Tarzan & Jane

Jungle rot! Although this direct-to-video animated feature is being hyped as an "all-new movie," it's actually a compilation of three unaired episodes from the Disney TV series spin-off of 1999's Tarzan. Built around flashbacks occasioned by Tarzan and Jane's first wedding anniversary, the first episode finds Jane receiving a visit from her snooty English girlfriends who think Tarzan is a "savage"--until he saves them from a leopard attack. In the second piece, Tarzan is duped by unscrupulous diamond hunters. In the third, Tarzan doesn't trust one of Jane's lifelong friends who turns out to have ulterior motives after all. The animation is two worlds away from the groundbreaking theatrical release, and the voice cast (none of the original actors participated) is undistinguished. Not recommended. [Note: DVD extras include a "Build Your Own Tree House" game where Jane's professor pop and Terk help players choose the best materials to create a tree house (three wrong guesses and you have to start over!); "Tarzan & Jane's Adventure Builder," where viewers can pick what happens at the end of story segments; and the music video "Singing to the Song of Life" by pop artist Mandy Moore, which is intercut with commentary by Moore, who fawns about being part of Disney history. Bottom line: a so-so extras package for a TV episode compilation masquerading as a feature.] (K. Lee Benson)