Movie Thoughts: Tarzan II (2005)

• Released: June 14th, 2005
• Directed by: Brian Smith
• Running time: 1h 12min
• Rating 3.5/5

Synopsis

When a young Tarzan feels left out of the ape troop, he runs away in hopes of finding out what he is. On his way he comes across an elderly gorilla named Zugor. The duo don't like each other at first, but slowly start to help one another. But then a band of gorillas who used to be terrified of Zugor show up to wreck everything...

My Thoughts

A lot of the Disney early 2000s sequels are bad. That's no understatement. And I see this one get a lot of bad reviews. But honestly, I do like this one. I genuinely do. Sure, it's not great, but as someone who doesn't even like the original Tarzan that much (I think it's a fine movie, but I legit don't care much about it), I do kind of have an odd amusement for this one.

I do relate to Tarzan's struggles of not exactly knowing who and what he is, with my own coming to terms with being non-binary and having autism as I grew up. So Tarzan feeling left out because he's different definitely hit for me personally. 

I also just enjoyed the leads in Tarzan and Zugor here. Tarzan was likable, he felt like a believable and relatable kid, and Zugor does of course start off grumpy, but it's nice to see him warm up to Tarzan over the course of the movie. He does start to open up more and becomes a friendlier ape as this happens. So our two leads are definitely likable enough.

Terk and Tantor are two characters who I don't care that much about, but honestly they were fine here if you ask me. Their subplot of finding Tarzan made sense and it did end up adding to the main plot, so it wasn't completely useless or anything. And they thankfully don't overstay their welcome as comic reliefs.

If I do have a major issue with this movie, though, it's the villains. They're just...really lame to be honest. There's Mama Gunda, this gorilla lady who used to be terrified of Zugor (thinking that he's a monster keeping her and her family trapped in a canyon) and is now out for blood when she finds out he's just another gorilla. And she has two sons, one who is prone to being aggressive and one who isn't the sharpest tool in the shed. And honestly...yeah, I just never felt the threat these three pose. 

Sure, they're out for revenge against Zugor and eventually want to head into the wider valley to presumably cause havoc there and attack Tarzans troop. And I'm like...there's only three of them, only two of which pose a physical threat. And then even one of those two isn't very bright. If Mama Gunda had had a larger troop, or at least her sons had been more intimidating, I could've maybe seen them as an actual threat. But as-is Gunda is pretty weak and her sons are mostly used for comic relief, so I don't feel a threat from these guys. Even when they harm Zugor at most they just wreck his home, they never actually hurt the elderly ape himself. So they just don't feel like genuine threats.

There's also the fact that Mama Gunda and Zugor quite spontaneously fall in love and that this causes Gunda's redemption, and I legit don't buy it. Why would she fall for the one who (she at least believes) held her and her sons captive in the canyon for ages? Why would Zugor fall for the one who took away the only good things he had (his nice nest in his home and his friendship with Tarzan)? It's also not helped by the fact that these two have no chemistry whatsoever. 

So yeah...this movie isn't perfect or anything. It does have its flaws. But at the same time...I like it enough and I do think that it's solid. There's definitely worse Disney sequels out there.