TARZAN (1999). Disney finally gets around to the primal myth of the titled noble, Lord Greystoke, who is also a beast, a hunter, a provider, a protector in a savage, post-Darwinian world, our link to the apes from which we descended. Like Edgar Rice Burroughs's original, this Tarzan moves like a gorilla (with some skate- and surfboard moves thrown in) but thinks like a man. Glenn Close voices his gorilla mother with grace and tenderness; Minnie Driver gives us a sly, animal-loving, Julie Andrews sort of Jane; Rosie O'Donnell provides wisecracking contemporaneity and a mean mohawk as young Tarzan's best gorilla pal; and Brian Blessed is the evil jungle guide (he wants to capture and sell gorillas) whom Tarzan of course defeats. But Disney animations are almost invariably love stories, so it's no surprise that the heart of this Tarzan is the one shared by Tarzan and Jane, who communicate without words, with the timid, innocent acceptance of an Adam and Eve.

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Hoyts Cinemaeast Providence 10