Like anyone else in the "arts" industry. I too have my early influences. And like many, they include Comics and Animation.
And while there were many things that probably molded me to the point where I am now (artistically speaking), I can point to two specific EARLY examples of things that had a PROFOUND impact on me, and pushed me with a force that no doubt more than assured that I would be in this industry in one form or another.
The two examples were in both (surprise, surprise) animation and comics.
About 700 years ago when I was around 7 or 8 years old, one of the earliest movie experience I have was when me and my cousins were taken to see a re-release of Disney’s "the jungle book".
I remember sitting in that theater, popcorn in hand, RIVETED to this film. Sure, chances are that I had seen other cartoons. Other movies, mixed in with more than my share of crappy TV shows. But this movie. THIS Disney film had something different for me. More than any other. The film (for me) wasn’t like any thing else I had seen. For one thing, it wasn’t about a good character fighting against a typical aggressor. It was about loss, being lost, discovery, and sacrifice, and letting go. While some of this is similar in Disney’s future Tarzan, Where Tarzan lacks is that.... well….. there is no emotional pull, no REAL emotional pull in the film. With all its flash and snappy animation. The story fails in that regard.
While jungle book with all its high techy'ness of its time (Xerox baby!), has emotional pull and then some. It works so well that you barely notice that the 'bad guy' in the film is hardly even there. Shere Kahn works basically as a vehicle to continue the story forward. He is just a big fat clock on the wall, because part of the story is that its a race against time...it is only a matter of time, before the killer Kahn gets the man cub. So...get the kid to safety. How? get him to his people. In essence.....let him go.
Shere Kahn gets to come in a few times, ask questions and walk out, until his big finale battle at the end. The bulk of the story is basically character development between mowgli and big brotha Balloo the bear, and of course Bagerea the panther. That’s the investment, right there. Done so well that when you get to the end, and you are sitting in the dark theater lookin at that big stupid bear that you've just fallen in love with, after putting everything on the line for this kid...is now lying on the floor. dead.
When Mowgli tries to wake him up and is unsuccessful, It just rips your gut out. I remember vividly how LONG that scene seemed to go on when I was in that theater. Now it seems to flash by pretty quick. But to an 8 year old kid, sitting in a dark theater. Well.....it packed quite a punch.
When Baghera starts his eulogy, seemingly to underline the death of the Balloo character, And the spotlight hits the slumped bear, It hits that point of being just excruciating.
And then....the bears eyes flutter, and then open. WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOA!!!
He’s alive. And not just alive, but he lets baghera CONTINUE his monologue, while he listens as he just lays there. Loving EVERY WORD of it!
BALLOO : .." maaaan, he's crackin me up..."
Now....as a kid, you've just pooted THREE times within five minutes time. 1) the death of the bear. 2) the revelation of him being alive, and 3) and then your just stoked at the idea of him being a jerk and letting Baghera continue his eulogy! That’s good stuff folks. But that’s not all....not quite.
Now we have the sacrifice of letting go. The bitter sweet ending of having to say goodbye. Not just because Shere Kahn still lives, But because he NEEDS to be with his own.
To have the life that he was born to have. Which is underscored when he see's the girl at the watering hole.
BALLOO : ..."forget about those, they aint nuthin but trouble..."
Mowgli then has to make a choice....stay or go. He chooses to go. The bitter sweet goodbye comes to the fun ending of Balloo and Baghera walking off into the jungle
to an upbeat tune.
The emotional ups and downs of the end were to me, a then 8 year old punk kid, An extraordinary way to tell a story.
In contrast, Tarzan never had the feeling of sacrifice. In the end he swings off with his chicky (Whose daddy even stays WITH them), and all is well with the world. Again, no sense of sacrifice. No sense of emotional investment. And why would there be? Why would you be expected to feel anything for a film that has nothing to feel FOR?
For all of its high tech glitz and beautiful fluid animation. For all of its beauty...It lacked the very thing that made the 'Jungle Book' a TRUE masterpiece. A TRUE classic.
HEART.
And for an 8 year old kid sitting in a dark theater, with popcorn in hand.....that was an amazing lesson in storytelling.
