Tarzan

After last week’s rather caustic review of the "Austin Powers" movie, it pleases me to report that Tarzan, Disney’s new animated feature, passes the litmus test for acceptable children’s fare. In fact, this is an enjoyable movie for the entire family to see.

Using The Lion King as a benchmark for excellence, Tarzan doesn’t quite hit that lofty a standard, but it comes pretty darn close. The musical score featuring five songs by Phil Collins is memorable, though they all sounded alike to me.

The film’s animation is a sight to behold. Utilizing a technique called "deep canvas," the viewer is treated to a seemingly three dimensional vista of Tarzan swinging through the jungle like a surfer catching a big wave. "Spectacular" is too subtle a word to describe it.

The best thing I can report about the film is some prudent Disney executive’s decision to kibosh all the violence one might expect from a "Tarzan" flick, whether real or animated. The Johnny Weissmuller feature called Tarzan and His Mate included graphic scenes of natives killing each other, with arrows in the head and whatever. How many kids over the years have watched that 1934 film on Saturday afternoon television?

The newest version downplays potentially violent scenes. There’s a ferocious leopard that makes mincemeat of Tarzan’s real life parents, but only a hint of their demise is shown. At the end, one bad guy accidentally hangs himself on the vines, but we only see a shadowy image of the body.

For the most part, the characters are a hoot. Tarzan (voice of Tony Goldwyn) is a vine swinging fool, while Minnie Driver plays Jane as an independent British woman locked in the 19th Century. Glenn Close is Kala, Tarzan’s adoptive gorilla mother, though she comes across as a soccer mom with a major depilatory problem. Rosie O’Donnell will grate more than one set of teeth in the audience as Terk, Tarzan’s simian pal. There’s something about a gorilla with a Brooklyn accent that doesn’t work for me.

Lucky me, I got to see the film on Friday afternoon with an audience comprised of little kids and their moms. Expecting the worst, the kids all behaved themselves. They obviously liked what they saw.