Tarzan

When I heard that there was a new Tarzan animated movie being released I was really quite excited because despite my love of big robots and monsters smashing things up and things going BOOM I do have a soft spot for Tarzan, I have fond childhood memories of running around with a tea towel loin cloth and a potato peeler shouting Ahhhh ah ahhhh!!!!!

But this, was poor... Very poor... and a little piece of my childhood feels violated :(

So, the animation is like something from an average quality PS3 game cut scene and is the style that I would expect to see on a kids TV show (although the motion capture was put to good use, the poor animation at least moves well).

The potentially interesting story was diluted to focus on nothing in particular.

There was (in my opinion) totally needless narration at certain points to tell you what was in front of your face.

If I didn't know any better I would have said that this was developed to promote a new range of dolls for girls (Jungle Barbie and long haired, loin clothed Ken?).

Save your money, watch something else or if you really want to watch an animated Tarzan look to Disney's offering which while being a little more childish trumps this one in EVERY way!

Tarzan is yet another version of this very familiar character. Aside from, perhaps, Sherlock Holmes, he must be the most all-time popular fictional character when it comes to movies. They've made a zillion live action versions as well as the Disney cartoon. However, now a German company has created a CGI version and it's appearing in theaters.

It begins with a gorgeous outer space scene showing a giant meteor heading to Earth. However, this is the Earth of millions of years ago, and you see lots of dinosaurs milling about…and you wonder if perhaps this is NOT Tarzan! However, it's only the prologue and some of this (especially the meteor) comes into the story much later.

Much of the film is typical of any Tarzan film. A boy is in the jungle with his parents, they die, he's then raised by gorillas. And, when Jane arrives, again, it's all pretty typical of the Tarzan films. The big difference is the evil corporation angle. A jerk named Clayton is intent on finding some giant meteor (the same one from the beginning of the film) and he's willing to kill Jane, her father, Tarzan and all the cute animals in the film. He's a pretty typical film baddie but the corporate angle is a cliché we've seen a lot in recent years. Aside from the evil corporation, the film is a fairly typical retelling of the story.

So is it any good? Well, the story and voice acting are nice. But the film suffers when it comes to the animation. One of the most difficult things to get right with computer generated animation is a realistic human. Sure, cartoony and exaggerated ones are not difficult to make but trying to make a real looking person is tough—and because of that, filmmakers have only recent been trying to make people who look like people. But, all too often these characters come off looking a bit creepy, as the CGI quality is getting a lot better overall but it's still not exactly right with humans. Because this is a commonly understood problem, I am VERY surprised that the German filmmakers who made Tarzan even attempted to make a hyper-realistic computer animated film about this Edgar Rice Burroughs character. And, in hindsight, I don't think this was a great idea, as too often the people in the film just look vaguely creepy. The effect is made worse by the sad fact that the CGI simply isn't close to the quality being made by Pixar, Dreamworks, Fox or Universal. It really has a look like it was made a decade ago—and the film's graphics vary tremendously. The people, leopard and movement of a jeep in the jungle look downright primitive, though some scenes, like the waterfalls and chameleon, look great. It's a real shame, as I am sure it took a lot of work by a lot of people to make this film but the graphics simply aren't up to even a typical made for DVD release—yet this has been released in 3D for the theaters.

So, what you have here is a poorly animated but otherwise reasonably entertaining film. I do not strongly recommend it, but you could do worse as far as family films go. But, it probably will bore young kids and older ones will probably just sit there and make comments about the sub-par animation. It's probably one more to rent than to own or take your kids to see in the theater.

By the way, it probably was just the problem with the copy I had, but the sound quality was pretty poor—very tinny. But, as I said, I doubt if this is what it will sound like in the theaters. And, in fact, the soundtrack itself is probably the strongest thing about this film—even with sound issues.

Took the family to see Tarzan. 4yr old cried at the sad bit, but got VERY board (FYI to film goers- cinema was very noising from board kids talking, crying, moving around, playing on phones!!!) 11yr thought it was very poor, compared to other animation and the Disney version he grew up on. To quote him, "why did they bother if they couldn't do it better?". My misses and I thought the animation kept pulling us away from the film, you cant be immersed into a story if it keeps distracting you. The motion capture just seemed weird; clunky and off putting. Not 100% terrible, but needs a lot more to be worth the £60 we spent on tickets and treats! It's not as if the story is even public domain, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. still hold copyright on Tarzan, so again why did they bother?

The story of Tarzan of the Apes written by Edgar Rice Burroughs had been interpreted in many films since the 1930s. We all remember those classic films starring Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan as Tarzan and Jane. In the 1980s, there was an acclaimed film version starring Christopher Lambert and Andie McDowall as the legendary couple. In the 1990s, Disney gave us its own take on the story in its traditional 2D animation with a pop musical score by Phil Collins.

I was very surprised that this year, another version was being announced on ads. I saw the name of Kellan Lutz, and thought this was a live action film, starring this Twilight actor who just recently took on another classic film character Hercules. It turns out this was another animated production, but using motion capture technology.

This incarnation of Tarzan gives the new generation an updated origin story. There is a comet from outer space that unscrupulous power companies are fighting over as an unlimited energy source. Instead of the shipwreck, we have a helicopter crash this time. The young Greystoke here was already a talking toddler rather than a newborn baby.

The whole first hour was rather bland and boring. There was a lot of scenes which were dedicated to the romance between Tarzan and Jane. Only later when the villain character Clayton makes his appearance, it was only then that the action picked up.

But by then, we can see that this version of Tarzan was very much influenced by the film "Avatar" with its environmental message, the layout of an army of technology, down to the rocky peaks in the setting. A hilarious modern day reference was the presence of a worker who was dressed like Bob the Builder.

The quality of animation is not at all bad, to be honest. The story though had already been told so many times, and the modern upgrades were too incredible and too familiarly derivative to accept. This is not essential viewing, only when you have restless kids and nothing else to see at the mall. Only an hour and half long, it will be enough to keep their interest. But afterwards, they will probably still remember the Disney version more.

I'll start by saying that I don't know why this movie is getting such bad reviews. I feel as if many people are comparing this to the Disney version and that's not fair. I say it's not fair, because a lot of people grew up with the Disney version. There was a review where the writer mentioned their childhood. Tarzan is an old story, which has been made into many different movies. Just because Disney Tarzan was part of your childhood, doesn't make it the best necessarily. Having been born in the early 90's myself, yes, I couldn't help but notice the resemblances and differences between this and the Disney version but I came into this telling myself to be open minded. And man, do you need to be open minded for this one. The adding of sci-fi in this probably threw off many people, but I found it interesting. In fact, the one thing that probably annoyed me in this movie was whether or not it was directed to adults or children. It definitely deals with more adult themes but they kept it primarily PG. There were times I wished they crossed that line and made it PG13. The graphics and animation is excellent. There were no musicals like Disney, which I liked. I also liked the humor in this, especially from Jane's character. The movie tugs on some emotions. I found myself saying "aww" a few times. Overall, different but enjoyable. I kind of hope they recreate another Disney movie. It'd be nice to have a different take on them given I think they did a good job modernizing this one.