Tarzan (1999)

Movie
German title	Tarzan
Original title	Tarzan
Country of production	United States
original language	English
Publishing year	1999
length	88 minutes
Age rating	FSK o. A.
Rod
Director	Kevin Lima , Chris Buck
script	Tab Murphy
production	Bonnie Arnold
music	Mark Mancina (music), Phil Collins (songs)
cut	Gregory Perler
synchronization
chronology
Successor  → Tarzan & Jane

Tarzan is the 37th full-length animated film of the Walt Disney Studios and was published in 1999. It is based on the novel Tarzan of the Apes (Engl. Tarzan of the Apes) by Edgar Rice Burroughs from 1912 and until now the only full-length, animated version of the material about the "lord of the jungle". The film was a commercial success, grossing over $ 171 million in the US and being viewed by over 5.6 million viewers in Germany.

action

A man (father of Tarzan), his wife (mother of Tarzan) and their baby (Tarzan) save themselves from a burning ship off the coast of Africa . They get stranded and build a tree house on African soil in order to survive.

Meanwhile, the gorillas , the silverback Kerchak and Kala lose their only son to a female leopard named Sabor, who kills the baby monkey. When they look around for another area, Kala hears the cry of the human baby and follows the voice to the tree house. She explores it and discovers that everything has been ransacked and the baby's parents are dead in the corner, apparently also killed by the leopard. Kala eventually comes across the baby hidden under a sheet and adopts it. Suddenly she is attacked by Sabor, who was hiding on the roof, but can still lose her when she hangs with her foot on the tree after a fight. Kala brings the baby to the other monkeys, although Kerchak is against it. The monkeys don't know any people and Kerchak sees a danger in the strange child and obviously doesn't want any more children after losing his own son. Kala prevails, however, and keeps the boy. She finally names the child "Tarzan".

Five years later, the meanwhile mature Tarzan tries to adapt to the monkeys, because because of his appearance he feels like an outsider . Through a test of courage that the gorilla girl Terk had actually come up with to keep him from joining her and her friends, he accidentally triggers an elephant stampede that crashes through the gorilla territory. Kerchak is furious and tells Kala that Tarzan will never be one of them. Tarzan is sad, but Kala cheers him up and shows him how similar they are and that Kerchak just doesn't want to see that. He also finds his best friends in the gorilla girl Terk (actually Terkina) and the elephant boy Tantor, a hypochondriac .

A few years later, the adult Tarzan is attacked by the leopard Sabor, defends herself and kills her with a spearhead. Since Tarzan killed the murderer of Kerchak's child, he wins the monkey chief's respect. The apes' joy at this development is interrupted when a rifle shot can be heard in the distance. Tarzan investigates the noise and discovers three people. They are the monkey researcher Professor Archimedes Porter, his daughter Jane and their guide Clayton. Tarzan takes an interest in Jane and is embarrassed to save her from some angry baboons . He tries to communicate with her, but he can only talk in the language of the monkeys. Jane eventually returns to the camp and finds it devastated. Tarzan's friends had turned everything upside down, and Tarzan tried to make Jane understand that monkeys are like that. Kerchak appears and stands up threateningly in front of Jane, but does not attack her, but disappears with his family again in the jungle. Tarzan follows them. Kerchak urges Tarzan to protect his family and keep everyone away from people. Tarzan is angry with Kala for not telling him there are others like him.

After a while, Tarzan's curiosity can't take it anymore and goes back to the camp. This time he is introduced to the professor and Clayton. Together they teach Tarzan a little English and ask him where the gorillas are. Tarzan initially refuses to lead her there. But then the ship that is supposed to bring the group back to England arrives. Tarzan reaches the warehouse when the crew is already stowing the things. Clayton explains to Tarzan that when Jane sees the gorillas, Jane will stay with him. Tarzan leads Jane, the Professor, and Clayton to Kala, while Terk and Tantor distract Kerchak.

Kala is frightened at first, but then trusts the people. Gradually, more and more gorillas come out of their hiding places and deal with people. But suddenly Kerchak appears and attacks the intruders. Tarzan wrestles Kerchak while Jane, the Professor, and Clayton flee. Tarzan realizes what he's done and flees confused.

Kala shows him the tree house in which she once found him, and Tarzan discovers a picture of himself and his parents. Now knowing where he belongs, Tarzan puts on his father's old suit and joins Jane, who is more and more beguiling him, with Prof. Porter and Clayton.

