Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 92

Movies PAGE F18 STAR TRIBUNE SUNDAY, JUNE 13 1999 11 Not aping earlier 'King of the Jungle films, it's animated I Kevin Lima, right, and Chris Buck, left guided the development of Disney's new animated feature, "Tarzan," from California. Mean-whfle, Glen Keane, below, created the title character In Paris. Photo by KeVin Jones fluid. Lima and Buck encouraged designers to keep refining their characters until the last minute. They avoided doing a traditional storyboard so the animators would have more leeway to create scenes.

And the voice recording was done in fits and starts over 2V4 years, with the actors encouraged to deviate from the script whenever they felt the urge. Rosie O'Donnell, who fills the Disney tradition of a comic animal sidekick, was the best at that "She directed herself," Buck said. "She'd say, "Wait let me try that We didn't want to stop her because we didn't know if she had another gem ready." Phil Collins, who did the music, also got into the spirit of the project "I was at home one Saturday morning and Phil called me to talk about some ideas he had for the lyrics," Buck said. "All I could think of was, This is a big rock star calling me at Lima said that one reason people are excited about doing an animated feature for Disney is that the movies tend to "live on forever. Doing a Disney movie is like leaving a legacy." As for Keane (whose in-laws live in Shoreview), he hopes that he's created his own legacy in Paris.

Keane joined Disney in 1974 and character that far away" from the main studio, he said. "But I think the character came out better because of it" A body shop Keane oversaw a team of artists who had been trained in classical art, which has a strong emphasis on anatomy. "They knew how to draw muscles," he said. "More importantly, they knew how to draw functioning muscles. Tarzan's muscles had to stretch and bulge as he moved.

His muscles were his costume." He decided to break with tradition in another way, too. Typically, when a designer finishes creating a character, a three-dimensional model is made and a copy is put on the desk of every animator who is dealing with that character. Keane vetoed that for fear mat the animators would copy the model so closely that the character would end up looking like a plastic action figure. "I didn't want Tarzan drawn by a formula," he said. "I never even created model sheets.

I did it all through lectures, through talking about how he would look It made everyone a little nervous at first, but as it came out, there's a functioning human being there." The entire project remained Screening room J(ff Strickler with the adoptive family he has known all his life or going with creatures of his own kind. "Yes, it's an adventure, but it's also a very emotional story," Buck said. Added Lima: "The very first image I drew was of a tiny baby's hand gently resting in a giant ape's hand." Use animation to have zan move in ways that were impossible with an actor. That assignment fell to Disney's top animator, Glen Keane. "When Johnny Weismuller the star of 12 Tarzan movies swung through the jungle on vines, it was very passive," Keane said.

"We needed to make it more active. Tarzan throws himself at the vines. I went to the zoo and watched the gibbons. They just throw themselves into space. There's no fear.

Tarzan needed to attack the jungle." Keane, who designed Ariel for "The Litde Mermaid," the Beast in "Beauty and the Beast" and the title character in "Aladdin," had another challenge, too. While the rest of the movie was being done in California, he was working in Disney's new animation studio in Paris. "We've never done a principal XT trained under legendary animators Frank Thomas and OUie Johnston, who apprenticed under Walt Disney and believed strongly in passing on the Disney traditions to younger animators. Now it was Keane's turn to do the same. "I felt a responsibility to do for the Paris studio what Frank and OUie had done for me," he said.

"The talent was there, they just needed some encouragement. I wanted the Frank and OUie in me to come out." and "Bad Girls" (1994). After star- ring with Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt in "12 Monkeys" (1995), she took time off to enjoy married life and have a child. "You have to get your priori- evin lima was surprised when his bosses at Walt Dis ney Stadios asked him to consider directing an animated version of "Tarzan." There already nave Deen 4 movie adaptations ot ,1 rt cugcuiuiKDunuugns classic jungle adventure, "Tarzan of the Apes." Lima, who had just finished directing "A Goofy Movie," wasn't sure there was anything left in the book that hadn't been filmed. "I was skeptical," said Lima, who was part of a Disney team that came to the Twin Cities to promote the movie, which opens Friday.

"But I said I'd give it a shot" He spent two months studying the book. Then he called a friend, Chris Buck, who was wrapping up work as a supervising animator on "Pocahontas," to ask if he would be interested in serving as co-director. He was skeptical, too, "but Kevin had me read the book, and then he sent me all these ideas" about how their adaptation could be different from all the others. They figured they could do two things that no earlier Tarzan movies had done: Focus on the emotional aspects of the story. Tarzan, who has been raised by apes, struggles to fit in.

Then he gets his first look at humans. He's torn between staying Starstruck By Cindy Pearlman New York Times Madeleine Stowe was 16 when she decided she had to meet John Travolta. The actress remembers sitting in her bedroom staring at his picture when the idea struck her. No fan letters for her, no waving from a crowd or trying to sneak into his hotel room. "I actually pretended to be a journalist to meet Travolta," she recalls.

"My ploy was to try to get an interview with Vinhie Barbar-ino." She actually reached his miVilirict Hut that urac oc far ac she got. "John's publicist was very nice, but he did say, 'John is too busy and, by the way, what publication are you from, Stowe hung up, dejected. She had blown her one and only chance of meeting Travolta. Fast forward to the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, where Stowe and Travolta waltz into a room together to talk about "The General's Daughter," the military mystery, opening Friday, in which they co-star. Travolta and Stowe share scene after scene as Stowe hooks up with her erstwhile idol in 'Daughter' cops Richard Dreyfuss and Emilio Estevez.

