Tarzan: Special Edition (1999) |
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Tarzan: Special Edition (1999) |
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| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Animation |
Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Menu Audio THX Optimizer THX Trailer Audio Commentary-Directors And Producer Deleted Scenes Music Video-'You'll Be In My Heart' & 'Strangers Like Me' ByPhil Collins Music Video-Studio Session-'Trashin' The Camp' By Phil Collins & 'N Sync Game-Terk's Tree Surfing Challenge Game-DisneyPedia: Living In The Jungle Featurette-History And Development (Three Featurettes) Featurette-The Music Of Tarzan (Three Featurettes) Featurette-Story And Editorial - Building The Story Storyboard Comparisons Featurette-The Characters of Tarzan (6) Featurette-Animation Production - Galleries, Featurettes Gallery-Poster Theatrical Trailer-3 |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 1999 | ||
| Running Time | 84:23 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper |
Dual Layered Dual Disc Set |
Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Language Select Then Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 2,4 | Directed By |
Chris Buck Kevin Lima |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Walt Disney Studios Home Ent. |
Starring |
Tony Goldwyn Minnie Driver Glenn Close Brian Blessed Nigel Hawthorne Lance Henriksen Wayne Knight Alex D. Linz Rosie O'Donnell Taylor Dempsey Jason Marsden |
| Case | ? | ||
| RPI | $36.95 | Music |
Phil Collins Mark Mancina Gregory Perler |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Catalan Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) |
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.66:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles |
English English for the Hearing Impaired Spanish Portuguese Spanish Audio Commentary Portuguese Audio Commentary |
Smoking | No |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
Disney's adaptation of this classic was a surprise to me, as I thought that Tarzan had already been done enough. Edgar Rice Burroughs' first Tarzan adventure debuted in 1912, and the character has been seen in countless movies since. Memories of Saturday afternoons watching black and white Tarzan serials with Johnny Weissmuller and the 80s film Greystoke : The Legend of Tarzan starring Christopher Lambert sprang to mind. Why a kid's cartoon?
To my surprise, I found Tarzan an unexpected delight. Visually impressive, Tarzan is nothing short of breathtaking. Considering I already knew the general story I was still drawn into this adaptation. In this version, Tarzan's human parents are stranded in Africa after a shipwreck. They establish a primitive life for themselves and their son, but a leopard kills his parents. A kindly ape named Kala rescues the human baby. She adopts it as her own child against the wishes of her mate and pack leader, Kerchack.
Young Tarzan grows up among the apes, but is always keenly aware that he is different. Once he reaches adulthood and meets humans for the first time, the story gets more complicated. It becomes clear that Tarzan is caught between two cultures - he lives with apes but will never be one of them. When he meets humans, he is treated as though he is an ape.
I'm certainly no fan of Phil Collins (he's a bit past his prime) but I have to give him credit. The songs in this film add a lot to the storyline and are extremely catchy. Not as good as some of Disney's other recent efforts, but the use of the songs is quite suitable to the storyline. Unlike most Disney releases, the characters don't sing the songs - the music is just part of the background and it is used well to advance the story.
Tarzan is probably one of Disney's better animated films of the last 10 years It is certainly no Lion King or Beauty and the Beast, but it is a fun adaptation that kids who are being exposed to Tarzan for the first time will love and adults will find a refreshing reinterpretation.
The movie is presented in PAL at 1.66:1 and the disc is 16x9 enhanced.
The picture is spectacularly clear and a real credit to Disney. There is a lot of fast moving action in the movie and at all times it looks amazingly fluid, almost like Tarzan is going to swing right through the screen.
The brilliant colour almost makes the screen come alive. The jungles look lush, the water is an amazing blue, the bright coloured birds and fruits are a treat to the eyes. It is a beautiful picture.
There are no MPEG artefacts at all and no grain.
Tarzan is a great example of how spectacular hand drawn animation can look and Disney have done a great job at transferring it to DVD.
| Sharpness |   |
| Shadow Detail |  |
| Colour | |
| Grain/Pixelization | |
| Film-To-Video Artefacts | |
| Film Artefacts | |
| Overall | |
The main track is an English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) track.
Whilst not as stand-out impressive as the video transfer, this is still a great audio treatment.
The dialogue comes through clearly. There were no sync or other audio related issues.
The music sounds great and helps to advance the storyline (I'm not a big Phil Collins fan though).
The surrounds are used well, especially to add to the sense of the jungle (i.e. birds in the distance, elephants, and so forth).
The subwoofer is used for a few scenes, but for the most part is pretty subtle.
There is also an English Audio Commentary track in Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s).
| Dialogue | |
| Audio Sync | |
| Clicks/Pops/Dropouts | |
| Surround Channel Use | |
| Subwoofer | |
| Overall | |
Directors Chris Buck and Kevin Lima and producer Bonnie Arnold provide a lively and entertaining commentary.
The songs work well in the film, but not much out of it!
Simple and fun games for kids
Too brief to be anything of substance, but a good overview for the attention deficient!
Storyboard and conceptual art set to music.
Artists get a trip to get some creative juices and inspiration flowing.
Interview with Phil
The difficulty of translating the music to different languages. Phil even sings in a few languages!
Audio of the actual tape demos he submitted to Disney. Nothing to see, but interesting to hear.
Brief look at the script and screenplay process.
Goes through the creation and animation of all the key characters in the movie.
There were a few brief featurettes here. The most interesting were on the Deep Canvas technology which gave the animation such an impressive fluid look in the fast jungle swinging scenes.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
Region 4 is the clear winner here.
For some reason the SE release in the US was touted as a 2 disc release but in the end only a single disc was released. As a result the special features were pretty scaled back.
Overall, a really fun movie for the whole family.
The video is superb.
The audio is great.
The special features are good.
| Video | |
| Audio | |
| Extras | |
| Plot | |
| Overall | |
| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Marantz DV4300, using Component output |
| Display | Sony VPL HS10 projector on 100 inch 16x9 screen + Palsonic 76WSHD. Calibrated with THX Optimizer. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
| Audio Decoder | Sony STR-DE685. Calibrated with THX Optimizer. |
| Amplification | Pioneer |
| Speakers | DB Dynamics VEGA series floor standers + centre, DB bipole rears, 10" 100W DB Dynamics sub |