They board a ship, where they find the crew trapped by pirates . They are Clayton's people, and he reveals that he wants to capture the gorillas and sell them in Europe. He locks Tarzan, Jane and Porter in the ship's hold and goes back to shore. But Tarzan and the other two are lucky because they are saved by Terk and Tantor, and they all set off to stop Clayton.

When they finally find him, he is already fighting the gorillas. Clayton wounds Tarzan in the shoulder with a gunshot. Kerchak stands between Tarzan and Clayton, who are lying on the ground. Clayton shoots and fatally hits Kerchak. While Jane, Prof. Porter, Tantor and Terk free the gorillas and lock up Clayton's henchmen, Tarzan and Clayton fight between the trees. Tarzan throws some creepers at him, causing him to get tangled. Furious, he begins to free himself with his machete . Tarzan notices that a creeper has twisted dangerously around Clayton's neck. He still tries to warn him, but it is too late: with one powerful blow the hunter cuts through the penultimate creeper, falls and hangs himself on the last one. After this drama, Tarzan looks after the dying Kerchak. Before he dies, Tarzan apologizes for never trusting him and makes him the leader of the gorillas.

Tarzan says goodbye to Jane and Professor Porter when the two want to go back on board the ship, but Jane decides to stay with him at short notice because she has realized that she loves Tarzan. Finally, Porter stays, and Tarzan integrates the two into the ape society.

production

The model for the young Tarzan was Alex D. Linz , who also dubbed the figure.

"Deep Canvas"

In order to create the 3D backgrounds with a never-before-seen image depth, the Tarzan production team worked with the new 3D painting and rendering software “Deep Canvas” , specially created for the film . This technique allows artists to create CGI backgrounds that look like traditional drawings. For this development, the developers of “Deep Canvas” received a special Oscar for technical development from the “Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences” in 2003.

After "Tarzan", "deep canvas" was used to create 75 percent of the environments for Disney's next full-length feature film, Treasure Planet . However, since the results were less lovingly designed than its predecessors and everything was drawn very sharply, the conventional drawing method was again chosen for the next films, as the earlier films had proven themselves even without high-tech.

"Deep Canvas" more or less disappeared into oblivion and has not been used in any other film since then, especially because "Deep Canvas" only slowed down work processes that could also be tackled with other rendering programs. An expanded version of Deep Canvas was originally intended to be used in Angel and Her No Good Sister, a planned Disney animated film, but the technology has not been used since the project was canceled.

