Day 181: Tarzan

A baby is saved by a gorilla and raised as one of them. The leader of the gorilla family doesn’t want him there and makes it clear that he is not one of them. When humans arrive on the island, he has to decide whether he wants to stay with the family who have raised him, or go and live amongst the humans.

How have I not seen this before? Madness. The start is so sad. First you have Kala (Glenn Close), the gorilla who saved Tarzan (Tony Goldwyn), lose her baby. Then you have Tarzan’s parents killed by the same animal that killed Kala’s child. She heard Tarzan crying and immediately took off to save him, then she was determined to keep him regardless of what the leader said. I loved her strong maternal instinct.

My only problem would be with how quickly and how well Tarzan learned English. There have been cases where people have been found who have had no chance to learn a language as children and it is extremely difficult for them to learn it in adulthood. There’s an optimal period for language acquisition and Tarzan would’ve been well past it. He was good at mimicking noises, however, so it would make sense that he could copy the words he heard. But I can’t see how he would’ve been able to construct sentences at the level he did. Anyway, I know it’s a Disney film about talking apes and whatnot so I’ll not let this little thing get in the way of my rating of it.

8/10

Day 129: Hoodwinked!

All is not well in the world of bakery. Someone has been stealing the recipes from each of the cake shops in the woods and the only one left belongs to Grandma Puckett. Her granddaughter, Red Riding Hood, decides that the only way to ensure nobody steals the recipes is if she takes them up the mountain to her Gran’s house. But the situation gets messy and the police are called in to investigate what really happened, meaning we get taken through four different stories.

It’s always interesting to see the experiences each person had that led them to the same point. I like when films and books do this, you never really get enough of the picture from just one person. The film is funny in places and I liked the crime angle but overall it’s nothing special. I’m not a fan of the animation itself, it seems really clunky and badly done. But I do realise it’s a children’s movie so the things I’d usually look for aren’t really going to be there.

6/10

Day 113: Mars Attacks!

Martians have come to Earth and in a surprise turn of events, the response isn’t to just attack them. But perhaps that might have been for the best as the Martians end up attacking instead. Nuking them has no effect so humanity turns to Slim Whitman and his yodelling talents in order to save the world.

I’ve seen this film loads of times, it’s just so easy to watch. I love how ridiculous it is, especially at the end when you’ve got Tom Jones dancing in amongst deer while there’s an eagle perched on his arm. Come on, it’s great. And Jack Nicholson as President of America would clearly be an excellent choice.

8/10