When Tarzan was old enough to explore the jungle on his own, he found his parents' house and discovered books there, including some reading primers. Through long hours of study, he was able to decipher the words, teaching himself the English language. When he later encountered white folks, he was able to communicate with them. Except… he spoke with them verbally, something he would NOT have been able to teach himself from books. Sure, maybe it's possible for him to teach himself to read and write English words that way, but having never heard the words he'd have no idea how to pronounce them, or understand someone else saying them! Pronunciation cannot be conveyed through the written word if you haven't already heard those sounds and associated them with the letters that represent them!
In the book, he cannot speak English when he first meets white men; he is taught to speak by a Frenchman during his first sea voyage. The Frenchman's English is poor, and so he uses Tarzan's written English as a basis for instruction, but teaches him French vocabulary. Thus, he learns that ape is pronounced "singe," man is pronounced "homme" and water is pronounced "eau".
In fact, the problem with Tarzan's early communication with the Porter party goes precisely the opposite direction: it's clearly established that he can't speak English, having no idea of the connection between the written words and the sounds, so he has to communicate through notes — which he signs with his name, despite that if he has no idea of the connection between the written words and the sounds he should have no idea how to spell it.
Worse. You can't decipher an alphabet (learning to read and write) without having at least some rudimentary knowledge of the language and cultural context. This is true even for ideogrammatic systems, which the Latin alphabet isn'tnote OK. A metaphor. It would be a feat like: For an illiterate street urchin in Manhattan to solve the mystery of the hieroglyphs without the Rosetta Stone.. The way it's described in the books is that Tarzan named the symbols so creating words... which miraculously meant the same things in ape speak than in English. This only works if the apes spoke an English based Cypher Language to begin with and Tarzan got astronomically lucky (or could do statistical analysis on the letters and words at that age without reference points / cultural context in the middle of the jungle).
Could he not have learned by rote? Matching nouns to pictures, then simple verbs and sentences also based on pictures, then gradually recognizing those words in non-illustrated text that applied to the jungle, then filling in the blanks based on his own experiences to expand his vocabulary to concepts he is familiar with, then applying the words he knows to other descriptions of concepts he isn't familiar with, then working backwards from the descriptions to learn the spelling of new concepts, etc., etc.? He wouldn't understand spelling, but he'd recognize whole words or phrases that weren't idiomatic, after a fashion.
That's not how it's described in the book. But as a thought experiment: Slightly more likely but not much more. He would still miss cultural context, and picture books tend to be extremely culture dependent. Some easy examples: How would he recognize what a house looks like in England with only in jungle experiences? How would he recognize the nuclear family as that's not really a unit in Gorilla society? Can apes count? Also he only knows animal language which is extremely unlikely to have anything in common with human languages and even those can be extremely diverse (for an English speaker Japanese or Hungarian or anything not Indo-European is completely alien and weird in logic, figuring out their grammar from books not in a language you know... good luck). Well except if ape speak is cypher English and somehow those apes are Civilized Animals with a society eerily similar to England's. (Also you can actually give this a try: here is The Other Wiki's list of undeciphered writing systems. Choose one. Google scans, photographs of relics using it (the more th better). And you're set... you might have less to work with but have access to much more background information and resources than Tarzan had which evens it out. Good luck.)
Thing is, Tarzan's adopted family aren't gorillas, but some kind of ape-like hominid called Mangani, more in line with the "missing link" than any real apes. So talk of "ape speak" is largely irrelevant as we don't know what how advanced (or otherwise) the Mangani's speech is.
This troper remembers readin' a Tarzan book where he encounters two tribes headed by ugly-looking brothers, both of whom have strange star charts in their rooms. Tarzan postulates that they may be aliens. Then this is forgotten and never brought up again. You'd think the discovery of alien life would be a pretty significant thing.
Maybe not so for gorillas.
If Tarzan can recognize star charts and speculate on the possibility of alien life, then he surely knows the value of such information. Despite his origins, he is fairly well-educated.
Disney version
Also from the Disney version, just before the death of Kerchak, the dying character says Tarzan was right about the other humans, and that Tarzan should protect the family of gorillas. But, Tarzan ended up leading the humans right to the gorillas, which is what Kerchak was so worried about. Tarzan didn't mean to, of course, but he indirectly put his gorilla family in danger. How is that being "right?"
Kerchak doesn't tell Tarzan that he was right, he only requests forgiveness for not accepting him as his son and as a member of the family.