Differences from the book

• Disney added a few new characters to the original novel, Tarzan with the Apes . Among other things, Tarzan's cheeky monkey friend Terk, his elephant friend Tantor and the leopard Sabor were added to create identifiable characters, as in every Disney film. The latter two characters also appear in the book, but they play an unimportant role.
• The great apes that Edgar Rice Burroughs describes in his books become gorillas in the film. In the books they are only described as a gorilla-like species.
• Unlike in the novels, Tarzan has to fight the leopard in order to be fully accepted in the ape society. The leopard in the film is more reminiscent of a jaguar, but since the scenery is in Africa and jaguars are native to South and Central America, one can assume that it is not a jaguar.
• In contrast to the film, little Tarzan discovered his parents' house as a child and not just as an adult.
• Tarzan teaches himself to read and write in the book. In the film, he is taught by Jane and Professor Porter.
• In the film, Clayton has nothing to do with Tarzan's family. In the book, however, he is Tarzan's cousin and puts the family in a difficult position in the first place.
• In the book, Tarzan's parents are abandoned or abandoned in Africa during a mutiny. In the film, however, they are shipwrecked and forced to live on the island.
• In the book, Tarzan's mother dies of natural causes while Kerchak kills Tarzan's father. Kala then saves Tarzan from Kerchak as an infant. In the film, however, Tarzan's parents are killed by Sabor, the female leopard.
• In the book, Sabor is a lioness.
• The elephant Tantor is not a neurotic hypochondriac in the book, but a venerable, old elephant who is admired by all other jungle inhabitants.
• Commander D'Arnot, who plays a central role in the book and teaches Tarzan the French and English languages ​​and helps him to get his legacy, does not appear in the film.
• The largest predators Tarzan fights in the book are lions , not leopards . However, this corresponds more to reality than the book (leopards are mostly in the jungle, while lions live in the steppes).
• In the book, Tarzan's adoptive father and Kala's husband is the gorilla Tublat, but in the film this character does not appear at all: Kerchak takes on the role of Tarzan's adoptive father.
• In the book, Kerchak is portrayed as the hated enemy of Tarzan, whom he later kills during a battle. In the film, Kerchak is fatally wounded by Clayton.
• The character Terkoz described in the book is Tarzan's archenemy, whom he fights and ultimately defeats. In the film, however, the character of the monkey girl Terk was introduced as Tarzan's closest friend.
• In the book, Jane Porter and her father are from Maryland , USA . In the film, however, they are from London , England .
• While Tarzan's biological parents are abandoned by mutineers on Africa in the book , they end up on an unspecified island in the film, which is apparently off Africa and apparently deserted.
• In the book, the arriving people recognize more and more that Tarzan is the missing Lord John Clayton III. is about Greystoke. In the film, however, the arriving travelers under Professor Porter and Jane cannot explain who Tarzan is supposed to be and where he comes from.
• The adventures described in the book with the cannibal tribe around Chief M'Bugutimbwa were not used in the film for reasons of political correctness .
• In the film, the young, five-year-old Tarzan appears as a lively and adventurous, if defenseless, child. In the book, on the other hand, Tarzan is already very battle-tested at the age of five and displays a brutality with which he has to laboriously defend himself against the constant attacks of hostile animals.
• In the book, Tarzan doesn't wear a loincloth until he is in his mid-twenties, after killing a cannibal. As a child and adolescent he was completely naked (there is no explanation in the literary source as to why he would later wear clothes). This was not realized in the film, especially since it is supposed to be a children's film.
• The book specifies when Tarzan aka Lord John Clayton III. von Greystoke is born: on November 22nd, 1888. This cannot be specified in the film, as Professor Porter speaks of Charles Darwin , Rudyard Kipling and Queen Victoria , who, although together in the period from 1865 (birth of Kipling) to 1882 (death of Darwin) lived, but Kipling's novel The Jungle Book , to which Porter certainly alludes, did not appear until 1894/95, twelve years after Darwin's death. So the film takes place in a time that is difficult to categorize logically.

music

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

Tarzan OST   US 5  × 2 Double platinum 06/05/1999 (67 weeks)   DE 6th  gold 05/28/1999 (38 weeks)

Singles

You'll Be in My Heart   US 21st 06/19/1999 (20 weeks)   UK 17th 11/14/1999 (6 weeks)   DE 20th 07/02/1999 (10 weeks) Strangers Like Me   DE 29 11/12/1999 (11 weeks) Son of Man   DE 68 02/25/2000 (6 weeks) Two Worlds   DE 43 06.10.2000 (5 weeks)

With Tarzan , Disney relied on a new strategy in the setting of its films. Until then, it was mostly the characters in the film who sang the songs, in this case it was Phil Collins . For the German version of the soundtrack, Collins sang all the songs himself in German. The same was the case with the local versions in Spanish, Italian and French; Ákos sang the Hungarian version . The score is by Mark Mancina .

The German version of the soundtrack contains the following titles:

1. Two Worlds
2. You own my heart ( You'll Be in My Heart )
3. Such a man (Son of Man)
4. Trashin 'the Camp
5. Strangers Like Me
6. Two Worlds Reprise
7. You'll Be In My Heart (Single Version)
8. Trashin 'The Camp (Phil and * NSYNC Version)
9. Strangers Like Me (Top 40 Mix)
10. Son Of Man (Single Version)
11. Two Worlds (Phil Version)
12. A Wonderous Place
13. A man who moves like a monkey (Moves Like an Ape, Looks Like a Man)
14. The Gorillas (The Gorillas)
15. One Family
16. Two Worlds Finale

German publication

The German version of the film (84 minutes running time on VHS video) was shortened in twelve places by a total of 52 seconds in order to obtain an FSK approval without age restriction. For this reason, the scissors were also used in the film Lilo & Stitch (2002). The extras of the film received the age rating FSK 12, so that the whole DVD got the FSK 12. The shortened parts of the film were not added again. Until now, the only way to see the film in full in German was the Disney Cinemagic option from the Sky film package until the Blu-Ray was released. The free TV premiere was also unabridged on January 30, 2010 on Sat.1.

