Distributor: Warner Home Video
Episodes: 16
Duration: 22 min (per episode)
Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle: Season 1 (DVD) – Series Review
Tarzan has been around for more than a century and with the last iteration of the movies currently playing in theatres, he has never been more alive. That being said, movies aren’t the only thing where his name was plastered upon, but also countless books, series and even games. With Warner Bros re-releasing the 1976 series Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, we could not resist revisiting this classic cartoon. Prepare yourselves, because the one-liners in this animated series tend to compete for the crown of being the cheesiest ever.
Seeing the story is about Tarzan (Robert Ridgely), things will often be in or surrounding his habitat, the jungle. From here on out it’s pretty much random adventures all the way. Tarzan either finds himself in the midst of an arena, fighting for his life in a nearby city of gold, or aiding giants into overcoming their fear of a rhino. While these things sound rather in sync with Tarzan, the series turns a bit strange when all of a sudden aliens show up to replicate Tarzan, as they are so amazed by his physical abilities.
Like many of these older series, there is no red thread to be found in this first season. Every episode is just a loose adventure spanning twenty minutes. While some characters are introduced the first time they cross Tarzan’s path, it’s best to view these episodes in their original broadcasting order. Nonetheless, everything can be viewed separately, and you won’t really miss a thing.
The flow of most episodes is always the same, where things start off in a rather cheerful fashion, but soon a problem arises and Tarzan is the only man who can save those in need. There are also a decent amount of stereotypical items that were common in the seventies, as it seems that Tarzan is truly the alpha male, and women are helpless creatures or tyrants that abuse men. That being said, things are still rather pleasant, albeit a bit slow at times. The speech of the characters has some awkward pauses in-between, and they tend to overact all the time. Nonetheless, for the resources of that time, things were actually quite decent.
It’s clear that our animation techniques have evolved a lot since the seventies, as the colors, as well as the fluency of the animations is dated every single way you look at it. Things are a lot more static, and often you only see one character moving per frame, whereas new series tend to be a lot more vibrant. A few other things are quite peculiar, the eyes of all characters are either crooked or very lifeless, which kind of makes things seem a lot more serious than they actually are. Also, for us it was a first that cartoon characters actually look into ‘the camera’.
Even though it costs a pretty penny to upscale older series, it would have been nice if a bit more digital retouching happened with this series, as the colors aren’t always that consistent and you can clearly see that this series is closing in on its expiration date, when it comes to overall screen quality.
Sadly, this DVD release of the first season of Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle has no special features whatsoever. While this series doesn’t really need any extra items to be fun, it would have been great if some extra information about Tarzan, and his many different forms would have been added to this rerelease of this somewhat ancient series.
Conclusion
Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle: Season 1 is a fun blast from the past, especially for older fans, as well as children who love some old cheesy adventure stories. While for our current standards the animations are dodgy, the acting isn’t all that convincing and the stories don’t always make sense, it’s certainly an amusing series to watch.
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