Sadly, we arrive at the end of the Disney Renaissance!
Well, all good things must come to an end eventually! And this particular era eventually ended in 1999 with Disney’s 37th animated feature, “Tarzan”. Warning: there are some spoilers in this post, so beware if you haven’t seen the movie!
“Tarzan”, based on the “Tarzan” stories written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, tells the story of a boy who grows up amongst jungle animals.
When he becomes a man, he discovers other human beings for the first time. They are Jane, his eventual love interest,
Archimedes,
no, I mean, PROFESSOR Archimedes,
Your name isn’t even Archimedes! I’m talking about PROFESSOR Archimedes Q. PORTER, the father of Jane,
and Clayton, the eventual villain.
The professor and Jane are in the jungle to study wildlife, gorillas particularly, and they’ve hired Clayton to be their bodyguard. But, Mr. Clayton, has different intentions: he plans to capture all the gorillas and sell them for three hundred pound sterling a head!
And it’s only by getting Tarzan’s love and trust can any of the three find the gorillas!
As I’ve mentioned before, this is a movie that I saw once when I was younger and didn’t like it; but after re-watching it recently, I fell SO MUCH in love with it (mostly for the awe-inspiring animation) that it became one of my top 13 favorite animated Disney films!
But all that’s besides the point, we’re here to discuss the forgotten/minor character of this movie and the one that I’ve selected is the ship captain!
He’s the captain of the…well, the ship.
If I may elaborate, thank you! He’s the captain of the ship that the professor, Jane, and Clayton traveled to Africa with from England. After unloading the passengers, he leaves and returns at a predetermined date to pick them up and return them to England.
However, our jungle explorers have not found the gorillas by then, so they beg the captain for more time. The captain says no…and somehow that means yes, as the jungle explorers stay a bit longer!
Anyway, the movie plays out, the gorillas are found, the villain does his villainous deeds, and the end of the movie is nigh! The captain rows the professor and Jane to the ship; but they both decide to jump out of the boat and stay in the African jungle!
The captain of course, is puzzled by their peculiar choice of action and is instructed by the professor to return to England empty-handed and announce that he couldn’t find either Jane or the professor!
Can you imagine how that conversation with the professor’s relatives might have been like?
Anyway, definitely forgotten, but not quite minor; the ship captain is our subject of focus for this movie!
The Animation Commendation 
For some reason the page disappeared when I commented last. But it’s back now, so here is my burning comment: Wow, yes, I’d forgotten this guy! Great dialogue!
Yes, not too many bald Disney characters!
Haha this was great. Your blog always makes me so nostalgic. There was always such a sweet innocence when watching these old movies when they first came out. I almost don’t want to go back and watch them ever again because I believe I’m a bit too jaded to think of them with the same fascination.
I understand. For me, Disney is a passion and a love, so it never dies! But when I re-watched “Peter Pan” for my Disney Canon Project, I felt just as you described: I remembered it soooooo much better than it actually was!
You are awesome. So awesome that I nominated you for the Shine On award: http://lmarie7b.wordpress.com/2013/05/12/shine-on/
I am amazing, aren’t I? Lol, j/k! Thanks so much for this award! I’ll try to do its requirements as soon as I can.
Oh wow, I didn’t know that Hawthorne was in 2 Disney movies! But then again I’ve never seen Black Cauldron from beginning to end.
And to be honest, he wasn’t spectacular in either!
Yeah, that’s true. I think Porter is my favorite character after Jane, but he’s not much besides comic relief.
This film is definitely one of my favourites too, and there is not much wrong with it. Everything is good BUT Clayton and Terk.
Our forgotten character is pretty cool too. The dialogue was interesting in the least. He is not really that forgotten to me to be honest.
I think most people forget him though. And I don’t hate Clayton like most people do mainly because he’s voiced by Brain Blessed.