When I first saw the ads for this show on Disney's Family Channel my immediate reaction was "You've got to be kidding." Firstly there was that gut reaction of why-oh-why is Disney creating yet another spin-off series based on a recent movie? And secondly the ads showed the animation from this Tarzan show which not only seemed of much lesser quality than the original movie--as you would expect--but also of much lesser quality than Disney's usual TV animation!

All in all, it did not rate very highly on my list of things to watch.

But whether you can blame boredom or flipping channels while the 2002 Olympics were in commercial--or just plain morbid curiousity, when I did finally catch a couple episodes, I found myself pretty impressed.

Don't get me wrong, the animation is still horrible. I realize you're never going to get a Glen Keane quality animator for Tarzan's character, but often when Tarzan's face changes expression his features change so much he looks like a completely new person. And the voice acting is spotty at best--Tarzan, Jane and Tantor are close but Terk and the Professor rub me the wrong way everytime they open their mouths.

So what's actually good here? The STORIES. The thing that sets this series apart from all the others that Disney has done based on their movies is that the stories recognize and explore the events of the movie. Of the episodes I've seen Tarzan has dealt with his doubts about Kerchak leaving him in charge of the family even though he's not an ape, faced Clayton's grieving and vengeful sister, acknowledged the prejudice he has against leopards and... in my favorite episode to date, Jane ponders whether she's a "burden" to Tarzan because she's not as jungle savvy or physically built for vine swinging as he is and therefore he's constantly having to help her around jungle. The series does add new elements of its own but it doesn't attempt to reinvent these characters for its own purposes--acknowledging they're pretty amazing characters to begin with.

This series is definitely far from perfect but if you're a fan of the original movie, it may be worth the half hour to check it out.