The publication on Blu-ray Disc took place on August 2, 2012, for the first time unabridged.

synchronization

The FFS Film- und Fernseh-Synchron took over the synchronization. Frank Lenart was responsible for the dialogue script and direction.

role	English speaker	German speaker
Tarzan	Tony Goldwyn	Jaron Lowenberg
Jane	Minnie Driver	Anke Engelke
Archimedes	Nigel Hawthorne	Osman Ragheb
Clayton	Brian Blessed	Michael Brennicke
captain	Phil Proctor	Ivar Combrinck
Kala	Glenn Close	Eva Mattes
Kerchak	Lance Henriksen	Joachim Höppner
Terk	Rosie O'Donnell	Heike Makatsch
Tantor	Wayne Knight	Detlev Buck
young Tarzan	Alex D. Linz	Max fields
young tantor	Taylor Dempsey	Tim Schwarzmaier

criticism

“In outstanding character animation, Tarzan is half human, half animal for the first time, and his appearances are the highlights in a child-friendly and colorful implementation that tells a straightforward story from childhood in the monkey pack to defeating a poacher. Especially at the beginning there are quite a few shock seconds that make the film not necessarily suitable for viewers that are too small. "

- Lexicon of international film

Some critics have referred to Tarzan as a modified remake of the Disney classic The Jungle Book .

Honors

ASCAP Awards 2000

• Most Performed Songs (Phil Collins)
• " You'll Be in My Heart " (Phil Collins)

Academy Awards 2000

• Best Song ("You'll Be In My Heart")

Saturn Awards 2000

• nominated for:
  • Best fantasy film

Annie Awards 1999

• Technical progress in animation (for " deep canvas ")
• nominated for:
  • Outstanding performance in an animated feature film
  • Outstanding Character Animation (Ken Duncan)
  • Outstanding Character Animation (Glen Keane)
  • Outstanding Direction in an Animated Feature Film (Kevin Lima, Chris Buck)
  • Outstanding effect animation (Peter DeMund)
  • Outstanding score in an animated feature film (Phil Collins for the song "Two Worlds")
  • Outstanding Product Design in an Animated Feature Film (Dan St. Pierre)
  • Outstanding Storyboard for an Animated Feature Film (Brian Pimental)
  • Outstanding speaking performance in an animated feature film (Minnie Driver for her role as "Jane")
  • Outstanding script for an animated feature film (Tab Murphy, Bob Tzudiker, Noni White)

BMI Film & TV Awards 2000

• BMI Film Music Award (Mark Mancina)

Golden canvas 1999

Golden Globes 2000

• Best Song ("You'll Be In My Heart")

Grammy Awards 2000

• Best Soundtrack Album (Phil Collins, Mark Mancina)
• nominated for:
  • Best Song for Film, TV or Visual Media ("You'll Be In My Heart")

Academy Awards 2003

• 2003 - Special Oscar for technical progress ("Deep Canvas")

The German Film and Media Assessment FBW in Wiesbaden awarded the film the rating particularly valuable.

Adaptations and sequels

In 2001, the series offshoot Disney's Tarzan was produced for the Disney TV channel Toon . He was followed in 2002 by Tarzan & Jane and in 2005 by the cinema sequel Tarzan 2 , which describes Tarzan's childhood. A Broadway implementation as a musical was produced in 2007 and played on Broadway until July 2007. On October 19th, 2008 the musical Tarzan premiered in Hamburg. The Swede played Anton Zetterholm Tarzan and Elisabeth Hübert Jane from Lübeck. From May 2010 Alexander Klaws took over the role of Tarzan.

literature

• Edgar Rice Burroughs : Tarzan. The original novel (Tarzan with the Apes · Tarzan's return) (Original title: Tarzan of the Apes · The Return of Tarzan ). Full paperback edition. Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag (dtv), Munich 1999, ISBN 3-423-20312-9 .

Web links

• Tarzan in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Tarzan atrotten tomatoes(English)
• Complete sectional report of the German version
• Tarzan as a musical in Hamburg 2008 (German)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Awards: DE US
2. ↑ German synchronous index: German synchronous index | Movies | Tarzan. Retrieved February 23, 2018 . 
3. ^ Tarzan in the Lexicon of International Films