Plot

The tale of Tarzan's misadventures as a boy as he searches for his true identity and the meaning of family.

Before he became king of the jungle in Tarzan (1999), Tarzan was a clumsy kid trying to be part of his adoptive mother Kala's community of apes. While trying to prove himself, an accident puts his family in harm's way, and convinced that he will never fit in, Tarzan decides that everyone would be better off without him and runs away. But, as young Tarzan embarks on a dangerous quest of self-discovery, he finds himself stranded in a rocky place known as the Dark Mountain. There, an unexpected ally is willing to help the wide-eyed boy and show him the way around the green forest. Will Tarzan find his true calling in life?—Nick Riganas

Set back when Tarzan was just a boy, this is the story of Tarzan's journey to self-discovery. When Tarzan begins to see that he is not like the other gorillas, his mother Kala assures him that these slight differences only make him stronger. But when these differences put Kala in danger, he decides everyone would be better off without him and runs away. He then finds himself in a dark desolate land called Dark Mountain where he meets a new friend who helps him discover that even though he does not possess the talents of an ape, he has his own unique set of jungle skills that make him even more amazing than any other creature so that he can finally see who he truly is.—~AleXa~

Tarzan is young orphan English boy being raised by gorillas in an African jungle. Tarzan (Harrison Chad) is worried that a fabled monster known as the Zugor (George Carlin) will someday attempt to capture him. Tarzan's best friends in the troop are Terk and Tantor. Terk helps Tarzan to practice running for his life during an emergency.

Tarzan is disappointed that he can't run as quickly as the other young apes in his family, he cannot surf jungle vines to travel across the forest, cannot walk across ropes with a sure footing, cannot jump across long distances and his attempts to prove himself keep resulting in chaos, hurting the baby gorillas and disappointing the mother apes and his adoptive father, Kerchak (Lance Henriksen). Other mothers tell their babies not to play with Tarzan anymore.

Tarzan does not realize that he is a human being and thus will never have the same skills as a gorilla. His adoptive mother Kala counsels Tarzan that with time Tarzan will learn the skills and find his place in the troop. Tarzan believes that everyone would be better off if he was not around as part of the troop. Kala tries to explain that a large Banyan tree is strong and stable as it had many different branches. The branches are of different shapes and sizes, but they all support the tree, which grows due to its strong foundation.

A huge storm unleashes a flood in the jungle. The river rages and the rising waters force Kerchak to relocate the troop. An accident occurs when they were crossing a tree bridge (which was over a deep river gorge) during a storm. As usual Tarzan was behind everyone else as he is the slowest ape and was constantly slipping over the moss laden tree trunk. As Tarzan tries to rush, the rainwater sweeps the tree away before Tarzan could cross it. Tarzan falls into the river gorge below despite efforts from Kala to save him.

This leaves his ape mother, Kala (Glenn Close), thinking that Tarzan has died, the other apes feel that Tarzan has reached a fitting end. The other mothers believed that Kala was better off without Tarzan as Kala almost lost her own life trying to save Tarzan. Unknown to them Tarzan had survived the fall by landing on a ledge near the top. Tarzan climbs back up and follows hi troop. Tarzan hears the conversation in his troop about his death and believes it best for everyone involved if he runs away.

Alone in the jungle, Tarzan is not accepted by any other animal tribe, as he keeps travelling deeper and deeper into the explored regions of the forest. Tarzan gets pursued by Sabor the leopard right to a rocky place known as the Dark Mountain. Suddenly the booming voice of Zugor scares Sabor away, saving Tarzan. The Dark Mountain is inhabited by two hulking, spoiled gorilla brothers, Uto (Brad Garrett) and Kago (Ron Perlman), and their controlling, over-protective Mama Gunda (Estelle Harris). The gorillas reveal themselves after Sabor leaves. Uto is a little dim while Kago is the muscles of the troop. The Gunda family is tired of living in a dark, rocky place like the Dark Mountain and are looking for greener pastures with ample food and soft grass to sleep on. They are not able to escape Dark Mountain as they say that Zugor guards the rift which is the only way out.

But Uto and Kago fear the Zugor as much as Tarzan does, and when the booming call of the monster echoes through the valley, Tarzan is able to escape from them. Tarzan encounters a crotchety old gorilla who at first keeps the boy distant. The old gorilla refuses to allow Tarzan into his tree, so a terrified Tarzan hides in the roots of the tree and goes to sleep.