How can Tarzan be so clean shaven? They never show him cutting his hair or anything. This is especially questionable since nearly every other human male in the movie has facial hair.
It's not just the facial hair, either. Except for his head (and presumably in one other place we can't see), he doesn't have hair anywhere.
Chalk it up to Lazy Artist. Animating Tarzan's movements with body hair would likely add a lot of work (and thus, cost) considering his very involved movements. This could also be why he has no facial hair, though that could be chalked up to The Coconut Effect (as Tarzan is almost always seen clean shaven).
Even if his father had facial hair, there's no guarantee that Tarzan would be able to grow it too. As for body hair, well, anatomical accuracy has never been very high on Disney's list. Very few of their character who should have body hair do (Gaston only has if for a short gag during his song and then it's never seen again).
I always assumed that he was unable to grow facial hair (which, although improbable, is not impossible, even given his British background and his father's sweet mustache), and that his body hair is too faint to see.
Worth noting that when Clayton is trying to tell him to lead them to the gorillas at first, Tarzan takes an interest in Clayton's little pencil thin moustache, tugging on it curiously. He also pinched the Professor's moustache earlier before Clayton tried to shoot him.
My dad shaves twice a day and has forearms that look like he's wearing a fuzzy sweater, but I couldn't grow a mustache if I tried and am routinely asked where I wax. It happens. Tarzan's mom might have had enough anti-hairiness genes that while his hair grew out, he couldn't grow facial hair.
I once read in another book that the genes for hair growth are passed down from the mother's side. Granted, it was a children's book about mermaids, so I don't know how accurate it was, but Tarzan's style of hair does take after his mother. Maybe no one in her family had mustache-gene to be able to pass down to him.
As the Disney film doesn't touch on the subject, we could reasonably fall back to the book's explanation. In the original novel, Tarzan notices from illustrations in books in his parents' cabin that many "civilized" men are clean-shaven. Wishing to distinguish himself from the hairy apes, he learns to shave using a knife he stole from a member of a local human tribe.
Except because in the movie he never finds his father's books or even the tree cabin until he's an adult.
It could be for the very opposite reason. While gorillas have tons of fur, including on their chin, it looks different compared to a human's mustache or beard. Fur on the underjaw vs hair surrounding the mouth. If anything, a gorilla's facial hair makes the chin look smaller, while a human's makes the chin look bigger.
Tarzan's mentioned to only be 18 years old, some teenagers can't grow facial or body; and it wouldn't be a stretch that he may have inherited his mother's genes when it came to hair. The ability to grow facial isn't determined by the father genes, it can be determined by the mother's side of the family.
What about Tarzan's loincloth? Theoretically, a boy raised by apes would see no need for modesty. And where did it come from in the first place?
No one wants to see a nude cartoon boy running around. That's why Disney's The Jungle Book had Mowgli run around in what amounts to red underwear.
In a fight, apes go for the groin and his should be an easier target than that of any ape.
When Kala first found him, he has a diaper on. Maybe they thought he had to have a piece of cloth around him for some reason based on that?
The shipwreck washed up on the beach right? Maybe there was some cloth on the vessel- or that's just a really, REALLY dirty piece of a sail.
Wearing clothes is not just about modesty, or about heat. It's also practical protection for a male's exposed genitals. He's more intelligent than apes—he makes himself a spear, after all. It's possible he fashioned a loincloth.
It was mentioned in the novels that Tarzan used it as a kind of belt. Indeed, if he spends much time travelling by vine but sometimes uses crude tools, a belt would help a lot.
This is probably the best justification yet. He hadn't started seriously inventing yet (during the 'Son of Man' montage), but a way to carry things around is just the sort of thing a five-year-old might invent on his own.
Human male genitalia is pretty large, considering our size, even as children compared to other infant species. We see Terk and Tarzan tussling quite early, and it wouldn't take Tarzan long at all to work out that leaving his genitals on view makes them a sitting target, open to every hazard the jungle throws at him. It doesn't have to be cloth - it might also be animal hide.
In the scene where Kala finds baby Tarzan, she ends up catching him by his diaper to keep him from falling into Sabor's clutches. Possibly she made sure to keep a cloth tied around his waist as a handle in case he needed to be saved that way again, particularly given that he can't cling with his toes well like a gorilla infant. By the time he was a competent enough climber not to need it, he'd realized it was useful to hang stuff like fruit and, later, tools from, so he kept it.
