Tarzan is a 1999 American animated adventure film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation for Walt Disney Pictures.
The 37th Disney animated feature film, the tenth and last released during the Disney Renaissance era, it is based on the 1912 story Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs, being the first animated major motion picture version of the story.
Directed by Kevin Lima and Chris Buck (in his feature directorial debut) from a screenplay by Tab Murphy, Bob Tzudiker, and Noni White, the film stars the voices of Tony Goldwyn, Minnie Driver, Glenn Close, Rosie O'Donnell, Brian Blessed, Lance Henriksen, Wayne Knight, and Nigel Hawthorne.
Pre-production of Tarzan began in 1995, with Lima selected as director and Buck joining him the same year.
This is a 1990s PHOTO COPY from DISNEY ANIMATION RESEARCH Dept. and NOT ORIGINAL DRAWINGS
Following Murphy's first draft, Tzudiker, White, and Dave Reynolds were brought in to reconstruct the third act and add additional material to the screenplay.
English recording artist Phil Collins was recruited to compose and record songs integrated with a score by Mark Mancina.
Meanwhile, the production team embarked on a research trip to Uganda and Kenya to study the gorillas.
The animation of the film combines 2D hand-drawn animation with the extensive use of computer-generated imagery, and it was done in California, Orlando, and Paris, with the pioneering computer animation software system Deep Canvas being predominantly used to create three-dimensional backgrounds.
Entertainment Weekly compared the film's advancement in visual effects to that of The Matrix, stating that it had "the neatest computer-generated background work since Keanu Reeves did the backstroke in slow motion".
They elaborate by describing how the characters moved seamlessly through the backgrounds themselves, giving the film a unique three-dimensional feel that far surpassed the quality of previous live-action attempts.
Roger Ebert gave the film his highest rating of four stars, and he had similar comments about the film, describing it as representing "another attempt by Disney to push the envelope of animation", with scenes that "move through space with a freedom undreamed of in older animated films, and unattainable by any live-action process".
This is a 1990s PHOTO COPY from DISNEY ANIMATION RESEARCH Dept. and NOT ORIGINAL DRAWINGS