The next morning, Tarzan discovers that this old gorilla actually is the Zugor, who uses hollow trees as megaphones to amplify his voice and pretend to be a monster to scare other jungle creatures away from his territory and food. Tarzan uses his skills with the jungle vines to make a lasso to save Zugor from a rampaging Rhino who was angry with Zugor for stealing his food. The rhino was especially angry since he discovered that Zugor was an old gorilla. Tarzan uses this discovery to force Zugor into letting the boy stay with him. Thanks to Tarzan's cheerfulness and helpfulness, Zugor begins to warm to him as Tarzan continues to try to figure out what he is. Zugor speculates that he might be a flightless bird, or a fish, or a hairless gibbon. Zugor tests Tarzan's skills against all the other species in the jungle, but none of them have a good match.

Meanwhile, Tarzan's two best friends, the young gorilla Terk (Brenda Grate) and the young elephant Tantor (Harrison Fahn), come looking for him as Tantor had heard Tarzan's voice coming from Dark Mountain (when Tarzan was playing with Zugor he bellowed into the hollow trees and his voice got amplified). Kala also finds out that Tarzan is alive, so she goes looking for him as well, and allows the baby gorillas to join her, when they follow her. Terk and Tantor encounter trouble in Dark Mountain in the form of Mama Gunda, Uto, and Kago. Mama Gunda wanted to know where Trek came from and how they were able to get past Zugor in the rift. But they are able to escape by getting the 2 brothers to fight each other while Mama Gunda was away Meanwhile Tarzan and Zugor bond. Zugor shares with Tarzan that as he got old and slow, he got left behind from his troop, and he had to impersonate a monster for survival. Zugor tells Tarzan that he can be a Zugor if he wants. Tarzan is super happy to have an identity for himself. Zugor's only condition is that Tarzan cannot tell anyone about the deception.

Terk and Tantor eventually reunite with Tarzan, and the three become best friends once again. They leave Dark Mountain, and Mama Gunda, Uto, and Kago follow them. Tarzan does not want to return home with them, but he reveals that there is no monster. Mama Gunda, Uto, and Kago overhear their conversation and learn it was Zugor who was pretending to be the monster; he gets himself into trouble. Uto and Kago wreck Zugor's tree-house in retaliation for scaring them. Mama Gunda, Uto and Kago now decide to venture into the jungle to establish their own troop

Zugor accuses Tarzan of breaking his promise and runs away, refusing to help him face the brothers. Terk and Tantor run to go and warn Kerchak. Kala and the baby gorillas arrive near Dark Mountain and also encounter trouble with Mama Gunda, Uto and Kago, who were just about entering the jungle. Tarzan had reached the same location through a short cut inside the Dark Mountain. He observes as Uto and Kago push Kala and the babies around. Tarzan finally realizes what he is supposed to be: a "Tarzan", with his own special tricks that no one else can do in the jungle, Zugor comes to a similar realization, at which he returns to Tarzan and reconciles with him.

Tarzan is able to use tricks and traps to defeat Uto and Kago as Terk and Tantor try to save Kala and the baby gorillas from falling off a cliff. Tarzan saves Kala just in time. Once he again he shows his unique skills as Tarzan uses the jungle vines around the waterfall to reach Kala and prevent her from falling off the cliff. Whereas Zugor holds Mama Gunda hostage. Due to their connection and Zugor accidentally telling Mama Gunda that she has "beautiful eyes", they both fall in love.

Tarzan tells Kala that she was right before, and he is a part of his gorilla family. Tarzan, Kala, Terk, Tantor and the baby gorillas return to the gorilla troop. Kala gives Tarzan a hug and tells him how proud she is of him for rescuing her from the fall and from Uto and Kago.

Uto and Kago return and are shocked to see Zugor and Mama Gunda together. Mama Gunda punishes her sons for destroying Zugor's tree-house and tells them that there won't be any more fighting or wrecking things. Mama Gunda makes her boys fix Zugor's tree-house as they settle down as a family on the Dark Mountain.

Tarzan, Terk, and Tantor decide to play a monster game; Tarzan is now happy and proud of himself, as he now knows what he is supposed to be. Tarzan stands on a sequoia tree and lets out the typical Tarzan yell.