Summary
- Phil Collins' soundtrack for Disney's Tarzan is unexpectedly good, standing above other iconic movie soundtracks in its catchiness and quality.
- The music in Tarzan, particularly the song "You'll Be in My Heart," is moving and emotionally impactful, enhancing key moments in the film.
- Phil Collins put a tremendous amount of effort and ion into creating the Tarzan soundtrack, resulting in a collection of standout songs that shaped a generation of kids and left a lasting impact on viewers.
Disney's properties are always ripe for memes whether it’s a parody of Mufasa telling Simba to "never go there" or a Phil Collins Tarzan meme about the incredible soundtrack. Disney’s Tarzan is based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs' 1912 story "Tarzan of the Apes", which has been the basis of numerous adaptations on television and in film. The animated Disney version follows Tarzan from his time as an infant when he lands on the island through his adolescence struggling to fit into his adulthood and acceptance as leader of the apes.
Tarzan is the last film of the Disney Renaissance, a time period from 1989 to 1999 that saw some of the most successful animated films in the company’s history. Tarzan’s soundtrack by Phil Collins has long been considered one of the best Disney soundtracks, and the film won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "You'll Be in My Heart". With its exciting story, stellar animation, and incredible music, Tarzan became a huge hit with younger and older viewers alike, in part because of Phil Collins’ music. Naturally, in the age of memes, plenty of fans have taken to the internet to showcase their appreciation of the Tarzan soundtrack.
Phil Collins Misunderstood The Assignment
Movie scores and soundtracks serve as an indication to the audience how they should be feeling about a scene or a character, guiding the emotion of the movie. What they don’t necessarily need to be is a pop-rock-fueled album of catchy and blood-pumping hits, which is exactly what the Tarzan soundtrack is. The producers may have originally intended for Tarzan to have the simple soundtrack of most animated films, but Phil Collins clearly had other ideas, composing one of the most unexpectedly good movie soundtracks in Disney canon.
The Phil Collins Tarzan Soundtrack Is In A League Of Its Own
There are plenty of exceptional movie soundtracks that are in contention for being "the best". Many of these soundtracks have ardent online fans who take any opportunity to their favorite scores, songs, and composers. John Williams with the Star Wars theme, Alan Silvestri on The Avengers, and Hans Zimmer on The Dark Knight are known for their themes that are designed for operatic, epic moments. However, some believe Phil Collins' Tarzan soundtrack stands above any of them. It may not have the dramatic sweeping moments of those films, but it has songs that are just as, if not more, beloved.
Phil Collins' Music In Tarzan Is Moving
The music in Tarzan runs the gambit from uplifting to playful and with "You’ll Be in My Heart", moving. When Kala rescues the infant Tarzan, she calms him down by singing "You’ll Be in My Heart". She sings the first few lines of the song before Phil Colins takes over, singing over Kala putting Tarzan to sleep and animals doing the same with their respective children. It’s a slow, melodious song, and the animation is beautiful with butterflies flying around the very cute infant animals and Tarzan. It’s hard to have dry eyes watching Kala promise to defend her adopted son while Collins gives it his all with the song.
Disney Execs Were Not Expecting That Much Fire From Phil Collins
Movie executives for large corporations like Disney are thought to be more concerned with things like costs and profits than the creative side of their productions. So when a movie like Tarzan is being made, these executives may not be aware of the day-to-day production and probably only see bits and pieces of the film as it’s being made. The first time they heard the completed soundtrack from Phil Collins on Tarzan, they were probably blown away by its unexpected quality, much like the skeleton in this Terminator 2: Judgment Day meme.
Tarzan And Other Kids' Movie Soundtracks Are Excellent
Animated films and kids' movies are often dismissed as inferior cinema, and this even extends to the music. However, there are plenty of examples of kids’ movies having excellent soundtracks. Shrek 2, How to Train Your Dragon, and Curious George feature an array of talented artists and composers. Notably, Phil Collins appears twice in this meme, for Tarzan and Brother Bear, both fantastic and memorable soundtracks for ostensibly child-targeted movies.
Phil Collins Put His Heart And Soul Into The Tarzan Soundtrack
Tarzan is an action-packed Disney film, in part thanks to its source material, Tarzan of the Apes, where the titular character often finds himself fighting animals and invaders in his jungle. Phil Collins must have taken Tarzan’s ion to heart when creating the soundtrack of the film because all the songs do indeed feel like they’re from someone with something to prove. Every song is a hit and even the slower ones have a percussive and forward-driving rhythm that keeps the momentum of the film going. None of Collins’ songs feel phoned-in, and it’s clear he was excited to compose every song in the film.
Phil Collins’ Music Shaped A Generation Of Kids
Like the music from Frozen and Encanto, Tarzan’s soundtrack left a lasting imprint on the children who watched the film. While most seven-year-olds probably don’t have problems that can be solved by music, Phil Collins’ soundtrack in Tarzan is so important to so many that it’s hard to imagine how the music could not have had an impact on the young people who heard it. It’s funny to think about the music of an animated Disney film having a marked effect on a seven-year-old but the fact that so many people years later still love the tunes suggests that maybe Collins did change the lives of young Tarzan viewers.
Phil Collins Put Way More Work Than Necessary Into The Tarzan Soundtrack
Phil Collins composed the Tarzan soundtrack as if it were a real rock album. Each song is unique and can be enjoyed separately from the others in the film, which is unusual for a movie soundtrack where songs usually play off each other and reference different moments in the movie. Collins could have easily made a soundtrack filled with jungle and tropical rhythms, allowing the scene to dictate the music. Instead, he made things difficult for himself and created a whole album of fresh, standalone songs that any artist would be proud to have on their album.
Phil Collins’ Music In Tarzan Is Absolute Fire
Besides "You'll Be in My Heart", the other two songs in Tarzan that are consistently cited as the most energetic and memorable are "Strangers Like Me" and "Two Worlds". Both songs are loud, fast-paced, and complete earworms. It helps that they play over montages of inspiring sequences of Tarzan learning how to be one of the apes and be a human. These two songs have the heart-pounding rhythm and powerful Phil Collins vocals to be appropriate for either Tarzan or a workout playlist. Collins brings in a variety of drums, flutes, and other instruments to make these songs epic, swelling anthems of hope and determination.
The Songs From Phil Collins In Tarzan Make The Story Better
Tarzan could have easily been a film solely about Tarzan of the Apes fighting to protect his jungle from Clayton and the other outsiders while also falling in love with Jane. However, the filmmakers decided that the story needed something deeper, and the theme of Tarzan not feeling at home with the apes or with humans was added. It’s this additional wrinkle that makes Tarzan such an impactful film, as it gives the character a real internal conflict that is the true core of the story.
Phil Collins understood that when making the music for Tarzan. Scenes like Tarzan growing into a man could have been unmemorable if they were just about the character getting stronger. By making the music always reference Tarzan’s internal conflict about being from two different worlds, the music actually helps to drive home the significance of Tarzan’s arc.
