Tarzan

I love the idea behind this film, especially how it shows the lives of the gorillas and humans interchangeably in the beginning.  For example, the gorilla mom and dad throw up the baby gorilla and the human mom and dad catch the human baby, Tarzan.  I find the story truly and touching how the same jaguar killed Tarzan’s parents and Kala’s baby.  It was  only right that the two connected and intertwined characters eventually found eachother and became each other’s family.

Tarzan is similar to other Disney movies, in the sense that there is a tragedy in the beginning of the film that leads the path for the whole movie.  Also, the “villain” of the film, or cruel human looks as if he has purple eye shadow on, like most other Disney villains.  Similar to the humans in Pocahontas, Clayton views people different from him as “savages” which However, unlike most films we have watched in this course, there is a huge emphasis on Kala’s maternal role.  Usually Disney films barely mention or do not even depict any type of motherly, female figure, so I think that this is a pleasant change.

The movie portrays a great message that love doesn’t discriminate.  Even though Tarzan is a human and not a gorilla by any means, Kala immediately takes him in as one of her own.  Both vulnerable and in search of a family, it’s easy for the two to seek comfort in each other.  Also, weirdly enough, Jane falls in love with Tarzan, who could be considered of a different species – somewhere in between human and ape. 

Tarzan also implies that nurture is greater than nature. Since Tarzan was raised by gorillas, he abandons his human qualities and adopts gorilla-like qualities.  He develops the same posture, walk, and mannerisms as the other young gorillas. In fact, he is confused by humans and doesn’t even realize they are the same as him during his first encounter with them.  He associates himself with gorillas because he was raised by them and surrounded by them his whole life, despite that his true species is human. 

One of my favorite parts of the film is after Kerchak claims that Tarzan can never be one of them.  To make Tarzan feel better, Kala looks at him and describes exactly what she sees: “I see two eyes, a nose – somewhere, two ears...”  Even though they look completely different, Kala points out the qualities that are the same, which emphasizes how she sees him as one of her own.  I especially love how she makes Tarzan feel her heart and them his own, to demonstrate that their hearts are the same, even if no one can see it on the exterior.

I thought it was ironic when the gorillas invade the human camp sight and Terk remarks “what kind of primitive beasts are responsible for this mess?”  Usually we would refer to gorillas as primitive beasts, but it’s interesting that from the gorilla’s perceptive, humans are the rather simple, savage ones.

Although I do love this film, and watching it again after many years has only rekindled my love for it, there are a few concepts I’m still having trouble understanding in the film:

1)    Why does Tarzan have dreadlocks?

2)    How does he know English?  Repeated sounds are one thing, but how is he be able to communicate in English that his name is Tarzan?