Why would a biologist like Professor Porter need what seems to be a full chemistry set just to study gorillas in the jungle? The clothes, silverware, and tea set are all justifiable to have on an expedition like this, but all those beakers and weird glass tubes don't seem very useful for a trip like this.
Terk is Tarzan's best friend, and it no doubt shows, but she certainly doesn't have much of a spine whenever they get in trouble and Kerchak appears.
That's her personality. Nothin' outta place there.
Kerchak is a 300lb wild male silverback. Bear in mind that he isn't just the 'father' or tribe leader. He's the sheriff, the judge, and the general of their community all in one. Terk's quite small even by the time Tarzan's an adult, and she's a female. What's not to be scared of?
How did Tarzan know how to say "Tarzan" in English, when introducing himself to Jane? Unless gorillas can say "Tarzan" in English, too, his real name wouldn't have sounded like that.
Tarzan's voice isn't quite the same as the apes; presumably "Tarzan" was a different, possibly unrelated vocalization of his identity he came up with along with his name in the Gorilla language. For what reason, who knows? Maybe he just wanted to explore how and why he was different from his family that way.
OK, there are no piranhas in Africa. Then how comes elephants know about piranhas (or South America)?
You're going to have to chalk this up to pure Rule of Funny.
Maybe stories about piranhas have been passed all over the planet by migratory birds that like scaring other animals.
That might explain why they mistook Tarzan for a piranha. If you've seen an actual piranha, you know that Tarzan looks nothing like one. But while the elephants may have heard of piranhas, they have probably never seen one since there are none in Africa. But perhaps they assumed Tarzan was one based on what they knew about them.
There's also some species of fish that swim up rivers in tropical areas. Perhaps they mistook Tiger Fish (the African cousin of the Piranha) for actually piranhas, and since then a rumour about piranhas in Africa or being exclusive in South America has gone around the jungle.
I read somewhere that gorillas have offspring every few years or so. Why doesn't Tarzan have any "brothers" by the time he's an adult? Or was that just not in the book, so they ignored it?
Maybe he did - those small gorillas he plays with? Or maybe he did but they were too eaten by Sabor?
Remember that human children grow at a much slower rate and need more care than baby apes. As long as Tarzan was small and helpless, Kala wouldn't want to have another baby... as for why she doesn't have any babies after Tarzan reaches adulthood... maybe she and Kerchak don't get along so well after she adopted Tarzan? Either way, the young gorillas in the group would be children of Kerchak as silverbacks usually are the only males to mate in a gorilla group...
Given how heartbroken Kala was after the death of her baby and the constant stress and care requirements of raising a human (who mature much slower than gorillas) it's entirely possible she just doesn't want to have more children.
She also went from being Kerchak's partner and preferred mate—even sharing a nest and cuddling almost exclusively—to him disowning her adopted son. It's very possible that they're no longer on good enough terms to be mates but she also doesn't want to look for a mate elsewhere because she still has feelings for the silverback; alternately her eccentricity might mean that none of the males, including Kerchak, are really interested in mating with her a all. It doesn't seem to be bothering Kala any, so it's probably not very important.
Why is Sabor even still alive when Tarzan grows to manhood? That cat was no cub when Tarzan's parents were attacked, and wild leopards are lucky to live halfway into their second decade. At the very least, Sabor should've been run off the territory by a younger, stronger leopard by the time Tarzan was grown enough to challenge one.
Does anything in the movie itself (Word of God aside) explicitly state that it's the same leopard? The leopard Tarzan kills could be the granddaughter of the original Sabor that killed Tarzan's parents, or a completely different leopard that just happens to look alike. In the book, every lioness is Sabor for the apes; maybe that applies here too?
I'm pretty confused about this key instance of Poor Communication Kills: If Tarzan learned to speak English, and could convey thoughts accurately, why did he only say "Kerchak" when they asked why he couldn't take them to the gorillas? And more importantly, why didn't they ask who Kerchak was, or what it meant? Seriously, couldn't most of the issues after that have been avoided, if he'd just added "doesn't trust you" to his statement?
Perhaps he was embarrassed; have you ever had to tell a friend that your parents "don't trust them"? It's awkward as hell.
He may not have had the vocabulary to put a thought as complex as trust into words. There wasn't exactly a slide for "trust" that they could have shown him.
What happened to the rest of the mutinous crew?
