Tarzan (1999)
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An orphan raised by gorillas in the African jungle must choose between his human heritage and his animal family.
The story
In the 1890s, a British couple and their infant son are shipwrecked on the coast of equatorial West Africa. After the parents are killed by a leopard, the infant is rescued and raised by a gorilla named Kala. Growing up in the jungle, the boy, now known as Tarzan, becomes proficient in the wild but remains an outsider among the gorilla troop. Years later, the arrival of a group of human explorers, including a woman named Jane, forces Tarzan to confront his identity. He finds himself torn between the life he has known with his animal family and the world of his own species.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
After being raised by gorillas in the African jungle, Tarzan encounters a group of human explorers: Professor Archimedes Q. Porter, his daughter Jane, and a hunter named Clayton. Tarzan discovers he is human and begins a relationship with Jane. When the explorers' ship arrives, Jane urges Tarzan to come to England with her. Tarzan eventually leads the trio to the gorilla nesting grounds, where he faces a confrontation with the troop leader, Kerchak. After a conflict with the treacherous Clayton, who attempts to capture the gorillas for profit, Tarzan and his friends fight back. During the struggle, Clayton is killed, and Kerchak is mortally wounded but accepts Tarzan as his successor. In the end, Jane and her father choose to stay in the jungle with Tarzan and his gorilla family.
- First release year
- 1999
- Runtime (minutes)
- 88
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Kevin Lima; Chris Buck
- Writers
- Tab Murphy · screenplay; Bob Tzudiker · screenplay; Noni White · screenplay
- Cast and characters
- Tony Goldwyn · Tarzan; Minnie Driver · Jane Porter; Glenn Close · Kala; Rosie O'Donnell · Terk; Brian Blessed · William Cecil Clayton; Lance_Henriksen · Kerchak; Wayne Knight · Tantor; Nigel Hawthorne · Professor Archimedes Q. Porter
- Genres
- animated; adventure
- Themes
- identity; man-versus-nature; family
- Tone and mood
- adventure; action
- Setting
- Africa in the 1890s
- Premise and plot tags
- coming-of-age; orphan; wildlife
- Source material / true-story basis
- Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
- Franchise connections
- Tarzan
- Reception
- The film received positive reviews from critics, who praised its voice performances, music, animation, and action sequences.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 8.1 · scale: 10 · review count: 158; Metacritic · score: 80 · scale: 100 · review count: 27
- Awards and nominations
- Academy Award · Best Original Song · win
- Production trivia
- The animation of the film combines 2D hand-drawn animation with the extensive use of computer-generated imagery.; The film was the first Disney animated feature to open at first place at the North American box office since Pocahontas (1995).
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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