That led to a series of high-profile films, including "The Two Jakes" (1990), "The Last of the Mohicans" (1992), "Unlawful Entry" (1992), "Shortcuts" (1993) other problem is basicaUy I had no personality," she adds. "I was really uptight" Finding a soulmate Acting brought Stowe out of her shell a bit After graduating from Southern Cal, Stowe started pounding the Hollywood pavements, attending countless auditions with initially discouraging results. About the best thing that happened was meeting her future husband, comedian Brian Ben-ben, on the set of a TV show. "I was 22 and I only dated one person prior to him," she says. "So I was very shy.

From the start, I just totally dug Brian Brian was just wild he'd do anything, say anything. I didn't know how to talk, so his freedom was so sexy to me. Brian remembers that when he first met me, he turned to the director and said, 'What is her I was so quiet that he thought I had attitude or something." It was another five years before Stowe caught Hollywood's eye in "Stakeout" (1987), as an escaped convict's former lover whose apartment is staked out by Openings Friday: "The Buena Vista Social Club" "The General's Daughter" "An Ideal Husband" "Tarzan" Movie review line fi li -I in -m Critic's choice 'Castle is a house filled with charm, warmth, enthusiasm Iff J1. Photo by Christian Martin ties straight, and mine are my family," Stowe says. "I have a strong marriage.

To this day, I go out for groceries thinking, 'I can't wait to get home to see my 030 (tlwitlB Miry (grate MttwmHu IMW 1400 ft 79 St and notified bv Dhone on rV2399 Grand Drizs used by 10399- Not good during blackout dates. Some mv I I I I I I I I a pair of investigators looking into the sex-related murder of an Army general's daughter. "Our characters were involved in the past, but I did some not- so-nice things to him and he's very resentful," Stowe says. "We bicker back and forth. Basically they're crazy about each other, but we pretend we're not even interested.

It's very sexy." Getting to know Travolta lived up to her adolescent expectations, Stowe reports: "Have you ever met John Travolta? He's so nice that one day I was talking to him and I was like, 'God, why don't you just knock it off? No one is that "But he is that nice. He was nice every single day for four months. 1 was very suspicious at first. But if I've learned one thing in this business, it's that you can't hide your real self." Stowe doesn't even try, actually. She'U talk about anything, from the current film back to her days as a starstruck teenager growing up in California.

"I didn't have any dates in high school," she says. "I was this very, very thin girl in high school An playful tone that reflects the protagonist's upbeat spirit. Darryl always sees the upside of every situation. He brags about his daughter being the first one in the family to earn a coUege degree. OK, it was from a beauty college, but she still got the diploma which he has proudly framed and hung on the living room wall.

Granted, Darryl isn't the brightest guy. And the lawyer he hires to plead his case (Tiriel Mora) isn't much smarter. But what they lack in intelligence they more than make up for in their indefatigable spirit. And that spirit spills out into the audience, especially reaching those who believe that a home is more than just bricks and boards. The movie is rated for profanity.

Jeff Strickler If V'--' 1 I III fx 3 "is MM wMitja mini Miramax Michael Caton, left, with the help of Uriel Mora, fights to save his family home in "Castle." IjSjSjl TheStarTribune'sMovie nam Review Line has reviews available by phone 24 hours a day. To listen to a review, call 612-673-9050 from a touch-tone phone and enter the four-digit category of the review you want to hear. If you wish to skip to another review while one is playing, press the key. New releases "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me" 5622 "Besieged" 5623 "Limbo" 5624 Long runs "Alaska" 5895 "Black 5600 "The Castle" 5602 "Desert Blue" 5617 "Election" 5892 "Entrapment" 5891 "Extreme" 5618 5619 "Life" ........5883 "The Love Letter" 5610 "Matrix" 5869 "A Midsummer Night's Dream" 5604 "The Mummy" 5897 "Mysteries of Egypt" 5782 "Never Been Kissed" 5877 "Notting Hill" 5615 "Pushing Tin" 5888 "The School of Flesh" 5620 "Star Wars: Episode 1 The Phantom Menace" 5611 "Tea With Mussolini" 5607 "The Thirteenth Floor" 5614 "This Is My Father" 5621 "Three Seasons" 5612 "T-Rex" 5790 "TheWinsIowBoy" 5616 1 Mi I hi ml mowQwviQwiis Dmaon 'VJQWIIS tSIilW MiBSB (( rip he Castle" definitely is I deserving of an enthu-, siastic thumbs-up. This charming Australian comedy overflows with warmth, enthusiasm and optimism.

It's far and away the year's most-entertaining feel-good movie. TV actor Michael Caton plays Darryl, a man who goes all the way to the Supreme Court to stop the airport from tearing down his house so it can extend a runway. Never mind that the house is an eyesore. And never mind that he unwittingly built it on a toxic waste dump. He unquestionably believes in the axiom that "a man's home is his castle," and he knows that his house the place where his children grew up is full of memories on which no price tag can be placed.

This comic fairy tale is speUed out with a delightfully I I Name I Address, I City. Phone (Day) Entry Forest Zip. (Evening) Northwest Airlines and two nights hotel stay. Trip must be I No Durchase necessarv to enter Erttnes must be recerved by 6 on 61999 Winners will be selected randomly will receive round-trip airfare for two to New York on I restrictions apply To enter, complete ths entry lorm ana wing to Motorwerks BMW located at 1400 W. 79th St.

twoomtngton Entry forms also avaitaoie at Motorwerks BMW. Must be age 21 or older to enter. Not responsible for lost, illegible or late entries. AH taxes, if any are the responsibility of the winner. Vcwd where prohibrted.

I Employees and the immediate families of the Star Tribune, Motorwerks BMW, the Ordway and Northwest Airlines are not eligible. Winners must show proper idenbrica- gjion and sign prize acceptance documentation, in order to claim prize Prize is not exchangeable or refundable. I.