Sabor (Tarzan): Difference between revisions
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The specific ''Sabor'' appearing in the film is the leopard that kills Tarzan's parents and kills Kala's and Kerchak's child and is later killed by Tarzan in turn. This occurs during a running fight between the two that culminates when Sabor leaps down on Tarzan and plunges them both into a pit, and is incidentally impaled on the head of Tarzan's spear tip as the ape man raises it against the leopard. Tarzan then calls out the famous [[Tarzan yell|ape man cry]], as he lifts up Sabor's dead body. |
The specific ''Sabor'' appearing in the film is the leopard that kills Tarzan's parents and kills Kala's and Kerchak's child and is later killed by Tarzan in turn. This occurs during a running fight between the two that culminates when Sabor leaps down on Tarzan and plunges them both into a pit, and is incidentally impaled on the head of Tarzan's spear tip as the ape man raises it against the leopard. Tarzan then calls out the famous [[Tarzan yell|ape man cry]], as he lifts up Sabor's dead body. |
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Sabor also made a brief appearance in ''[[Tarzan 2]]'', in which she chases Tarzan into a valley. |
Sabor also made a brief appearance in ''[[Tarzan 2]]'', in which she chases Tarzan into a valley. She nearly kills Tarzan, but the sudden cry of the Zugor frightens her off. |
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''Sheeta'', the discarded original Burroughs designation, was later used in ''[[The Legend of Tarzan]]'' show as the name for one of two black panthers that attack together (the name of the other was ''Noru''). Black panthers are actually a color variety of leopards and they do exist in African jungles, although they seem to be rare. Sabor has been mentioned in the series. |
''Sheeta'', the discarded original Burroughs designation, was later used in ''[[The Legend of Tarzan]]'' show as the name for one of two black panthers that attack together (the name of the other was ''Noru''). Black panthers are actually a color variety of leopards and they do exist in African jungles, although they seem to be rare. Sabor has been mentioned in the series. |
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Revision as of 13:00, 27 March 2012
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Sabor is a generic name for lionesses (originally tigers) in Mangani, the fictional language of the great apes in the Tarzan novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs. In Burroughs' works innumerable lionesses appear under the name of Sabor. In the Walt Disney animated movie Tarzan, Sabor is a term for leopards, more specifically the leopard that kills Tarzan's parents.
Evolution of the term
In the initial magazine publication of the original Tarzan novel Tarzan of the Apes, Sabor meant "tiger". Burroughs subsequently altered the meaning to "lioness" for book publication after being informed that there are no tigers in Africa. He substituted "lioness" rather than "lion" because there was an existing Mangani term for lions in the story, Numa. Lions thus attained the distinction of being the only creatures with separate terms in Mangani for the male and female. An ex post facto explanation rationalizing the distinction has been found in the fact that male lions are maned and female lions are not, providing a marked visual distinction between the two.
Disney
In the Walt Disney produced animated movie Tarzan, the meaning of the word was changed yet again, to "leopard", despite the prior existence of a different and quite serviceable Mangani term for leopard (Sheeta). The alteration appears to have been made for two reasons. The first was for factual accuracy; lions are in fact creatures of the veldt, not the jungle as portrayed in Burroughs's tales; in African jungles, the dominant (and only) large predator is indeed the leopard. The second was more aesthetic; Sabor, they felt, is simply a more evocative and interesting word than Sheeta". However, on the IMDb trivia, it is stated that Sabor is a jaguar, which is not true.
The specific Sabor appearing in the film is the leopard that kills Tarzan's parents and kills Kala's and Kerchak's child and is later killed by Tarzan in turn. This occurs during a running fight between the two that culminates when Sabor leaps down on Tarzan and plunges them both into a pit, and is incidentally impaled on the head of Tarzan's spear tip as the ape man raises it against the leopard. Tarzan then calls out the famous ape man cry, as he lifts up Sabor's dead body.
Sabor also made a brief appearance in Tarzan 2, in which she chases Tarzan into a valley. She nearly kills Tarzan, but the sudden cry of the Zugor frightens her off.
Sheeta, the discarded original Burroughs designation, was later used in The Legend of Tarzan show as the name for one of two black panthers that attack together (the name of the other was Noru). Black panthers are actually a color variety of leopards and they do exist in African jungles, although they seem to be rare. Sabor has been mentioned in the series.
Despite being a leopardess, Sabor was portrayed in a very stylized way, with a body and head with strange angles, very long thin fangs, and scarce spots unlike those of a real leopard. This design contrasts sharply with that of other characters in the movie (like Kerchak) who were designed on a relatively more realistic style. As usual in film depictions of big cats, Sabor's roars are a mixture of sounds of several felines, including leopards, lions, and tigers but especially cougars.
Kingdom Hearts
Sabor features as a prominent antagonist and boss in the Deep Jungle world in the 2002 Disney-Square video game Kingdom Hearts. After the main character, Sora, crash lands in the treehouse, Sabor attempts to kill him, but Sora beats Sabor back until Tarzan appears and drives him off. She later attacks Sora, Donald, Goofy and Tarzan several times but is always forced to back off. Eventually, just when Clayton goes missing, Sabor appears for one final battle with Sora, who kills him.
References