If I remember correctly, the last we see of them, they're being chased through the jungle by an army of angry monkeys. Remember what Professor Porter said: "People get lost in the jungle every day!"
We saw most of them being herded into the cages they'd been using for the gorillas by the jungle animals; thus, it can be presumed that the crew members who hadn't mutinied simply carried the cages back to the boat and took them out to the ship, where they were kept that way until they got back to London.
Was Terk into Tarzan?
If you pay attention to the dialogue, Terk calls Kala "Aunt Kala" or "Auntie K." That makes her and Tarzan adoptedcousins. She's also a good bit older than him, since she's old enough to walk and talk while he's still an infant and gorillas mature faster than humans. She also thinks he's unattractive, like the rest of the pack.
I always assumed that Kerchak, as the alpha silverback of the gorilla group, was the father of most of the infants, including Terk. This would make her and Tarzan adopted half-siblings.
Or quite possibly she thought he was ugly. They ARE two different species after all. It's like a parent adopting a chimpanzee and you growing up with it. Doesn't mean you're interested in boinking it. Because it's a chimpanzee.
In a deleted scene, Terk specifically describes Tarzan as "a skinny, hairless, ugly guy." So, yes, even though Terk is Tarzan's best friend, she apparently doesn't think he's much of a looker.
In one TV interview, Rosie O'Donnell did describe Terk as having "a little crushy crush" on Tarzan, though.
Even with the potential crush built by years of friendship, Terk is aware Tarzan's not really an ape, and so he's not an option for mating, which is the reason Gorillas have sex. And Tarzan's the male anyway. If there's anything there at all, it would be Tarzan whose job it is to get the ball rolling. As an adult, Tarzan seemed aware that he's not an ape like the rest of them, but he just wasn't sure what he really was.
If Tarzan learned to speak English from British people, then why does he speak English with an American accent?
Tarzan grew up speaking the ape language. By that standard, he's doing an amazing job trying to copy the English accent. "American" just happens to be where the limits of his vocal flexibility end. It's not that far off, relatively speaking.
How did anybody know that Sabor is actually female?
Sabor's gender is never brought up in the movie. Sabor was a female lion in the books so they just played off that.
On the topic of Sabor, did anyone else question why she killed Tarzan's human parents? If we chalk it up to predatory instinct, then why were they relatively untouched after she did the deed? We see their bodies and a few bloody paw prints, but there isn't much to suggest she ate any part of them.
Probably the same reason Mufasa's body wasn't shown to be a smear of blood and entrails after he got trampled to death by a herd of wildebeest: you're not going to see explicit gore in a Disney cartoon. If you really need an in-universe explanation, then consider that Tarzan's parents were half-concealed underneath a tarp of some kind and only shown from the waist down; maybe Sabor just ate part of the upper body, then dragged the rest into some kind of cover to hide it, as cats are wont to do. Then, mostly sated, she prowled off somewhere for a little while, only to return and find a gorilla invading her larder and about to make off with the baby Sabor was saving for later...
This may be Too Much Information. In the wild, some predatory animals can be fussy eaters. They usually eat the body and internal organs first (in that scene the corpses of Tarzan's parents are laying facing away from the viewer), meaning they'd go for the torso. While it's unclear if that's what Disney intended, that'd be FAR MORE gore than even most M-rated movies would show.
Gee, I've been Wondered what the Rest of their Corpses looked like, Exposed with Guts and Blood!!?
We're not shown much personality aside from being a ferocious predator, but maybe Sabor is a lot like Shere Khan from the Jungle Book. Holding a humans are bastards mindset. Sabor killed Tarzan's parents (and tried to kill Tarzan himself) solely out of feeling threatened by human presence in the jungle. And European humans no less, who'd be more likely to hunt for sport.
Also related to Sabor... how did she even release herself from those ropes after Kala left with Tarzan? Yeah, she was quite agile, even for leopard standarts, but still, that must have been quite a fall...
Probably swung until she could reach the branch from which the pulley was suspended and then used her claws for leverage. Come to think of it, I've never counted her hind toes in her next appearance...
So, Tarzan's pop is able to build a entire treehouse from the driftwood, an awesome feat of engineering... What? Why not use his amazing skills to build a boat and get the hell out of Africa with as much supplies as they can carry?
