Tarzan gets the updated, animated, motion capture treatment, in a new version that merely apes the greats. With an environmentally friendly plot, poached straight from Avatar by way of Pocahontas, the young Greystoke heir to an energy conglomerate is orphaned in the jungle after a helicopter crash. Revised origin aside, rather than monkeying with a classic, all the key elements remain. Raised by apes? Check. Dull romance with Jane? Check. Bad guys? Check – evil corporate dudes, out to steal the energy source from a crashed deep-space meteor … or something. Whatever the danger, apes, Jane and Mother Nature still need the white guy in the loin-cloth to save the day.
Unlike the Disney version of the tale, there are no talking animals – but there is a downright annoying narrator filling in plot from a by-the-numbers script, with dialogue seemingly pilfered straight from re-runs of Scooby Doo. Throw in bogus sci-fi elements and a Twilight-style romance, and this Tarzan is a muddled concoction, not sure what age to aim for, or whether to update or embrace cliché. Still, the kids enjoyed it, the 3D animation was pretty good, (even if the voice acting was mainly 2D), and, at just 90 minutes, the monkey business is blessedly brief.
All in all, no king of the swingers, but then, to be fair, no Tarzan has ever managed to swing over the multitude of banana skins thrown up by Edgar Rice Burroughs’ classic, but oh-so politically incorrect, fantasy.
‘Tarzan’ Movie Times (also in 3D)
