Tarzan in film and other non-print media


Tarzan, a fictional character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, first appeared in the 1912 novel Tarzan of the Apes, and then in twenty-four sequels by Burroughs and numerous more by other authors. The character proved immensely popular and quickly made the jump to other media, first and most notably to comics and film. This article concerns Tarzan's appearance in film and other non-print media.

Film

The earlier Tarzan films were silent pictures adapted from the original Tarzan novels which appeared within a few years of the character's creation. With the advent of talking pictures, a popular Tarzan movie franchise was developed, which was anchored by actor Johnny Weissmüller in the title role, which lasted from 1932 to 1948. Tarzan films under Weissmüller often featured the character's chimpanzee companion, Cheeta. Later Tarzan films after Weissmüller have been occasional and somewhat idiosyncratic.

Silent film

The earlier Tarzan films were eight silent features and serials released between 1918 and 1929, most based on novels in the original series. Elmo Lincoln starred in the first Tarzan feature, Tarzan of the Apes, a faithful cinematic rendering of Burroughs' first Tarzan novel. The first portion of the film featured Gordon Griffith as the young Tarzan, so Griffith could technically be considered the first screen Tarzan. Elmo Lincoln returned for two sequels. Additional silents were produced in the 1920s with other actors, The Revenge of Tarzan, and Tarzan the Mighty. One of the silents, Tarzan and the Golden Lion, featured the then-unknown Boris Karloff as a villainous native chieftain. Other actors who portrayed the character in 1920s films were P. Dempsey Tabler and James Pierce. The first Tarzan sound film was Tarzan the Tiger, featuring Frank Merrill as the Ape Man, shot as a silent but partially dubbed for release. It was Merrill’s second Tarzan movie, and it cost him the role, as his voice was deemed unsuitable for the part.

The Weissmüller era

The most popular series of Tarzan films began with Tarzan the Ape Man, starring Johnny Weissmüller and Maureen O'Sullivan. Weissmüller, the son of ethnic-German immigrants from Romania, was already well known as a five-time Olympic gold medalist in swimming. He became the most famous and longest-lasting screen Tarzan, starring as the Ape Man in a total of twelve films, through 1948, the first six produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and the final six from RKO. The beauteous and scantily clad O'Sullivan was a major factor in the early popularity of the series. The role of Jane in the films was reduced after O'Sullivan departed in 1942 following the sixth film in the series, Tarzan's New York Adventure. Two Jane-less films followed before Brenda Joyce took over the role for the last four Weissmüller Tarzan films.
Starting afresh with an extremely free adaptation of Tarzan of the Apes which threw out everything that had gone before, the Weissmüller series was a boon to the franchise if not to the character. In contrast to the articulate nobleman of Burroughs's novels, Weissmuller's Tarzan was a natural hero with a limited vocabulary. The ersatz pidgin of his dialogue has often been mocked as "Me Tarzan, you Jane," although that particular line was never spoken in any of the films.
Tarzan and Jane were clearly married in the novels, but their legal status was left ambiguous in the Weissmuller films, even though they shared a jungle treehouse and a strong sexual chemistry. In keeping with Motion Picture Production Code requirements, their son "Boy" was found and adopted rather than born to Jane. The "Boy" character, played by Johnny Sheffield, appeared in eight consecutive films in the series, starting with Tarzan Finds a Son. Weissmüller's yodel-like "Tarzan yell" became so associated with the character that it was sometimes dubbed into later films featuring different actors. Cheeta the chimpanzee provided comic relief through the series.
Due to complex licensing issues relating to Tarzan, a number of competing films starring other actors were made during the Weissmüller period. The first of these was Tarzan the Fearless, featuring another Olympic swimmer, Buster Crabbe, that was the first Tarzan film produced by Sol Lesser, later to become producer of the franchise when it moved to RKO. The New Adventures of Tarzan, hearkening back to the original concept of the character as an intelligent Englishman, was a serial featuring Herman Brix that was reedited into two feature films, the first released in the same year and with the same title as the serial, and the second, Tarzan and the Green Goddess released in 1938. Brix, another Olympian changed his name in 1939 and, as Bruce Bennett, enjoyed a long career in film and television. Tarzan's Revenge, also released in 1938, starred Glenn Morris, gold medal winner in the Olympic decathlon in 1936 and female swimmer Eleanor Holm who was expelled from the 1936 Olympics and featured opposite Weissmüller and Crabbe in Billy Rose's Aquacade; the film again produced by Sol Lesser.
With the exception of The New Adventures of Tarzan, which was partially filmed in Guatemala, the Tarzan movies of this period were mostly filmed on Hollywood sound stages, with stock jungle and wildlife footage edited into the final product.