Even if he had planned on doing that - he might have, eventually - I think building a dwelling for himself, his wife, and his infant son was and should be his top priority, both so that he would have a place to sleep while building the boat, and as a Plan B in case the boat doesn't work out. And this is assuming it's even possible to build a boat of any sort capable of lasting in the water with three people on board, on a deserted jungle island.
I'd imagine it's way more difficult to build an ocean-worth boat than a tree house. Also, they'd need a fair amount of sailing skill to get anywhere, which they might lack and without which any attempt to sail away would be doomed from the start.
If they succeed at building a treehouse, then they have everything they need to survive in the jungle for as long as may be necessary. Even if they succeed at building a boat, it doesn't guarantee that they'd be able to survive in it while at sea.
The real question is, how did Tarzan's parents manage to build all that so fast? Tarzan doesn't look more than a few months older when Kala finds him than when they were shipwrecked, yet they've got practically a whole mansion up in that tree.
It's quite an exaggeration to call the treehouse a mansion, or anything close. Really, all it is is a treehouse, that's slightly larger than most, but still doesn't have plumbing or electricity or insulation...It doesn't seem like it'd take more than a few months to put together, as long as Tarzan's parents knew what they were doing.
Why did Professor Porter think it to be necessary or even very smart to have the captain tell the people in England that he and Jane simply got lost in the jungle and were never found again? I mean, I understand that he was willing to give up his life's work to continue living with his daughter, but why would he basically strip them of any means of contact with the human world like that in the process?
The TV series reveals that they did eventually tell their friends back home that they were still alive and where they were. The pilot episode involves some of Jane's old friends coming to the island to check up on her.
The house in the trees built by Tarzan's parents seems like quite a prominent part of the island's scenery from the shore, if a bit derelict due to disuse. Thus, shouldn't Jane and her father have noticed it and been at least somewhat interested? Couldn't that have given them at least a clue as to who Tarzan really was, or a reason to show him the house before Kala did? How would they not notice it?
The coastline is pretty mountainous, as well as being overgrown. Being in a different cove or bay, in whichever direction the Porters' steamship did not approach from while seeking a good landing point, would be sufficient to conceal even a sizeable landmark like the treehouse. It's just how the geography happened to work out - the plot really wouldn't have been much different if the Porters had found and explored it. (And you're right that - at least in the book - its contents helped Jane work out most of Tarzan's backstory.)
It seems out of character for Kerchak to be so easily forgiving of Tarzan when he comes to save the gorillas from Clayton's men. Yes he's risking his life to try to protect them but from Kerchak's point of view he's still screwed up big time and put the entire clan in danger. It seems like Kerchak should have concluded that he was right all along not to trust Tarzan and to feel that he'd betrayed them by leading the humans to them. And even when Kerchak is shot as a result of Tarzan's actions his dying thoughts are to finally accept Tarzan as one of them and to trust him to lead the clan after him. Tarzan had been trying to be accepted as one of them for his entire life; I find it hard to believe that a single heroic gesture coupled with a disaster brought upon the gorillas by Tarzan's action's would be enough to improve Kerchak's opinion of him.
Is there a question?
I think what they're asking, in essence, is "Why is Kerchak so quick to forgive Tarzan in the end?" In response, I shall point out that Tarzan was still new to the company of humans, and after spending what was probably about 24 hours thinking on it and lamenting his absence, Kechak would've realized that his son didn't realize what he was getting the family into when he led the humans to their nesting ground. In addition, two of the people Tarzan brought to see the gorillas - Jane and her father - show up to fight against Clayton and his men in the climax, and Kerchak may have realized, if he hadn't known all along, that they really did mean no harm overall; please take note of the fact that whenever he comes across the humans during the film, the only one he actively tries to attack is Clayton. Thus, Jane and her father really helped to change his views by helping to save the gorilla family. Finally, Kerchak's final words to Tarzan were focused largely on accepting him as a member of the family, and as his son, rather than what happened with the humans - you're obviously not going to waste your final words to someone you should've loved more throughout your life on things that he's already heard dozens of times before.
Leopards only live for a maximum of twenty years and Sabor is seemingly fully grown when she kills Tarzan's parents when he is a baby. He's around twenty at the youngest during the main part of the film so the sequence where he kills Sabor takes place at least twenty years later yet she's still in a young, healthy, agile condition.
In the books "sabor" is the generic term for a lioness. That may not have been the same animal.
There's also the fact that the particular leopard which apparently killed Tarzan's parents was last seen tied up pretty good at the top of the treehouse with now way to get down. It's entirely likely that that leopard eventually died of starvation there while the one which later fights and is killed by Tarzan is a completely different cat.
