Tarzan & Jane (2002)

Disney has the reputation to make really good animated movies and then create sequels to them that are some of the worst movies ever made, "Tarzan & Jane" being the worst of them. Granted, the only other two Disney sequels I have seen are "The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride" and "Kronk's New Groove", but I find it almost impossible to believe there could be a worse Disney film. It's just terrible.Starting off with Tarzan and Jane swinging through the jungle in an attempt to capture the moving scenery from the first film as Phil Collins' "Two Worlds One Family" is misplaced into the scene, we get a our first look at the animation, which is a gargantuan step-down from the animation of the first film. Lots of detail is removed from the character models, and they look as if they do not fit into the scenery they are set in. The character appearances just seem too bright to be in the locations they're in.Through a series of three flashbacks, we witness the events of the past year and get to see our recurring characters again. All of the characters have lost all of the charm and characteristics that their original characters had and seem like completely different characters. Tarzan (Michael T. Weiss) has no personality or character traits other than he isn't familiar with traditional human customs and he loves Jane. Jane (Olivia d'Abo) is turned from the quirky girl from the first movie and is nothing more than a damsel in distress that needs to be saved. The professor (Jeff Bennett) has been reduced to comic relief without any character. Terk (April Winchell) the gorilla and Tantor (Jim Cummings) the elephant are the only two characters who maintain relatively the same personality, though they are both used even more for comic relief then they were in the first movie.The cutting to the flashbacks seems like they are setting up a punchline like a cutaway for "Family Guy" would rather than setting up a flashback that encompasses a third of the movie. The flashbacks also make the movie feel like there is no plot as they distract you from what the problem about the anniversary is. The events that take place in the flashbacks have no real effect on anything other than it would make Tarzan sad if Jane tried to do something for their anniversary.Phil Collins "Two Worlds One Family" from the first film plays at the beginning of the movie as I mentioned above. While in "Tarzan" it matched the story about how Tarzan came from the human world but was raised in the gorilla world and both groups from the world are his family. In "Tarzan & Jane", the song does not go along with anything happening in the movie and is just used because it's from the first movie.At least with "Simba's Pride" and "Kronk's New Groove", the films at least kept the characters the same and kept the animation to the same level as the first movie instead of changing the character's personalities and downgrading the animation. The new characters are one dimensional and boring, the returning characters are different, the animation has been downgraded, bad use of music, and an overall bad and forgettable story line, "Tarzan & Jane" is just terrible.

Although this was not exactly on par with the original (it is hard for it to compare, I saw this one on YouTube, and the original in '99 in the cinema), I don't believe it was as awful as people seem to think.Albeit I find with many Disney films, there are a lot of things included that young children would not understand, such as Tantor's reference further on in the film to a "love triangle".Not one to watch if you're looking for another fantastic "Tarzan" experience, but worth watching if you want a bit of a laugh.I give it a 7/10 purely because it actually managed to make me crack a smile here and there, which is one huge feat for Disney these days with all their big CGI outings that fall flat the vast majority of the time.

I'm really amazed that the profit motive would rule so large in the making of this film. It was so obviously and completely slapdash in concept - three unrelated flashbacks? come on! And the animation is really second rate - up close on a DVD it looks just awful. You really don't even want to subject your kids to this trash - my three year old was almost totally uninterested and I don't blame him. 2/10

The story is about creating the biggest surprise for the wedding anniversary. Still, it is hard to choose in a jungle what would be the best. So, after trying to figure out what would be the best for the other, you waste time and you get your own surprise. Still, compared to the first Tarzan cartoon, this is just a bit weaker...