US industrialist John Greystoke perishes in a helicopter accident in Africa while searching for an energy-bearing meteorite which crashed millenia ago: his 4-year old son JJ is the only survivor. Fortunately, the child is found and raised by maternal ape Kala: he calls himself Tarzan after his childhood fantasies surrounding his favourite ape doll. Then, in his teens he encounters Jane, the daughter of his father's colleague and environmentalist Jim Porter. They are both involved several years later when William Clayton (who is now running the Greystoke business) goes in pursuit of the meteorite once again with not a thought for the environment.
This is a curate's egg. There is some terrific stuff here, chief among which is the realisation of the jungle environment. And, if you have to update Tarzan's origin, I suppose this is OK (personally, I have trouble if he is not the long lost son of English aristocracy, but that's just me. And quite a lot of other people).
There is also some startlingly bad stuff here, too. The kid JJ is whiny, clingy, frightened of everything, and pretty much tied to his cuddly ape doll. He is such a complete wimp (OK, he's 4) that his abrupt switch to muscular heroic teen/man strains credulity, but at least it means that we are out of the overlong introduction.
I now know why they go with established names in animated movies - they are good. I hadn't heard of most of the people providing voices here, and they are mostly bad. Les Bubb as Jim Porter is particularly poor, but Spencer Locke as Jane reminds me of Cameron Diaz in harsh nasal mode. She grates.
My biggest problem, though, is the meteorite, which carries with it a bucketload of unanswered questions. If they can't find it, how do they know it's there? And how come they can't find it? It's the size of Mount Everest, and it isn't always shrouded in fog. How does the energy thing work, anyway? What is the point in seeking to blow it up? Taking a step backwards and looking from a distance, this isn't actually a Tarzan film at all: it's Avatar, with a bodged Tarzan origin nailed on at the front and Superman Returns' kryptonite mountain nailed on at the end.
Maybe kids won't have so many problems with it.
The 3D should have been great: it is indifferent.
This is a curate's egg. There is some terrific stuff here, chief among which is the realisation of the jungle environment. And, if you have to update Tarzan's origin, I suppose this is OK (personally, I have trouble if he is not the long lost son of English aristocracy, but that's just me. And quite a lot of other people).
There is also some startlingly bad stuff here, too. The kid JJ is whiny, clingy, frightened of everything, and pretty much tied to his cuddly ape doll. He is such a complete wimp (OK, he's 4) that his abrupt switch to muscular heroic teen/man strains credulity, but at least it means that we are out of the overlong introduction.
I now know why they go with established names in animated movies - they are good. I hadn't heard of most of the people providing voices here, and they are mostly bad. Les Bubb as Jim Porter is particularly poor, but Spencer Locke as Jane reminds me of Cameron Diaz in harsh nasal mode. She grates.
My biggest problem, though, is the meteorite, which carries with it a bucketload of unanswered questions. If they can't find it, how do they know it's there? And how come they can't find it? It's the size of Mount Everest, and it isn't always shrouded in fog. How does the energy thing work, anyway? What is the point in seeking to blow it up? Taking a step backwards and looking from a distance, this isn't actually a Tarzan film at all: it's Avatar, with a bodged Tarzan origin nailed on at the front and Superman Returns' kryptonite mountain nailed on at the end.
Maybe kids won't have so many problems with it.
The 3D should have been great: it is indifferent.