Unlikely - when Kala informs Kerchak about Tarzan's parents, she says "Sabor killed his family", rather than "a leopard killed his family". This implies that Sabor herself has a rather fearsome reputation.
It's been years since I've seen any of the TV show episodes, but from what I remember, leopards can often be found among their own kind. Sabor might be a term used for a leopard that's so ferocious it can hunt alone and pose as an adequate threat.
What did really happen to Tarzan's parents' bodies and Sabor's bloody pawprints by the time Tarzan returns to the treehouse as an adult?
The bodies were probably carried off and/or eaten by other animals, or they rotted away over the years and became covered by the the vines and foliage that had grown over the house.
Or Sabor herself could have eaten the bodies once she escaped the ropes she was entangled in after chasing Kala. In fact, if it took her long to escape the ropes, she must have been hungry and could have used some energy.
Why does Tarzan call Kerchak by his name instead of "Dad" when he calls Kala "Mom"?
Because he's never seen Kerchak as his father, since Kerchak constantly shunned him for being different. Up until the end of the film, the sentiment went both ways. Same reason why he identifies his human father in the treehouse photo almost instantly, but stops short of doing the same for his mother.
So does that mean he thought up until he saw the photograph that Kala was his biological mother but he had a different father, and Kerchak was just his stepfather or something?
It depends on what Kala told him, I guess. Considering Kerchak's last words to him are "My son," I'm assuming he was in on the fact that Kerchak and Kala were mates and assumed that Kerchak was his biological father, but once he was confronted with the fact that he had another biological father, it was easy to disassociate from Kerchak because his aloof behavior prevented the chance for any attachment to form between them.
What happened to Clayton's corpse after the events of this movie?
My guess is that they cut the body loose so they could box it up and bring it back to England for burial. It's not like they have a good reason to leave him there, especially since the authorities would appreciate the proof that he's actually dead.
Ok, so Jane and her dad travel to that jungle in order to study gorillas. Then they find something far more fascinating — a man who grew up among gorillas and had never come into contact with civilization. This had the potential to be one of the greatest discoveries in the century. And yet they're still completely devoted to the gorillas, only showing interest in Tarzan because he could lead them to them (Jane's crush aside). When they're about to return home without having found them, they consider the trip a waste. Um, what?
I see your point, but as Jane explains, the purpose of their trip was to study gorillas. Tarzan may have been raised by gorillas (at least as far as they can extrapolate from him), but there's only so much they can learn about gorillas when their only available specimen is not one. That's why they were upset.
Why did Tarzan adopt a Thou Shalt Not Kill attitude toward Clayton at the end, even stating that killing him would make him like him? He had shown no hesitation or remorse about killing Sabor earlier on, and he views animals as people just as much as humans.
1.) Tarzan killed Sabor before he met other humans and became somewhat civilized, which probably gave him somewhat differing views about killing. 2.) Sabor is neither human nor a gorilla. She's not friendly to others, doesn't speak, and her only interactions with any of the other characters are antagonistic. She cannot be reasoned with or imprisoned, as far as Tarzan is aware, and he only kills her to keep from being killed. Clayton did kill Kerchak and tried to capture Tarzan's gorilla family, but he isn't on the same threat level as a leopardess; take away his weapons and he can be safely sent back to England in chains. Note that Tarzan refuses to kill him only after a defenseless Clayton goads him into doing so. Big difference between that and killing someone or something while in the heat of combat.
And I'm sure had Tarzan had more control of the situation, he would have at worst only wounded or injured Sabor to a point she'd be too weak to harm the gorillas.
When Kerchak's and Kala's baby gets killed by Sabor, why Kerchak stopped chasing Sabor and hold Kala to mourn their baby if they could still run to save him? I get that his cries of desperation were possibly because Sabor was already eating him, but maybe he could have been screaming because he fell into a hole and couldn't escape from it before Sabor reached him, so why Kerchak opted to not run anymore and see if his son could still be saved? To be honest, the first time I saw the film I just thought that Sabor chased him away from the gorillas and he never returned. Or at the very least, why Kerchak didn't pursue Sabor to kill him to avenge his son?
