However if you don't take your Tarzan movies seriously and/or if you're one of many who have no idea that Tarzan books existed long before the movies, you will not dislike this film.
Albeit reminiscent of Disney's Atlantis films in its storyline, this production has a certain artistic mix of fantasy speculation and cinematic technology utilizing state-of-the-art CGI rendering, which makes up for the weak animation skills. For example, animation fails to depict Tarzan's look of surprise when he first encounters his own race which is an important event in Tarzan's growing up stage.
The voices are not exceptional but for Kellan Lutz and Spencer Locke's modest voice-overs. Oh yeah, and Andy Wareham's gutturals as Tublat are quite realistic. The 3D version is a delicious eye-candy treat. Of course, I am referring to the blu-ray edition of the film. And yet, perhaps the most outstanding quality of the film as far as I'm concerned is the par excellence of surround sound in DTS-HD high resolution 96khz.
The soundtrack combines the dialogue as well as background music score to the fullest output of true separation of 5.1 channels, putting to shame many of the so-called 7.1 film soundtracks. Add a quick note here paying kudos to the sound engineer.
If you do not consider the fact I have always been biased towards the Tarzan character and hold in contempt all false depictions of this fictional legend, then all in all the movie will be 94 minutes of a fun pastime no matter if you're an adult or a kid. Truth being in all probability I would have given the movie 7 out of 10 had it been entitled anything but Tarzan.
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