The franchise after Weissmüller

After Tarzan and the Mermaids in 1948, Weissmuller retired from the series, believing that he was now too old to play the loincloth-clad character. He went on, however, to appear in a long series of similar adventures wearing a safari suit as Jungle Jim.
After Weissmüller's departure, producer Sol Lesser led a nationwide search for a replacement, auditioning over 200 actors. The winner was Lex Barker, a tall and strikingly handsome 29-year-old who had grown up in wealth and privilege in New York City. Barker portrayed Tarzan in five films, each with a different actress portraying Jane. These were mostly low budget affairs similar to Weissmuller's RKO films, although the third one, Tarzan's Peril, was an attempt to upgrade the series by filming on actual African locations and using local Africans in the cast. Despite Barker's aristocratic bearing and good acting credentials, Lesser insisted that he emulate Weissmüller's "Me Tarzan, you Jane" characterization.
Next came six films starring Gordon Scott, a bodybuilder who was discovered while lifeguarding at a hotel in Las Vegas. His first three Tarzan films, produced by Sol Lesser, continued in the Weissmüller formula. Lesser also produced several episodes of a Tarzan television pilot starring Scott that was edited into a feature film called Tarzan and the Trappers.
Then the series was taken over by producer Sy Weintraub, who wanted to move the character closer to Burroughs's original conception. The result was two of the best-received entries in the entire franchise, Tarzan's Greatest Adventure and Tarzan the Magnificent. MGM released a remake of Tarzan, the Ape Man in 1959, a poorly received film starring Denny Miller. The Weintraub series continued in two films featuring veteran stuntman Jock Mahoney, three with former pro-football player Mike Henry, and two with Ron Ely. The Mike Henry films were filmed before the Ron Ely TV series, but were released to theatres after the TV series debuted. Weintraub had intended Henry to star in the TV series, but Henry declined because of the injuries and illnesses he had suffered during back to back location filming.
The Weintraub productions, including the Ron Ely television series, dropped the character of Jane and portrayed Tarzan as an intelligent but apparently rootless adventurer. The Mike Henry entries, starting with Tarzan and the Valley of Gold, were produced at the height of the James Bond craze, and had a well-tailored Tarzan jetting around the world to take on dangerous missions. In contrast to most earlier Tarzan films, the Weintraub productions were in color and were shot in exotic locations such as Kenya, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Mexico, and Brazil.

Later films

After 1970, the movie Tarzan went on hiatus until 1981, when MGM released its third version of Tarzan, the Ape Man with Miles O'Keeffe in the title role and Bo Derek as Jane. The film was financially successful, but critically panned.
The better-received followed in 1984, starring Christopher Lambert. Returning to the source material, it updated Burroughs’ original novel in the light of 1980s sensibilities and science, utilizing a number of corrective ideas first put forth by science fiction author Philip José Farmer in his 1972 mock-biography Tarzan Alive: A Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke. While restoring Tarzan’s identity as an intelligent human being, Greystoke portrayed his adaptation to civilization as a failure, and his return to the wild as a matter of necessity rather than choice.
The next live-action Tarzan movie was Tarzan and the Lost City which starred Casper Van Dien. Essentially a follow-on to Greystoke, this film was set in the 1920s and attempted to capture the flavor of some of the later novels in the Tarzan series, in which the ape-man encountered increasingly fantastic civilizations hidden in the deep jungles.
The latest live-action Tarzan film The Legend of Tarzan, produced by Warner Brothers and Jerry Weintraub & directed by David Yates, was released on July 1, 2016. It stars Alexander Skarsgård and Margot Robbie as Tarzan and Jane, along with Samuel L. Jackson, Christoph Waltz and Djimon Hounsou.

Animated films

animated Tarzan marked a new beginning for the ape man, taking its inspiration equally from Burroughs and . Its major innovations were recasting the original fictitious ape species that adopted Tarzan as gorillas and turning William Cecil Clayton, his paternal cousin and rival for the affections of Jane in the early novels, into a brawny out-and-out villain known only as "Clayton." Tarzan was voiced by actor Tony Goldwyn and Jane by Minnie Driver.
Two direct-to-video sequels followed, Tarzan & Jane, and Tarzan II, a re-exploration of the ape man’s childhood. In Tarzan & Jane, Goldwyn and Driver were replaced by Michael T. Weiss and Olivia d'Abo.
Also in 1999, a direct-to-video animated version of Tarzan of the Apes aimed at younger children was released by Sony Wonder.
In 2013, Germany's Constantin Film released a Tarzan 3D animated feature in CGI with motion capture. Reinhard Klooss directed. Kellan Lutz and Spencer Locke portrayed Tarzan and Jane Porter, respectively. The film opened in a number of countries in late 2013 and early 2014, but received mostly negative reviews and as a result no theatrical release was planned for the U.S. Instead, the film was released directly to DVD and Blu-ray in the U.S. in August 2014.

