I'm a sucker for a good Disney movie, and I love to find out the details behind movies.  The Tarzan Collector's Edition DVD is a great example of what a DVD can be.  Or in this case, two DVDs.

Disc One has the movie.  If you haven't seen the Disney Tarzan, it's a great adaption.  It's a reasonably faithful adaption of the books by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and the animation is great.  There are a few Disneyesque touches, like two pals who also serve as comic relief, but it's still mostly Tarzan.

But Disc One also has a great feature where you can watch the movie and listen to commentary by the producer and codirectors.  They explain what they were doing in each part, the difficulties in producing each part.  If you've ever watched a movie and wondered what the director was thinking, a good DVD will let you hear.

Disc Two is the where the real treasure is found.  It's filled with information about making the movie.  They cover the history of making the movie, including a very early presentation film that was used to pitch the concept to management and work out many of the concepts, and film from a trip the creators took to Africa to get the look right (and some comparisons of the video taken and the final animation).

For the music, not only do they have some interviews about the creators of the music (primarily Phil Collins) and music videos, but also the trials and tribulations of international versions.  He really did record versions of the songs in French, Spanish, Italian, German, and there's a version of "Strangers Like Me" switching from language to language.

Even better, we get to hear the original ideas of the songs that Phil Collins provided.  The producer asked Phil to wait until they had figured out what songs they would need, but a cassette showed up in the mail one day with those early songs.  Many of them didn't even really have their lyrics completely written, just filler words to show the melody.

What's really interesting is when they compare early concepts to the final product.  You can view a split-screen of the opening part of the movie and the storyboard.

There are sections on character development, how the animation was developed, and more.  If you have any interests in how movies are made, you have to have a DVD player and you have to get this DVD.

Tarzan Collector's Edition DVD gets 10 Ooos out of 10.

Tarzan Collector's Edition DVD, list price $39.99