We all have that one TV episode, or that one movie scene, that just absolutely messed you up as a kid. Or maybe it was a video game? Or maybe, even, your childhood imagination was vivid enough that a book freaked you out? Let’s look back and laugh and/or wince at them!
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Let’s talk about TARZAN. The final entry of the Disney Renaissance, and a movie with its fair share of intense moments. The way Clayton died at the end was pretty chilling, huh? And the unseen deaths of Tarzan’s parents near the beginning (I didn’t even notice as a kid that you can literally see their bodies in the treehouse at the beginning!)
...but the contents of the movie itself is not what I’m going to focus on here today.
Little factoid: Tarzan was the first movie I ever personally owned on DVD. I remember what a novelty it was having this strange new, interactive format before me, with not only the movie to watch, but a small but nifty collection of bonus features. Within this set of bonus features was a deleted scene collection...
I learned of a new concept with these scenes; the “storyboard reel”. A rough, early depiction of a scene that uses the original storyboard drawings, complete with scratch voices and stock sound effects. For some reason, little me found this to be oddly unsettling. The old rushed black and white drawings with no actual movement, with phantom sound effects and stand-in, slightly off vocals. The suddeness with which each static image appeared on screen could potentially make me jump out of my skin if the drawing was an especially weird-looking one.
Why am I telling you all this? To make you understand exactly why this alternate opening completely fucked me up...
The scene is already pretty messed up on its own, and it probably would have been so had it been fully animated. But when depicted in this format? It was terrifying. The silent green logo on the black screen, the faded muted colours in the beginning, the complete lack of music besides the music box, the anxiety-inducing sound effects, the continued close-ups of Tarzan’s dad’s eyes, the bits where everything is black apart from the brief moments where everything’s lit by the lightning. And that final shot, where his lifeless hand is dragged away, with the ink (which I misinterpreted as blood) streaking across the floor.
I went through the bonus features a few times during my childhood, but I actively avoided this scene for years. I can’t began to stress how much it frightened me. I watched the other two deleted scenes subsequent times, even the alternate ending, which also had some of those unsettling elements I mentioned above, but this alternate opening was just too much.
...
Let’s talk about TARZAN. The final entry of the Disney Renaissance, and a movie with its fair share of intense moments. The way Clayton died at the end was pretty chilling, huh? And the unseen deaths of Tarzan’s parents near the beginning (I didn’t even notice as a kid that you can literally see their bodies in the treehouse at the beginning!)
...but the contents of the movie itself is not what I’m going to focus on here today.
Little factoid: Tarzan was the first movie I ever personally owned on DVD. I remember what a novelty it was having this strange new, interactive format before me, with not only the movie to watch, but a small but nifty collection of bonus features. Within this set of bonus features was a deleted scene collection...
I learned of a new concept with these scenes; the “storyboard reel”. A rough, early depiction of a scene that uses the original storyboard drawings, complete with scratch voices and stock sound effects. For some reason, little me found this to be oddly unsettling. The old rushed black and white drawings with no actual movement, with phantom sound effects and stand-in, slightly off vocals. The suddeness with which each static image appeared on screen could potentially make me jump out of my skin if the drawing was an especially weird-looking one.
Why am I telling you all this? To make you understand exactly why this alternate opening completely fucked me up...
The scene is already pretty messed up on its own, and it probably would have been so had it been fully animated. But when depicted in this format? It was terrifying. The silent green logo on the black screen, the faded muted colours in the beginning, the complete lack of music besides the music box, the anxiety-inducing sound effects, the continued close-ups of Tarzan’s dad’s eyes, the bits where everything is black apart from the brief moments where everything’s lit by the lightning. And that final shot, where his lifeless hand is dragged away, with the ink (which I misinterpreted as blood) streaking across the floor.
I went through the bonus features a few times during my childhood, but I actively avoided this scene for years. I can’t began to stress how much it frightened me. I watched the other two deleted scenes subsequent times, even the alternate ending, which also had some of those unsettling elements I mentioned above, but this alternate opening was just too much.
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