Movie Review: **** Tarzan (1999)

Tarzan, Disney

This is less of a musical than some of Disney's other animated movies, and more Phil Collins singing his songs as background music. "You'll be in my Heart" won an Oscar for best original song.  

However Tony and I loved this show.  It is a telling of the Edgar Rice Burroughs classic.  It was good action, neat animals, and Tarzan can (Tony Goldwyn) slide on limbs and jump from vine to vine like nobody’s business.  It has the intrigue of Tarzan being raised by the apes, after jaguar kills his parents.   (His mother is voiced by Glen Close.)  It also has the pretty girl, Jane (Minnie Driver) and the mean hunter, Clayton (Brian Blessed) who hopes to become rich by selling all the gorillas to zoos.

This is a movie about friendship, and how in the end, friendship is important, and can overcome pride.  Tarzan is torn between his own kind and those he has lived with.  This makes for some sentimental pleasantness.

Movie Reviews: ****John Carter;

John Carter is the big budget Disney scifi based on a book by Edgar Rice Burroughs written 100 years ago.  The movie tells the story of the uncle of Burroughs, Civil War veteran John Carter, (Taylor Kitsch) who is transported by accident to Mars.  There he becomes involved in a war between four civilizations, two humanoid, one four armed and green and remind me of Avatar, and a sinister people who are behind the scenes.  They manipulate the war, giving information when it suits them.  They have superior technology, such as transporting between worlds, having ray guns etc. They remind me of something from Doctor Who. This movie took a pounding from the critics, and the box office.  It probably looks too much like other movies, Avatar, Star Wars.  It has the fight between monster and prisoner in the arena.  The monster looks like the snowman from Hoth. There are also traces of Stargate.  However there are some things new.  The critter that is like a dog is cute.  I also like the interaction between Burroughs and Carter and how this plays into the plot.  Maybe the characters in these other movies are based on Burroughs.  I give this movie four stars as I love most anything scifi.  This is good, but not as good as some others.