Strangers Like Me

The Disney version of Tarzan is all a bit odd, really. For one thing, there are enough elements of the book in the original 1999 film to make it clear that someone, at some point in time, actually read the novel. And yet, they've changed things for no apparent reason (making Jane British, altering the role Clayton plays in the plot, getting rid of D'Arnot), which is a bit odd. They've converted the animal characters into classic Disney animal characters (especially Tantor), which is to be expected from Disney, I guess, but still a bit odd. And it's a musical in which only some of the numbers are performed by the characters, with the rest being performed by Phil Collins - which is considerably odd, when you think about it.

As a Disney fan, I found the film annoying as it fell short of what I expect from Disney. As a Tarzan fan, I found the film annoying as it didn't really add anything to the Tarzan cannon, and basically just took a few areas that were already muddy and made them muddier. So, I found it disappointing from both a Disney and a Tarzan perspective, which is a bit sad, seeing as it was a Disney Tarzan film...

Even though I think the entire concept of the stage musical version is daft, I'd still be interested in seeing it just because the characters would be performing the song (as opposed to Phil Collins - I don't actually object to Phil Collins, I just think having him sing all the songs was a bit odd).

I'm quite fond of the song "Strangers Like Me" (which is performed here in Sweedish), and can't shake the feeling it would have been much better in the movie if it was a proper musical number, rather that just a song over a montage.

I've been thinking about that song lately while reading about Quakers - particularly the writings of Rufus Jones. It's a bit of an interesting experience - "hey, there are these people you've never really heard of, and they agree with you about a lot of stuff". Strangers like me, indeed.

I had, obviously, heard of Quakers before hand. It's kind of hard to read books like Jane Eyre (where her appearance is described as 'Quakerish'), and not hear about them, but I've always put them in the same basket as Puritans and never paid much attention. It's always the things you never bothered looking at that prove most interesting.

But, yeah, Disney's Tarzan. Disappointing, but not the worst version of Tarzan I've ever watched. Just far from the best.