Tarzan wears his trademark loincloth while the actor playing him sports a full-body motion-capture suit in Constantin Film\u2019s clunky-looking riff on the Edgar Rice Burroughs character, which gives literature\u2019s most organic hero a robotic, pre-\u201cPolar Express\u201d appearance. Targeted at a generation raised on CGI and the idea that men don\u2019t grow body hair, this English-language reboot gambles on big B-movie setpieces, hoping the spectacle will disguise shortcuts taken in the design department. \u201cTarzan\u201d is an eyesore for anyone above the age of 10 \u2014 literally, for those opting to see it in badly miscalibrated 3D \u2014 and will lean on heavy marketing for modest returns as it swings through various international territories.<\/p>\n
In several of Europe\u2019s larger megaplexes, one can presently find 7-foot fiberglass Tarzan standees \u2014 broad, muscular shoulders tapering down to a narrow girlish waist atop a pair of delicate long legs \u2014 posted like mannequins for the latest in jungle-ready underpants. The fixture in Berlin\u2019s Cubix theater has lost his wig, revealing one of the weaknesses in an otherwise hubba-hubba design: It looks as if someone tried to attach fake hair to the head of a shapely (and fully \u201cman-scaped\u201d) Greek statue, his vacant Ken-doll expression all but incapable of communicating emotion.<\/p>\n
This is the Tarzan audiences can expect from the opportunistic German production, animated by Hannover-based Ambient Entertainment, which handled CG African critters just fine in 2010\u2019s \u201cAnimals United\u201d and manage the monkeys just fine here, but are clearly out of their depth when dealing with humans. Swooping in before Warner Bros.\u2019 big-budget 2016 relaunch, Constantin acquired the Tarzan rights in 2010 after Disney let them lapse, and their relatively quick-turnaround toon relies almost as heavily on the Mouse House\u2019s idea of the character as Burroughs\u2019 own. Not only does the silhouette evoke that 1999 hand-drawn version, but this is also a more talkative Tarzan than most of his live-action predecessors, with Kellan Lutz (the second Calvin Klein model to play the role, following Travis Fimmel\u2019s smallscreen stint) providing wall-to-wall narration.<\/p>\n
But this is no mere origin story. When Lutz says, \u201cLet\u2019s start at the beginning,\u201d he means 70 million years earlier, \u201cwhen the giant dinosaurs ruled the earth.\u201d Certainly, that makes for a more dramatic opening than even Burroughs\u2019 pulp-primed wits could have imagined, as audiences witness a giant meteor crash-land in the jungle and wipe out the big CG brutes. Cut to the late 20th century, as the Greystoke family arrives in search of a mysterious energy source. Writer-director Reinhard Klooss packs several setpieces into the first reel, serving up a fierce battle between silverback gorillas and the helicopter crash that leaves young Greystoke orphaned.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s a cold, calculated efficiency to the storytelling. The pic hits the obligatory marks \u2014 young Greystoke adopted by Kala, swinging through the jungle, discovering Jane Porter (Spencer Locke) and so on \u2014 without pausing to make Tarzan seem at all human in the process, which is no small problem given his stiff, all-digital appearance. Visually, the character animation smacks of yesterday\u2019s videogame technology (where motion capture is a more accepted technique), while the fuzzy-looking 3D suggests that scenes designed for HD television sets have been blown up for the bigscreen without the necessary stereoscopic adjustments.<\/p>\n
The story circles around to the meteor again, clearly aiming for that same tricky blend of real-world adventure and supernatural danger that the Indiana Jones series rekindled three decades earlier. Tarzan is quick to learn English, though not before pantomiming his way through a classic \u201cme Tarzan, you Jane\u201d scene. Before long, the couple are juggling romance and various eco-pitfalls, with Tarzan swinging through the jungle one moment and running barefoot across snowy mountain tops the next.<\/p>\n
The motion capture feels like a stunt, while the stunts \u2026 don\u2019t. Physics barely apply, and the thrill of watching Tarzan fling himself through the foliage \u2014 even in 3D \u2014 hasn\u2019t advanced much since the Disney days. One of the surest signs that not enough attention has been paid to the details is the way that characters\u2019 faces nearly always appear to be in shadows, while the plot \u2014 in which Tarzan tries to stop an opportunistic capitalist (Trevor St. John) from robbing the jungle of its most precious resource \u2014 seems more than a little ironic. Surely someone at the Burroughs estate must have felt the same way.
\nFilm Review: ‘Tarzan’<\/p>\n
Reviewed at UGC Cine Cite les Halles, Paris, Feb. 19, 2014. Running time: 94 MIN.
\nProduction<\/p>\n
(Animated \u2014 Germany) A Metropolitan Filmexport (in France)\/Constantin Film (in Germany) release of a Constantin Film presentation and production, in association with Ambient Entertainment. (International sales: Summit Entertainment, Los Angeles.) Produced by Robert Kulzer, Reinhard Klooss. Executive producer, Maritn Moskowicz.
\nCrew<\/p>\n
Directed, written by Reinhard Klooss, based on the Tarzan stories created by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Camera (color, HD, 3D), Markus Eckert; editor, Alexander Dittner; music, David Newman; production designer, Henning Ahlers; motion capture art director, Uwe Stank; sound (Dolby Atmos), Markus Dobler; sound designers, Stefan Busch; supervising sound editor, Stefan Busch; re-recording mixer, Christoph Merkele; animation supervisors, Robert Kuczera, Benedickt Niemann, Jurgen Richter, Nicolai Tuma; character designers, Peter Oedekoven, Sven Kroog; choreographer, Peter Elliott; line producer, Bernhard Thur; associate producer, Holger Tappe; casting, Rick Montgomery.
\nCast<\/p>\n
Voices: Kellan Lutz, Spencer Locke, Trevor St. John, Les Bubb, Jaime Ray Newman, Mark Deklin, Aaron Kissiov, Anton Zetterholm. (English dialogue)
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