Even if the scenario you suggested were true, Sabor was still in between the baby and his parents — there's no way Kerchak and Kala could've made it in time to save him, and Kerchak didn't want his mate (or himself, probably) to see their only son being brutally torn apart and eaten. As for avenging his son, Kerchak is also responsible for the safety of the other members of the gorilla troop — you don't risk your life on a personal vendetta when you're the sole breadwinner for your family and they can't survive without you there.
There are also hints that Sabor is an unusually large and aggressive leopard - even elephants are scared of her and she can almost kill a full-grown silverback gorilla. Kerchak was probably also uncertain that he could survive a fight against her, especially at night, where she'd have the advantage.
What caused Tarzan's parents' ship to catch fire at the beginning of the movie?
Don't know. In the book, his parents were essentially marooned by the other passengers after a mutiny. Maybe, in the film's sequence of events, things took a wrong turn during the mutiny, leading to the boat catching on fire? Neither of them seem to mourn the loss of the other people on board, so it would make sense that it wasn't just some tragic accident.
Where did they Bury the bodies of Sabor (After killed by Tarzan) and Kerchak (after getting shot by Clayton)?
The gorillas would presumably see no reason in burying Sabor. It seems as though they would've just left the body there, especially since they were trying to evade the sound of Clayton's gunshot. Nor do I know why they would've buried Kerchak — yes, Tarzan might have been taught that humans are buried after they die, but that doesn't mean he would find it appropriate to do the same for Kerchak, who was a wild gorilla who distrusted humans and was ultimately killed by a human. And lastly, even if they did bury either or both of them, how are we supposed to tell where they did so? They're in the middle of the jungles of Africa; it's not as if there's any designated place for a cemetery.
Sabor's body would definitely have to be moved somehow - her corpse, right by their nesting grounds, would be a draw for scavengers. The body was likely taken as far as possible from the nesting grounds and left somewhere. As for Kerchak, since gorillas actually do have "funerals", his body was likely given some ceremony, although whether it was buried is unknown.
What made Sabor's paws stained with blood, thus leaving bloody pawprints after killing Tarzan's human family?
Rule of Scary. In real life, big cat kills are pretty quick and bloodless (usually by either breaking the neck of crushing the windpipe). Sabor's pawprints are bloody to show that she has killed Tarzan's parents.
That, and considering the echo of gunshots we hear when Kala discovers the bodies, and the likely-hood of it in general, Tarzan's parents probably put up a fight, which would've made it more possible for Sabor to swipe or bite at least once or twice, and then it would've been all too easy for Sabor's paws to get bloody. That, or considering what is said elsewhere on this work's Trope page about Sabor considering the helpless Tarzan a part of her kill, she might've gotten bloody paws from eating parts of his parents we don't see, then, at least once, stepped over to his cradle to inspect the rest of the "food" she had in reserve...
What happened to Tantor's mother, and the other elephants? We see them stampeding off into the jungle after they mistake Tarzan for a pirahna, and then "Son of Man" starts to play, and then for the rest of the movie Tantor is all grown up and pretty much living with the gorillas. Did the rest of his herd ever come back for him offscreen, or are we to assume they just abandoned him or got lost?
Tantor's a rogue. It's actually pretty common for adult male elephants to leave their old herd and live away from other elephants until they encounter potential mates.
Ah, yes ... upon watching the movie again, I've realized that other elephants appear back in the water during "Son of Man". My mistake.
When Clayton becomes entangled in the vines prior to his death in the movie's climax, how is it that the vine that becomes caught around his neck is growing both downwards and upwards (compared to the other, and regular, vines) in order for the noose-like shape to be possible?
Could be the actual vine is much longer than what reaches Clayton, with the end actually looping back over a tree branch above and getting tangled somewhere to add tension.
When Jane and her father accepts to stay in Africa with Tarzan forever. then why didn't Jane let her family from England stay with them as well?
She probably wasn't as close with them.
Why didn't Tarzan's parents afford a steamship like The Porters and Clayton have, instead of a wooden sailing ship, so that it won't catch a fire faster?
They weren't rich enough. They probably didn't even buy it, and simply built it.
Twenty years had passed in between the shipwreck Tarzan's parents were in and when Jane and co. arrived. Wooden ships were probably more common around the time Tarzan was a baby compared to when they were overtaken by metal ones, which was right around the middle of the 19th century, whereas Tarzan's adulthood seems to be set in the later portion of the century. (Since Jane's father discusses the prospect of him meeting the likes of Charles Darwin, Rudyard Kipling, and Queen Victoria.)
