In the film's retelling Tarzan's parents are killed by Sabor the leopard, and Kala saves the infant Tarzan from Sabor, not Kerchak. Her own child having been previously killed by the same leopard, Kala adopts Tarzan as her own, though Kerchak disapproves of this.
Around the same time, a female gorilla named Kala loses her child to the leopardess. Kala hears the infant's cries and rescues him from the leopardess. She names him Tarzan and chooses to raise him as her own son.
Overview... a human raised by gorillas. After his human parents were shipwrecked and killed in the African jungle, Tarzan was adopted by a kindhearted gorilla named Kala and her standoffish mate Kerchak.
When Tarzan was an infant, his mother died, and his father was killed by Kerchak, leader of the ape tribe by whom Tarzan was adopted. Soon after his parents' death, Tarzan became a feral child, and his tribe of apes is known as the Mangani, great apes of a species unknown to science. Kala is his ape mother.
That's right. Probably the biggest misconception of them all: the “great apes” who raised Tarzan, although almost always depicted as plain old gorillas, were in fact a distinct fictional species that referred to themselves as the Mangani and to their larger enemies/cousins, the gorillas, as the Bolgani.
"William Mildin, 14th Earl of Streatham, was the real-life inspiration for Tarzan of the Apes. In 1868 he was shipwrecked off West Africa at the age of 11, and spent 15 years living in the jungle, after which he lived in Thrale Road (not much difference there, then)."
Cheeta (sometimes billed as Cheetah, Cheta, and Chita) is a chimpanzee character that appeared in numerous Hollywood Tarzan films of the 1930s–1960s, as well as the 1966–1968 television series, as the ape sidekick of the title character, Tarzan.
There were two words in Tarzan's ape-lexicon that distinguished between the two different species. The apes were called the Mangani, while gorillas were referred to as Bolgani. Tarzan was a Tarmangani–a white ape.
Due to Tarzan living his whole life in the jungle he has learned to speak various animal languages including gorilla, hummingbird, rhino and according to Tarzan he can even speak eagle despite it being rusty.
The character's background included his birth in Africa, becoming an orphan, and then raised by apes. His real name was given to him as John Clayton, but since he was brought up by an ape family, they named him Tarzan, which meant “white skin.”
When Sabor spots the Baby, she begins chasing him; the Baby Gorilla tries to race back to his parents but Sabor kills and eats him. Kerchak and Kala hear their son's cries and race to try to protect him, but are too late, so Kala cries sadly in Kerchak's arms at the loss of her only child.
She finds Tarzan at the home of Mama Gunda, another female ape. Kala is able to convince Tarzan to come home, but she is attacked by Gunda's son, Kago. Thankfully, Tarzan is able to rescue her, which helps Tarzan to realize that he is part of the family, Kala then returns home with Tarzan.
Fortunately, the toddler is picked up by one of the killer apes, Kala, who immediately starts breast feeding him, since her own little baby ape was tragically and somewhat conveniently killed, making her long for a replacement baby. This allows Tarzan to grow up with apes, and develop super strength.
She takes him in ("Two Worlds"), and, when Kerchak finds Kala with the human baby, he is not pleased; this human baby cannot replace their son. Kala knows this but she also knows that the baby needs a family. She names the baby Tarzan.
Therefore, he does not speak and has no language at all until he meets other humans. Tarzan begins his language acquisition after he meets Jane, the one who teaches him language and humans' habit.
While Burroughs never said exactly where Tarzan was set, Cameroon's sandy beaches, imposing jungle and ape sanctuaries seem like a good bet – so much so that the West African country was chosen as the setting for the 1984 film Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes.
The chimpanzee died Saturday after suffering kidney failure the week before, the sanctuary foundation said on the site. He was roughly 80 years old, Debbie Cobb, the sanctuary's outreach director, told CNN affiliate WFLA.
In the Walt Disney produced animated movie Tarzan (1999), Tantor is the personal name of this original elephant companion of Tarzan's rather than a term designating all elephants. In this version, Tantor is a sweet-natured yet highly phobic elephant afraid of many things, such as germs and frightening sounds.
Tarzan (White-skin) is his ape name; his English name is John Clayton, Lord Greystoke (the formal title is Viscount Greystoke according to Burroughs in Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle; Earl of Greystoke in later, non-canonical sources, notably the 1984 movie Greystoke).
Pretty sure this tale has you wondering about Jane. But sadly for fans of Tarzan's lady friend who first appeared in Tarzan of the Apes — A Romance of the Jungle in 1912 in All-Story, she does appear to be a pure figment of Burroughs' imagination.
Making Africa seem authentic was especially important to the filmmakers, since the film was shot in England, except for six weeks in Gabon, filming background by helicopter without the cast. A working waterfall and a 100-foot-long collapsible pier were assembled at Warner Bros. ' Leavesden studios.
5. Tarzan eats raw meat. I can't really remember depictions of meals in the Weissmuller movies, but I assume Tarzan and Jane cooked their food over a campfire. The original Tarzan likes his meat freshly hacked and dripping with blood or, even better, tenderized by having been buried for a few days.