Other

The film Tarzan corpus also includes a number of documentaries, most of them either made for television or to accompany video sets of Tarzan movies, a number of derivative foreign-language productions from China, India, and Turkey, and various spoofs and parodies. Among the latter is Starzan, a Philippine Cinema comedy film loosely based on the original Tarzan franchise satirizing western entertainment. It stars Filipino comedic actor Joey De Leon as Starzan, Rene Requiestas as "Chitae", and Zsa Zsa Padilla as Jane.
Steve Sipek also known as Steve Hawkes played Tarzan in two films produced by a Spanish company and intended for world markets. The first was variously titled Tarzán en la gruta del oro/King of the Jungle/Tarzan in the Golden Grotto and portions were filmed in Suriname, Florida, Africa, Spain and Italy, with interruptions when the producers ran out of money. Sipek claimed the film company couldn't pay the huge licensing fees from Edgar Rice Burroughs' estate and settled for the name "Zan" or "Karzan" for the character.
A 1972 sequel, Tarzan and the Brown Prince, had portions filmed in Rainbow Springs, Florida. where Sipek was burned in a fire that got out of control.

Stage

A 1921 Broadway production of Tarzan of The Apes starred Ronald Adair as Tarzan and Ethel Dwyer as Jane Porter.
In 1976, Richard O'Brien wrote a musical entitled T. Zee, loosely based on the idea of Tarzan but restyled in a rock idiom.
Tarzan, a musical stage adaptation of the 1999 animated feature, opened at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on Broadway on May 10, 2006. The show, a Disney Theatrical production, was directed and designed by Bob Crowley. The show played its final performance July 8, 2007. Tarzan was played by Josh Strickland. Jane was played by Jenn Gambatese. Terk, Tarzan's best friend, was played by Chester Gregory. Kerchak, Tarzan's ape father was played by Shuler Hensley and Robert Evan. Kala, Tarzan's ape mother was played by Merle Dandridge. Professor Porter was played by Tim Jerome. Mr. Clayton was played by Donnie Keshawarz. And Young Tarzan was played by Daniel Manche, Dylan Riley Snyder, J. Bradley Bowers, and Alex Rutherford.
The same version of Tarzan that was played at the Richard Rodgers Theatre played throughout Europe and was a success in the Netherlands.
Tarzan also appeared in the Tarzan Rocks! show at the Theatre in the Wild at Walt Disney World Resort's Disney's Animal Kingdom. The show closed in 2006. The Tarzan Encounter currently plays in Disneyland Park, similar to the show at Disney's Animal Kingdom.

Radio

See main article, Tarzan .
Tarzan was the hero of two popular radio programs. The first began on 12 September 1932 with James H. Pierce in the role of Tarzan, adapting the novel Tarzan of the Apes in 77 installments, airing three times each week, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Each episode, not counting commercials, ran for about ten minutes. This series was followed by two original stories, written by Rob Thompson, "Tarzan and the Diamond of Ashair", 39 episodes airing every weekday starting 1 May 1935, and "Tarzan and the Fires of Tohr", 39 episodes, airing during 1936. Both of these stories Rob Thompson later adapted for the Tarzan comic strip and again for the Dell Tarzan comic book.
The second Tarzan radio program began 1 November 1951 and ran for 75 half-hour episodes, ending on 27 June 1953. Lamont Johnson played Tarzan.

