Tarzan is a American animated coming-of-age [ 3 ] adventure comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is based on the story Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs , being the first animated major motion picture version of the story. Pre-production of Tarzan began in , with Lima selected as director [ 4 ] and Buck joining him the same year. Following Murphy's first draft, Tzudiker, White, Dave Reynolds , and Jeffrey Stepakoff the latter two of whom received additional screenplay credits in the final cut , 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. It received positive reviews from critics, who praised its voice performances, music, animation, and action sequences.
Due to licensing issues with Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. In the s, a British couple and their infant son are shipwrecked in Equatorial Africa. The adults build a treehouse, but are killed by a leopard named Sabor. Kala , a local gorilla whose son was also killed by Sabor, finds the human infant and adopts him, naming him Tarzan.
As a child, Tarzan befriends Kala's niece Terk and the paranoid elephant Tantor. Because of his different appearance and unorthodox behaviors, Tarzan finds himself treated differently by the other gorillas, and by Kerchak , the troop's leader and Kala's mate.
