The “ultimate jungle.” That’s what the filmmakers behind Disney’s TARZAN wanted. Unlike recent animated efforts from the studio that have derived their look from a single artist or even from reality, the jungle in TARZAN is one that could only be created in the animated world.
“We didn’t have one particular thing that we could point to and say, ‘That’s it,” said co-director Chris Buck. “It’s not that we didn’t want that, it just didn’t happen right away.” “The idea wasn’t to create a realistic world,” said producer Bonnie Arnold. “But to create a believable world.”
This meant that TARZAN’s art director, Dan St. Pierre had his work cut out for him, creating everything from scratch. “We’re manufacturing a world,” he noted. “It has to feel real.”
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