Television

Meanwhile, television had emerged as a primary vehicle bringing the character to the public, as the corpus of Tarzan films, especially those of Johnny Weissmuller and Lex Barker, became staples on Saturday morning TV. In 1958, in the middle of his six-film reign as Tarzan, Gordon Scott filmed three episodes for a prospective television series. The program did not sell, and in 1966 the three pilots were edited into a 90-minute television feature entitled Tarzan and the Trappers.
A live action Tarzan series starring Ron Ely ran on NBC 1966–1968. The executive producer was Sy Weintraub, and the series was basically a follow-on to Weintraub's series of Tarzan films that began with Tarzan's Greatest Adventure in 1959. Weintraub had dispensed with Jane and portrayed his ape man as well-spoken and sophisticated. Though Ely's Tarzan did not have Jane, he was accompanied by Cheeta the chimpanzee from the movies and a child sidekick, the orphan boy Jai, who also played the similar roles of Ramel and Pepe in Tarzan and the Valley of Gold and Tarzan and the Great River. The character Jai first appeared in the film Tarzan Goes to India, played by a young actor of the same name.
An animated series from Filmation, Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, aired from 1976–1977, with new and repeat episodes in the anthology programs Batman/Tarzan Adventure Hour, Tarzan and the Super 7, The Tarzan/Lone Ranger Adventure Hour .
Following this Joe Lara starred in the title role in Tarzan in Manhattan, an offbeat TV movie, and would later return in a completely different interpretation in , a new live-action series. In between the two productions with Lara, Tarzán, a half-hour syndicated series, ran from 1991 through 1994. In this version of the show, Tarzan was portrayed by Wolf Larson as a blond environmentalist, with Jane turned into a French ecologist.
Disney’s animated series The Legend of Tarzan was a spin-off from its animated film with Michael T. Weiss as the voice of Tarzan. The latest television series was the live-action Tarzan, which starred male model Travis Fimmel and updated the setting to contemporary New York City with Jane as a police detective. The series failed to meet studio expectations and was cancelled after only eight episodes.
Netflix aired an animated series titled Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan and Jane set in modern-day where 16-year-old Tarzan returns from the African jungle to a London boarding school where he meets Jane, who helps him solve environmental injustice, crimes and mysteries.

Television sketches/spoofs

A 1981 television special, The Muppets Go to the Movies, features a short sketch entitled "Tarzan and Jane." Lily Tomlin plays Jane opposite The Great Gonzo as Tarzan. In addition, the Muppets have made reference to Tarzan on half a dozen occasions since the 1960s.
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on August 14th 1981 featured a Tarzan sketch in which Johnny Carson and Betty White portray Tarzan and Jane as a bickering married couple.
In an episode of The Fairly OddParents, a spoof of Tarzan appears as "Lord of the Drapes", and "Lord of the Shapes", instead of Lord of the Apes.

Animated series

The Japanese Jungle no Ouja Ta-chan series, originally a manga by Tokuhiro Masaya, was based loosely on Tarzan. It featured the characters of Tarzan and his wife Jane, who had become obese after settling down with Tarzan. The series begins as a comical parody of Tarzan, but later expands to other settings, such as a martial arts tournament in China, professional wrestling in America, and even a fight with vampires.
In another anime, One Piece, Roronoa Zoro is seen doing a Tarzan call imitation during the Skypiea arc.

Video games

's 1982 arcade game Jungle King featured a character who resembled Tarzan. Copyright issues required Taito to rename the game, producing Jungle Hunt. The company retained the original character, albeit dressed in safari clothing complete with pith helmet. Gameplay remained unchanged; the player still fought crocodiles and swung from trees, but by ropes instead of vines. Jungle Hunt was subsequently adapted for play on numerous video game consoles and personal computers.
Tarzan Goes Ape was released in the 1980s for the Commodore 64.
Martech Games Ltd released Tarzan in 1986 for the ZX Spectrum, among other computing platforms.
In 1999, games based on Disney's animated film Tarzan were released for the PlayStation, Windows, and Game Boy Color. The PlayStation and Windows version was later ported to the Nintendo 64 in 2000.
Other games focusing on Disney's version of Tarzan include Tarzan Untamed for the PlayStation 2 and GameCube and for the Game Boy Advance. Characters from the animated film have also appeared in Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure and Kingdom Hearts.
In the first Rayman, a Tarzanesque version of Rayman named Tarayzan appears in the Dream Forest.

Ephemera

There have been several Tarzan View-Master reels and packets, plus numerous Tarzan coloring books, children's books, follow-the-dots and activity books.
In the film Histoire de Pen there is a character named after Tarzan and another named after The Phantom.
Superman's Song by the Canadian rock band the Crash Test Dummies compares Tarzan unfavourably to Superman.
One Leg Too Few is a comedy sketch by Peter Cook concerning a one-legged man attempting to audition for the role of Tarzan.
There is a song by Danish pop group Toy-Box called "Tarzan & Jane", first released as a single in Germany in 1998, and then released worldwide in 1999 to coincide with the release of the Disney film Tarzan.

Authorized filmography

Silents

Franchise films

Competing Films and Remakes

On film (adult)