The TV Series retcons this movie, now the events of Tarzan's adulthood being set at the early 20th century (The 1910s however), implied that he was born around the later 19th century (Somewhere in the 1880s or 1890s). wooden sailing ships were still in used around the later part of the century the movie begins.
Why was Jane able to hear the baby baboon say "No" and "Uh-oh" when she can't hear the other baboons?
Why didn't it ever occur to the apes to use the typewriter to communicate with the humans who can't hear what animals are saying?
The apes actually don’t understand the English language. We only hear them speak that way so viewers can understand them, but they actually can’t speak or write English.
Can Tarzan really hear the gorillas and elephants, or does he just Speak Fluent Animal? When he meets Jane he just repeats everything she says, but how could he have known his name was Tarzan unless he could hear the animals?
What does this mean by "hear the animals"? He can obviously hear the animals, because he communicates with them throughout the movie. What he hears is the "language" they used to communicate, and since he was raised amongst them, he also knows how to speak it. As to him knowing to tell Jane his own name in English, it's suggested that "Tarzan" is just a vocalization he came up with to identify himself outside of the language the gorillas and other animals spoke. It's not exactly English, therefore; it's technically just a made-up word that Jane took as being English.
"Hear the animals" as in hear them speak English. "Tarzan" is not just a vocalization he came up with to identify himself, Tantor and the apes call him that throughout the movie. Kala even says "I'm gonna call him Tarzan". If he can't hear them speak English, how did he know that the animals were calling him "Tarzan"? By the movie's logic, he would've just heard "ah ooh" whenever an ape said "Tarzan".
Whenever Jane and co. are around, Tarzan communicates with the animals through soft hooting and similar noises, which is their language. When they speak English, it's really just their own language being translated to English for the sake of the audience. This also extends to the name "Tarzan". Whenever the animals are heard saying that, they're actually saying his name in the animal language, which is translated for the audience into the more vocal name Tarzan made up for himself, which is taken by Jane to be part of the English lexicon. So it's something like a retroactive translation in addition to relying on a bit of guesswork, but it's the best guess as to why Tarzan has a name for himself that sounds closer to English than his native tongue.
In support of the above, Tarzan II expands on Tarzan's identity crisis by having him meet up with some grouchy old gorilla who helps him come to grips with his identity crisis. In the end, the gorilla concludes that Tarzan's actually his own, unique type of creature, which he actually calls "a Tarzan!" He was probably still speaking in the gorilla language when he said that, but still, if anything, his conclusion was probably what inspired Tarzan to come up with a new, separate moniker for himself.
Jane and her father came to Africa to study gorillas, specifically the (then revolutionary) theory that they're gentle, social creatures. But since they decided to stay with Tarzan and his family, they never got to take their important research back to London. Hell, people probably assumed the gorillas ate them.
Except, if you consider the cartoon series as canon, there are several people who visit their neck of the woods and return home after having spent time with them and experiencing at least one of the gorillas (Terk) behaving very unlike the supposed norm for that time. That includes Jane's 3 girlfriends and Prof. Porter's female colleague. You could argue that they kept their stories to themselves for fear of not being believed, but enough word got out that a certain up-and-coming pulp author decided to see for himself if they were true.
Also, in the animated series, the first gorilla some people encounter is the violent and vicious Tublat. While the show treats Tublat as an exceptionally violent individual, these people may see the Killer Gorilla stereotype absolutely justified.
18 years pass with Tarzan in the jungle. Therefore Terk is 18 - female Gorillas start mating at about 10, but Terk has no mate nor children. The best explanation is that Terk is either lesbian (like Rosie), asexual, and doesn't really like the idea of mating. This actually means that she would be far more open to befriending Tarzan without having a sexual interest in him.
Adolescent female gorillas normally disperse to new groups if their natal group has only one ruling silverback, as the resident breeding male is too likely to be their father and hence, an unsuitable mate. Terk would probably have left the troop much sooner, but her friendship with Tarzan may have convinced her to stay, knowing he'd feel even more isolated from the other apes without her there.
There is one episode in the animated series where Terk gets attracted to a young male gorilla from a different troop. While they seem to hit it off at the end of the episode, the young male never appears again, presumably leading his own troop.
is The Other Wiki's list of undeciphered writing systems. Choose one. Google scans, photographs of relics using it (the more th better). And you're set... you might have less to work with but have access to much more background information and resources than Tarzan had which evens it out. Good luck.)